Re: [Harp-L] Interesting YouTube clip on 'King of Delta Blues' Robert Johnson

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

In this clip, Son House says that Robert Johnson -- who couldn't play a lick 
-- disappeared for 6 to 8 months and when he returned, he was a fully formed 
blues performer.

What Son House and the others who perpetuate the myth about Robert Johnson 
selling his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar skills neglect to 
mention is that everything Robert Johnson played he stole from another popular 
blues song -- music -- that was available on 78 rpm record.

Robert just locked himself in the   woodshed with a stack of popular blues 
records. 

If you care about this topic, you can buy the CD "Roots of Robert Johnson" 
(the 2nd edition is more complete) or the sheet music book of the same name. 


Robert didn't sell his soul to the devil, he sold it to somebody who had a 
Gramophone and a stack of records. Many gramophones (windup record players) had 
variable speeds to compensate for poorly manufactured recordings whose 
turntable speeds   were recorded too fast or too slow. So it would not take a rocket 
scientist to slow down one of these players. Just hold your finger against the 
turntable, if there was no variable speed adjustment.

Which is not to say that Robert Johnson was unimportant: far from it. He put 
all these recorded versions together and came up with something that improved 
on the past. He was like a blues version of Woody Guthrie who put his new 
lyrics to existing songs.

Son House was always bitter that Johnson was held in higher regard than he 
was. But this again in just another case of the student (Johnson learned a bit 
from Son) surpassing his teacher.

You might say Johnson was a first rate blues arranger. 

What has this got to do with harmonica? Somebody once said Johnson's first 
instrument was the harmonica. That is more likely than the myth that Lincoln 
ever played one -- his surviving   son said he never knew his father(Abe Lincoln) 
  to be musical and never saw him with a harmonica or any other musical 
instrument.

Phil Lloyd




In a message dated 3/27/07 11:27:09 AM, b2becom@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:


> Here's the link:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3T8HwGh7w
> 
> 
> 
> -------------- Original message --------------
> From: "Jason Pos (JG)" <POSJG@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> >
> > Interesting YouTube clip on 'King of Delta Blues' Robert Johnson - in
> > the video "Robert Johnson in They Sold Their Souls for Rock and Roll".
> > Sorry I don't have the YouTube link as I save the files using the
> > video title. You will have to search for the video title given in the
> > double quotes above.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Jason G.
> 
> 
> 




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