Robert Johnson: The Man and the Myth
The legendary bluesman at the center of ME AND THE DEVIL
Lantern Theater Company’s world premiere digital production of Me and the Devil — directed and co-written by Steve H. Broadnax III and extended through February 27, 2022 — explores Robert Johnson, an extraordinary blues musician whose life and legend are shrouded in mystery. Johnson’s playing was revolutionary, considered by many to be the basis for rock and roll. But his early death in 1938 and a lack of reliable records from the Jim Crow era mean that we know more of his legend than of the man himself.
Robert Johnson was born in 1911 in Mississippi, but spent much of his early childhood in Memphis, Tennessee, where he attended school and first fell in love with the blues. At age 9 he moved back to Arkansas and Mississippi to be with his mother and to help sharecrop, and it is there he discovered Delta Blues and learned to play the harmonica. At age 17, he married Virginia Travis; tragically, she died in childbirth later that year. Her relatives claimed Virginia’s death was punishment for Johnson “selling his soul to the devil” by playing secular music. He may have accepted that belief, but it spurred him on to dedicate the rest of his life to becoming a world-class blues musician, traveling to play in juke joints throughout the South.
Other Delta blues artists like Son House remember a young Robert Johnson as eager but unskilled — Son House claimed audiences at juke joints would beg him to get Johnson to stop playing the guitar. But after a stay in Arkansas — accounts differ, but it was anywhere from six months to two years — Johnson returned to the Delta Blues scene with a sudden mastery over the guitar that was unimaginable just months earlier. It was this sudden explosion of skill and creativity that fed the myth that outlived the man: that at a lonely crossroads at midnight, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for incredible talent at blues guitar.
Johnson made just two recordings in his life — 29 songs in total across two albums recorded in 1936 and 1937. One of those songs, “Terraplane Blues,” was a modest hit, the only one during Johnson’s short life. As captured on these recordings, his playing was revolutionary — his chord structures were more complicated than the typical blues riff, and he would use his exceptionally long fingers to play rhythm lines as well as melody lines on the same instrument. He was using elements of what would become rock and roll a full two decades before the genre was invented.
The albums caught the attention of John Hammond, a talent scout for Columbia Records. He was working to bring Johnson to perform at Carnegie Hall as part of a “Spirituals to Swing” concert, but Johnson died at age 27 before he could perform. His death, like his life, was mysterious. The official cause was complications from syphilis, but his friends maintained he was poisoned with strychnine by the jealous husband of one of his lovers.
Nearly 25 years after his death, Johnson’s music had a major resurgence. John Hammond would again champion Robert Johnson by reissuing 16 of his recordings in 1961 with an album called “King of the Delta Blues Singers.” At the time, the record label did not even have a picture of Johnson to put on the cover. But it introduced him and his innovative playing to a generation of guitarists — largely white and British — who fell in love with his music, including Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, and many others covered his songs. Johnson was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1991, his songs were reissued again; the album sold half a million copies and won a Grammy. But despite being foundational for a generation of rock and roll superstars and his enduring influence, Robert Johnson himself remains a mystery.
“Robert Johnson was one of the most inventive geniuses of all time. We still haven’t caught up with him.” — Bob Dylan
Beyond his death and reclamation, the myth that his extraordinary guitar talent could only be achieved by making a bargain with the devil endured. However he learned to play, he revolutionized the blues and helped create rock and roll. Robert Johnson the man and Robert Johnson the myth are both legendary.
Get a sneak peek: The new trailer for Me and the Devil is here»
Me and the Devil was filmed at St. Stephen’s Theater in Center City Philadelphia in June 2021 with strict adherence to all CDC, state, and local health and safety guidelines, and is streaming on demand and extended through February 27, 2022. Visit our website for tickets and information.
