Many consider him rock 'n' roll, as well as the first true godfather of it. His songs have been covered by the biggest names in rock and blues (people like Clapton, the Stones, Captain Beefheart, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and many more).
In my opinion, Robert Johnson is the most important of the artists from the pre-rock period and the one who influenced its birth the most. To think that in these tracks you find the foundations of what has been and still is the core of the Blues and is a fundamental part of rock.
According to legend, Robert Johnson was initially no more than a mediocre Bluesman without great instrumental skills; the pact with the devil gifted him his great guitar technique which he later paid for with a premature death. A more plausible theory is that he was taught by an unknown man named Ike Zinneman, believed by some to be Satan because he claimed to have learned to play the guitar in a cemetery. Regardless of the theories, Robert Johnson's music really has something Voodoo inside. His transgressive and unorthodox lyrics for the time still carry something magical; his music on these old yet enduring recordings certainly won't seem current, yet Robert's deep and brazen voice accompanied only by his acoustic guitar has something that sweeps you away more and more each day, truly music alive with passion, as if he were here playing his pieces, here with us.
Songs like “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Me And The Devil Blues,” “Love In Vain,” “Drunken Hearted Man,” to name just a few, are immortal songs that will forever remain documents of the origin of rock 'n' roll and what 20th-century music was. Legend.
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