“Early this mornin’
When you knocked upon my door
Early this mornin’, uuuh
When you knocked upon my door
And I said, “Hello Satan”,
I believe it’s time to go…”
Robert Leroy was born in Mississippi in 1911. Grandson of slaves, he was born to be a laborer. Early was born his love to the blues, first with his harmonic and after with the guitar, showing a low level with the second one.
Since 1932 till his death in 1938, Robert Johnson travelled between the cities of the Mississippi’s Delta. When he arrived to a town, normally a small one, he used to play the guitar for a few coins in front of the barbershops and the restaurants. He was a poor guitar player, with a sad trajectory.
All of this was changed in a year, when he became into a reference guitar player in the blues world. People was fascinated with his music and his great technique. Everybody could not belived how he could change so much and the legends about him began.
The legend relates that in a midnight, while he played the guitar in the crossroad between the 61st and the 49th in Claksdale (Mississippi) a black and tall man appeared in front of him who asked him to his guitar. After played the same chords that Robert Johnson was playing y returned him and with the guitar, his wisdom. This is the way he sold his soul to the devil like Faust, to become in the best bluesman of all the time. In a year he became in a legend with his art and his continuous references to the devil in his songs.
This new life of success help him to had a better life, earning more money and having sex with lots of women. In 16th of August of 1938 he died in strange circumstances, maybe he paid his doubt with the devil, but the true is that he maybe died by pneumonia, syphilis or by a jelausy husband. He died at age of 27 years and just 29 songs recorded.
As a curiosity: we can find the history of Robert Johnson in the film “Crossroad” or on TV, in “Supernatural” in a episode called “Crossroad Blues”
“Early this mornin’
When you knocked upon my door
Early this mornin’, uuuh
When you knocked upon my door
And I said, “Hello Satan”,
I believe it’s time to go…”
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- 27: Robert Johnson The Legend, The Devil & The Crossroads (resurrectionwaltz2013.wordpress.com)
- Robert Johnson (southernerds.com)