"I woke up this mornin’, and all my shrimps was dead and gone."

Ok, so maybe it isn’t the definitive Robert Johnson lyric. How about this one: "Tell me, milk cow, what on Earth is wrong with you?" No? Let me guess; you’re looking for one that talks about the devil, or a cruel woman, or something of the sort. We’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let’s look at Johnson’s beginnings. He was an illegitimate child, the product of a fling between his mother, Julia Dodds, and a man named Noah Johnson. Robert strangely ended up spending most of his childhood living with Julia’s soon to be ex-husband, Charles Dodds.

Young Robert did not do well in school, partly from lack of interest, partly from poor eyesight. He had a cataract in one eye, or as some of the more suspicious folk used to say, he had an "evil eye". With his remaining good eye he managed to spot Virginia Travis, and married her in 1930. When his sixteen year old wife became pregnant, Robert took up farming to support his new family. This didn’t last long; Virginia and the baby died in childbirth. The beginning of a bluesman.

Johnson soon gave up farming and became interested in music. He was a big fan of Son House and Willie Brown, and pestered them to teach him what they knew on the guitar. According to Son House, he wasn’t very good. He remembers saying: "Don’t do that Robert. You drive people nuts. You can’t play nothing."

Determination drove Johnson through the Delta, where he learned as much as he could from every musician he met. He married again in 1931 to Calletta Craft, not that he saw much of her. A few years later, when Johnson returned to Robinsonville, Son House was shocked to find that his former student was suddenly a guitar master. People began to piece it together... obviously, he must have sold his soul to the devil! Here’s a devil related lyric to prove it: "Me and the Devil was walkin’ side by side." The scholars, on the other hand, think that it had something to do with his abnormally large hands. You know what they say about guys with big hands... they are very good at playing the guitar.

Johnson was very protective of his technique, often playing with his back to the audience so no one could see what he was doing. If someone asked how he played something he'd say, "just like you". And if he caught anyone watching too closely, he’d leave the stage and disappear for months.

Unfortunately, we only have two recording sessions to remember him by. The first took place in 1936 at a hotel in San Antonio, the second in Dallas in 1937. It’s amazing that someone with such a small body of work can be held responsible for inventing blues and rock & roll. Dig back into any old rocker’s list of influences and Robert Johnson is bound to be in there somewhere.

Johnson died in 1938 at the young age of twenty-seven. There are more rumours surrounding his death. The officially accepted version is that he was murdered by a jealous husband who put strychnine in his whiskey. The less official version is that the devil decided it was time to take his soul. It’s hard to say which story is more interesting.