Robert Johnson

Nobody recorded the date, but Johnson was probably born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, in May 1911, to a mother who sent him first to live with her former husband Charles Dodds in Memphis, then brought him back to the Delta around 1919 after she remarried. He was already known for the harmonica and the jaw harp as a boy. In February 1929 he married Virginia Travis, 14 years old, and she and their baby died in childbirth the following spring — her family blamed the guitar and the "devil music" he played at parties. He left the fields afterward and found a teacher, Ike Zimmerman, who coached him for months in a country graveyard at night, because it was quiet there and no one would complain.

He recorded everything he ever put on record in two sessions: 16 sides in a San Antonio hotel room in November 1936, and most of the rest in a Dallas warehouse the following June, 29 songs total with a handful of alternate takes. The innovation was in what his hands did — a right hand that kept an independent, rolling bass line going while the rest of the guitar carried the melody and his voice answered both, dense enough that later listeners assumed two guitarists were playing. Keith Richards said as much the first time Brian Jones put one on for him. "Cross Road Blues," "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Love in Vain" outlasted the 78s they were pressed on, covered for decades by musicians who traced their own playing back to a catalog small enough to fit on two hands.

The famous version of his life is that he traded his soul to the devil at a midnight crossroads for the ability to play, and it is not true of him. Researchers have traced that story to Tommy Johnson, an unrelated Delta guitarist, and the graveyard where Johnson practiced was chosen for the silence, not for company. The myth caught on anyway, helped along by his in-laws' suspicion of the "devil's music" and by the two surviving photographs that were nearly all anyone had to go on for decades. What is verified is grimmer than the myth: he died at 27 near Greenwood, Mississippi, on August 16, 1938, and his death certificate lists no cause. Whiskey poisoned by a jealous husband is one theory, mothball fumes and an inherited disorder are others, and no autopsy was performed.

Three different Mississippi churchyards now claim his grave, each with its own marker, and researchers still argue over which one is right. The catalog that made him famous was mostly out of print until Columbia's 1961 reissue, King of the Delta Blues Singers, reached a generation of British and American guitarists who treated it like scripture. Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones all named him directly as a source. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him among its first class of early influences in 1986, and in 1990 a boxed set of his complete recordings went platinum — a commercial life the man who cut them in two hotel rooms never came close to living.

Robert Johnson's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Cross Road Blues song
  Recorded in San Antonio, November 1936 1936
• Terraplane Blues song
  His only record to sell well in his lifetime 1936
• Sweet Home Chicago song
  One of the most covered blues songs ever recorded 1936
• Love in Vain song
  Recorded at the Dallas session, later covered by the Rolling Stones 1937
• King of the Delta Blues Singers album
  Columbia's reissue that introduced him to a new generation 1961

• c. May 8, 1911 aged 0 Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi The date rests on later research, not a surviving birth record.
• February 1929 aged 17 Marries Virginia Travis
• 1930 aged ~19 Virginia and their newborn die in childbirth Her family blamed his music for the loss.
• November 23, 1936 aged 25 Records 16 sides in a San Antonio hotel room
• June 19, 1937 aged 26 Records the Dallas session
• August 16, 1938 aged 27 Dies near Greenwood, Mississippi, at 27
• 1961 aged ~50 Columbia reissues King of the Delta Blues Singers
• 1986 aged ~75 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

• Muddy Waters 1913–1983
  Chicago bluesman who electrified Delta blues and supplied a foundation for rock music. carried his sound to Chicago
• Bob Dylan b. 1941
  Songwriter whose poetic lyrics transformed folk, rock, and the role of popular music in public life. named him a direct influence
• Chuck Berry 1926–2017
  Guitarist and songwriter whose music established core sounds, themes, and performance styles of rock and roll. built rock and roll on his patterns
• B.B. King 1925–2015
  Singer and guitarist whose expressive style brought electric blues to a worldwide audience and influenced generations of musicians. fellow Mississippi bluesman