Prophet of Delta Blues, father of the Blues tout-court, brilliant guitarist, initiator of multitudes, throngs, armies of faithful followers of the Devil's Music, guitarists, above all, but not only... Seller of his own soul to the aforementioned in exchange for acquiring the right and innovative technique to spread the Word among those who were unaware. A crossroads among the cornfields was the designated meeting place, it seems...
Initiator of a new guitar technique that combined fingerpicking with a few explosive chords, twelve bars of blood, sex, and sweat. Possessor of a voice that, in the words of Eric Clapton, expressed the most powerful cry that a human voice could emit.
Let’s also add incorrigible womanizer and inexhaustible drinker, two characteristics that sealed his descent into the Inferno to which he had dedicated his soul: he died, it seems established, poisoned by the bartender who gave him half a bottle of terrible whiskey mixed with a tasteless powder that led him to death in two days. The bartender was the husband, look at the twists of life, of his last conquest, and that night RJ was playing in his venue.
Let’s also call him a precursor of the 27 Club, thirty years before many epigones followed him, including Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Curt Cobain, Dave Alexander, Amy Winehouse, I’ll stop here so as not to bore you.
Below is a brief list of songs that can only be described as seminal, recorded in seven months between 1936 and 1937.
This is where it all begins.
The sound quality is what it is, move on and forget about HiFi, this is about something else.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Robert Leroy Johnson (1911-1938), whose 83rd anniversary of death we celebrate today.
Sweet Home Chicago