ROBERT JOHNSON : Bluesman and Icon

I remember hearing "The King of the Delta Blues" LP for the first time about three or four years after it came out and, although I had heard perhaps more country blues than most Kiwi teenagers of the time, I had never heard anything like it before. It made a similar impression on most people. If you liked folk or country blues it was a revelation. For anyone else it was the primitive howling of black trash, the equivalent of the equally unknown white trash String band sound of early country music.



Robert Johnson was a delta blues man, who produced all of his significant work in the mid to late thirties of last century, at two recording sessions in San Antonio and Dallas. Johnson's style was characterised by impassioned vocals accompanied by a guitar style which embodied many of the styles he had picked up in his travels, yet retained the essential wild sound to match his vocals. He had more varied style than some of the earlier bluesmen from the twenties, who tended to be unknown outside their local area, and his travels throughout the South undoubtedly helped to broaden his range. In developing this wider stylistic range than his contemporaries Johnson introduced new ideas into what has become known as Delta blues. He represents the end of the development of the genre and, as such, is it's apogee. That John Hammond tried to sign him for the legendary Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall is a measure of his importance, and fame, in the field. When Hammond discovered he was dead he didn't attempt to locate another delta bluesman, but instead went for the relatively urbane but brilliantly skillful Big Bill Broonzy.



In many ways Johnson's reputation has benefited from a variety of fortuitous advantages. The Brunswick label which he recorded for was one of the middle stream companies in terms of audio fidelity and his records thus sound a lot better than many of his contemporaries who were often recorded on such poor quality labels as Paramount, whose discs were pressed on furniture shellac. Further, the same John Hammond who had sought him for the Spirituals and Swing concert in 1939 happened to be a fan, and was also an independently wealthy A&R man for Columbia during the fifties and sixties. Hammond had a personal collection of Johnson discs and in the early sixties produced two LP's for Columbia entitled "The King of the Delta Blues". The LP's received no promotion, except Hammond's enthusiastic demonstration of them to anyone who would listen, which, because of his position and legendary status at Columbia was a who's who of American rock. Dion DiMucci recalls Hammond insisting that he listen, and being blown away by what he heard. It sold slowly but in the millions - a genuine sleeper. I'm not aware of any promotion ever.

Claims that are made for Johnson being the most important of all blues singers (referring of course to country blues), rest on these legendary LP's and the influence they had. It is true that Johnson was among the best of the delta blues men, but he was by no means the only important figure and several others made equal contributions (eg; Willie Moore, Charlie Patton) to the style. What singles out Robert Johnson is that, when today's crop of bluesmen such as Clapton were getting going, most of the other delta bluesmen's work was simply unavailable, at least to middle class white boys in the UK, the States or even New Zealand and these guys were the new crop of bluesmen. Johnson wasn't just good quality, he was practically all the delta blues there was so far as the sixties electric blues revival was concerned. Consequently, the influence of "The King of the Delta Blues" is hard to over estimate. Virtually every aspiring blues man was heavily influenced by it, often to the point of outright imitation. Only early Chicago figures such as Muddy Waters and his associates rank with him.





Intamusic Imports would like to thank one of our customers John S. for this write up.