Whenever anyone talks or writes about Robert Johnson they tend to spend more time on the myth than the man. The facts of his life are somewhat sketchy, and have in their own way contributed to his legend. This is what we know. . .
Johnson's Mother, Julia, had ten children before Robert was born on 8th May 1911, all ten being born in wedlock, her husband’s name was Charles Dodds. Julia was probably around forty years old when Robert was born illegitimately; his Father was a plantation worker called Noah Johnson. Charles Dodds had moved to Memphis as a result of problems he was having with some prominent Hazelhurst landowners. Robert was sent to live with him when he was around three or four years old, by which time all of Dodd’s children had moved to Memphis.
Robert grew up in Memphis and first learned the basics of the guitar from his brother. Then, aged around eight or nine, Robert moved back to the Delta to live with his Mother and her new husband Dusty Willis. He became known as Little Robert Dusty. By all accounts Robert was more interested in music than he was on working in the fields, which put him at odds with his stepfather. By the time he was nineteen Johnson had married a girl of sixteen, who died shortly afterwards as she was giving birth. Around this time, in 1930, Son House moved to live in Robinsville, which is when young Robert would have first heard him play.
Son House recalled many years later that “he blew a harmonica and he was pretty good with that, but he wanted to play guitar.” It was from House and Willie Brown that Robert learned. He would watch them play and when they took a break he would use one of their guitars, according to House he was not good at all, “…such a racket you never heard!……get that guitar away from that boy” people would say, ”…..he’s running people crazy with it.” By 1931 Robert had married again while continuing to travel the Delta, improving his guitar playing and playing at Juke joints and picnics. A year or so later Robert played for Son and Willie; they were staggered by his improvement. “He was so good. When he finished, all our mouths were standing open.”
Robert resumed his Delta wanderings, his reputation growing as he played. He also went further afield, visiting Chicago, New York, Detroit and St Louis that we know of. All the while he developed his ‘audience technique’, it was this too that added to his reputation as a womaniser. He would often concentrate his performance on just one woman in the audience; this appears to have led to him forming relationships, of varying duration, with various women. Robert travelled and played with Johnny Shines, who later recalled that Robert was always neat and tidy, despite days spent travelling dusty Delta highways. Johnny also recalled that Robert was just as likely to perform other’s songs, as he was his own. He did everyone from Bing Crosby to Blind Willie McTell and Jimmie Rodgers to Lonnie Johnson. Robert, like many others, performed the songs that earned him money, songs his audiences requested.
By the time Robert was in his mid twenties he went to H.C. Speir’s store in Jackson Mississippi, like many of his influences and contemporaries, he wanted to record. Speir contacted the ARC label and by late November 1936 Robert was in San Antonio to record the first of his twenty-nine sides. On Monday November 23rd he cut Kind Hearted Woman Blues, the first of thirteen takes of eight different songs. Three days later he was back and cut 32-20 Blues and then the following day he cut nine more takes on seven different songs. He then took a train back to Mississippi and his life as an itinerant musician, although he was temporarily richer having pocketed money from his recording session; it is doubtful whether it was more than $100.
His first release was Terraplane Blues coupled with Kind Hearted Woman Blues; it would be the only one that sold in any great number at the time. Next up came 32-20 Blues coupled with Last Fair Deal Gone Down, followed by I’ll Believe I’ll Dust My Broom and Dead Shrimp Blues. While his sales were not prolific they were clearly good enough for Robert to be summoned back for some more recording. This time he went to Dallas and recorded three more sides on 19th June 1937, the following day he cut thirteen more takes of ten more songs.
After his recording session Robert went ‘touring’ in Texas, along with Johnny Shines. They played Jukes, parties and dances, as they had in the Delta, before heading back to Mississippi via Arkansas. Precise details of the last year of his life are somewhat imprecise, although it is known that Robert spent some time in Memphis and Helena, Arkansas. Gayle Dean Wardlow, a Mississippi journalist, went in search of Robert Johnson’s death certificate, finding it in 1968 it confirmed that Robert had died in Greenwood on 16th August 1938 aged twenty seven years old.
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