Robert Johnson
When you hear the expression Mississippi Jukes, chances are you think of the music of Robert Johnson. Although he only recorded 29 songs in two sessions between 1936 and 1937, Johnson’s legacy and shadow live in the blues. Born in 1911 in Hazelhurst, Mississippi, Johnson was attracted to music from an early age. As the story goes, he was a mediocre guitar player until one night he went to the crossroads to meet the devil and sold his soul in exchange for talent. While it is true that the devil appears often in his songs, and that after he had disappeared from the scene for awhile he came back playing the guitar better, it is also true that after his wife and child died in childbirth, Johnson devoted himself to playing the blues, anywhere he could. During recording sessions in Texas, first in San Antonio and then Dallas, he was said to be so shy about playing in front of the studio musicians that he recorded the songs facing a wall. He died at age 27, three days after playing at a club in Greenwood, Mississippi, supposedly foaming at the mouth and not able to control his body – had the devil come to collect his debt? Or was Johnson poisoned by a jealous husband? Johnson’s legacy, though, is no myth. Eric Clapton, Steve Miller, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, amongst others, have covered his songs. In 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Johnson, and in 1994 the US Post Office issued a stamp in his honor. The boxed set of Robert Johnson recordings continues to top the charts for blues music.
