I just realized today, while I was listening to some music, that some of my favorite blues artists are as mythological as anything we've talked about in class all semester! If any of you listen to blues, you probably know at least one of the story I'm referring to: that of Robert Johnson. His story is very similar to that of the earlier Tommy Johnson, and intertwined with that of friend and mentor Ike Zimmerman. Much of the mystery behind the lives of these men surely has to do with the area in which they lived, that of the Mississippi delta. There is, and always has been, a touch of dark mystique surrounding the area, and the legends of the delta blues musicians that run from in ilo tempore all the way up to the 1940's emphasize this fact. We have these guy's voices recorded, we know they lived, and in an age when it was not too hard to keep one's records straight. After all, Robert Johnson was from the mid '30's; he was making music during the depression, we have plenty of history recorded during these times, plenty of logic and reason, if you will, and still there are myths that are as old as Hades and Persephone swirling around these men.

I suppose after saying this it is only appropriate for me to tell the story of at least one of them, so I'll tell that of Robert Johnson, so I can kill a few birds with one stone.
         A long time ago, back in the roaring '20's there was a young boy from down south. He was living near the delta in Mississippi, he grew up there in the river's mouth. He was a smart boy, and charming too, but he wasn't any musician yet. Sure, the boy could play a little back up for some of the real talented bluesmen that came into the bars, but he couldn't play guitar, not yet. After a while the boy grew tired of always playing the brides maid, so he set out to learn guitar. He lit out for a teacher, but he wasn't going have to go to far. He only had to turn his head, and talk to a man at the bar. The old man told him, and just maybe because he heard of Tommy Johnson having done it, but the old man told him "You just head down to the crossroads, 'round midnight, and you'll have all the talent you've ever wanted." So the boy headed down to the crossroads when it was late, and he came across a big old man. The man said "Hand me that guitar Bobby, and I'll tune it up, and put the blues in your hands." So the man took the guitar from young Robert Johnson, and tuned it up just so. And the devil played a couple songs he wrote, and said "Now look here Bobby, this guitar knows everything you want to know. and I'll give it back to you, boy, if you'll just let me have that soul." Young Robert Johnson he grew up a good religious kid, but even the church couldn't stop him from taking the devil's little deal. He took back his guitar, and shook hands, and left his soul to steal.

I suppose that's just one version of how it happened, one of the oldest versions at least. Another one I heard said Robert Johnson could only play harmonica, so he wanted to learn guitar, and he went to find a teacher. He fell asleep at the crossroads, waiting for a Greyhound, and woke up with a man looking down at him. The man told Robert Johnson that if he wanted to learn guitar, he just had to shake his hand, and promise his soul to the devil, and Robert Johnson could play the blues better than any other delta bluesman ever. So he did, and went back into the bar he had just left a couple hours ago, and played until the bar was supposed to close, but everybody was so amazed with his playing that nobody could leave until Robert got up and said he needed to get some sleep. The bar's regulars figured what had happened, because they knew that a few hours ago young Robert Johnson couldn't play "Hot Crossed Buns", and now he was a master of guitar. Robert Johnson has a song called Cross Road Blues, which I've posted up above, moral of the song being, when you go down to the cross roads, you're going to have to choose which way you want to go.

People also used to say that Ike Zimmerman learned to play the blues from the devil, while sitting on tombstones in a graveyard, and that he and the devil taught Robert Johnson the same way, in the same graveyard. (To dampen the aura of mystery a little bit, Ike Zimmerman, and Robert Johnson did practice in a graveyard, according to Zimmerman's daughter, because it was quiet, and nobody would disturb them in a graveyard).

Anyway, if you like blues or urban legends, check out Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, and Ike Zimmerman. You won't be disappointed.