The Sad Story of Robert Johnson

Isaiah had rumors surrounding his name that he learned to play the guitar by doing so at graveyards in the middle of the night. 

He did not marry again but formed long-term relations with women wherever he traveled to and would return once in a while. In a place he did not know, he would simply stay with whichever woman he managed to seduce during his performance. He used different names for every city he went to, employing maybe eight surnames in total a least.

Biographers have tried to sum up Johnson’s character and it can be said that he was soft-spoken, well-mannered, and indecipherable. All the people interviewed agreed that he was outgoing when in the public eye yet reserved in private.

The musicians who had worked with him before testified that he was an average guy and fairly nice with an exception of his outstanding musical talent and his weakness for women and whiskey.

Johnson’s Recordings

Between 23^rd and 25^th November 1936, was when his first recordings were done in San Antonio. He was said to have been shy as he recorded facing the wall during these recording days.

The theory has been put into question a lot as there is no concrete evidence to support the notion that he sang facing the corner. The songs that were recorded by Johnson while in San Antonio included ‘Come on in my kitchen, ‘I’ll believe I’ll dust my broom’, ‘Hearted Woman Blues’ and ‘Cross Road Blues’. 

The first singles to be released were ‘Last Fair Deal’ and ‘Terraplane Blues’. The latter did so well and sold 5000 copies. Johnson then traveled to Texas where he had another session for recording with Don Law. This was done in a studio that was makeshift at Vitagraph on 19^th and 20^th June 1937.

The following year, eleven records from the session were all released. He had recorded two takes of each song and the second takes all survived.

Johnson’s death

Johnson’s death has been reported to have been on the 16^th of August 1938 when he was 27 years old near Mississippi. The cause of his death remains unknown.

There was no public report of his death. He just disappeared from history and it is only until nearly 30 years later when his death certificate was found by Gayle Dean Wardlow (a musicologist who was researching his life). The certificate just had the location and date of death. No autopsy had been done. 

The first theory surrounding his death is that Johnson had been murdered by the jealous husband of a woman with who he had been flirting at a country dance.

The woman then gave him a drink that was allegedly poisoned by her husband. Williamson had slapped the drink out of his hand warning him not to take drinks from strangers. He was offered another drink and had it. Witnesses claim that he began feeling ill that evening and it was taken back to his room where his condition grew worse over the next three days until his death.

Robert Mack, a musicologist, claimed to have gotten the confession of the murderer but would not disclose his name. Quite many people have refused this theory including Tom Graves. He goes into depth about this in his book Crossroads.

A medical practitioner in 2006, David Connel suggested that Johnson may have suffered from Marfan syndrome which would explain his guitar playing.

The exact place where Johnson’s grave also remains unknown. Researchers have however marked out three possible places outside Greenwood.

In conclusion, whether Johnson was involved in dark forces, got involved with dangerous people or not, what is known for certain is that he was astounding in playing the guitar. His talent speaks for itself and can be vouched for. It is also the one thing he left behind that generations after he can understand surrounding his life.