Robert Johnson was by no means the first of the great Delta blues singers—Leadbelly was born in 1888, Charley Patton in 1891—and Son House (1902-1988) remembered “Little Robert” as an annoying kid who hung out at juke joints around Robinsonville, Miss., near present-day Tunica. There he insisted on playing the guitar but didn’t know how. Then he disappeared. A few months later, the pest showed up again, and “when the boy started playing,” House said, “all our mouths were standing open.” Johnson had mastered the instrument, and it was House who said that Johnson “must have sold his soul to the devil” to have improved so much in so short a time. Some of Johnson’s songs (“Hellhound on My Trail,” “Me and the Devil Blues,” and of course, “Crossroads”) seemed to support the notion.
But killjoys and party-poopers offer more prosaic explanations for the improvement in Johnson’s abilities. They point out that he had learned to play the piano before ever taking up the guitar and was an accomplished harmonica player, which suggests that he had some musical ability already. They also report that—during those months when Son House hadn’t seen him—he lived with a guitarist named Ike Zimmerman, some 250 miles away in Beauregard. For more than a year, he studied with the older and more accomplished musician, and they sometimes practiced their instruments in the local graveyard, where it was quiet and they would be left alone.
This, plus the fact that the blues was considered “the Devil’s music,” contributed to the legend that generations of blues, R&B, and rock ‘n’ roll enthusiasts have cherished. That Johnson died young—at 27, the same as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse—and under mysterious circumstances also contributed. Despite only two recording sessions and a total of 29 songs (and 13 “alternative takes”) he was a huge influence on Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Johnny Winter. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, released in 1990, has sold more than a million copies.