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- Herausgeber: Tektime
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
The tragic story of Robert Johnson, great Blues musician of the American 30's, the mysterious solution to his tragic end, the background and his complete discography.
An emotional thriller with a historical research of the short life of Robert Johnson, considered by most as the grandfather of rock, but adored by blues fans. A compelling narration that perhaps offers a solution to a mysterious intrigue, full of esotery and religious fanaticism, that lead to the violent and early death of the one that was labelled the Devil's Son. What of Robert Johnson's art can be defined as evil? Did he really sign a pact with Satan in order to obtain fame and honour in the music world? And what was really the cause of his death? Let's discover it together in this engaging and fluid book that will touch your hearts.
PUBLISHER: TEKTIME
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Seitenzahl: 117
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Patrizia Barrera
Robert Johnson Devil'son
Translated by Julija Petrovska
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Beyond the Legend
The Devil's Son
The Mistery of a photograph
Killing Satana
What remains of him
The Mistery is in his death
Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is an original text, that came about as the fruit of long research
and bountiful passion.
A big thank you to all of you who will appreciate and treasure this book.
Patrizia Barrera, July 2015
.
Beyond the Legend
A lonesome boy
Sometimes, I really enjoy “unmaking” the Myths, reducing them to a more humane dimension. That is also the case of Robert Johnson, who had always been defined as “demonic”, “dark” and somehow connected to the Evil One and to that image of Dark pioneer of Rock. Even though there has been a lot and more said about him, we still have very few biographical facts at our disposal. Perhaps it is precisely the Legend that affects the immortality of his image and, in my opinion, underlines his artistic substance. I cannot hide that I don’t find his character likeable and many of you may hate me for this: however, I do not have the quality of embellishing things – to the contrary, I adore revealing the unpleasant truth. In the case of Robert Johnson, I went through a lot of trouble to come to the TRUE reality of events… and I assure you that I have found delicious treats for you readers! But let’s take it one step at a time.
His childhood was most certainly difficult, but there is nothing dark about it, as many have claimed. His mother’s name was Julia Major and she definitely was a vivacious girl! In 1889, she married a man called Charles Dodds, who was a landowner and had a small wicker furniture shop. The man seems to have been of Jewish origin and was not very popular in the small town of Hazlehurst, on the Mississippi River, where the family lived. As he was a successful tradesman, he often attracted the jealousy of other small landowners in the area, who were probably also bothered by the fact that he wasn’t a “pure American”.
This is the first house of Robert Johnson in Hazlehurst. It was already a wreck, when in the 90’s the small town decided to restore it and turn it into a museum. The small house was constructed by Charles Dodds and it originally had a colonnade, that can be seen in some old photographs of Johnson. At that time, they even had running water in the house!
It is known that at that time things were happening quite quickly: after a fight with the Marchetti brothers (in which he almost lost his life), Charles had to run away the very same night, in 1909, not leaving a trace behind. Left alone to look after 10 children, poor Julia does not know what to do: isolated, pointed at, subject of various vexations, she does not manage to run the small factory, which goes to rack and ruin. In the meantime, her husband had moved to Memphis and had changed his name to Spencer. Scraping together some money from both sides, Julia manages to send, two at a time, the smallest kids to their father, until she remains in Hazlehurst only with the oldest daughters. And this is when tragedy strikes: forced to close down the small furniture shop because she couldn’t pay the taxes and, finding accommodation in an abandoned hut at the outskirts of town, the poor woman was forced to do what we now call “seasonal work” in order to survive, picking cotton 12 hours a day at the nearby plantations.
This is the same house after the restoration, looking more or less the same way it looks today.
Here she has a brief relationship with a local villager, Noah Johnson, and she becomes pregnant with Robert, who was raised by his sisters in the first years of his life. For a while, this didn’t reach the ears of her husband Charles, but not for too long! Unable to understand the loneliness of his wife, he is furious and for years to come refuses to recognize the child as his own, despite making desperate attempts to reunite the family. He will succeed in this 10 years later, but little Robert (Leroy) will always remain the barely tolerated and unloved “bastard”. To console himself for his wife’s betrayal, he had an ongoing relationship and two children with another woman, so when the family was finally reunited, it actually was a “widened” family that included the 10 children of Charles and Julia, the two born by Charles’ mistress and little Robert. There was not a lot to be happy about in a situation like that!
This is the original certificate from the 1920 census. At that time, little Robert was living with his mother and his stepfather, Dusty Willis, in Arkansas. It is interesting to notice that the child’s surname in the certificate is Spencer
Needless to say, the marriage between Charles and Julia fell apart; in 1919 she marries again to Dusty Willis and the new couple goes to live in Robinsonville, on the delta of the Mississippi River. Robert is with them, but his relationship with his stepfather is very difficult. The boy had recently learned who his real father was, and full of rancour for both his stepfathers, he declares to everyone that his surname is Johnson.
He is quarrelsome, quick-tempered, and suffers from constant headaches. Although he already knew how to read and write (and some even say he had a beautiful handwriting!), he doesn’t want to go to school any more and doesn’t even get an elementary school diploma. His only consolation was to sit at the riverbank and play the harmonica and the “Jew’s harp”. His is completely useless at home and doesn’t want to hear about working in the fields. In 1920, the family moves to Arkansas, in Lucas Township, Crittenden County, as demonstrated in the 1920 census, but things do not improve much. It is known that he had one “wobbly” eye, that was smaller than the other, and that he had great difficulty concentrating. It was rumoured that he might have suffered from epilepsy, but I cannot confirm this, also because many of the aggressive crisis typical of adolescence can be confused for this illness. And it seems that good old Robert had plenty of crisis, since in the end his family made their peace with him living as a lowlife!
This is what Crittenden County looked like in 1920.
At the age of 14, he starts visiting the music bars along the banks of the Mississippi, smokes drinks, and frequents women. Infected by the music of Son House and Willie Brown, he finds refuge in the Blues, but the “cursed” music is unpopular with his family members, who try everything in their power to push this passion out of his life. It is possible that young Johnson’s mania of playing at graveyards and in dark thickets was born in this period: far from thoughts of the “Devil”, poor Robert was simply searching for a hidden place where he can be left alone to practice his passion and cry in silence. Not yet touched by the “Evil One”, at the age of 15 he is a troubled adolescent and already a misfit.
This is a Jew’s harp from 1900… Little Robert probably learnt how to play one of these at the Mississippi banks
Now, before I continue, I would like to turn your attention to this famous “Jew’s harp” that everybody talks about, and if you look around you will find many articles that confirm that he played it… without over-describing. Still, this small instrument says a lot about the psychology and, moreover, about the artistic and musical abilities of young Johnson!
The Jew’s harp, built upon an obviously African matrix, is still common in Nova Guinea among the Papua people. Clearly, with the inevitable modifications.
The Jew’s harp is actually a MOUTH HARP, an instrument of gipsy origin that was played by the nomads of Rajasthan ever since 1500 and that, like many other, arrived at the Mississippi banks with the Italian and Jewish migrants that have adopted its use. Today, just like in the past, calling someone a Gipsy is derogatory. Therefore, the small instrument was almost a symbol of a diverse lifestyle, to avoid saying vagabond. Besides, it was really easy to obtain it, make it and play it; it didn’t require any special ability, apart from perseverance. Johnson was probably using it to reach states of trance and well-being (that we today call “a trip”), since the vibrations of the instrument together with alcohol induced a form of dissociation from reality, a technique he probably learned in the notorious bars on the Mississippi delta.
Playing this instrument for him was both a pastime and a way of rebellion, since this instrument was usually the friend of all the “people with no homeland” that gathered on the Mississippi. Very few know this, but the original Blues, the one mixed and connected to voodoo and black magic, gave its voice first through the Jew’s harp, at times when the harmonica and the guitar were far from the imagination and monetary ability of the Afro-Americans. Therefore, when at the age of 16 Johnson was recognized as a Jew’s harp talent by the prodigious Son House, it is most probable that he had already been “infected” by the Blues and its esoteric nature
Besides playing the harp and the harmonica, our Johnson started working a little in order to sustain himself, especially after the relationship with his mother and stepfather has gone to ashes. It is 1928, and Johnson works as a day labourer at the Abbay-Leatherman plantation near Robinsonville. It is very probably here where he met his first and only true love of his life, Virginia Travis, whom he later married, at the age of 18, in Penton, MS, on February 17 th, 1929. They are both broke, so they go to live in the house of Bessie, her sister, and Granville Hines, the brother-in-law. The humble home seems to have been in a neighbourhood that does not exist any more, New Africa, but if you want to have an idea of its social and cultural orientation you can drop by New Road Africa, in the direction of Clarksdale. Even today, it still is a rather rigid community, a little closed and surely moved by strong religious fervour. Everything seems clean and orderly and life goes by following a rather strict social order. Living there in 1929 must have been the life for a guy like Robert Johnson
A very rare photo that portrays Robert Johnson on the veranda of his house in New Africa, where he lived with his wife Virginia, her sister, and the brother-in-law. It is 1928.
Although he worked and loved his wife, a timid and sweet 15-year-old girl busy with the household chores, it is known that Johnson disliked rural life and that he ran away from home quite often. He found his refuge in the notorious bars and boats on the Mississippi River. Already corrupt by Blues music and his keen obsession with Charlie Patton and Son House, he spent very little time with his wife, who was already pregnant with their first child. Tragedy was around the corner. The night between the 9 th and 10th of April 1930, Virginia dies giving birth to little Claude Lee: Robert is not with her since he is playing music for drunk customer on the Mississippi boats.
The first Robert Johnson's guitar: a Gibson Kalamazoo
When he returns home two days later, he finds his wife dead and buried and the entire community stigmatizes him as “immoral, libertine and slave of the devil”. Openly accused by his sister-in-law Bessie of “ having sold his soul to the devil and killed his wife”, he is literally thrown out of the house, humiliated, wounded and completely devastated in spirit. He disappeared the very same day and started wandering form town to town on freight trains, every time assuming a different name: Robert Spencer, Robert James, Robert Barstow, and Robert Sacks. For a short time, we find him again in Hazlehurst, probably looking for solace. He might have found it in one of his stepbrothers who will teach him the basics of guitar playing and will even give him a Gibson Kalamazoo guitar as a gift, a guitar that he will keep until his last day. Here, he gets involved with a woman much older than himself, whom he will secretly marry in May 1931 and who will not only give him a son, but will also allow (even encourage) his friendship with the one that was spoken of as “ the Devil himself”:
The Devil's Son
A dark Teacher
But who was this “mysterious figure” always compared to the devil? Was it because of him that Robert Johnson made the famous PACT selling his own soul to gain success and guitar-playing skills? Was this man really the famous mentor who accompanied him to the crossroad where the Evil One was summoned? Let us have a look at the turn of events. The legend of Ike Zimmerman is born out of a famous testimony of Son House, who met Robert in 1930 in one of the bars on the Mississippi River. In those times, the euphoria of the blues was tangible, and it often happened that regular customers and promising musicians joined the musicians to play all together, just like in one of today's jam sessions. Anyhow, Son House reports that Robert Johnson played the guitar “ as if it were a hoe and that many customers asked him to silence that lad who was giving a headache to the people!”. Only a year after this episode the two of them met again... and this time Johnson left everyone open-mouthed “ because of the incredible capability and the speed of plucking the cords that he had developed in a single year!”. Again, it was Son House, together with his alter ego Willie Brown, who suggested: “one can become that good in such a short time only by selling the soul to the devil!”. And since in that short year everyone remembered having seen young Robert “play the blues” with Ike Zimmerman, moreover “on the gravestones of the cemetery outside town”, the coupling of Talent-Zimmerman-Demon was almost automatic.
This is Son House at the time when these events took place.
Gossip spreads quickly and the legend of the pact with the devil was born almost instantly: ultimately, it was Robert Johnson himself to establish it once and for all in his CROSSROAD BLUES
