One of the first musicians that comes to mind when blues is mentioned: Who is Robert Leroy Johnson?

Blues singer, songwriter, and musician from Mississippi, born May 8, 1911. Robert Leroy Johnson's childhood, like that of all poor blacks, was spent in the black camps and cotton fields of the period.

When his 16-year-old wife, whom he married while pretending to be older, died during childbirth when he was 18, he took a break from music and decided to earn his living with the Blues. The life and death of Johnson, who brought his singing style and use of the guitar to a very different level, led to many legends spreading from word of mouth. Robert Johnson, described as a genius in guitar technique, “You cannot hear a single Blues tune without Robert's chords in it; "You would think that 2-3 men are playing together, but he is playing alone."

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Although his recording career spanned only seven months, he is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style, and as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as perhaps "the first ever rock star".

A study conducted in 1990 found that Robert Johnson's guitar was indeed tuned differently. Johnson never taught anyone how he did it. It turned out that no one saw him tuning the guitar on his own, and when someone watched him play carefully, he turned his back and did not want anyone to know his technique. The fact that the artist, who is said to have sold his soul to the devil to succeed in his career, is considered the first great master of the Blues and the creator of the Delta Blues genre, has never changed. When he first came on stage, he was influenced by Lonnie Johnson, one of the popular Blues artists of the period, and used the name Robert Lonnie on stage for a short time.

Unfortunately, Robert Johnson did not live very long and passed away in 1938, at the age of 27. He fit many immortal works into his short 27-year life, but especially the artist's last period works, namely the recordings he made in 1936 and 1937, greatly influenced the Blues musicians who came after him.

Johnson, who was previously a traveling singer who played mostly on street corners and in black weekend clubs, remained largely unknown throughout his life. He made almost no money. His recordings were made in extremely poor studios, in San Antonio in 1936 and in Dallas in 1937. Some of these improvised recordings were released between 1937 and 1938, and the rest were released as a 78-track single record after his death. Apart from these records, little was known about him. The Mississippi Delta was where he spent a significant part of his life, and his life there was studied by researchers long after his death. Even Johnson's death was discovered by chance 6 months later. One day, for an event, his musician friend John Hammond wanted to take him to a concert called "Spirituals To Swing" at Carnegie Hall in New York. He assigned a person to find him. This person searched for him throughout the Mississippi Delta. Only then did it become clear that he was dead. Thereupon, John Hammond placed a gramophone on the stage in the last part of the concert and played Robert Johnson songs to the audience, thus fulfilling his last duty towards him.

When Brunswick Records, a small record company that owned Robert Johnson's recordings, was purchased by Columbia Records, all the records the label had were overhauled and a compilation album called "King of the Delta Blues Singers" was released by Columbia Records in 1961, 23 years after his death. Published by. In this way, his works had the opportunity to reach a wide audience. In addition to influencing the American Blues artists of the period, the album also played an influential role in the British Blues movement. Important artists of the period almost rehabilitated Johnson and began to perform his works. So much so that Eric Clapton, one of the emerging artists of the period, referred to Johnson as "the most important Blues singer who ever lived", while Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Plant stated that Johnson's songwriting style and guitar technique had significant influences on his own work. When new recordings were discovered in the following years, this time in 1970, another album named "King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. II" was released.

In 1990, 5 new songs, never known before, were discovered by chance. These songs were "If I Had Possession over Judgment Day", "When You Got a Good Friend", "Traveling Riverside Blues", "Phonograph Blues" and "Drunken Hearted Man". It is interesting, isn't it? If these songs had not been discovered by chance, perhaps we would never know these beautiful songs today. These five songs were released under the name “The Complete Recordings”.

Finally, in 1998, the "King of the Delta Blues Singers" album was re-released on the Columbia/Legacy label. However, this album had an interesting feature. This was to record the album as a Remaster by cleaning up the existing recordings, as well as adding all of the artist's songs from the 2000s - including the recordings in which he played and sang incorrectly - and releasing them.

The legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil

As Johnson's life was researched, some interesting stories began to emerge. Although the veracity of these stories is unknown, according to a legend that has survived to this day, the artist sold his soul to the devil in order to be successful in his career. As the legend goes, Johnson, a young man living on a farm in Mississippi, had an extreme desire to become a successful musician. One night, in the middle of the night, he had an urge to take his guitar to a crossroads near the Dockery farm. There he was met by a large black man. The man took the guitar, made some adjustments to its tuning, played a few songs with the guitar he had tuned, gave the guitar back to Johnson, and said: "When you buy your guitar, your soul becomes mine, do you accept it?" This was rumored to be a deal with the devil. In exchange for his soul, Johnson would do wonders in the Blues world. But of course, for a price. After this incident, the artist disappeared for about a year and when he returned, he started singing his songs with a guitar technique that no one had heard before. It was as if he had the seventh string added to his guitar and his playing became a completely different person. The sound coming out of the guitar was like several people playing guitar at the same time. In those years, clubs attended by black people were the only places where musicians could earn money, and Johnson became the star of the club, where he was once despised and even ridiculed and thrown out because he could not play the guitar. At that time, he was always referred to as the devil himself by the church, which did not like this new music at all and spread that it was the music of the devil.

However, legend aside, musicologists who have researched the subject in detail have stated that a musician named Ike Zinnerman, who was a very talented guitarist at that time in the town of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, trained Robert Johnson as his student, and that the two of them played guitar while sitting on the tombstones at midnight, thus allowing Johnson to play the guitar. He says he is improving himself. They both believe that real Blues should be performed in a grave at midnight, sitting on a tombstone and feeling the spirit of slaves slaughtered by whites. In this way, it is thought that Zinnerman seriously influenced young Johnson's guitar technique.

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The devil and the crossroads: The legend of Robert Johnson

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/robert-johnson-myth-devil-crossroads-story/