Topic: Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson

[Rivers]

Perhaps the secret sauce is the natural integration of vocals and instrument, and the ability to sustain that to channel the art lurking beyond. That art certainly applies to Lemon, Patton, Booker White, Leadbelly and many others.

We're all at our best when we're both singing and playing well. Loud is good. It seems that those who can push vocals to the limit consistently while playing along often end up being the big stars. Robert Johnson fits that profile to a T, IMHO

And by the way I am very glad we can now discuss this without all that supernatural bullshit (too kind a word) distracting us from coming to a realistic appraisal. So thanks to Gayle Dean & Bruce. It's been a long time coming.

[lindy]

We're all accustomed to using the word/concept of "sound" as in the sentence, "Wow, no one in that band knew how to play an instrument, but they sure had a great sound." My reference point is the 1950s: during the early rock and roll era, producers figured out that if they could create a great "sound," teenagers would do whatever they could to get the 59 cents to buy a 45 rpm single.

Speculation time, folks: I can picture Robert Johnson spending a lot of time practicing and purposefully searching for a sound, and I can imagine his understanding of the importance of finding a good sound for commercial recording purposes. He certainly knew how to arrange songs to end at 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

Like I said, it's big-time speculation on my part, I never met the man. But I can envision Johnson understanding the importance of a great sound long before others caught on to the idea, and then practicing and refining until he achieved just the right mix of voice and straight-forward guitar playing based on records he had access to.

[Rivers]

I seriously doubt Robert Johnson himself was trying to do anything other than the best he could and thereby make a good living. That's all there is, and that's good enough for me.

[Rivers]

What you say rings true, Lindy, and it would also explain why he preferred to work solo.  Having another accompanist in there with him would have flattened out the musical impact of what he was communicating, and would have made the sound more generic.  Working strictly as a soloist, he was notably his own man, and his particular musical message could come across, loud and clear.

Obviously he would have had many opportunities to participate in combos, duos, trios. For unknown reasons he didn't want to go that way. Why that should be is speculation.

[Parlor Picker]

I seriously doubt Robert Johnson himself was trying to do anything other than the best he could and thereby make a good living. That's all there is, and that's good enough for me.

Exactly. A well-observed comment.

[Gilgamesh]

Hi all,
It would be be interesting to know how many of the supposed fifty million copies of the set were never listened to, from beginning to end, even once.  I'm extremely dubious of the fifty million U.S. sales claim--one of every 6.5 or so Americans purchased the set?  I don't think so. 

That's an extremely suspect figure in any context, but especially so for a book whose stated raison d'tre is the deflation of myths. Not a promising start.

I've long ago learned to dismiss ALL claims of sales as meaningless hype until actual sales figures from actual accounting ledgers (or other legit paperwork) can be examined by an outside source, i.e. an historian, not the company's PR department.

[Stuart]

In addition to merely being an error WRT the numbers, it's possible that Larry was joking (TIC) and the authors took him seriously.

[CF]

Bruce Conforth has said there are typos in the introduction that will be fixed for the 2nd edition

[tmylet]

Great book and incredible research. The big take-away for me was that while there were lots of bluesman who played for dances, etc. that happened to be recorded, Robert Johnson was the first who really honed his music into songs to be recorded. It leaves me wondering if his playing in juke joints, corners, etc. were three minutes or longer like I assume all the others played.

[Rivers]

Good question. I surmise he would be both spinning it out and also keeping it short. This was an educated guy who also liked to have a good time, after all. I have nothing to back that up, just a belief that he could easily walk and chew gum, format-wise.

[DavidCrosbie]

It leaves me wondering if his playing in juke joints, corners, etc. were three minutes or longer like I assume all the others played.

Conforth and Wardlow observe that (with one exception) whenever two takes of a song survive, they are identical in timing, text and arrangement.

For what it's worth, my guess is that he'd employ flexibility with the rest of his repertoire, but keep the recorded songs as they were on the discs. We hear that ? at least once ? he performed Terraplane Blues to prove that he was the man on the record. It's a fair guess that he did a three-minute version.

[Prof Scratchy]

Conforth and Wardlow observe that (with one exception) whenever two takes of a song survive, they are identical in timing, text and arrangement.


The above does not apply to the two versions of Crossroads, nor to the two versions of Rambling On My Mind.




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[Blues Vintage]

Phonograph Blues too.

[daddystovepipe]

I always wondered why Johnson played only one guitar solo (only Kind Hearted Woman has one)? 

[Rivers]

I think we're still falling into the trap of discussing him like he was not just a regular musician, albeit a very good one. Everyone who plays changes their delivery to suit the venue, occasion, mood and audience. Why would Robert be any different?

The myth is hard to scrape off your shoe. He was a player with a streak of talent a mile wide, certainly. What he did while constrained to recording a three minute take is interesting, and not the be all and end all. As such it's pretty unimportant, IMNSHO