ABC of the Blues CD18 (2010)

CD 18 – Robert Johnson

18-01 Robert Johnson – They’re Red Hot
18-02 Robert Johnson – 32-20 Blues
18-03 Robert Johnson – Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)
18-04 Robert Johnson – Stop Breakin’ Down Blues
18-05 Robert Johnson – I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom
18-06 Robert Johnson – Sweet Home Chicago
18-07 Robert Johnson – Kindhearted Woman Blues
18-08 Robert Johnson – Ramblin’ on My Mind
18-09 Robert Johnson – Crossroad Blues
18-10 Robert Johnson – Malted Milk
18-11 Robert Johnson – Love in Vain Blues				play
18-12 Robert Johnson – Honeymoon Blues
18-13 Robert Johnson – When You Got a Good Friend
18-14 Robert Johnson – Travelling Riverside Blues
18-15 Robert Johnson – Terraplane Blues
18-16 Robert Johnson – Dead Shrimp Blues
18-17 Robert Johnson – Walkin’ Blues
18-18 Robert Johnson – From Four Till Late
18-19 Robert Johnson – Last Fair Deal Goin’ Down
18-20 Robert Johnson – Me and the Devil Blues			play

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) was an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, among the most famous of Delta blues musicians.

His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced generations of musicians. Johnson’s shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend.

The most widely known legend surrounding Robert Johnson says that he sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of U.S. Highway 61 and U.S. Highway 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi in exchange for prowess in playing the guitar. Actually, the location Johnson made reference to is a short distance away from that intersection. The legend was told mainly by Son House, but finds no corroboration in any of Johnson’s work, despite titles like Me and the Devil Blues and Hellhound On My Trail. With this said, the song Cross Road Blues is both widely and loosely interpreted by many as a descriptive encounter of Johnson selling his soul.

The older Tommy Johnson (no relation, although it is speculated that they were cousins), by contrast, also claimed to have sold his soul to the Devil. The story goes that if one would go to the crossroads a little before midnight and begin to play the guitar, a large black man would come up to the aspiring guitarist, retune his guitar and then hand it back. At this point (so the legend goes) the guitarist had sold his soul to become a virtuoso (A similar legend even surrounded virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini a century before).

His death remains a matter of controversy. Some accounts state that he was given poisoned whiskey at a dance by the husband of a woman he had been secretly seeing. Others claim that it was just The Devil collecting his debt after the old legend of Robert Johnson dealing with the devil.

However, the latest, and unfortunately less dramatic and more plausible theory (published by David Connell in the British Medical Journal) is that Robert Johnson suffered from Marfan’s Syndrome. Marfan’s is a genetic disorder characterized by disproportionately long limbs, long thin fingers, a tall stature - all of which can be seen in the two photos that exist of Robert Johnson. Marfan’s Syndrome is a cause of heart defects, and a complication such as an aortic dissection could lead to Robert Johnson’s excruciatingly painful death. ---last.fm

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