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(NewsNation) — Known as the “King of the Delta Blues Singers,” Robert Leroy Johnson only became a legend in the rock ‘n’ roll world decades after his death.
Born in 1911, Johnson took up guitar at a young age before becoming a traveling musician. He eventually took on the music world of New York City. But he died mysteriously in 1938 in Mississippi, with just over two dozen little-known songs to his name.
And yet, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin covered or adapted Johnson’s songs in tribute in the late 1960s, decades after his death.
As a traveling musician, Johnson played on street corners, in juke joints and at Saturday night dances. His music transformed the rough experiences of his childhood into deeply soulful renditions of what it was like being a Black man in the American South during the Great Depression.
“You want to know how good the blues can get?” Keith Richards once asked, answering his own question: “Well, this is it.”
Eric Clapton put it more plainly: “I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson.”
Songs like “Cross Road Blues,” “Love In Vain,” “Hellhound On My Trail,” “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom,” “Walking Blues” and “Sweet Home Chicago” have now achieved canonical status and are now considered anthems of the genre.
Johnson’s poorly documented early life created a chasm between who he was and the mythic retelling of his story, reflecting the nature of the country itself, where the legacies of African Americans are often defined by others, long after their deaths.
Johnson is believed to have grown up with three men serving as father figures to him before the age of seven. His mother, Julia Major Dodds, was the daughter of slaves. She had 10 children with her husband, Charles Dodds, before conceiving Robert out of wedlock with a field hand named Noah Johnson.
The bulk of Johnson’s youth, however, was spent in Robinsonville, Mississippi, with his mother and her second husband Dusty Willis. This is where he learned to play the jew’s harp and harmonica before taking up the guitar.
In Robinsonville, he came in contact with masters of the Mississippi Delta blues Willie Brown, Charley Patton, and Son House—all of whom influenced his music.
Legend has it, that during a year away from the masters, Johnson made a deal with Satan at a crossroads, acquiring his prodigious talent as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter in exchange for the stipulation that he would have only eight more years to live.
A similar story circulated in regard to another Mississippi bluesman, Tommy Johnson.