Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his recording career spanned only seven months, he is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style, and as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as perhaps "the first ever rock star".

His music had a small, but influential, following during his life and in the decades after his death. In late 1938, John Hammond sought him out for a concert at Carnegie Hall, From Spirituals to Swing, only to discover that Johnson had recently died. Hammond was a producer for Columbia Records which bought Johnson's original recordings from Brunswick Records which owned them. Musicologist Alan Lomax went to Mississippi in 1941 to record Johnson, also not knowing of his death. In 1961, Columbia released an album of Johnson's recordings titled King of the Delta Blues Singers, produced by legendary producer and music historian Frank Driggs. It is credited with finally bringing Johnson's work to a wider audience. The album would become influential, especially in the nascent British blues movement; Eric Clapton called Johnson "the most important blues singer that ever lived". Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Plant have cited both Johnson's lyrics and musicianship as key influences on their own work. Many of Johnson's songs have been covered over the years, becoming hits for other artists, and his guitar licks and lyrics have been borrowed by many later musicians.

Quotes about Robert Johnson

• Robert Johnson is the greatest blues guitarist of all time and one of rock’s founding fathers from the pre-World War II Delta blues era. [...] The first guitar hero, Johnson had the attitude to go with the chops. His tragic death in 1938 at the age of 27 has made him an icon for those who also mourn Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.
  • Dale Turner and Dave Rubin of Guitar Player (April 14, 2020) [1]
• The original and, many would argue, the best. Robert Johnson, bluesman of fabled lore, with his unearthly tone and his deal with the devil, is barely even a real person any more. If it weren’t for the few scant, scratchy recordings we have of him, it’d be easy to let the myth overshadow the man. But those recordings, beamed in from another age, are raw proof of a talent that defies explanation. He did things with his fingers that people are still trying to figure out, and wrote songs that live on in the DNA of all popular music. His legacy, like some Mississippi Van Gogh, far outstrips his lifetime achievements, and he will forever remain the demon king of the delta blues.
  • Rob Power of MusicRadar (June 16, 2017) [2]