Although Hammond was a masterful manipulator of information, even he probably had little conception of how the words he spoke would lay the foundation for Robert Johnson’s legendary, indeed mythic, status. What is certain, however, is that he consciously shaped that evening’s image of Robert: from the recordings he chose to play to the information he provided about his life. By the time of the concert, fully twenty of Johnson’s recordings had been released. Among those releases were Robert’s only commercial hit, “Terraplane Blues” (selling a modest five to ten thousand copies), as well as those compositions that would become legendary and rank among the best known blues standards: “Cross Road Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago,” “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom,” “Hell Hound on My Trail,” and others. Hammond was well aware of these recordings. Well-versed in Robert’s recorded repertoire, Hammond still chose to play two of his lesser works at the opening of the concert.
“Walkin’ Blues” and “Preachin’ Blues” (subtitled “Up Jumped the Devil”) were among Robert’s most derivative pieces, compositions that owed a huge debt to one of Robert’s mentors, Son House, who recorded songs by the same titles and with similar verses in 1930. Robert’s versions are energetic and enthusiastic, but they were not nearly as adventurous or inventive as his compositions “Hell Hound on My Trail” or “Stones in My Passway,” nor as commercial as “Terraplane Blues” or “Kind Hearted Woman Blues.” Hammond chose “Walkin’ Blues” and “Preachin’ Blues,” songs that Vocalion Records thought not even interesting enough to release until three years after they were recorded, one year after Robert’s death (the two songs were actually released after the “From Spirituals to Swing” concert), partly to support his idea that Robert was more authentic than Lead Belly. Evidence of Hammond’s notion of authenticity can be found in how Hammond described Robert’s replacement—Big Bill Broonzy. Broonzy was already a well-established, urban recording artist, yet Hammond described him as a “primitive blues singer” who “shuffled” onstage. By the time the concert was held, however, Broonzy had been living in Chicago for eighteen years, had recorded over two hundred sides, and wore very fashionable suits. Hammond’s use of “Walkin’ Blues” and “Preachin’ Blues” was due to his attraction to a more “primitive,” and thus, to him, a more “authentic” blues sound. By selecting these two pieces to introduce Robert to the northern, white, liberal world Hammond created a very specific image of what constituted the true Delta blues as sung by “the greatest Negro blues singer who has cropped up in recent years … [who] … makes Leadbelly [sic] sound like an accomplished poseur.”
Some of the errors in Hammond’s various statements about Robert can be excused due to a legitimate lack of information, or misinterpretation of cultural context. When he stated that he didn’t believe Robert worked as a professional musician and was, rather, a hand on a Mississippi plantation, he was probably thinking within the professional musical framework with which he was accustomed. Traveling from juke joint to tavern to house party might not have been what Hammond considered professional. How it might have surprised Hammond to learn that during his short lifetime Robert had played as far north as Canada, and had even been in his hometown of New York City and in New Jersey, traveling that great distance from the Delta! Robert was as professional as a Delta blues musician could be in the 1930s. Hammond also invented Robert’s original mythic status with his claim that “Robert Johnson died last week at the precise moment when Vocalion scouts finally reached him and told him that he was booked to appear at Carnegie Hall on December 23.” Although he certainly knew this was untrue, it made a terrifically romantic story. Hammond’s praise of Robert’s music and his concoction of a mysterious ethos surrounding him was enough to capture the interest of his friend and folk song collector Alan Lomax. Alan’s father, John, had “discovered” Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter in the early 1930s.
In 1942 Lomax, spurred by the interest in Robert that his friend Hammond had created, traveled to the Mississippi Delta in search of any information about Robert Johnson he could find. In the process, Lomax met Son House, Muddy Waters, and David “Honeyboy” Edwards. He recorded them all for the Library of Congress, but he also added to Robert’s myth by allegedly finding Johnson’s “mother.” However, the woman who was supposedly introduced to Lomax (we have no evidence that such a meeting actually took place) told him, “Yessuh, I’s Mary Johnson. And Robert, he my baby son. But Little Robert, he dead.” But Robert’s mother’s name was Julia Ann Majors, so there are only several possibilities to explain this anomaly. Either Lomax made the story up, or he was introduced to a woman who only claimed to be Robert’s mother and was duped.2 Whether or not he actually met Robert’s real mother, Lomax added to the myth by insisting that he did and included the following narrative he allegedly collected from her in his book The Land Where the Blues Began:
I’m mighty happy that someone came to ask about Little Robert. He was a puny baby, but after he could set up, I never had no trouble with him. Always used to be listenin, listenin to the wind or the chickens cluckin in the backyard or me, when I be singin round the house. And he just love church, just love it. Don’t care how long the meetin last, long as they sing every once in a while, Little Robert set on my lap and try to keep time, look like, or hold on to my skirt and sort of jig up and down and laugh and laugh. I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen and guitar pickers. Sometime he wouldn come home all night, and whippin never did him no good. First time there’d be somebody pickin another guitar, Little Robert follow um off. Look like he was just bent that way, and couldn help hisself. And they tell me he played the first guitar he pick up; never did have to study it, just knew it.
I used to cry over him, cause I knowed he was playin the devil’s instruments, but Little Robert, he’d show me where I was wrong cause he’d sit home and take his little twenty-five cents harp and blow all these old fashioned church songs of mine till it was better than a meetin and I’d get happy and shout. He was knowed to be the best musicianer in Tunica County, but the more his name got about, the worse I felt, cause I knowed he was gonna git in trouble. Pretty soon he begun to leave home for a week at a time, but he always brought me some present back. Then he took off for a month at a time. Then he just stayed gone. I knowed something gonna happen to him. I felt it. And sure enough the word came for me to go to him. First time I ever been off from home, and the last time I’ll go till the Lord call me. And, Lord have mercy, I found my little boy dyin. Some wicked girl or boyfriend had give him poison and wasn no doctor in the world could save him, so they say.
When I went in where he at, he layin up in bed with his guitar crost his breast. Soon’s he saw me, he say, “Mama, you all I been waitin for. Here,” he say, and he give me his guitar, “take and hang this on the wall, cause I done pass all that by. That what got me messed up, Mama. It’s the devil’s instrument, just like you said. And I don’t want it no more.” And he died while I was hangin his guitar on the wall. “I don’t want it no more now, Mama, I done put all that by. I yo child now, Mama, and the Lord’s. Yes—the Lord’s child and don’t belong to the devil no more.” And he pass that way, with his mind on the angels. I know I’m gonna meet him over yonder, clothed in glory. My little Robert, the Lord’s child.3
A romantic story to be sure—the prodigal son, a natural musician who played the devil’s music, being saved on his death bed with his mother by his side—but one we now know to be full of factual inaccuracies. That Lomax published this book in 1993, well after enough facts were known about Robert to disprove Lomax’s story, merely adds to the curious nature of the creation of Robert’s myth.
Hammond’s initial 1937 glorification of Robert’s music, his mythic 1938 “From Spirituals to Swing” explanation of Robert’s death, and Lomax’s romantic fantasy about Johnson’s mother all played into the construction of the mythic Robert Johnson. These tales were
exacerbated by the well-intentioned but ill-informed suppositions about his life by writers like Charters, Welding, Cook, and others who attempted to define Robert by his lyrics or erroneous information. The exaggerated or concocted stories of Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson II (who claimed that Robert died in his arms on the way to a hospital), and many others who created tall tales to fill their interviewer’s imagination led us further away from Robert Johnson the man and toward Robert Johnson the myth.
A vacant field just outside of Greenwood where Highways 49 and 82 meet is the location of the original Three Forks store and juke that was standing during Johnson’s career. Honeyboy Edwards said it was destroyed by a tornado during World War II. Rosie Eskridge confirmed that event, as have numerous other Greenwood residents. Many of the towns that Robert Johnson frequented are completely gone: Penton, Clack, Its, and others. Those that still exist, such as Tutwiler or Friars Point, are only shadows of their former selves. The Delta plantations are gone except as historical landmarks. The only remaining element of the historical Delta that has prospered and grown is the story of Robert Johnson. The voices of those who knew him as a man and not a myth are, for the most part, forever stilled, yet their words are as poignant today as ever:
I thought a lot of him, I really did. Me and my brother we thought a lot about Robert. Sure did. He was friends with everybody. Robert was a nice fellow, he really was. He wasn’t no way ’sumptuous or big-headed, stubborn, nothing. He liked to enjoy, he liked friends, he liked people.
—CHILDHOOD FRIEND WILLIE MASON
I remember everything about him. I remember he taught me how to play. I remember everything about him. He taught me how to make my living.
—ROBERT LOCKWOOD
Robert Johnson is a parable. He was getting to be a very famous guy and all the girls and why is he dead? His fame killed him.
—HENRY TOWNSEND
Since I been playing professionally, since I made my comeback, I look any day to walk up on Robert or Robert walk up on me. [I feel his presence] Many time. Many times.
—JOHNNY SHINES
APPENDIX I
RECORDING SESSIONS
Sequence of the sessions at which Robert Johnson recorded
1936—Gunter Hotel, Room 414, San Antonio, Texas:
Saturday, 11/21/36
W. Lee O’Daniel and His Hillbilly Boys
Sunday, 11/22/36
W. Lee O’Daniel and His Hillbilly Boys
Monday, 11/23/36
Robert Johnson
Tuesday, 11/24/36
Hermanas Barraza con guitarras
Wednesday, 11/25/36
The Chuck Wagon Gang
Thursday, 11/26/36
The Chuck Wagon Gang
Robert Johnson
Andres Berlanga y Francisco Montalvo y guitarras
Friday, 11/27/36
Robert Johnson
Hermanas Barraza y Daniel Palomo con acompalimento de piano
Hermanas Barraza con guitarras
Al Dexter
Saturday, 11/28/36
Nothing recorded
Sunday, 11/29/36
Nothing recorded
Monday, 11/30/36
Eva Garza
1937—508 Park Avenue, Dallas, Texas
Thursday, 6/17/37
Al Dexter and Luke Owens
Friday, 6/18/37
The Hi-Flyers
Roy Newman and His Boys
Saturday, 6/19/37
The Crystal Springs Ramblers
Robert Johnson
Zeke Williams and His Rambling Cowboys
Sunday, 6/20/37
The Light Crust Doughboys
Clifford Gross and Muryel Campbell
Robert Johnson
Blue Ridge Playboys
Donnell Lezah (personal record)
John Boyd and His Southerners
Bill Nettles and His Dixie Blueboys
APPENDIX II
A ROBERT JOHNSON GENEAOLOGY
Julia Majors Lineage
Wiatt Majors (b. 1814 in Virginia)—Ann (?) (b. 1832 in Virginia)
Gabriel b. 1850
Anthony b. 1851
William b. 1852
Madison b. 1855
Thomas b. 1857
Amanda b. 1859
Sylvester b. 1861
Wyatt b. 1862
Horace b. 1866
Frank b. 1857
John b. 1869
All listed as Mulattos in Townships 9 and 10, East of Railroad. Copiah, Mississippi
Gabriel marries Lucinda Brown (b. 1853) on September 12, 1868, in Hazlehurst
Julia b. Oct. 1870
James A. b. 1878
Jacob b. 1883
Charley b. 1890
Joseph b. 1892
Clara Belle b. 1902
Julia marries Charles Dodds (b. 1867) on February 2, 1889
Louise b. 1887
Harriet b. 1890
Bessie b. Oct. 1891
Willie M. b. Dec. 1894
Caroline b. 1895
Leroy b. 1896
John b. 1897
Melvin b. Oct. 1898
Codie M. b. 1900
Lilia S. b. 1903
Two children die in infancy.
Julia divorces Charles ca. 1920 and marries Will “Dusty” Willis in 1916
Charles Dodds Lineage
Charles Dodds (b. 1831 in North Carolina)—Harriet (?) (b. 1846)
Harry b. 1861
James b. 1862
Joseph b. 1865
Charles b. 1867
Ella b. 1868
Labritha b. 1870
John b. 1873
William b. 1875
Elizabeth b. 1877
Aaron b. 1880
Living in Townships 1 and 2, East of Railroad, Copiah County Charles marries Julia Majors on February 2, 1889
Noah Johnson Lineage:
Jack Johnson (b. 1850 in Louisiana)—Ann (?) (b. 1851 in South Carolina)
Ella b. May 1876
Lula b. 1881
Noah b. Dec. 1884
Willis b. Dec. 1887
Olla b. Aug. 1888
Maybel b. Mar. 1893
Living in Beat 2, Copiah County
Julia and Noah become parents of Robert Johnson, May 8, 1911
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Interviews
Austin, Henry, and Lilly Berry. Interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Tchula, Mississippi, [date].
Bracey, Ishmon. Interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Jackson, Mississippi, May 26, 1968.
Bracey, Ishmon, and Joe Callicott. Interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Hernando, Mississippi, December 30 and 31, 1967.
Cohn, Lawrence. Phone interview with Bruce Conforth. January 18, 2016.
Edwards, David “Honeyboy.” Interview with Barry Lee Pearson, Blues Narrative Stage, “Robert Johnson Remembered,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, DC, 1991.
Edwards, David “Honeyboy.” Interview with Bruce Conforth. Bloomington, Indiana, November 16, 1980.
Eskridge, Rosie. Interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Greenwood, Mississippi, June 2001.
Govenar, Alan. Telephone interview with Bruce Conforth. January 12, 2019.
Handwerker, Dan. Interview with Bruce Conforth. Memphis, Tennessee, May 7, 2015.
Hirsberg, Robert. Interview with Bruce Conforth. Friars Point, Mississippi, May 23, 2005.
Johnson, Ledell. Interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Jackson, Mississippi, 1969.
Lockwood, Robert. Interview with Robert Santelli, International Folk Alliance. 2000.
Lockwood, Robert. Interview with Worth Long, Blues Narrative Stage, “Robert Johnson Remembered,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, DC, 1991.
McCormick, Robert “Mack.” Telephone interviews with Bruce Conforth. March 20, 2006, June 4, 2006, August 17, 2006, January 25, 2007, February 2, 2007, May 4, 2008, November 16, 2008, November 20, 2008, December 3, 2008.
Miller, Booker. Interviews with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Greenwood, Mississippi
, 1968, 1969.
Moore, Willie, and Elizabeth Moore. Interviews with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Sumner and Mitchner Plantation, Tutwiler, Mississippi, May 1968; McManus Plantation, Sumner, Mississippi, November 1969, December 1969.
Mullan, Hayes. Interviews with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Tutwiler, Mississippi, July 29, 1967, August 12, 1967, May 18, 1968, September 13, 1968, November 30, 1968.
Shines, Johnny. Interview with Barry Lee Pearson, Blues Narrative Stage, “Robert Johnson Remembered,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, DC, 1991.
Shines, Johnny. Interview with Malcom Walls, Blues Narrative Stage, “Robert Johnson Remembered,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, DC, 1991.
Shines, Johnny. Interview with Worth Long, Blues Narrative Stage, “Robert Johnson Remembered,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, DC, 1991.
Speir, H. C.. Interviews with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Jackson, Mississippi, May 18, 1968, 1969, February 8, 1970.
Steps, Lula Mae, Reverend Frank Howard, and wife, Otis Hopkins, Charlie Mullin, and Willie Brown (from Arkansas). Interviews with Gayle Dean Wardlow. Pugh City, Mississippi, December 28, 1967.
Townsend, Henry. Interview with Barry Lee Pearson, Blues Narrative Stage, “Robert Johnson Remembered,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, DC, 1991.
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