Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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` Johnson was believed by some to have sold his soul to the devil at midnight on a Delta crossroads in return for an uncanny mastery of the guitar. A small-boned man with long, delicate, slightly webbed fingers, Johnson earned respect and kept fights at notes for Robert Johnson- The Complete Recordings could hear a piece just once over the radio or phonograph or from someone in person and be able to play it. He could be deep in conversation with a group of people and hear something - never stop talking - and later be able to play it and sing it perfectly. It 137 Johnson never publicly claimed to have made a deal with the devil; that boast was obert Johnson by Son House during interviews in the mid- 138 Stories of pacts made with the devil at midnight at the crossroads have appeared in European folklore for centuries. In Bakongo culture, when making an oath, one marks a cross on the ground and stands on top of it. 139 African and Haitian trickster deities are also associated with crossroads. According to Yoruba legend, the god Eshu-Elegba was granted the ability to make anything happen- after he had his mettle tested at the crossroads. As a little child, Eshu was always telling tall tales. One day he saw a pair of scary eyes believe his latest tale. Crushed and believing himself cursed, Eshu died. Soon after, terrible disasters- floods, fires, and epidemics- struck the world. local priests to the crossroads to try to coax his spirit to return. The shell with the evil eyes was gone, so the priests erected a beautiful smooth stone and anointed it with precious oils, such as warm scent of the oils, came to live in the stone, and peace and order returned to the world. Today, cones made of laterite stone can be found in Yoruba markets. Palm oil is poured over them daily to keep Eshu cool (propitiated) and happy. 140 According to art history professor Robert Ferris Thompson, Eshu provokes us to test our wisdom and compassion, and our ability to rise above ego- booth in the early 1930s. (© 1986 Delta Haze Corporation, all rights reserved; used by 74 Robert Johnson took this self-portrait in a photo permission)
` on one side, red on the other, provoking in his wake foolish arguments about whether his 141 In Cuba, where Catholic saints camouflaged Yoruba gods to create the Santeria religion, Eshu was identified with Satan, but as a creative challenge to good. 142 Cuban people of African descent still pour cool waters at the crossroads in his honor. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazilians light candles for him at intersections. Unlike the Christian devil, Eshu is not inherently evil. His provocations may result in good or in evil results, depending on how people respond. Eshu challenges one to grow beyond the limitations of the ego, and he lays down that challenge at the crossroads. In African myths, the crossroads is where the living and the dead can make contact. Spirit-gods (loa or lwa) like to hang out in the center of the crossroads. To be able to stand upon the crossroads and face the gods means one has mastered both life and death. As author and L.A. Weekly Their sign for this is the cross, but it has nothing to do with the Christianist cross, which spirit worlds meet at right angles, and everything that is most important happens at the spot where they meet, which is neit 75 143 The metaphysical goal of the African is to experience this meeting of both worlds at the crossroads, and touch the divine. 1936. In the first verse, Johnson describes going to the crossroads and falling to his knees, crying out to God to save him. In the second verse, he stands and tries to flag a ride as dusk descends. Johnson wants a ride, which is both a slang term for a lover and a metaphor for divine possession- as in the Voodoo ceremonies in which the loa, or spirit- By the third verse, Johnson is expressing his fear of being caught in the dark on the crossroads with no rider, Brown, a blues musician of some renown, was a mentor and father figure to Johnson. He was patient with the little boy who would sneak away from home in Robinsonville, Mississippi, to pester him about the guitar. Brown showed Johnson how to form chords, and he and Charley Patton, who lived in Robinsonville for a time and played the juke joints there regularly, were huge influences on Johnson. Johnson, in turn, mentored another little boy--Robert Lockwood. Johnson began teaching Lockwood to play guitar when
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` Ebook published February 1, 2012
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` Winner of the 2007 ASC AP Deems T
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` Foreword John Lee Hooker, and
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` To Son Seals, for inspiration vii
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` Savannah Syncopators African Rhy
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` English by Joseph Holloway and Wi
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` nicked words and phrases from the
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` List of Entries Please note that
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` A L C O RUB A The drink of last r
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` Tommy Johnson in his only known p
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` Bad Axe (Alligator Records) befo
Page 24 and 25: ` some people do think that, but if
Page 26 and 27: ` Blues musicians also used bailing
Page 28 and 29: ` Songs: - Bessie Smith/H.Webman
Page 30 and 31: ` Songs: - Lovie Austin, performed
Page 32 and 33: ` Grab hold of a black cat, she tol
Page 34 and 35: ` Armstrong did for the trumpet. Wi
Page 36 and 37: ` exier the drunker the dancers b
Page 38 and 39: ` The singing and drumming of the n
Page 40 and 41: ` griots, who keep tribal historie
Page 42 and 43: ` Songs: - Big Bill Broonzy (Willi
Page 44 and 45: ` Williams explained. 77 deer hun
Page 46 and 47: ` The modern guitar is a direct des
Page 48 and 49: ` No matter what odd device the pla
Page 50 and 51: ` Bessie Smith beaming in a publici
Page 52 and 53: ` dates back even further, to the C
Page 54 and 55: ` The wardens at country prison far
Page 56 and 57: ` C H I C K The Wolof word jigen de
Page 58 and 59: ` The word chitterling comes from O
Page 60 and 61: ` cock. It 104 Muddy Waters, a.k.
Page 62 and 63: ` Bob M argolin and M uddy Waters,
Page 64 and 65: ` Songs: - Bukka White (Booker
Page 66 and 67: ` C O NJUR E To conjure is to cast
Page 68 and 69: ` 119 the force that character Ult
Page 70 and 71: ` always had this sly smile going
Page 72 and 73: ` C R OSS N O T E Tuning the guitar
Page 76 and 77: ` 144 Robert Lockwood became know
Page 78 and 79: ` Songs: - Will Day - Robert John
Page 80 and 81: ` Charlie Patton began recording fo
Page 82 and 83: ` good came out of leaving the pla
Page 84 and 85: ` In blues songs, a person who has
Page 86 and 87: ` Memphis M innie flashes her gold
Page 88 and 89: ` touch the dust and the dust begin
Page 90 and 91: ` which he declared: Songs: Big
Page 92 and 93: ` toenail clippings, or skin from
Page 94 and 95: ` around- brothers were called Wid
Page 96 and 97: ` she went out one morning and foun
Page 98 and 99: ` men feared losing their women to
Page 100 and 101: ` When the Europeans came, when the
Page 102 and 103: ` Songs: Gris- - Dr. John (Mac Rebe
Page 104 and 105: ` H E L L H O UND (see also B L A C
Page 106 and 107: ` H O B O C O C K T A I L When you
Page 108 and 109: ` New Orleans boogie- Songs: -
Page 110 and 111: ` for Jewish. He noted that there a
Page 112 and 113: ` Songs: - Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbe
Page 114 and 115: ` Songs: I drink so much of Jake,
Page 116 and 117: ` Bluebird Records in 1941], I star
Page 118 and 119: ` he flame of a black candle, or p
Page 120 and 121: ` African American charms made with
Page 122 and 123: ` In From Juba to Jive: A Dictionar
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` He said he had friends still in A
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` les my den Although harmless to
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` acres of rich farmland that would
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` , Elmore performances in Chicag
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` Ace set the template that Elvis
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` Three factors determine what a mo
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` produced today in Appalachia, mos
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` The connection between prostitute
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` own. The first state lottery was
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` Meanwhile, thousands of hoe-boys
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` back in the early 1900s, Simmons
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` unregulated entertainment, such a
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` 320 Texas stuff and some Chicago
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` Songs: - Bukka White (Booker T.
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` to play on metal or a box with t
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` Shankings, or stabbings, were fai
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` Some plantation owners were fair,
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` SH I M M Y The shimmy is a dance
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` SH U F F L E The famous blues shu
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` 350 The African American tales
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` to many songs that Dixon wrote ex
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` Songs: Mmm, where my Third Street
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` the far more popular blues artist
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` Songs: - Peetie Wheatstraw - Ha
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` Blues players sometimes also call
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` Songs in Vestapol: Many fine exam
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` True vibrato requires significant
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` On August 22, 1791, Haitian slave
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` W H O OPI E, W H O OPIN G phemis
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` Songs: - Blind Boy Fuller (Fulto
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` Zombie horror imagery figured pro
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` 39 The Life and Selected Writings
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` 131 132 Chernoff, p. 143. 133 A
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` 225 -jungle.html. 226 The Dictio
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` 315 Louisiana Folklore Miscellan
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` Selected Bibliography Charters, S
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Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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