The blues is the blues, whether it takes the stairway to heaven, or the highway to hell.
Guitarist Robert Johnson was born in 1911 in Mississippi and is considered the most influential blues musician of all time. He made around a dozen albums, and his public image is the stuff of legend and lore. Johnson has long been the subject of an urban legend (that he is rumored to have started himself), that he journeyed to or near the intersection of highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, known as the “Crossroads”, and offered his soul to the Devil in exchange for blues musical prowess. His influence on modern-day musicians is so great, that many blues and rock celebrities make regular pilgrimages to his gravesite; he’s practically their patron saint.
Robert Johnson’s early death is also legendary. He died of suspected poisoning; no one is sure exactly how, but the most persistent rumor is that he flirted with a girl whose jealous boyfriend then slipped strychnine in Johnson’s whiskey. Whatever the case, it was 1938, which inducts Robert Johnson into the infamous “27 Club”, along with many other famous musicians who died at the age of 27, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones and Kurt Cobain. If you believe everything you read, the Devil’s waiting room has gotta be a bit crowded. But you have to admit they’ve got one helluva house band.
No comments:
Post a Comment