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Blues Musician and Songwriter
May 8, 1911-August 16, 1938
 If I hadn't heard the Robert Johnson record when I did, there probably would have been hundreds of lines of mine that would have been shut down -- that I wouldn't have felt free enough or upraised enough to write.
-- from CHRONICLES
Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson's KING OF THE DELTA BLUES is one of the LPs pictured on the cover of Dylan's 1965 album, BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME. A compilation of his recordings from 1936-37, Johnson's evocative lyrics and compelling performing style bowled Dylan over when he first heard an acetate of the album that John Hammond loaned him in 1961. While his friend Dave Van Ronk dismissed the songs and performances as derivative, Dylan found Johnson to be an inspiration whose lyrics and music revealed new possibilities of expression.
Robert Johnson was born in 1911 in Hazelhurst, Mississippi. Johnson's wife and child died in childbirth in 1930, a tragedy that led to his greater commitment to music. When blues musician Son House first heard Johnson, he thought he was a decent harmonica player but a terrible guitarist. Johnson went off on his own for a while, and when he returned his improvement was so amazing that rumors began spreading that he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for skill at guitar playing. In 1936, he decided he was ready to record, and through the efforts of a white record store owner and a talent scout, he went to Texas and recorded such eventual classics as "Kind-Hearted Woman Blues," "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom," "Sweet Home Chicago," "Terraplane Blues," and others for the Vocalion label. Johnson later returned to Texas to record songs including "Hellhound on My Trail," "Me and the Devil Blues," "Milkcow Calf's Blues," and "Love in Vain." He traveled to Memphis and St. Louis in the next year. On August 13, 1938, Johnson performed for the last time, apparently poisoned at a Mississippi juke joint called Three Forks. Shortly after Johnson's death but before news of it had traveled, John Hammond was trying to locate him to include him in the Carnegie Hall concert, "From Spirituals to Swing." Johnson has had an enormous impact on the blues and rock and roll music, from the early electric blues of Chicago to the music of Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones.
SELECTED SONGS
"Dead Shrimp Blues"
"Hellhound On My Trail"
"I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"
"If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day"
"Kind Hearted Woman Blues"
"Milkcow's Calf Blues"
"Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)"
"Ramblin' On My Mind"
"Stones In My Passway"
"Stop Breakin' Down Blues"
"Sweet Home Chicago"
"Terraplane Blues"
"Traveling Riverside Blues"
"When You Got a Good Friend"
RELATED SONGS BY BOB DYLAN
"Black Crow Blues," ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN
"Outlaw Blues," BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME
"From a Buick 6," HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED
"Highway 61 Revisited," HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED
"Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat," BLONDE ON BLONDE
"Obviously Five Believers," BLONDE ON BLONDE
"Pledging My Time," BLONDE ON BLONDE
SELECTED RECORDINGS
Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers Columbia 1654, 1961, re-released on CD with alternate take of "Traveling Riverside Blues," 1998
Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers Vol. II, Columbia 30034, 1970
Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings: Columbia CD 46222, 1990
RELATED LINKS
Robert Johnson's Tribute Home Page
www.deltahaze.com/johnson
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