1 00:00:57,015 --> 00:01:01,061 Robert Johnson is considered one of the greatest blues artists of all time. 2 00:01:02,562 --> 00:01:06,024 There's just something sort of supernatural about Robert. 3 00:01:06,483 --> 00:01:10,236 This is a level of genius that maybe will only exist once. 4 00:01:10,695 --> 00:01:13,073 You can't hear a blues tune or a rock tune that 5 00:01:13,156 --> 00:01:15,356 don't have some of Robert's chords in it. 6 00:01:15,533 --> 00:01:17,911 You think you're hearing two or three guys playing 7 00:01:17,994 --> 00:01:19,245 and it's just one guy. 8 00:01:19,329 --> 00:01:22,207 ♪ I went to the crossroads ♪ 9 00:01:22,499 --> 00:01:24,334 ♪ Fell down on my knees ♪ 10 00:01:24,417 --> 00:01:27,879 It's the template for what became rock and roll. 11 00:01:28,755 --> 00:01:32,217 The songs and the subject matter, let alone the guitar playing, 12 00:01:32,300 --> 00:01:33,718 which is very much like Bach, 13 00:01:33,802 --> 00:01:35,762 and the voice is so eerie... 14 00:01:35,845 --> 00:01:38,515 ♪ Save poor Bob if you please ♪ 15 00:01:38,723 --> 00:01:41,893 You put that in a class by itself, you know, and Johnson is. 16 00:01:42,310 --> 00:01:44,145 ♪ Standin' at the crossroads ♪ 17 00:01:44,229 --> 00:01:46,731 Because there wasn't that much known about Johnson, 18 00:01:46,815 --> 00:01:48,608 he came with mystery attached. 19 00:01:51,236 --> 00:01:54,280 The myth of Robert Johnson still lives today, 20 00:01:55,281 --> 00:01:58,660 because there was so many unsolved mysteries. 21 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:01,079 The music drew us in, 22 00:02:01,329 --> 00:02:05,875 but it was the myth that made people believe that there is magic out there. 23 00:02:06,626 --> 00:02:11,089 All of us have been trying to figure out the mystery around the man. 24 00:02:13,299 --> 00:02:17,929 Robert was said to have been a novice guitar player. 25 00:02:18,221 --> 00:02:19,556 Not very good. 26 00:02:20,723 --> 00:02:24,060 So he went away and came back playing so good, 27 00:02:24,144 --> 00:02:26,521 that everybody says, "He did something." 28 00:02:27,814 --> 00:02:30,900 The legend is he went to the crossroads, 29 00:02:32,026 --> 00:02:33,278 he met the devil there, 30 00:02:34,821 --> 00:02:36,239 he sold his soul, 31 00:02:37,782 --> 00:02:40,869 and then he became the greatest guitar player in the world. 32 00:02:42,036 --> 00:02:44,038 But how much is myth 33 00:02:44,414 --> 00:02:45,957 and how much is real? 34 00:02:58,136 --> 00:03:01,431 There's very little known about the life of Robert Johnson. 35 00:03:01,723 --> 00:03:04,475 In fact, there are only two known photos. 36 00:03:06,144 --> 00:03:07,270 And no footage. 37 00:03:09,147 --> 00:03:10,773 I've spent the last 50 years... 38 00:03:11,399 --> 00:03:14,027 studying the life and music of Robert Johnson. 39 00:03:14,819 --> 00:03:17,947 Robert Johnson had a very short recording career. 40 00:03:18,031 --> 00:03:20,867 We only have 29 compositions. 41 00:03:21,492 --> 00:03:24,537 And he died so young, at the age of 27. 42 00:03:26,539 --> 00:03:29,459 I first found out that Robert Johnson was my grandfather 43 00:03:29,542 --> 00:03:32,128 when I was about 15 years old. 44 00:03:33,046 --> 00:03:35,465 When I first heard Robert Johnson, I was like, 45 00:03:35,548 --> 00:03:37,926 "Okay, that's what music is." 46 00:03:38,927 --> 00:03:40,678 And there's so much we don't know about him, 47 00:03:40,762 --> 00:03:42,889 so I read everything I could get my hands on. 48 00:03:45,016 --> 00:03:48,102 I became a scholar of Johnson by reading everything I possibly could, 49 00:03:48,186 --> 00:03:49,520 by listening to all his music, 50 00:03:49,604 --> 00:03:51,272 but also as a musician, 51 00:03:51,356 --> 00:03:54,108 I was trying to get inside and understand what his state of mind was. 52 00:03:57,070 --> 00:03:58,947 When I heard Robert Johnson, 53 00:03:59,030 --> 00:04:02,033 I said, "This is the top of the tower, 54 00:04:02,116 --> 00:04:04,118 and I gotta figure out what that is." 55 00:04:04,202 --> 00:04:05,787 But it wasn't a conscious decision, 56 00:04:05,870 --> 00:04:09,040 it was just like, that's what I knew I wanted to do. 57 00:04:09,791 --> 00:04:11,668 I remember my grandfather saying, 58 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:13,711 "That old boy from the Delta, Robert Johnson, 59 00:04:13,795 --> 00:04:15,046 always hung out at the graveyard." 60 00:04:15,129 --> 00:04:17,507 And then he started talking about, 61 00:04:17,590 --> 00:04:19,592 "Him the devil, done this and done that." 62 00:04:19,676 --> 00:04:22,887 And it just brung a lot of curiousness about this man. 63 00:04:24,305 --> 00:04:28,559 There was one cut by Robert Johnson on this country blues record 64 00:04:28,643 --> 00:04:30,103 and it just stood out. 65 00:04:30,186 --> 00:04:33,815 So I made it a quest to find out as much as I could about him. 66 00:04:36,943 --> 00:04:40,738 I made countless trips to his hometown, Hazlehurst, Mississippi, 67 00:04:41,281 --> 00:04:43,533 talking to everyone that I could find who knew him. 68 00:04:44,033 --> 00:04:45,868 I would just drive until I saw 69 00:04:45,952 --> 00:04:49,872 somebody sitting on their porch outside and I'd just pull up. 70 00:04:49,956 --> 00:04:53,418 And there'd just be so much information that you could get 71 00:04:53,501 --> 00:04:56,129 just by cold calling people, you know? 72 00:04:56,212 --> 00:04:58,673 Did you and Robert go together for a while? 73 00:04:58,756 --> 00:05:01,342 I guess about six or seven months, something like that. 74 00:05:02,051 --> 00:05:04,887 Before he left and went somewhere to make records. 75 00:05:04,971 --> 00:05:07,432 He said he's going to make... make some records. 76 00:05:08,099 --> 00:05:10,476 It wasn't until 1967... 77 00:05:11,936 --> 00:05:15,064 that Robert's death certificate was discovered. 78 00:05:15,148 --> 00:05:18,568 And with that discovery, we learned who his mother was, 79 00:05:18,651 --> 00:05:20,320 we learned who is father was, 80 00:05:20,611 --> 00:05:24,198 and we learned the first real facts about Robert Johnson. 81 00:05:24,532 --> 00:05:26,451 So, little by little, 82 00:05:26,534 --> 00:05:29,287 using census records, city directories, 83 00:05:29,996 --> 00:05:32,165 death certificates, marriage licenses... 84 00:05:32,248 --> 00:05:34,334 More and more information came out, 85 00:05:34,417 --> 00:05:36,878 and each time a piece of information would come out, 86 00:05:37,545 --> 00:05:41,799 it would be like a new key that would open up yet another door. 87 00:05:44,844 --> 00:05:46,721 Look at this! 88 00:05:46,804 --> 00:05:48,723 They said you were wearin' some orange. 89 00:05:50,767 --> 00:05:51,893 Hey, Steve... 90 00:05:54,771 --> 00:05:57,190 ♪ Down at the crossroads ♪ 91 00:05:58,107 --> 00:06:01,027 ♪ Dark gon' catch me here ♪ 92 00:06:02,653 --> 00:06:06,699 My grandfather, Robert Johnson, was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. 93 00:06:08,826 --> 00:06:10,578 His mother was Julia Dodds 94 00:06:10,661 --> 00:06:13,164 and she was married to Charles Dodds. 95 00:06:13,998 --> 00:06:17,251 Charles Dodds was a wealthy carpenter and farmer. 96 00:06:18,127 --> 00:06:20,713 But some local white people resented his success 97 00:06:20,797 --> 00:06:24,384 and he was forced to flee to Memphis to escape a lynch mob. 98 00:06:25,635 --> 00:06:27,261 Julia was left destitute 99 00:06:27,345 --> 00:06:29,889 and took up with a local lumber camp worker, 100 00:06:29,972 --> 00:06:32,600 who would become Robert's biological father. 101 00:06:37,355 --> 00:06:38,731 This was the home... 102 00:06:41,734 --> 00:06:43,319 in all probability, 103 00:06:43,903 --> 00:06:46,280 where Robert Johnson was actually born. 104 00:06:48,950 --> 00:06:49,865 Here it is, 105 00:06:49,867 --> 00:06:52,078 this beyond-modest place... 106 00:06:52,787 --> 00:06:55,289 ...that somehow has persisted 107 00:06:56,332 --> 00:06:57,583 for more than a century. 108 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:00,461 The fact that it survives... 109 00:07:02,338 --> 00:07:04,507 it's kind of like a metaphor for Robert's life. 110 00:07:10,263 --> 00:07:12,390 As far as my information goes, 111 00:07:12,473 --> 00:07:15,309 he was always pushed from one house to another house, 112 00:07:15,393 --> 00:07:19,021 from Memphis to the Delta to Arkansas, 113 00:07:19,105 --> 00:07:22,233 and I think his mom even walked out on him at one point. 114 00:07:23,151 --> 00:07:26,654 So he never had a stable home and a stable environment. 115 00:07:26,946 --> 00:07:30,491 He never had a father figure that accepted him for who he was. 116 00:07:33,453 --> 00:07:34,954 Years went by, 117 00:07:35,037 --> 00:07:37,874 until eventually Robert Johnson's mother remarried. 118 00:07:38,541 --> 00:07:42,086 Robert moved in with his new stepfather, a sharecropper. 119 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,756 I heard his stepfather used to abuse him. 120 00:07:46,215 --> 00:07:49,218 Because he didn't want to go work in the fields, he would beat him. 121 00:07:49,927 --> 00:07:52,680 Johnson looked at his stepfather, who was a sharecropper, 122 00:07:52,763 --> 00:07:54,390 and saw what a bad deal it was 123 00:07:54,724 --> 00:07:56,934 to get hooked up to a plow and a boss, 124 00:07:57,018 --> 00:07:59,020 and said, "I'm gonna be free. I'm not gonna do that. 125 00:07:59,103 --> 00:08:00,688 I'm not gonna get ripped off that way." 126 00:08:02,648 --> 00:08:06,527 But as a race, we didn't have much to choose from as far as work goes. 127 00:08:06,861 --> 00:08:08,446 It was the field 128 00:08:08,529 --> 00:08:10,281 or basically nothing. 129 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,871 So, he wanted to make his living with the blues. 130 00:08:17,455 --> 00:08:20,666 Long fingers, playing the guitar, he didn't want to mess his fingers up. 131 00:08:22,126 --> 00:08:25,671 He'd come to the field and play for somebody 132 00:08:25,755 --> 00:08:27,590 to make a nickel or dime, you know. 133 00:08:35,139 --> 00:08:37,808 The big deal was Will Dockery's plantation. 134 00:08:38,476 --> 00:08:40,645 Outside of Robinsonville. 135 00:08:41,145 --> 00:08:42,772 People worked there all week long. 136 00:08:43,189 --> 00:08:44,482 No radios, 137 00:08:44,732 --> 00:08:45,983 no music, no entertainment. 138 00:08:46,734 --> 00:08:49,487 But, on the weekend, the musicians came out. 139 00:08:50,029 --> 00:08:53,699 It served as a balm for people who were in bondage. 140 00:08:54,158 --> 00:08:56,452 And it gave you a way out. 141 00:08:56,827 --> 00:08:59,914 You play that music, you could be outside of yourself. 142 00:09:00,540 --> 00:09:02,542 You know, you could take everybody else out. 143 00:09:02,708 --> 00:09:04,502 You know, outside of their selves. 144 00:09:06,837 --> 00:09:09,966 ♪ I do believe, pretty baby ♪ 145 00:09:11,259 --> 00:09:13,219 ♪ Believe I'll dust my broom ♪ 146 00:09:16,055 --> 00:09:18,849 Most all these church folk, you say, "Where the blues come from?" 147 00:09:18,933 --> 00:09:20,433 "It came from the church." 148 00:09:20,518 --> 00:09:21,817 But that's a lie. 149 00:09:22,603 --> 00:09:25,231 It didn't come from the church, it came from the field. 150 00:09:28,359 --> 00:09:29,569 Out there in the field, 151 00:09:29,944 --> 00:09:31,529 they was playing instruments. 152 00:09:32,446 --> 00:09:33,573 Harmonica. 153 00:09:33,948 --> 00:09:35,908 "Oh baby" this and "oh baby" that. 154 00:09:37,076 --> 00:09:39,328 ♪ Somebody gonna hurt you, woman Like you hurt me ♪ 155 00:09:39,412 --> 00:09:41,372 Weren't even talking about the woman. 156 00:09:41,455 --> 00:09:43,455 Talking about the man he's working for. 157 00:09:44,208 --> 00:09:48,004 Nobody played the blues like the Mississippi folks. 158 00:09:48,546 --> 00:09:50,715 Because it's something that was in 'em already. 159 00:09:51,299 --> 00:09:53,926 The musicians would play for the sharecroppers, 160 00:09:54,218 --> 00:09:56,429 but the sharecroppers didn't have any money. 161 00:09:57,096 --> 00:09:58,723 But city folks did. 162 00:10:02,101 --> 00:10:04,604 So if you were a black musician at that time, 163 00:10:04,687 --> 00:10:07,773 you strap a guitar to your back, you stick your thumb out, 164 00:10:07,857 --> 00:10:10,192 and you just go from town to town. 165 00:10:10,610 --> 00:10:13,821 You would travel by bus, train, walking down the street. 166 00:10:13,904 --> 00:10:16,782 However you could get there, and perform 167 00:10:16,866 --> 00:10:17,908 anywhere you could. 168 00:10:18,367 --> 00:10:20,328 On a street corner, in a juke joint. 169 00:10:20,411 --> 00:10:22,330 Anywhere that there was an audience. 170 00:10:22,413 --> 00:10:25,166 If you're obsessed with remaining free from the cotton fields, 171 00:10:25,708 --> 00:10:27,793 you gotta be able to play what people want, 172 00:10:27,877 --> 00:10:29,837 so they played polkas, country music, 173 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:31,547 pop songs. 174 00:10:31,631 --> 00:10:34,634 Also, by setting up on the sidewalk, the word would get out 175 00:10:34,717 --> 00:10:36,344 that these musicians were in town. 176 00:10:36,427 --> 00:10:39,472 The owner of a juke would get in touch with them and say, "Well, you know, 177 00:10:39,555 --> 00:10:41,390 can you come and play at my place tonight?" 178 00:10:46,812 --> 00:10:49,690 The juke joint was in city limits, 179 00:10:49,774 --> 00:10:52,735 where black peoples could go and have a good time in town. 180 00:10:53,569 --> 00:10:56,697 They would dance, play music, drink beer, gamble. 181 00:10:57,114 --> 00:10:58,991 Just together, you know, for the community. 182 00:11:03,204 --> 00:11:06,040 Robert would work a town until he had it worked out... 183 00:11:07,541 --> 00:11:10,795 ...and then just get back on the road and go to the next town. 184 00:11:11,837 --> 00:11:15,299 Robert Johnson on the road in his 20s, it was dangerous. 185 00:11:15,591 --> 00:11:17,134 It was extremely dangerous. 186 00:11:17,218 --> 00:11:18,219 For a black man, 187 00:11:18,302 --> 00:11:21,389 Mississippi was one of the most dangerous places in the world. 188 00:11:26,143 --> 00:11:28,396 If you lived in the upper south like the Virginias, 189 00:11:29,230 --> 00:11:30,398 even the Carolinas, 190 00:11:30,481 --> 00:11:31,982 the master would threaten you. 191 00:11:32,650 --> 00:11:35,528 "You don't act right, I'm gonna send you down Mississippi. 192 00:11:35,861 --> 00:11:36,861 I'm gonna sell you." 193 00:11:36,862 --> 00:11:37,863 And people were like, 194 00:11:38,155 --> 00:11:39,490 "Whatever you do, 195 00:11:39,824 --> 00:11:41,742 please don't send me down there," 196 00:11:41,826 --> 00:11:44,370 'cause they knew how badly they treated people. 197 00:11:45,621 --> 00:11:47,373 You're a black person, then you could be 198 00:11:47,456 --> 00:11:48,666 killed, lynched, 199 00:11:49,417 --> 00:11:50,543 just on a whim. 200 00:11:51,293 --> 00:11:52,920 "Boy, I don't like you. 201 00:11:53,003 --> 00:11:55,047 What do you say, fellas? Come on, let's..." 202 00:11:55,589 --> 00:11:56,424 Yeah. 203 00:11:58,342 --> 00:12:01,387 There were more lynchings in the Mississippi Delta 204 00:12:01,470 --> 00:12:02,888 than anyplace else. 205 00:12:04,348 --> 00:12:07,476 But it wasn't only the danger that made life difficult. 206 00:12:12,064 --> 00:12:14,358 A life on the road was even harder 207 00:12:14,442 --> 00:12:18,112 because most of the people in the towns were Christian, 208 00:12:18,195 --> 00:12:21,615 and the blues to them were considered the devil's music. 209 00:12:22,366 --> 00:12:23,743 Sunday morning come. 210 00:12:24,535 --> 00:12:25,661 You got the preacher. 211 00:12:27,621 --> 00:12:28,706 He ain't making no money. 212 00:12:29,874 --> 00:12:33,335 All your men's mostly at the juke joint. 213 00:12:33,794 --> 00:12:35,588 Juke house been partying all night long. 214 00:12:35,671 --> 00:12:38,299 People don't want me to tell it like this, but that's the way it is. 215 00:12:38,382 --> 00:12:40,259 The preacher, 216 00:12:40,843 --> 00:12:42,553 he got a service going on. 217 00:12:43,429 --> 00:12:45,723 Nobody there but the womens. 218 00:12:45,806 --> 00:12:47,224 The juke joint and juke house. 219 00:12:47,975 --> 00:12:49,979 These people are making a little money. 220 00:12:50,436 --> 00:12:51,645 But Reverend ain't making none. 221 00:12:54,398 --> 00:12:57,276 "You're gonna go to hell for listening to that devil music." 222 00:12:58,194 --> 00:13:00,529 The Baptist preachers started that. 223 00:13:00,613 --> 00:13:03,741 Somebody get cut, somebody get in a fight, 224 00:13:04,116 --> 00:13:06,827 "that devil music is causing all this." 225 00:13:09,371 --> 00:13:11,123 When the preacher put that myth out there, 226 00:13:11,874 --> 00:13:13,167 these womens in church, 227 00:13:13,584 --> 00:13:15,544 they started telling some of their husbands, 228 00:13:15,628 --> 00:13:17,880 "Look, y'all don't start coming to church, 229 00:13:17,963 --> 00:13:19,757 you can go to hell listening to devil music." 230 00:13:34,814 --> 00:13:36,190 Local legend has it 231 00:13:37,566 --> 00:13:38,566 that... 232 00:13:39,235 --> 00:13:41,320 when he was 18 years old, 233 00:13:42,988 --> 00:13:45,616 Robert Johnson fell in love 234 00:13:45,699 --> 00:13:48,953 with a 15-year-old named Virginia Travis. 235 00:13:50,329 --> 00:13:54,166 They lied about their ages and got married. 236 00:13:56,335 --> 00:14:00,130 Her family were church people and very religious, 237 00:14:00,214 --> 00:14:03,968 as were most people in that community on a plantation. 238 00:14:04,677 --> 00:14:07,221 Robert made a pledge to Virginia 239 00:14:07,304 --> 00:14:09,640 that he would give up playing music 240 00:14:09,723 --> 00:14:12,852 and he would become a legitimate farmhand 241 00:14:12,935 --> 00:14:14,520 and he would be a good husband. 242 00:14:14,937 --> 00:14:17,606 So they moved to a plantation 243 00:14:18,357 --> 00:14:19,650 and lived there 244 00:14:20,150 --> 00:14:23,279 until Virginia was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. 245 00:14:30,494 --> 00:14:35,791 Virginia left to be with her grandmother to give birth to their baby, 246 00:14:36,417 --> 00:14:39,962 while Robert took advantage of the fact that Virginia was gone 247 00:14:40,045 --> 00:14:41,547 to start playing the guitar again. 248 00:14:44,216 --> 00:14:47,928 He decided to work his way through some of his old familiar haunts 249 00:14:48,012 --> 00:14:50,931 along the Mississippi River, up Highway 1, 250 00:14:51,015 --> 00:14:55,311 and arrive in time to see his wife and their new baby. 251 00:14:58,939 --> 00:15:00,858 Well, Robert didn't make it in time. 252 00:15:06,572 --> 00:15:08,824 Virginia died in childbirth 253 00:15:09,658 --> 00:15:12,995 and was already dead and buried with the baby. 254 00:15:13,370 --> 00:15:14,872 ♪ And I followed her ♪ 255 00:15:16,415 --> 00:15:17,875 ♪ To the station ♪ 256 00:15:21,253 --> 00:15:24,965 ♪ Well, you know I followed that girl down to the station ♪ 257 00:15:26,842 --> 00:15:29,553 ♪ With a suitcase in my hand ♪ 258 00:15:32,932 --> 00:15:35,225 If you can just imagine this, I mean, it must've been 259 00:15:35,309 --> 00:15:37,519 just such a tragic scene. 260 00:15:37,603 --> 00:15:38,854 Here he is, 261 00:15:39,355 --> 00:15:42,149 all excited to see his wife and new baby, 262 00:15:43,025 --> 00:15:45,778 carrying his guitar, walking into this house, 263 00:15:46,362 --> 00:15:47,905 and the family said, 264 00:15:47,988 --> 00:15:49,281 "Where were you? 265 00:15:49,365 --> 00:15:51,200 You were out playing the devil's music." 266 00:15:51,283 --> 00:15:54,203 ♪ Well, you know It's hard to tell, it's hard to tell ♪ 267 00:15:56,246 --> 00:15:58,958 ♪ When all your love's in vain ♪ 268 00:15:59,917 --> 00:16:02,795 ♪ All my love's in vain ♪ 269 00:16:03,837 --> 00:16:07,174 Her family blamed him for her death. 270 00:16:07,383 --> 00:16:10,552 ♪ You know, I felt so lonesome I felt so lonesome ♪ 271 00:16:12,262 --> 00:16:15,307 ♪ All I could do was cry ♪ 272 00:16:17,351 --> 00:16:19,728 ♪ When all your love's in vain ♪ 273 00:16:20,813 --> 00:16:23,649 ♪ All my love's in vain ♪ 274 00:16:32,950 --> 00:16:36,453 According to contemporary scholars, it was after that 275 00:16:36,537 --> 00:16:40,374 that Robert's life really seems to change considerably. 276 00:16:41,041 --> 00:16:43,377 He dedicates his life to his music. 277 00:16:44,545 --> 00:16:47,881 He wasn't satisfied just making a living. 278 00:16:48,799 --> 00:16:52,386 Robert Johnson wanted to be a big star. 279 00:16:55,139 --> 00:16:56,265 ♪ You know ♪ 280 00:16:57,725 --> 00:17:00,602 ♪ If I don't never No more see you, honey ♪ 281 00:17:01,854 --> 00:17:04,690 And then in July of 1930, 282 00:17:04,773 --> 00:17:07,151 Son House moves to Robinsonville. 283 00:17:08,944 --> 00:17:12,281 Son House was older than Robert Johnson and he was an established player. 284 00:17:12,990 --> 00:17:16,368 Son House told me, Robert Johnson, as the new kid, goes, 285 00:17:16,452 --> 00:17:17,870 "I want to be like that guy." 286 00:17:19,663 --> 00:17:24,793 Robert was only making nickels and dimes on the corner playing his music 287 00:17:24,877 --> 00:17:26,920 and he wanted to take it to another level. 288 00:17:27,004 --> 00:17:30,007 He wanted to go from the street corners to the juke joints 289 00:17:30,090 --> 00:17:31,884 where that real money was. 290 00:17:35,679 --> 00:17:40,100 Robert was said to have been a novice guitar player 291 00:17:40,184 --> 00:17:43,896 who would go to see Son House and Willie Brown perform. 292 00:17:44,521 --> 00:17:46,940 He'd follow me and Willie around. 293 00:17:49,526 --> 00:17:52,071 And every time we stopped to rest 294 00:17:52,154 --> 00:17:55,699 and set that ol' guitar over in the corner or something, 295 00:17:55,783 --> 00:17:59,870 he trying to play it and be just noising the people, you know. 296 00:18:00,204 --> 00:18:02,331 And the folks, they'd come out, say, 297 00:18:02,414 --> 00:18:04,917 "Why don't some of y'all go down and make that boy 298 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:07,795 put that thing down, he running us crazy." 299 00:18:10,964 --> 00:18:12,382 According to Son House, 300 00:18:12,466 --> 00:18:14,843 Robert would go to fooling around with the guitars, 301 00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:16,887 and they didn't want him to fool with the guitars 302 00:18:16,970 --> 00:18:18,263 because he might break a string. 303 00:18:20,432 --> 00:18:23,685 So they used to keep running. "Boy, get away from around here." 304 00:18:23,936 --> 00:18:25,938 You know, he was, like, in the way. 305 00:18:27,523 --> 00:18:30,734 So Robert supposedly said, "Well, you know, I'll show you." 306 00:18:31,944 --> 00:18:34,822 And then he disappears from the Delta. 307 00:18:37,157 --> 00:18:38,742 Nobody knows where he went 308 00:18:39,993 --> 00:18:41,495 for about a year. 309 00:18:48,710 --> 00:18:51,255 But then Son and Willie Brown 310 00:18:51,338 --> 00:18:53,841 were playing at a juke in Banks, Mississippi. 311 00:18:54,842 --> 00:18:59,179 And in the door comes Robert Johnson carrying a guitar. 312 00:18:59,555 --> 00:19:01,098 And Son says to Willie... 313 00:19:01,181 --> 00:19:03,559 Look who's coming in the door, got a guitar on his back. 314 00:19:03,642 --> 00:19:06,854 He said, "Oh, that's little Robert." I said, "Yeah, that's him." 315 00:19:06,937 --> 00:19:09,606 I said, "Boy, now where you going with that thing? 316 00:19:09,690 --> 00:19:11,984 To noise somebody else to death again?" 317 00:19:12,192 --> 00:19:14,862 He said, "No, just give me a try." I said, "Well, okay." 318 00:19:17,156 --> 00:19:19,491 He had an extra string he put on 319 00:19:19,575 --> 00:19:23,537 a six-string guitar, made him have-- it's a seven-string. 320 00:19:23,620 --> 00:19:26,039 Something I ain't never saw before, none of us. 321 00:19:31,420 --> 00:19:33,380 ♪ Hot tamales and they're red hot ♪ 322 00:19:33,463 --> 00:19:35,132 ♪ Yes, she got 'em for sale ♪ 323 00:19:35,966 --> 00:19:37,926 ♪ Hot tamales and they're red hot ♪ 324 00:19:38,010 --> 00:19:39,678 ♪ Yes, she got 'em for sale ♪ 325 00:19:40,345 --> 00:19:42,306 ♪ I got a girl, say she long and tall ♪ 326 00:19:42,389 --> 00:19:44,641 ♪ Sleeps in the kitchen With her feets in the hall ♪ 327 00:19:50,022 --> 00:19:52,941 And when that boy started playing, 328 00:19:53,025 --> 00:19:54,860 oh, he was gone! 329 00:19:54,943 --> 00:19:56,363 ♪ Hot tamales and they're red hot ♪ 330 00:19:56,403 --> 00:19:57,821 Robert's so good, 331 00:19:58,322 --> 00:20:00,532 everybody is just blown away. 332 00:20:00,616 --> 00:20:04,328 Son said, "We were just all standing there with our mouths open, 333 00:20:04,411 --> 00:20:06,496 saying, 'Now, ain't that fast.'" 334 00:20:07,539 --> 00:20:10,626 He was playing in a way that they'd never heard before. 335 00:20:10,709 --> 00:20:12,377 He was playing that same guitar 336 00:20:12,502 --> 00:20:14,338 they said he couldn't hold a tune in a bucket. 337 00:20:14,421 --> 00:20:16,506 Now he's outplaying everybody. 338 00:20:17,424 --> 00:20:22,179 And one moment, Johnson is the mediocre to a bad guitar player. 339 00:20:22,638 --> 00:20:25,807 A year and a half later, he's an impresario. 340 00:20:26,391 --> 00:20:28,060 He's doing things with the guitar 341 00:20:28,143 --> 00:20:30,354 that even his mentors can't do. 342 00:20:39,905 --> 00:20:41,705 This begins the whole myth of... 343 00:20:42,115 --> 00:20:45,994 how could Robert possibly have gotten that good that fast? 344 00:20:48,455 --> 00:20:49,456 He did something. 345 00:20:50,374 --> 00:20:52,668 You don't just go away and come back playing like that. 346 00:20:53,543 --> 00:20:55,295 This man was a nobody. 347 00:20:55,629 --> 00:20:57,089 And all of a sudden, 348 00:20:57,547 --> 00:20:59,049 he's on top of the world. 349 00:20:59,132 --> 00:21:01,385 That put fear in people that... 350 00:21:01,843 --> 00:21:03,679 he been hangin' out at the crossroads. 351 00:21:03,762 --> 00:21:05,180 This man ain't nothing but a devil. 352 00:21:09,142 --> 00:21:10,185 The myth goes... 353 00:21:11,103 --> 00:21:13,730 Robert went to the crossroads. 354 00:21:19,152 --> 00:21:22,072 And he's supposed to have gotten down on his knees... 355 00:21:23,615 --> 00:21:25,284 handed his guitar to the devil. 356 00:21:27,828 --> 00:21:29,913 And the devil's supposed to have tuned his guitar. 357 00:21:32,374 --> 00:21:34,876 And before he got the guitar back, 358 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:37,838 the devil said, "Once you receive the guitar, 359 00:21:37,921 --> 00:21:39,381 your soul is mine. 360 00:21:40,590 --> 00:21:41,633 Do you want it?" 361 00:21:42,759 --> 00:21:44,886 That's how he sold his soul to the devil. 362 00:21:51,435 --> 00:21:53,228 Some of the lyrics that he wrote, 363 00:21:53,603 --> 00:21:55,147 it would make one think, 364 00:21:55,897 --> 00:21:58,275 "Maybe he did sell his soul to the devil." 365 00:21:59,693 --> 00:22:01,611 Talking about hellhounds on his trail, 366 00:22:01,695 --> 00:22:04,948 and, "Me and the devil was walking side-by-side." 367 00:22:06,366 --> 00:22:08,285 But if you believe the myth, 368 00:22:08,368 --> 00:22:11,246 it didn't just end with Robert Johnson selling his soul. 369 00:22:12,706 --> 00:22:15,208 Because if you do make a deal with the devil, 370 00:22:15,292 --> 00:22:16,960 you gonna have to pay the price. 371 00:22:25,052 --> 00:22:26,970 The story of Robert Johnson 372 00:22:27,346 --> 00:22:31,725 going down to the crossroads and making a bargain with the devil, 373 00:22:32,267 --> 00:22:34,895 I think it's reflecting on a tradition 374 00:22:34,978 --> 00:22:37,773 in African American folklore called "hoodoo." 375 00:22:40,275 --> 00:22:43,278 African American styles of magic. 376 00:22:44,154 --> 00:22:48,784 And hoodoo has these stories of people going down to a crossroad 377 00:22:48,992 --> 00:22:53,872 and meeting up with an entity who offers some sort of insight or knowledge, 378 00:22:53,955 --> 00:22:55,415 to learn all kinds of things. 379 00:22:55,832 --> 00:22:59,878 So hoodoo was seen as a way of gaining control 380 00:22:59,961 --> 00:23:04,716 in a world that was suffused by violence and limited options. 381 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:10,305 Hoodoo gave people other possibilities for living in that world. 382 00:23:13,308 --> 00:23:17,771 Robert Johnson's lyrics are filled with hoodoo references. 383 00:23:18,230 --> 00:23:20,273 In the song "Come on in My Kitchen," 384 00:23:20,816 --> 00:23:22,150 he sings a line, 385 00:23:22,234 --> 00:23:25,904 "I've taken the last nickel out of her nation sack." 386 00:23:25,987 --> 00:23:27,823 ♪ Oh, she's gone ♪ 387 00:23:28,907 --> 00:23:30,909 ♪ I know she won't come back ♪ 388 00:23:31,743 --> 00:23:33,745 ♪ I've taken the last nickel ♪ 389 00:23:34,246 --> 00:23:36,331 ♪ Out of her nation sack ♪ 390 00:23:36,581 --> 00:23:39,251 The "nation sack" or "mojo bag" 391 00:23:39,334 --> 00:23:42,671 was a luck charm that a woman wore around her waist. 392 00:23:43,130 --> 00:23:45,006 This was a woman's sexual power. 393 00:23:45,298 --> 00:23:47,259 It's a way of keeping the man with her. 394 00:23:48,427 --> 00:23:52,556 So by removing the contents of a woman's nation sack, 395 00:23:52,639 --> 00:23:54,933 this woman no longer has the power over him, 396 00:23:55,016 --> 00:23:58,979 and now he can invite whoever he wants to into his kitchen. 397 00:24:01,148 --> 00:24:05,527 We also have to think about how we are only one generation 398 00:24:05,610 --> 00:24:07,195 removed from slavery. 399 00:24:07,821 --> 00:24:10,115 And so in "Hellhound on My Trail," 400 00:24:10,198 --> 00:24:15,162 Johnson talks about sprinkling hot powder at his door. 401 00:24:15,245 --> 00:24:18,039 ♪ You sprinkled hot foot powder ♪ 402 00:24:18,123 --> 00:24:19,958 ♪ Mmm, around my door ♪ 403 00:24:20,333 --> 00:24:23,587 African Americans refer to "hot powder" 404 00:24:23,670 --> 00:24:26,548 as a means to evade bloodhounds. 405 00:24:26,631 --> 00:24:28,842 ♪ A hellhound on my trail ♪ 406 00:24:28,925 --> 00:24:30,719 ♪ Still out on my trail ♪ 407 00:24:31,052 --> 00:24:35,015 That would have been used by someone fleeing a lynch mob. 408 00:24:35,098 --> 00:24:38,560 And so if we think about Robert Johnson's stepfather, 409 00:24:38,643 --> 00:24:39,686 Charles Dodds, 410 00:24:39,769 --> 00:24:43,857 that's a reference to, perhaps, how he evaded a near-lynching. 411 00:24:44,441 --> 00:24:47,777 So I think that that expresses the psychological torment 412 00:24:47,861 --> 00:24:49,488 of feeling like 413 00:24:49,571 --> 00:24:51,031 lynching is always around the corner, 414 00:24:51,114 --> 00:24:52,282 it's always a possibility, 415 00:24:52,365 --> 00:24:54,618 you are never safe. 416 00:24:57,829 --> 00:25:00,707 At the time when Robert Johnson was performing these songs 417 00:25:00,790 --> 00:25:02,125 that had hoodoo references, 418 00:25:02,209 --> 00:25:05,754 for African Americans, and black men in particular. 419 00:25:05,837 --> 00:25:08,798 it is addressing the realities of their world, 420 00:25:09,257 --> 00:25:12,052 and finding power in this magic. 421 00:25:14,346 --> 00:25:18,558 I believe Robert Johnson's association with hoodoo 422 00:25:18,642 --> 00:25:22,896 and using the references in his lyrics empowered him. 423 00:25:23,230 --> 00:25:25,857 It was, "Yeah, if you mess with me, 424 00:25:26,441 --> 00:25:30,320 something bad's gonna happen to you because it's not just me, 425 00:25:30,403 --> 00:25:32,447 it's the power behind me." 426 00:25:34,449 --> 00:25:36,910 I don't know where the crossroads story came from, 427 00:25:37,577 --> 00:25:39,871 but I believe to my core... 428 00:25:40,872 --> 00:25:44,292 even if Robert Johnson actually met the devil, 429 00:25:44,918 --> 00:25:47,879 even if it really happened, that it's a metaphor, 430 00:25:48,630 --> 00:25:49,714 a wake-up call 431 00:25:50,048 --> 00:25:52,676 for a person to go ahead and become who they are. 432 00:26:01,017 --> 00:26:04,396 While the myth of the crossroads has always intrigued people, 433 00:26:05,146 --> 00:26:08,275 there's some evidence that Robert's incredible transformation 434 00:26:08,358 --> 00:26:11,069 can be traced back to another story about his life. 435 00:26:11,736 --> 00:26:14,072 My grandfather, Robert Johnson, left the Delta 436 00:26:14,948 --> 00:26:17,284 and he came back to his birth town, 437 00:26:17,742 --> 00:26:19,160 Hazlehurst, Mississippi, 438 00:26:19,244 --> 00:26:23,290 and he was looking for Noah Johnson who was his biological father. 439 00:26:24,708 --> 00:26:28,753 In searching for Noah, he found his mentor, Ike Zimmerman. 440 00:26:29,045 --> 00:26:32,299 Ike was known throughout Southern Mississippi as being 441 00:26:32,382 --> 00:26:34,092 the best guitarist there was. 442 00:26:40,223 --> 00:26:41,349 Story has it that 443 00:26:41,433 --> 00:26:44,227 Ike Zimmerman and my granddad 444 00:26:44,311 --> 00:26:47,564 used to go in the cemetery across from Ike's home, 445 00:26:47,647 --> 00:26:49,774 a few miles south of Hazlehurst, 446 00:26:49,858 --> 00:26:51,276 and they would practice there. 447 00:26:52,152 --> 00:26:54,446 Ike told my granddad, "Robert, look, 448 00:26:54,529 --> 00:26:56,823 I don't care how bad you sound out here. 449 00:26:56,906 --> 00:26:59,117 Nobody out here is gonna complain." 450 00:27:09,085 --> 00:27:12,088 ♪ I got a kindhearted woman ♪ 451 00:27:13,465 --> 00:27:15,550 ♪ Do anything in this world for me ♪ 452 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:18,470 ♪ Anything in this world for me ♪ 453 00:27:18,553 --> 00:27:21,264 He was actually sharpening his craft 454 00:27:21,348 --> 00:27:23,725 with Ike Zimmerman as his mentor. 455 00:27:23,808 --> 00:27:26,102 ♪ I got a kindhearted woman... ♪ 456 00:27:26,186 --> 00:27:27,937 Ike always said 457 00:27:28,271 --> 00:27:31,358 that the only way to learn how to play the blues 458 00:27:31,775 --> 00:27:34,194 was to sit on a gravestone 459 00:27:34,277 --> 00:27:36,529 at midnight in a cemetery. 460 00:27:36,946 --> 00:27:38,573 And then the "haints," 461 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,868 which is a southern word for "ghosts" or 'spirits," 462 00:27:42,410 --> 00:27:43,495 would come out, 463 00:27:43,578 --> 00:27:46,331 and they would teach you how to play the blues. 464 00:27:47,248 --> 00:27:48,792 They chose this grave 465 00:27:49,834 --> 00:27:51,836 so that they could sit facing each other. 466 00:27:52,420 --> 00:27:55,882 And Ike would be able to teach Robert everything that he knew 467 00:27:56,132 --> 00:27:57,592 about playing the guitar. 468 00:27:58,635 --> 00:28:01,638 ♪ She's a kindhearted woman ♪ 469 00:28:02,305 --> 00:28:04,182 ♪ She studies evil all the time ♪ 470 00:28:05,016 --> 00:28:09,729 Some people say that it was my granddad's hard work and practice with Ike 471 00:28:09,813 --> 00:28:11,189 that transformed him. 472 00:28:12,482 --> 00:28:14,359 ♪ She studies evil all the time ♪ 473 00:28:15,318 --> 00:28:19,114 But it was his playing music in the graveyard 474 00:28:19,197 --> 00:28:21,032 that perpetuated the myth 475 00:28:21,116 --> 00:28:23,284 that he actually sold his soul to the devil. 476 00:28:23,410 --> 00:28:25,036 ♪ To have it on your mind ♪ 477 00:28:35,338 --> 00:28:37,841 ♪ I got stones in my passway... ♪ 478 00:28:38,299 --> 00:28:40,468 Robert Johnson had this amazing technique. 479 00:28:40,802 --> 00:28:43,430 It's a contrast and a drama, 480 00:28:43,513 --> 00:28:46,433 from fluctuating rhythms and tempos and volumes, 481 00:28:46,516 --> 00:28:47,976 and the breathing of the music. 482 00:28:48,059 --> 00:28:50,270 ♪ ...tell my friend called Willie Brown ♪ 483 00:28:50,937 --> 00:28:52,772 It's outside the box. 484 00:28:54,190 --> 00:28:56,401 Robert was a really smart person, 485 00:28:56,526 --> 00:29:00,363 and he was very protective of how he was doing what he was doing. 486 00:29:00,947 --> 00:29:03,742 So if he saw you watching him play, 487 00:29:03,825 --> 00:29:07,078 he would either turn his back on you or stop playing. 488 00:29:10,248 --> 00:29:13,960 Johnson was the first guy you hear on record to do that sound, 489 00:29:14,043 --> 00:29:16,171 and he combined it with the slide, 490 00:29:16,337 --> 00:29:21,468 so it sounded like one guitar playing up here, uh, melodies, 491 00:29:21,551 --> 00:29:23,094 while another was playing bass, 492 00:29:23,178 --> 00:29:25,054 which I believe he was doing with his thumb, 493 00:29:25,138 --> 00:29:26,598 'cause he had large hands. 494 00:29:30,643 --> 00:29:33,438 My grandfather said, "Oh boy, Robert, 495 00:29:33,521 --> 00:29:34,814 his fingers were so long 496 00:29:34,898 --> 00:29:37,358 and he could do stuff that you would never be able to do." 497 00:29:37,442 --> 00:29:39,152 Can you imagine a guy playing, 498 00:29:39,235 --> 00:29:41,696 got these fingers doing one thing 499 00:29:41,780 --> 00:29:43,615 and these others doing some other stuff? 500 00:29:43,698 --> 00:29:45,742 Got two or three things going different, you know? 501 00:29:45,825 --> 00:29:47,327 But he could do that. 502 00:29:50,163 --> 00:29:52,707 There's a sort of synchronization about the way he plays, 503 00:29:52,791 --> 00:29:55,293 when he plays a little rhythm piece and then... 504 00:29:55,668 --> 00:29:58,213 just one slide note can kill you, man. 505 00:29:58,296 --> 00:30:00,590 The big thing about Robert Johnson, 506 00:30:00,673 --> 00:30:02,717 the piano sound that he had 507 00:30:03,051 --> 00:30:04,004 on the guitar. 508 00:30:04,010 --> 00:30:05,053 Nobody can do that. 509 00:30:05,136 --> 00:30:06,763 One part of what he's playing 510 00:30:06,846 --> 00:30:08,348 is talking to the other part, 511 00:30:08,431 --> 00:30:10,099 and he's the part in the middle. 512 00:30:12,227 --> 00:30:15,188 That doesn't sound like much to us 'cause we've heard it a million times. 513 00:30:15,271 --> 00:30:18,399 But when he did it, no one else was yet doing that, 514 00:30:18,483 --> 00:30:21,402 and that becomes the building block of electric blues, 515 00:30:21,486 --> 00:30:23,655 and if you change it into that, 516 00:30:23,738 --> 00:30:25,448 the building block of rock and roll. 517 00:30:25,532 --> 00:30:26,574 ♪ Come on... ♪ 518 00:30:26,866 --> 00:30:29,744 To me, the most fascinating thing about playing guitar 519 00:30:29,828 --> 00:30:31,454 is playing with the other guy, 520 00:30:32,205 --> 00:30:34,205 and luckily Robert didn't have to worry about that 521 00:30:34,207 --> 00:30:37,335 'cause he could do it all by himself, man, you know. 522 00:30:37,418 --> 00:30:39,671 ♪ Sweet home Chicago ♪ 523 00:30:49,889 --> 00:30:53,226 ♪ I woke up this morning ♪ 524 00:30:53,685 --> 00:30:55,603 ♪ Feelin' round for my shoes... ♪ 525 00:30:56,563 --> 00:31:00,775 Robert recorded a total of 29 songs for the American Record Company. 526 00:31:01,609 --> 00:31:05,280 And in his Delta region, his popularity took off. 527 00:31:09,951 --> 00:31:11,786 Although his success was great, 528 00:31:12,287 --> 00:31:14,581 I believe there was still a part of him 529 00:31:15,123 --> 00:31:17,500 that wanted a normal life with a family. 530 00:31:18,293 --> 00:31:21,004 ♪ Some people say the low-down blues ♪ 531 00:31:22,964 --> 00:31:24,549 ♪ Whoa, they ain't so bad ♪ 532 00:31:26,134 --> 00:31:28,177 ♪ Worst ol' feeling, baby ♪ 533 00:31:29,470 --> 00:31:30,889 ♪ Most I ever had ♪ 534 00:31:30,972 --> 00:31:32,891 ♪ Some people say the low-down blues ♪ 535 00:31:33,683 --> 00:31:37,270 He meets Virgie Cain and she became pregnant. 536 00:31:38,021 --> 00:31:40,440 Virgie was a schoolgirl, 537 00:31:40,523 --> 00:31:46,696 and Robert made repeated attempts to get Virgie to come away with him. 538 00:31:47,155 --> 00:31:50,283 But Virgie came from a very strict, religious family 539 00:31:50,366 --> 00:31:53,578 and Virgie's family said, "No, you're not going with that boy 540 00:31:53,661 --> 00:31:56,789 because that boy plays the blues, that boy plays the devil's music." 541 00:31:56,915 --> 00:31:58,166 Here we go again. 542 00:31:58,249 --> 00:32:01,044 Yet another potential wife 543 00:32:01,252 --> 00:32:03,796 and child is taken away from him. 544 00:32:04,088 --> 00:32:06,215 Why? Because he played the blues. 545 00:32:06,299 --> 00:32:09,135 ♪ Well, you know about that, I had ♪ 546 00:32:11,721 --> 00:32:13,932 ♪ Had them ol' walking blues ♪ 547 00:32:19,938 --> 00:32:21,338 Who was your father? 548 00:32:21,356 --> 00:32:22,261 Robert... 549 00:32:23,274 --> 00:32:24,776 Lee Johnson. 550 00:32:26,945 --> 00:32:29,072 My father, Claude, 551 00:32:29,155 --> 00:32:30,823 didn't have a relationship 552 00:32:31,616 --> 00:32:32,909 with his father, 553 00:32:32,992 --> 00:32:34,077 Robert Johnson. 554 00:32:35,536 --> 00:32:37,705 My dad only saw his father twice. 555 00:32:38,748 --> 00:32:41,876 Neither time did he get a chance to really talk to his father. 556 00:32:44,045 --> 00:32:45,380 I remember him 557 00:32:45,463 --> 00:32:50,426 because the second time he came to my grandfather and grandmother's home 558 00:32:50,510 --> 00:32:53,680 to visit me, I was near seven years old. 559 00:32:54,722 --> 00:32:56,891 And my dad was looking out the window. 560 00:32:56,975 --> 00:32:58,893 My great-grandfather said, "Nope, 561 00:32:58,977 --> 00:33:01,312 I can't let my grandson 562 00:33:01,854 --> 00:33:05,525 be a part of the devil's music life." 563 00:33:06,693 --> 00:33:09,153 Claude told me that he saw his dad saying, 564 00:33:09,237 --> 00:33:11,197 "Here's money for Claude." 565 00:33:11,531 --> 00:33:14,200 He gave money for Grandpa to give to his child, 566 00:33:14,283 --> 00:33:15,868 he tried to do the right thing. 567 00:33:16,285 --> 00:33:18,871 And I remember him right now, 568 00:33:18,997 --> 00:33:20,289 just like it happened. 569 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,084 But I never seen him again. 570 00:33:27,255 --> 00:33:32,135 Robert's life was just one tragedy built upon another tragedy. 571 00:33:32,218 --> 00:33:34,345 It just seems to never end for him. 572 00:33:35,722 --> 00:33:40,101 And so he devotes his life to being a hard-drinking, 573 00:33:40,518 --> 00:33:41,728 womanizing, 574 00:33:41,853 --> 00:33:43,271 blaspheming, 575 00:33:43,563 --> 00:33:44,772 blues musician, 576 00:33:45,273 --> 00:33:47,984 who doesn't seem to really care much 577 00:33:48,067 --> 00:33:51,154 about anybody or anything other than his music. 578 00:33:51,362 --> 00:33:53,156 ♪ Yesterday ♪ 579 00:33:56,284 --> 00:33:58,619 ♪ Had to be the devil ♪ 580 00:34:01,039 --> 00:34:03,082 ♪ Changed my baby's mind ♪ 581 00:34:03,958 --> 00:34:06,669 Now, Robert, he wanted to be identified with the devil. 582 00:34:06,919 --> 00:34:08,963 He wanted you to think he was the devilest person. 583 00:34:09,047 --> 00:34:11,924 Robert Johnson traveled from small town to small town, 584 00:34:12,008 --> 00:34:14,677 juke joint, juke house, making a living. 585 00:34:17,055 --> 00:34:19,390 ♪ Changed my baby's mind ♪ 586 00:34:20,016 --> 00:34:21,976 He could do things and go places 587 00:34:22,060 --> 00:34:24,145 that maybe just an ordinary person couldn't do. 588 00:34:24,437 --> 00:34:25,772 He wore that title. 589 00:34:26,814 --> 00:34:28,483 Man of Hell, Man of the Devil. 590 00:34:28,566 --> 00:34:32,570 ♪ 'Cause I know it wasn't nothing But the devil ♪ 591 00:34:34,947 --> 00:34:37,200 ♪ Made you change your mind ♪ 592 00:34:38,618 --> 00:34:42,789 I really believe that, you know, he was searching for a freedom within, 593 00:34:42,872 --> 00:34:44,832 he was searching for soul freedom. 594 00:34:46,042 --> 00:34:47,210 And in searching for that, 595 00:34:47,293 --> 00:34:51,130 it caused him to act in the way that he did a lot of times, 596 00:34:51,214 --> 00:34:53,508 as far as the drinking and the women. 597 00:34:53,591 --> 00:34:55,593 Ol' Robert did like to drink a lot of whiskey 598 00:34:55,676 --> 00:34:57,637 - and crazy 'bout his womens. - Yeah. 599 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:00,973 That's two things he was crazy about, whiskey and womens. 600 00:35:02,517 --> 00:35:06,896 Honeyboy was another blues player who had traveled with Robert Johnson 601 00:35:06,979 --> 00:35:08,189 and played with Robert 602 00:35:08,272 --> 00:35:09,982 on street corners, that kind of stuff. 603 00:35:10,650 --> 00:35:13,861 And they were actually playing together the night 604 00:35:13,945 --> 00:35:17,198 that my granddad's lifestyle caught up with him, 605 00:35:17,865 --> 00:35:20,493 at a blues juke joint outside of Greenwood, Mississippi 606 00:35:20,576 --> 00:35:21,869 called Three Forks. 607 00:35:21,953 --> 00:35:23,871 Next to this highway over here, 608 00:35:23,955 --> 00:35:26,707 there was a big juke house, but all this was flat in here. 609 00:35:26,791 --> 00:35:29,252 - Ahh. - And the big archives, man, you should-- 610 00:35:29,335 --> 00:35:33,131 right behind, betwixt this side and that, right behind the store. 611 00:35:33,756 --> 00:35:34,882 This is the place. 612 00:35:39,303 --> 00:35:41,222 Robert had taken up 613 00:35:41,305 --> 00:35:44,058 with the wife of one of the people 614 00:35:44,142 --> 00:35:47,019 who worked at the Three Forks juke. 615 00:35:49,438 --> 00:35:51,357 One night at the club, 616 00:35:51,649 --> 00:35:53,860 he let his arrogance... 617 00:35:54,277 --> 00:35:55,444 go too far. 618 00:35:55,528 --> 00:35:57,446 Totally disrespecting, 619 00:35:57,530 --> 00:35:59,365 you know, the woman's husband. 620 00:36:01,367 --> 00:36:03,494 And they ordered a bottle of whiskey, 621 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,455 and when they brought him the whiskey, 622 00:36:06,706 --> 00:36:08,082 the seal was broke, 623 00:36:08,541 --> 00:36:10,334 and I don't remember who it was, 624 00:36:10,459 --> 00:36:14,255 but he tried to slap the bottle out of Robert's hands. 625 00:36:15,006 --> 00:36:18,176 He said, "Man, never drink out of a bottle when the seal is broke." 626 00:36:18,843 --> 00:36:20,178 So Robert tells him, 627 00:36:20,261 --> 00:36:23,931 "And don't you ever slap another $7 bottle of whiskey out of my hand." 628 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,398 My dad always said, "Don't never drink nothing from nobody 629 00:36:28,436 --> 00:36:29,812 if he bring it to you open." 630 00:36:30,062 --> 00:36:32,565 But the man gave Robert the alcohol. 631 00:36:32,940 --> 00:36:34,275 There was poison in it. 632 00:36:34,525 --> 00:36:35,776 And he drank it that day. 633 00:36:37,904 --> 00:36:41,032 Some say the lady did it, some say the lady's boyfriend did it, 634 00:36:41,115 --> 00:36:42,783 some of them said the house man did it. 635 00:36:42,992 --> 00:36:45,203 All they could say is that he was poisoned. 636 00:36:46,245 --> 00:36:47,747 According to Honeyboy, 637 00:36:47,830 --> 00:36:49,707 Robert was kind of slumped over in the chair, 638 00:36:50,082 --> 00:36:52,752 and people there were trying to get him to take another drink 639 00:36:52,835 --> 00:36:55,630 so he'd keep playing, and he just wasn't able to. 640 00:36:56,839 --> 00:37:00,968 That night, he was basically on his hands and knees and stuff, 641 00:37:01,052 --> 00:37:03,888 you know, howling like a wolf or something. 642 00:37:03,971 --> 00:37:05,431 He was hurting so bad. 643 00:37:06,057 --> 00:37:08,809 It took a long time for him to die, like two or three days. 644 00:37:08,893 --> 00:37:10,186 He was real sick. 645 00:37:11,437 --> 00:37:13,522 What a hell of a way to go out, 646 00:37:13,731 --> 00:37:16,400 you know, because of his ego 647 00:37:17,109 --> 00:37:18,861 and his lust, you know. 648 00:37:18,945 --> 00:37:19,987 What a waste. 649 00:37:20,321 --> 00:37:21,530 That's the way I see it. 650 00:37:28,496 --> 00:37:30,790 But the man who gave Robert this poison whiskey, 651 00:37:31,457 --> 00:37:32,625 the man got off free. 652 00:37:34,168 --> 00:37:36,879 They come to him, but they didn't arrest him. 653 00:37:36,963 --> 00:37:38,130 They do nothing. 654 00:37:38,631 --> 00:37:41,217 And the black people didn't push it. You know why? 655 00:37:41,425 --> 00:37:42,510 Robert Johnson... 656 00:37:43,177 --> 00:37:44,178 sang devil music. 657 00:37:50,559 --> 00:37:51,769 Robert Johnson, 658 00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:55,064 because he was this walking blues man, 659 00:37:55,147 --> 00:37:56,816 because he was sort of a rebel, 660 00:37:56,899 --> 00:37:59,694 because he played by his own rules, 661 00:37:59,777 --> 00:38:02,280 it ended up costing him. 662 00:38:04,031 --> 00:38:06,409 People who want to see Johnson's death 663 00:38:06,492 --> 00:38:10,329 as evidence of this deal with the devil, 664 00:38:11,330 --> 00:38:13,624 it is the bill coming due, 665 00:38:14,125 --> 00:38:17,586 and paying for this great musical ability 666 00:38:18,337 --> 00:38:19,505 with his life. 667 00:38:29,432 --> 00:38:33,769 ♪ I feel like blowing my Old lonesome home ♪ 668 00:38:40,735 --> 00:38:43,654 I was at my father's place one day 669 00:38:43,738 --> 00:38:44,989 and he had told me, 670 00:38:45,072 --> 00:38:49,452 "In 1938, I put on a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York 671 00:38:49,535 --> 00:38:51,412 called 'Spirituals to Swing, ' 672 00:38:51,495 --> 00:38:53,914 and one of the artists I was trying to find 673 00:38:53,998 --> 00:38:56,459 was Robert Johnson to put on the show." 674 00:39:02,048 --> 00:39:04,467 John Hammond had this idea 675 00:39:04,759 --> 00:39:08,304 that people should understand where jazz came from, 676 00:39:08,387 --> 00:39:09,388 where swing came from, 677 00:39:10,014 --> 00:39:13,476 and the real roots of the deep country blues. 678 00:39:14,018 --> 00:39:16,645 And so he put together this concert 679 00:39:17,021 --> 00:39:21,150 and he sent a scout to Mississippi looking for Robert Johnson, 680 00:39:21,317 --> 00:39:24,945 and saying, you know, "Please bring him up to play at Carnegie Hall." 681 00:39:25,321 --> 00:39:28,783 And the guy went down there and found that Johnson had died. 682 00:39:31,410 --> 00:39:32,912 He had died like six months 683 00:39:32,995 --> 00:39:35,373 before this show was gonna be. 684 00:39:39,794 --> 00:39:43,047 So as the house lights in Carnegie Hall went down... 685 00:39:46,050 --> 00:39:49,804 a spotlight was Illuminating a phonograph, 686 00:39:49,887 --> 00:39:52,056 a Victrola on the center stage. 687 00:39:53,015 --> 00:39:54,892 John Hammond came out of the wings. 688 00:39:58,187 --> 00:40:02,274 My father played a recording of Robert's for the audience. 689 00:40:07,696 --> 00:40:08,948 ♪ I's up this morning ♪ 690 00:40:11,450 --> 00:40:13,744 ♪ Blues walkin' like a man ♪ 691 00:40:18,874 --> 00:40:20,292 ♪ I's up this morning ♪ 692 00:40:22,044 --> 00:40:24,880 The audience went crazy when they heard Robert Johnson. 693 00:40:27,341 --> 00:40:30,344 They just thought that he was terrific. 694 00:40:38,144 --> 00:40:40,187 After the Carnegie Hall event, 695 00:40:40,271 --> 00:40:43,858 there was a brief flurry of interest in Robert Johnson, 696 00:40:43,941 --> 00:40:47,611 but the general public still remained largely unaware of Robert. 697 00:40:47,695 --> 00:40:49,655 His records were not being played on the radio. 698 00:40:56,203 --> 00:41:00,291 After hearing Robert Johnson's music a few years later, 699 00:41:00,624 --> 00:41:04,503 the great blues player, Muddy Waters, went to Chicago 700 00:41:04,587 --> 00:41:09,133 and basically laid the groundwork for what became modern blues. 701 00:41:15,181 --> 00:41:19,602 Robert Johnson affected my guitar-playing via Muddy Waters. 702 00:41:19,685 --> 00:41:22,563 You can hear the Mississippi mud in there, you know, 703 00:41:22,646 --> 00:41:24,565 and some of Johnson's phrasing. 704 00:41:24,648 --> 00:41:27,735 ♪ Well now I woke up this morning, baby ♪ 705 00:41:27,818 --> 00:41:30,070 ♪ All I had was gone ♪ 706 00:41:30,154 --> 00:41:32,615 Elmore James, B.B. King, 707 00:41:32,698 --> 00:41:34,867 there's a little bit of Johnson in all of them. 708 00:41:35,826 --> 00:41:38,913 But the world wasn't listening to Johnson directly. 709 00:41:38,996 --> 00:41:41,999 They were listening to other people playing music 710 00:41:42,082 --> 00:41:44,126 influenced by Robert Johnson. 711 00:41:47,963 --> 00:41:50,549 It wasn't until the 1950s 712 00:41:50,633 --> 00:41:54,136 when you have the emergence of what I like to call the "78 Geeks." 713 00:41:54,512 --> 00:41:57,806 These were young, white college students 714 00:41:57,890 --> 00:42:00,392 who would go to thrift shops 715 00:42:00,476 --> 00:42:03,437 and just buy boxes and boxes of 78s. 716 00:42:03,521 --> 00:42:07,441 Every once in a while, they'd come across a Charley Patton 78, 717 00:42:07,525 --> 00:42:09,735 or they'd come across a Robert Johnson 78, 718 00:42:09,818 --> 00:42:13,572 and this is really how the whole blues craze 719 00:42:13,656 --> 00:42:15,950 of the late '50s and early '60s began, 720 00:42:16,033 --> 00:42:18,285 by these people hearing this music 721 00:42:18,369 --> 00:42:22,039 that was unlike anything that anybody had ever heard before... 722 00:42:24,124 --> 00:42:26,001 ...and that's when John Hammond 723 00:42:26,085 --> 00:42:27,711 gets the idea that, 724 00:42:27,795 --> 00:42:31,674 "Hey, this would be a great time for me to re-release 725 00:42:32,258 --> 00:42:34,093 Robert Johnson's recordings." 726 00:42:34,969 --> 00:42:37,388 When King of the Delta Blues Singers came out, 727 00:42:37,555 --> 00:42:40,724 John Hammond would go on to play that music 728 00:42:41,308 --> 00:42:44,728 for Bob Dylan when Dylan got signed to Columbia, 729 00:42:44,812 --> 00:42:48,857 and Dylan says that had he not heard Robert Johnson when he did, 730 00:42:48,941 --> 00:42:52,778 he would not have come up with hundreds of lines for his songs. 731 00:42:53,070 --> 00:42:54,697 ♪ Come on... ♪ 732 00:42:55,030 --> 00:42:58,200 Robert Johnson just took a hold right when those reissues came out 733 00:42:58,284 --> 00:43:01,370 and then I taught myself to play a bunch of the songs on the record. 734 00:43:01,453 --> 00:43:03,664 ♪ Sweet home Chicago ♪ 735 00:43:03,747 --> 00:43:05,249 If you love the blues, 736 00:43:05,332 --> 00:43:08,335 you gotta just go back to the root and Robert Johnson is 737 00:43:08,627 --> 00:43:11,005 always gonna be one of the greatest that's ever lived. 738 00:43:11,088 --> 00:43:13,465 ♪ I got a kind-hearted woman ♪ 739 00:43:15,092 --> 00:43:17,136 ♪ Studies evil all the time ♪ 740 00:43:17,219 --> 00:43:19,763 Robert Johnson motivated me to be a musician. 741 00:43:19,847 --> 00:43:21,765 ♪ Ain't but the one thing ♪ 742 00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:24,435 ♪ Makes Mr. Johnson drink ♪ 743 00:43:25,144 --> 00:43:26,562 Robert Johnson's album 744 00:43:26,645 --> 00:43:29,857 had an incredibly powerful effect on Eric Clapton, 745 00:43:29,940 --> 00:43:31,191 on Keith Richards, 746 00:43:31,275 --> 00:43:33,694 on other British blues rock guys at the time. 747 00:43:33,777 --> 00:43:37,948 The first blues record that I ever bought was Led Zeppelin II. 748 00:43:38,032 --> 00:43:39,867 ♪ I need you to... ♪ 749 00:43:39,950 --> 00:43:43,787 They do the line, "Squeeze my lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg." 750 00:43:43,871 --> 00:43:48,125 ♪ Squeeze ♪ 751 00:43:48,208 --> 00:43:50,044 ♪ My lemon ♪ 752 00:43:50,127 --> 00:43:51,837 Which is a Robert Johnson line 753 00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:53,922 and it's a nod and a wink to Johnson. 754 00:43:54,632 --> 00:43:58,427 Brian Jones, the driving force of the first wave of The Rolling Stones, 755 00:43:58,510 --> 00:44:00,846 was a huge Robert Johnson fan. 756 00:44:00,929 --> 00:44:02,348 ♪ I followed her ♪ 757 00:44:03,349 --> 00:44:05,768 ♪ To the station ♪ 758 00:44:06,352 --> 00:44:08,312 "Love in Vain" is such a beautiful song, 759 00:44:08,395 --> 00:44:11,565 so we thought we're not gonna try and copy Robert Johnson, 760 00:44:11,649 --> 00:44:13,484 especially with a band, you know. 761 00:44:14,234 --> 00:44:17,279 Let's just make it more country, just to bring out the melody more 762 00:44:17,363 --> 00:44:20,699 than trying to play the blues on it, you know. 763 00:44:20,783 --> 00:44:23,952 'Cause a great song can go through any kinds of styles. 764 00:44:24,036 --> 00:44:26,538 ♪ It's hard to tell And it's hard to tell ♪ 765 00:44:28,957 --> 00:44:34,129 ♪ When all your love's in vain ♪ 766 00:44:35,005 --> 00:44:38,926 Robert Johnson wakes up the genius in everyone. 767 00:44:39,551 --> 00:44:41,387 And his music speaks to all of us. 768 00:44:42,221 --> 00:44:43,764 But with that genius 769 00:44:43,847 --> 00:44:45,224 also comes the devil. 770 00:44:48,018 --> 00:44:53,899 Selling your soul to the devil is the basis of the "27 Club." 771 00:44:55,609 --> 00:44:58,028 The 27 Club are musicians 772 00:44:58,445 --> 00:45:00,823 who died at 27 years old. 773 00:45:01,365 --> 00:45:02,616 Janis Joplin, 774 00:45:02,700 --> 00:45:04,118 Jim Morrison, 775 00:45:04,451 --> 00:45:05,994 Amy Winehouse, 776 00:45:06,078 --> 00:45:07,663 Brian Jones, 777 00:45:07,746 --> 00:45:08,747 Jimi Hendrix, 778 00:45:09,415 --> 00:45:10,457 Kurt Cobain. 779 00:45:10,541 --> 00:45:14,753 Other musicians who died at the same age as Robert Johnson 780 00:45:15,254 --> 00:45:17,506 were living recklessly. 781 00:45:18,132 --> 00:45:21,260 Some people feel that all of them had done 782 00:45:21,343 --> 00:45:25,556 some sort of supernatural deal to be so gifted, 783 00:45:25,639 --> 00:45:28,892 so young, and then be taken so quickly. 784 00:45:29,977 --> 00:45:34,231 A musician's life is fraught with danger. 785 00:45:34,940 --> 00:45:37,818 It's a pretty dark road at times, you know? 786 00:45:37,901 --> 00:45:41,321 No wonder some of the best go far too early. 787 00:45:42,489 --> 00:45:44,825 But luckily I got through it. 788 00:45:44,908 --> 00:45:45,908 So far. 789 00:45:49,955 --> 00:45:51,665 We have a fascination 790 00:45:51,749 --> 00:45:54,877 with the person who holds great promise, 791 00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:58,964 but that promise seems to be snuffed out prematurely. 792 00:45:59,673 --> 00:46:03,635 It has to do with us trying to find something fantastic 793 00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:07,055 that makes our life a little bit more interesting, 794 00:46:07,556 --> 00:46:10,434 and possibly, a little bit more dangerous. 795 00:46:11,059 --> 00:46:14,480 It allows us to think that we're dancing on the edge. 796 00:46:14,855 --> 00:46:17,024 Myth is so powerful 797 00:46:17,149 --> 00:46:22,154 because people want to feel like they have the reasoning behind things, 798 00:46:22,237 --> 00:46:24,615 to feel like they know. 799 00:46:25,949 --> 00:46:28,327 A lot of things are not for us to understand. 800 00:46:29,119 --> 00:46:31,288 ♪ Me and the devil ♪ 801 00:46:31,955 --> 00:46:34,374 ♪ Was walkin' side-by-side... ♪ 802 00:46:34,750 --> 00:46:38,670 I believe Robert Johnson was extremely talented, 803 00:46:38,754 --> 00:46:41,799 extremely gifted, and way off-balance. 804 00:46:41,882 --> 00:46:43,383 You can hear it in the music. 805 00:46:43,467 --> 00:46:45,594 ♪ ...was walkin' side-by-side... ♪ 806 00:46:46,637 --> 00:46:50,808 Something's spinning strangely in that man's life, 807 00:46:50,891 --> 00:46:53,477 and it was with Jimi Hendrix, 808 00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:55,439 it was with Kurt Cobain, 809 00:46:55,521 --> 00:46:58,023 and the rest of the people in the 27 Club. 810 00:47:01,401 --> 00:47:05,322 I don't know about the 27 Club and the deal with the devil, 811 00:47:05,823 --> 00:47:09,117 but I do know that at some point in everyone's life, 812 00:47:09,868 --> 00:47:11,829 we come to a crossroads, 813 00:47:11,912 --> 00:47:15,874 and we all have to choose how much we can sacrifice 814 00:47:16,333 --> 00:47:18,133 in order to achieve greatness. 815 00:47:18,168 --> 00:47:20,838 ♪ Down by the highway side ♪ 816 00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,018 ♪ So my old evil spirit ♪ 817 00:47:29,221 --> 00:47:32,432 ♪ Can get a Greyhound bus and ride ♪