Robert Johnson was born in
Hazlehurst, Mississippi in
1911. His wife Virginia Travis died while giving birth on April 19, 1930.
Robert Johnson recorded only
29 songs on a total of 41 tracks extant in two recording sessions in
San Antonio, Texas in November
1936 and
Dallas, Texas in June
1937. Notable among these tracks are "Come on in My Kitchen", "
Love in Vain", "Sweet Home Chicago", "Crossoads Blues", "
Terraplane Blues", and "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", all of which have been covered by other artists. Two modern collections of these recordings have been particularly influential to contemporary audiences, although many editions of his limited output have been released.
King of the Delta Blues Singers (
1961) helped popularize the blues for crossover audiences in the 1960s, and
The Complete Recordings (
1990) provided his entire
oeuvre on one dual-
CD set.
Johnson was a private man of his time, this being a major factor in modern day speculation about his life, death and musical career. Rumor and
mythology have embraced Johnson throughout
history; accounts, stories and truths have been fabricated many times over to tailor the
legend. However, some things are known and recollections tells us of his secrecy toward the sharing of his own work with other musicians. When recording the 29 compositions (his life's work) he sat with his face to the wall while the
recording was in process. Only speculation can explain this (could have been simply to increase isolation of the microphone for the sound quality of the recording, or so other people couldn't see how he played guitar and steal his style, which was common back in that day). Johnson was also known to be a womanizer, a drinker, and a rambler who often hopped trains for transportation--the walking incarnation of a "bluesman."
Speculation and mythology are rife concerning Johnson, especially with regard to his untimely end. Recollection survives that Johnson died after drinking
whiskey poisoned with
strychnine, supposedly given to him by the jealous husband of a lover or his own jealous girlfriend. Fellow blues singer
Sonny Boy Williamson II was present the night of Johnson's poisoning (even warning him against accepting a pre-opened bottle of whiskey) giving the account that he died whilst on his hands and knees "howling and barking like a dog". Others believe that Johnson recovered from the initial poisoning and survived for a matter of weeks, only to contract
pneumonia and die on
16 August 1938 in
Greenwood, Mississippi. Also, it was reported that it was believed that Johnson died from
syphilis; this has no basis in medical fact. The precise cause of death remains unknown; his death certificate simply states "no doctor" under cause of death. Johnson's last words were supposedly "I pray that my redeemer will come and take me from my grave."
The most widely known
legend surrounding Robert Johnson says that he sold his
soul to the
Devil at the crossroads of
U.S. Highway 61 and
U.S. Highway 49 in
Clarksdale, Mississippi in exchange for prowess in playing the
guitar. Actually, the location Johnson made reference to is a short distance away from that intersection. The legend was told mainly by
Son House, but finds no corroboration in any of Johnson's work, despite titles like "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Hellhound on My Trail". With this said, the song "Cross Road Blues" is both widely and loosely interpreted by many as a descriptive encounter of Johnson selling his soul. The older
Tommy Johnson (no relation, although it is speculated that they were cousins), by contrast, also claimed to have sold his soul to the Devil. The story goes that if one would go to the crossroads a little before midnight and begin to play the guitar, a large black man would come up to the aspiring guitarist, retune his guitar and then hand it back. At this point (so the legend goes) the guitarist had sold his soul to become a virtuoso (A similar legend even surrounded virtuoso
violinist Niccolò Paganini a century before.)
There are very few images of Johnson; only two confirmed photographs exist. An eight-second film, which was thought to show Robert Johnson, was proved not to be him; an image of a poster in its background advertised a film which was released two years after his death.