Up Jumped the Devil
Page 1
“As the grandson of the iconic blues singer Robert Johnson, I’m honored that the truth is finally being revealed…. Up Jumped the Devil contains the real story of his life and does away with all the myths.”
—STEVEN JOHNSON, vice president, Robert Johnson Blues Foundation
Robert Johnson’s recordings, made in 1936 and 1937, have profoundly influenced generations of singers, guitarists, and songwriters. Yet until now, his short life—he was murdered at the age of 27—has been poorly documented.
Gayle Dean Wardlow has been interviewing people who knew Johnson since the early 1960s, and he was the person who discovered Johnson’s death certificate in 1967. Bruce Conforth began his study of Johnson’s life and music in 1970 and made it his mission to fill in what was still unknown about him. In this definitive biography, the two authors relied on every interview, resource, and document, much of it material no one has seen before.
This is the first book about Johnson that documents his lifelong relationship with family and friends in Memphis, details his trip to New York, uncovers where and when his wife Virginia died and the impact this had on him, fully portrays the other women Johnson was involved with, and tells exactly how and why he died and who gave him the poison that killed him. Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans worldwide by painting a living, breathing portrait of a man who was heretofore little more than a legend.
© 2019 Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow
All rights reserved
First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-64160-094-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Conforth, Bruce M., 1950- author. | Wardlow, Gayle, author.
Title: Up jumped the devil : the real life of Robert Johnson / Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow.
Description: First edition. | Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019005127 (print) | LCCN 2019005452 (ebook) | ISBN 9781641600958 (Pdf) | ISBN 9781641600965 (Kindle) | ISBN 9781641600972 (Epub) | ISBN 9781641600941 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Johnson, Robert, 1911-1938. | Blues musicians—Mississippi—Biography.
Classification: LCC ML420.J735 (ebook) | LCC ML420.J735 C66 2019 (print) | DDC 782.421643092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019005127
Interior design: Jonathan Hahn
Delta Haze Corporation holds the copyright for all images credited as such.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1Robert Johnson Is in Town
2Before the Beginning
3Memphis Days
4Back to the Delta
5Musical Roots and Identity
6Marriage, Death, and the Blues
7The Music Begins
8Here Comes That Guitar Man
9Ramblin’ at the Crossroads
10Traveling Riverside Blues
11I’m Booked and Bound to Go
12Kind Hearted Women
13I Left with My Head Cut
14Gotta Keep Movin’, Blues Fallin’ Down Like Hail
15When I Leave This Town I’m Gon’ Bid You Fare, Farewell
16You May Bury My Body Down by the Highway Side
Epilogue | Last Fair Deal Goin’ Down
Appendix I: Recording Sessions
Appendix II: A Robert Johnson Geneaology
Bibliography
Notes
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is the result of over fifty years of work, interest, research, interviews, writing and rewriting, discussing, listening, traveling, and every other type of human endeavor. Gayle began researching the life of Robert Johnson in 1962 and Bruce in 1968. As we write this we are struck that it was exactly fifty years ago from this current writing that Gayle Dean first uncovered Robert Johnson’s death certificate, providing previously unknown information and leading the way to much future research.
Because so much time has elapsed since we both began our journeys into the life and times of Robert Johnson there are literally hundreds of people we could thank; many have passed on, but a great number are still with us. Among those blues musicians and acquaintances of Robert Johnson who are now gone, but who provided Gayle Dean with amazing interviews, and whom he wishes he could thank are Henry Austin and Lillian Berry, Ishmon Bracey, Joe Calicott, Ledell Johnson, Hayes Mullin, Willie and Elizabeth Moore, H. C. Speir, Lula Mae Steps, Reverend and Mrs. Frank Howard, Otis Hopkins, Charlie Mullin, Willie Brown (from Arkansas), Sammy Watkins, Marvin “Smokey” Montgomery, Fred Morgan, Eula Mae Williams, Johnnie Temple, and Rosie Eskridge. Bruce similarly interviewed and wishes he could thank Robert Lockwood Jr., Johnny Shines, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, and Loretha Zimmerman-Smith. The late Mack McCormick, the first person to locate Robert’s family in the form of his half sister Carrie Harris, was also the first to see the photos of Robert in her possession. Mack was one of the foremost Johnson scholars and it is a shame that his book about Robert, Portrait of a Phantom, never saw completion. Over several years both Gayle Dean and Bruce had many conversations with Mack and when he learned of this project he graciously provided comments and suggestions that allowed us to do additional research that would add to our body of knowledge. The late Steven LaVere was likewise a great source of information on Robert, and his published work, while occasionally incomplete, served as another great resource. We also thank the company he founded, Delta Haze Corporation, for permission to use so many wonderful photos from his collection. Tremendous thanks go to Lawrence Cohn, friend and supporter who won a Grammy for his 1990 work Robert Johnson, the Complete Recordings (Columbia). Lawrence, a record collector, historian, music scholar, ex-music executive, and so much more, provided a great deal of information about Robert that he had personally gleaned from Don Law, Frank Driggs, and so many others. His book Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians (Abbeville, 1993) is one of the finest overviews of the entire spectrum of the blues. Dan Handwerker, whose family owned the land on which Charley Dodds Spencer and family (including Robert) lived in Memphis was a generous and informative resource. Robert Hirsberg, whose parents owned Hirsberg’s store in Friars Point, Mississippi, in front of which Robert used to play, was also a great source of information. Dr. Richard Taylor, director of the Tunica Museum, verified contextual information for us concerning Robert’s early schooling and the cemetery in which his first wife, Virginia, is buried. John Tefteller of Blues Images was a great supporter of this project and supplied us with the only known photo of Charley Patton. Thanks to Steve Armitage for digitally cleaning Robert Johnson’s death certificate. Lew Campbell graciously supplied us with a photo of Johnny Shines from his collection, and Jane Templin provided a rare photo of Marie and Ernie Oertle. John Paul Hammond, who has spent much of his life studying and performing Johnson’s music, enthusiastically supported this project and has been a great friend. His brother, Jason Hammond, gave us a wonderful photo of their father, John Henry Hammond II, circa 1937. Jim O’Neal, Scott Barretta, Jas Obrecht, Barry Lee Pearson, Barry Mazor, Adam Gussow, David Evans, Mark Ari, Nicholas Gray, Paul Vernon, James Smith, Frank Matheis, Andy Cohen, Shelley Ritter of the Delta Blues Museum, Dr. John Hasse of Music at the National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution, Brett Bonner and Living Blues magazine, Greg Johnson at the University of Mississippi Blues Archives, and all the contributors to Facebook’s Real Blues
Forum provided much needed and appreciated comments, critiques, and discussion. Elijah Wald and Alan Govenar provided excellent information, comments, and edits. Michael Malis of the University of Michigan School of Music did transcriptional analysis of Johnson’s music. Thanks to Sony Music Entertainment; the Memphis Public Library Memphis and Shelby County Rooms; Leticia Vacek, city clerk of the City of San Antonio; the San Antonio Police Department; and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the scholars before us who attempted to write about Johnson’s life: Stephen Calt, Samuel Charters, Bruce Cook, Francis Davis, David Evans, Julio Finn, Tom Freeland, Paul Garon, Ted Gioia, Peter Guralnick, Steve James, Edward Komara, Steve LaVere, Alan Lomax, Greil Marcus, Margaret Moser, Giles Oakley, Robert Palmer, Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloh, Dave Rubin, Tony Sherman, Patricia Schroeder, John Michael Spencer, Elijah Wald, Pete Welding, Dick Waterman, and any others we might have missed.
Musicians or friends of Robert we never personally interviewed but who knew him and whose testimonies we researched included Son House, Henry Townsend, Calvin Frazier, Memphis Slim, Willie Mae Powell Holmes, Willie Mason, Cedell Davis, Willie Coffee, Annye Anderson, Don Law, Marie Oertle, Virgie Cain, Israel “Wink” Clark, R. L. Windum, Nate Richardson, and others.
Steve Amos, chancery clerk of Hazelhurst, Mississippi; Randall Day, executive director of the Hazlehurst Area Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Jim Brewer, founder and chairman of the Board of the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in Hazlehurst, Mississippi; and Mr. Hugh Jenkins of Hazlehurst, owner of the original shack in which Robert Johnson was born, are all owed inestimable thanks.
So many friends are still playing the music of Robert Johnson and have given us so much feedback and inspiration that they deserve special mention: John Paul Hammond was one of the first modern players to learn and perform Robert’s incredible music, and his technique and approach set a high bar for all to follow. Rory Block early on began meticulously studying and performing Robert’s songs. Her instruction books, dvds, and performances have influenced countless numbers of guitarists. These two groundbreakers helped open the doors to Robert’s music. Scott Ainslie, Andy Cohen, Stefan Grossman, Erik Frandsen, Shari Kane, Woody Mann, and many others have been gracious and talented friends. Thanks to you all for keeping the tradition alive.
The family of Robert Johnson—his late son Claud Johnson and his grandsons Steven Johnson, director of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation (who in 2006 invited Bruce to serve as an advisor on the foundation’s executive board); Michael Johnson; and Greg Johnson have been good friends and supportive of every aspect of this work. We are, as we like to say, brothers from another mother.
We would like to give a big thank you to both our literary agent Russell Galen of Scovil, Galen, Ghosh Literary Agency, Inc., New York, and Larry Townsend, Esq. of San Francisco, our intellectual property lawyer, for working us through matters beyond our comprehension.
Any book is ultimately only as good as the editors and staff with whom the authors work, and Yuval Taylor, Michelle Williams, and the entire staff of Chicago Review Press have been among the very best. Their meticulous review of our work and clarifying and exciting edits and suggestions have made this work a far better book than we originally brought to Chicago Review Press. You, the reader, owe them, as do we, a great deal of appreciation.
Gayle would like to personally thank Jan Swanson, Wendell Cook, Christopher Smith, Steve Cushing, Jim DeCola, Ace Atkins, and Jas Obrecht. These friends were largely responsible for the successful competition of this joint effort.
Finally, Bruce would like to thank Pamela Peterson for helping him through some rough times and providing him with interest and musical inspiration, and to Emily Maria Marcil, whose daily love and encouragement continue to give him the strength and belief to go on.
With so many to thank it is possible we missed someone. If so we apologize, but know that this work would not have been possible without all of you. For those mentioned, this book is dedicated.
Bruce Conforth, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Gayle Dean Wardlow, Milton, Florida
2018
INTRODUCTION
Robert Johnson has occupied a unique place in the American musical psyche for almost sixty years. Until 1959 he was an interesting bluesman only to those few 78 rpm record collectors who were lucky enough to find one of his old recordings. But all that changed when Samuel Charters published his landmark book The Country Blues, the first scholarly text devoted solely to the blues.1 Of Robert Johnson, Charters admitted, “Almost nothing is known about his life.”
That sentence is still true today. Johnson is the subject of the most famous myth about the history of the blues: he allegedly sold his soul at the crossroads in exchange for his incredible talent, and this “deal” led to his tragic death at age twenty-seven. This notion can be recited by almost everyone who has heard of him, but the actual story of his life remains obscure save for a few inaccurate anecdotes.
Charters claimed, incorrectly, that Robert was poisoned by his common-law wife in San Antonio, Texas, shortly after finishing his last recording session. He added the apocryphal anecdote that some of his recordings were done in a pool hall and were broken during a billiard ball fight. He interpreted Robert’s lyrics in a sensational manner. “The finest of Robert Johnson’s blues,” he wrote, “have a brooding sense of torment and despair. The blues has become a personified figure of despondency…. His singing becomes so disturbed it is almost impossible to understand the words.”2 Charters was well intentioned, but by publishing these words he inadvertently assisted in the creation of a mythic Robert Johnson with little relation to the real musician.
Robert’s music was rereleased for the first time in 1959 on the companion album to Charters’s book, which included “Preaching Blues.” Then, in 1961, Columbia released the album King of the Delta Blues Singers, finally giving the public wide access to his recordings.3 Producer Frank Driggs, in the liner notes to the album, drew upon Charters’s book and the work of British blues scholar Paul Oliver. He admitted how little was known about Robert or his life: “Robert Johnson is little, very little more than a name on aging index cards and a few dusty master records in the files of a phonograph company that no longer exists. Efforts on the part of the world’s foremost blues research specialists to trace Johnson’s career and substantiate details of his life have provided only meager information.” But he added to Robert’s mythic proportions with erroneous information: “[He] was already a legend in 1938 when John Hammond was planning his ‘Spirituals to Swing’ concert for presentation in Carnegie Hall”; “Johnson’s recordings became collectors’ items almost as soon as they were released”; “Until his recording debut, Johnson had seldom, if ever, been away from the plantation in Robinsonville, Mississippi, where he was born and raised”; “It was obvious he wanted to get away, but never could.”4
The album was produced largely through the instigation of the noted producer John Henry Hammond II, who had championed Johnson’s work as early as the 1930s. King of the Delta Blues Singers was a landmark for several important reasons: It made Robert’s music available to a new generation and audience—mostly young whites who were involved in the folk music revival. It boldly proclaimed Robert to be the king of the Delta blues singers—there was no one better. As the first major-label reissue of any of the guitar-oriented country blues artists from the 1920s or 1930s there was no other music to compare it to—Robert Johnson was it, the new generation’s first experience in hearing the Delta blues. And it strongly influenced such future trendsetters as a young Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards. They became Robert Johnson proselytizers.
That release created new interest in all things Robert Johnson. His legacy and life were already being researched by scholars similar in age to or slightly younger than Charters such as Mack McCormick and coauthor Gayle Dean Wardlow. But this release coincided with the launching of the blues revival.
It sent young record collectors and fans seeking out bluesmen who recorded in the 1920s and ’30s, and in the process they found Son House, Skip James, and others who actually knew Robert. Then, in 1968, Gayle Dean made a historical discovery, locating Robert’s death certificate. He also conducted a number of interviews in the 1960s with people who knew Robert personally, providing the first factual information about his life.
In 1970 Columbia issued a second volume of Robert’s songs with only three brief paragraphs of liner-note information. There, blues writer Pete Welding maintained and added to Robert’s myth by proclaiming,
No other blues are so apocalyptic in their life view. They are shot through with dark foreboding, and almost total disenchantment with the human condition [and] besetting, mindless terrors that haunted all his days and nights…. His songs are the diary of a wanderer through the tangle of the black underworld, the chronicle of a sensitive black Orpheus in his journey along the labyrinthine path of the human psyche. In his songs one hears the impassioned, unheeded cries of man, rootless and purposeless. The acrid stench of evil burns ever in his mind.5
In 1973, Mack McCormick, a folklorist from Houston, Texas, who had already revived the career of Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins, located Robert’s half sister Carrie Harris Thompson. She showed him two photos of Robert. One was the now famous Hooks Brothers studio portrait, and the other (unpublished and supposedly still in McCormick’s collection) was a photo of Robert, his half sister Carrie, and her son Louis in his navy uniform. Finding Carrie launched McCormick into a decades-long search for additional factual information. Eventually he even found the man who had accidently murdered the bluesman. McCormick planned to use his information to write a definitive book about Johnson tentatively titled Biography of a Phantom. But the book never happened.
Sam Charters reentered the Robert Johnson universe in 1973 with a new book simply titled Robert Johnson. Charters used Robert’s death certificate, found by Gayle Dean, to focus on his story. He questioned Robert’s birthplace as listed on the certificate and argued that Robert had to have been born in the Delta “since Hazlehurst is south of Jackson, about thirty-five miles out of it on Route 51, in Copiah County, and everybody else who knew Robert had always said he was from the Delta, north of Jackson in Tunica County.” Charters also relied on recollections of Robert’s sometime traveling partner, Johnny Shines, providing some insights into Johnson’s personality and musical ability. But Shines provided little actual information about his life.6 The storyline was still missing.