Robert Johnson

He sold his sould to a big black man(the devil) at the crossroads of highways 49 and 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Born on May 8, 1911, Robert Leroy Johnson was no great guitar player. When he would play, people would call it just plain ol' "noise". Then one day he decided to leave the plantation he worked on in rural Mississippi where he was told to take himself and his guitar if he wanted to be successful. So he went, in the dead of the midnight hour where he met a huge black man who tuned his quitar, played a few songs then returned it to him. After that, the rest is history. He took his guitar back home and people were skeptic until they heard him play. Legend has it that he went from the worst, to the best performing like no one had ever seen displaying sharp guitar skill and clever song writing. He began a recording carrer in 1936 in which he was noted to be facing the wall while he recorded. Then one night in August, he was supposedly at a juke joint where he was allegedly poisoned and never performed again. A couple of nights later, Robert Johnson died on August 16, 1938, at the age of 27. Guess the devil came to collect his toll? There are three grave sites for Johnson, one at a church, one in a graveyard and one under a pecan tree. Johnson's songs, vocal phrasing and guitar style have influenced a pluthera of musicians, including Muddy Waters, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Winter, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton and is still considered as one of the originators of early music.




Grammy Hall of Fame
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1936 Cross Road Blues Blues (Single) Vocalion 1998

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included four songs by Robert Johnson in the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.

Year Recorded Title
1936 Sweet Home Chicago
1936 Cross Road Blues
1937 Hellhound on My Trail
1937 Love

Honors and inductions
On September 17, 1994 the U.S. Post Office issued a Robert Johnson 29-cent commemorative postage stamp.

Year Title Results Notes
2006 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winner accepted by son Claud Johnson[51]
2000 Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame[52] Inducted
1986 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inducted Early Influences
1980 Blues Hall of Fame Inducted


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