Robert Johnson

King of the Delta Blues

Colloquium presentation University of Delaware, Georgetown,
April 2010 by M. Walfred

www.peshkepia.com
 Why Robert Johnson?

First learned about Robert MALS course on Purchased the

Johnson by listening to Eric this era gave me box set (2-CDs) in
Clapton and reading background on 1996- A must
interviews about his economics, and have for any
influence effects of the music enthusiast
Depression era or historian
Robert Leroy Johnson
• Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi
most likely on May 8, 1911
but U.S. Census says 1912.
• No extant birth certificate
• Illegitimate
• 12 siblings and many step-
siblings
 Mississippi Delta
Not to be confused with the
Mississippi River Delta
• Alluvian Plain
• Flat, fertile soil
• Perfect for cotton
• Isolated from the east by
“the hills”
• Unofficially extends from
Memphis to Vicksburg, Ms.
• Arkansas, Louisiana
• Mississippi River to the
west
http://topics.breitbart.com/
Mississippi+Delta/
From David
Miller’s Blues
Map
http://webpages.charter.net/davidmmiller/deltabirths.htm
 •River afforded
mobility, better
cultural exchange

•Hills to right
afforded autonomy

•Black population in
the Delta counties
(right) very high 80-
90%

•Life was still

extremely repressive
but less so than
other regions

http://vaiden.net/ms_topography.jpg •Economic slavery.

Agriculture was the mainstay industry. Most
blacks were sharecroppers

www.northbysouth.kenyon.edu

Sharecroppers Wife

Phtographer Ben
Shahan

Arkansas October
1935

http://mygalleryplace.com/delta
Johnson lived in many areas around the Delta

•Typical
sharecropper
dwellings

•Even in his youth,

Johnson lived an
itinerate lifestyle

• Many names,
schools – hard to
track down

Clarksdale, Mississippi
www.abc.news.net
“Thirteen Year Old Sharecropper Boy Near Americus, Georgia .”
Dorothea Lange – WPA photographer for the FSA
 Robert Johnson
wanted no part of
this life
His step-father
beat him for not
working in the
fields
He may have
been born into it
but he did not live
it

“Day Laborers Waiting to be Paid

for Cotton Picking, Mississippi
Delta, 1939.” Marion Post
Wolcott. WPA – FSA 
 
http://www.reddye.com/lange/gfx/8b29713r.jpg
 
“Plantation Owner, Mississippi Delta near Clarksdale
Mississippi.”
By Dorothea Lange, WPA
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-
OWI Collection, [LC-USF34-T01-009599-C DLC]
Argent Editions
historical
photographs
“Mississippi Delta
Negro Children.”
Dorothea Lange
July 1936
Library of Congress
“Country Store, Sunday Afternoon.” North
Carolina 1939 – Dorothea Lange
 Typicial Southern Baptist
church
“Congregati
on outside
Bethlehem
No. 2
Missionary
Baptist
Church,
Shaw
Mississippi.”
Photo: Tom
Rankin

http://www.folklife.si.

“Negro Church, South Carolina.

Different religious or spiritual forces were in
edu/resources/Festiv
al1997/likeariv.htm

“ WPA photographer Walker play, or in conflict with each other in the Delta
Evans region

Gospel = Good
Juke Joints = Evil
Some people worshipped at
Juke Joints
Dancing in a Clarksdale Mississippi Juke Joint, 1939 by Marion Post Wolcott
http://johnedwinmason.typepad.com/john_edwin_mason_photogra/russell-lee/
Same year, same region. Note the
disparity. Stereotype on right persisted,
but African Americans during Johnson’s
time wanted to put slavery behind them
and listen to music and enjoy life along
with the rest of America
Race records

Late 1920s – Race records reached five million copies

www.pbs.org Race records were targeted/marketed
to black audience.
The Music

All artwork by:

www.peshkepia.com
 Delta Blues Characteristics
• Slide guitar (bottleneck)
• Strong “holler” influence
• Personal (rarely, he, she, they)
• Strong vocals, timber, treble, whooping or
jump in octave- wailing
• Heavy borrowing from other artist- collective
ownership of riffs and phrases
• Harmonica or guitar “answers” singer- call
and response-work songs and prison chants
 Johnson’s original
tunes/themes
• Traveling, rambling,
being on the move
• Being chased
• Freedom
• Missing women, bad
women, women taking
him in
• Only a few dealt with
the Devil

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 Today we think of Johnson
as a ‘blues artist’
• But he rarely played what we think of
as the blues, at juke joints, or in front
of live audiences.
• African Americans wanted to hear
upbeat songs- Top 40 songs. In order
to make money on the road, Johnson
would have had to know and play
these tunes and artists well:
 Rudy Valee
“My Blue Heaven”

“You Oughta Be in
Pictures”
Gene Autry
“Yes Sir, That’s My
Baby”
 Johnson sought out
recording sessions in 1936
29 original songs
Totaling 41 sides or takes

Only this song, Terraplane

Blues was what would be
considered at hit, selling
about 5,500 copies

No royalties from radio play

Johnson may have earned

a few hundred dollars for
his efforts.

He was thrilled
John Hammond, a respected record producer
and music historian had a genuine interest in
the roots of music, and all musical forms. His
interests brought him to discover Johnson,
and invite him to this 1938 concert.
Hammond was unaware Johnson had died
recently.
Twenty three years
later when the racial
climate had shifted
enough, Hammond
releases this album

It creates a sensation –
especially in England

This album would

inspire the careers of
Eric Clapton, Mick
Jagger, Keith Richards,
Jimmy Page. No one
had any idea what he
looked like so he was
painted from this
perspective
 Context: Naughty Elvis was off in the army and in his place,
teenagers heard wholesome, clean cut delivery of pop music.
Concerned parents everywhere gave a collective sigh of relief.
Mystery, Myths and
Legends
 The Devil’s in Delta
• Cultural highway
• Black migration to north • Crossroads
• Rich in African, West Indies and • Tommy Johnson
Caribbean cultures – Real person
• Belief in devils, “Legba” – Parallels Robert
• Mojo sack Johnson’s life
• Way to get women – Featured in the film
– Women like “bad boys” “Oh Brother, Where
Art Thou?”
• Way to explain talent – TJ did brag about going to the
crossroads and making a “deal”

Map: http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/64069/travel.html
Some people had their
“mojo” on

All images here from:

http://www.luckymojo.com/nationsack
A fascinating background
about the culture and practice
of mojo hand or nation sack
The loneliest place in the world
 Where the deal went down… allegedly!

http://www.readersandrootworkers.org/index.php?title=The_Crossroads
Crossroads also means $$$
In 1970s two photographs
surfaced
2008 Expose in Vanity Fair regarding a possible new photograph surfacing
 Another, unsubstantiated photo was found on eBay
in 2009. The asking bid for this photo was $795,000
Source: http://www.bakedziti.net/?p=339
 Mystery surrounding his
death at 27 adds to his
•
enduring
Collapsed on all
allure
fours, howling.
Days to die
• Syphilis
• Poisoned by
jealous husband
• New theories about
Marfan’s Syndrome
• http://thedeltablues.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/robert-johnson-poison-didnt-kill-h

www.peshkepia.com
Burial Site #1
Burial Site #2
Burial Site #3 “Official Site”
Now everyone claims him!
One tourism Web site

www.visitthedelta.com
 Tourists are told
this is a general
store Robert
Johnson and
friends would
frequent

www.thedeltablues.wordpress.com
 Possible Robert Johnson
family home in
Robinsonville, Ms.

Located on the
Leatherman and Abe
Plantation

www.thedeltablues.wordpress.com
 Resources

Books Elijah Wald’s

excellent book!

Re-titled: The
Life and Music
of Robert
Documentaries Johnson: Can’t
You Hear the
Wind Howl?
 Resources
• Original artwork (watercolor & pencil) by Peshkepia
www.peshkepia.com All works for sale. Great interpretations!

• Robert Johnson Official Web site

http://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/

• Various blogs – too numerous to mention!

• YouTube – www.youtube.com
• WPA photographs. Library of Congress
 What does Clapton hear that we
don’t?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETELORdwmJA

Sessions for Robert J, by

Eric Clapton is a far
superior effort than his
earlier Me and Robert
Johnson. The YT clip
above is an excerpt from
the DVD that comes with
this project. In a nutshell,
EC explains the genius
behind Johnson’s
craftmanship.
 Robert Johnson
• Influenced by his time and • Clapton has huge
place
influence
• Desire to escape, succeed,
make money • Robert Hammond
• Relatively unknown during • Blues gets defined
his lifetime
• Re-invented in the 60s
differently
• Romantic, mysterious • Pilgrimages
• Sketchy background adds to • Frozen in time –
the mystique
forever young
• Gaps are creatively
filled in
 Song Highlights
Lyric screenshots from the
official Robert Johnson
website:
http://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/Bio.html
Lyrics were shown on projected screen
while I played audio clips from my copy
of the Complete Recordings Robert
Johnson 1996 CD to the seminar
audience.
Come On In My Kitchen
Sweet Home Chicago
Kind Hearted Woman
Hellhound On My Trail
Red Hot
Terraplane Blues
Ramblin’ on My Mind
Cross Road Blues
Traveling Riverside Blues
If I Had Possession of
Judgment Day