Blues: Robert Johnson
A notorious figure in the history of blues is Robert Johnson who, according to legend, sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for great music talent.
The story goes that Johnson went to the crossroad at the Dockery Plantation between Ruleville and Cleveland, Mississippi. There he met with the Devil who tuned Johnson’s guitar so that he could play any song he wanted.
Below are some songs by Johnson that may have contributed to this legend. First up is the song “Crossroad Blues” performed here by Eric Clapton. Listen specifically to the orchestration for this rendition of the song.
Notice the different interludes between the verses; for instance the harmonica interlude, and the lead electrical guitar interlude. These interludes do not play the main melody; instead, they play improvisations based on the basic blues rhythm that is set by the other instruments (e.g. percussion).
A second song that may have contributed to Robert Johnson’s Faustian legend is “Me and the Devil Blues” played here by the man himself. Something to listen for is how the guitar plays short accentuated segments after the vocals, almost like a type of caller-response pattern that we heard before in the spirituals and Gospel.
Another song that may have leaded to the legend is “Hellhound on My Trail.” You can listen to it performed in the excerpt from the documentary “Hellhounds on my Trail - The Afterlife of Robert Johnson” in the YouTube-video below. The artist is the late Christ Whitley. Something to listen for is how Chris Whitley uses dissonance in his guitar playing; this may be a way of expressing the evil “hellhounds,” or demons, that are distressing the speaker in the lyrics.
Robert Johnson is one of the greatest influences on modern music and is considered a blues genius. When he died, he was only 27 years old. So what do you think? Did Robert Johnson die so young because he sold his soul to the Devil?
To read more on Robert Johnson, you can visit these websites.
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