Devil's music

[vminfla]

The legend has been repeated so many times that it’s practically in the same canon of American folklore as Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed.

The down-on-his-luck blues singer Robert Johnson, as the story goes, went down to the crossroads at midnight sometime in 1933 to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for otherworldly guitar-playing abilities.

“It’s a very racist story,” Hollinden said. “Johnson was a musical genius, but the idea that a black guy could be that good made it easier for people to imagine that voodoo was involved.”

“There’s not even any mention in the song ‘Cross Road Blues’ of the devil,” Hollinden said. “It’s a song about a black person who needs to get out of a sundown town — a town where it was made obvious, sometimes with signs, that black people weren’t welcome there after dark.”

http://www.idsnews.com/news/weekend/story.aspx?id=83722

[hobbit709]

1. Here's a couple where he does

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MCHI23FTP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a2P-fJhN7U

[hifiguy]

2. IIRC, the Johnson legend was

passed along by old-school Delta bluesmen who were themselves black, as is noted in the article. Hard to see how that's racist. It's another riff on the eternal Faust story.

People said the same thing about Franz Liszt and Niccolo Paganini in the 19th century.

[dtexdem]

4. Besides, everyone knows that the Devil went down to Georgia with a fiddle.

No guitar involved. ;-)

[Lint Head]

3. He 'was' a genius and a musical pioneer. I have been using his icon for a long time here on DU.

Having chosen music as my profession several decades ago I have also been called "Of the Devil!"

Delta Blues and blues in general came from the cotton fields and slaves singing their way out of slavery. When blues first began the feel of gospel songs were used with secular lyrics and often sung and played in bars and strip joints. The church folks were not happy and of course drinking and sex is considered Satan's playground.

It's a great legend and I wish I was as popular and famous and idolized as to have one made up about me. Racist? Only if the legend was made up by racists. More than likely it was made up by religious bigots. Andy Hollinden did not exist then and he is purely speculating. I guess putting professor in front of you name makes one an all knowing history god.