Robert Johnson: The Life and Death of the Blues Legend is a Biography.
Robert Johnson was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter.His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 show a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians.He is a master of the Delta blues.
Johnson, a traveling performer who played mostly on street corners, juke joints, and at Saturday night dances, had little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime.He participated in two recording sessions, one in San Antonio in 1936 and the other in Dallas in 1937, that produced 29 distinct songs, with 13 surviving alternate takes.The songs were recorded in low fidelity in improvised studios.After his death, a few were released as 10-inch, 78rpm singles.He spent most of his life in the Mississippi Delta, but little was known of him outside of these recordings.Much legend has arisen from Johnson's poorly documented life and death.He sold his soul to the devil in order to achieve musical success.
During his life and after his death, his music had a small but influential following.John Hammond tried to get Johnson to perform at Carnegie Hall in the late 1930s, but he died before he could.Columbia Records bought the original recordings from Brunswick Records.Alan Lomax went to Mississippi in 1941 to record Johnson, but didn't know of his death.Columbia Records released a collection of Johnson's recordings called King of the Delta Blues Singers in 1961.It is believed to have brought Johnson's work to a wider audience.Johnson has been called the most important blues singer that ever lived.Both Johnson's lyrics and musicianship have been cited by musicians as key influences on their own work.Many of Johnson's songs have become hits for other artists and his guitar licks and lyrics have been borrowed by many later musicians.
There was renewed interest in Johnson's work in the 1960s.The biography Johnson: Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson, written by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow, reconstructed much of what is known about him.Can't You Hear the Wind Howl, the Life and Music of Robert Johnson was a 1997 documentary that included reconstructed scenes with Keb' Mo' as Johnson.The significance of Johnson and his music has been recognized by numerous organizations and publications over the years.
Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson were both born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi.Julia had ten children with her husband Charles Dodds, who was a furniture maker.The lynch mob forced Charles Dodds to leave Hazlehurst.Julia brought Robert to Memphis to live with her husband, who had changed his name to Charles Spencer, less than two years after she left Hazlehurst.During his 8 years in Memphis, Robert received lessons in math, reading, language, music, geography, and physical activity.He got his love for the blues and popular music in Memphis.He was different from most of his contemporary blues musicians due to his education and urban context.
Robert rejoined his mother after she married a sharecropper.They settled on a plantation in Arkansas but moved to the Mississippi Delta near Tunica and Robinsonville.The Abbay & Leatherman Plantation is where they lived.Julia's new husband was younger than her.Robert was registered at the Indian Creek School as Robert Spencer, even though he was remembered by some residents as "Little Robert Dusty".Robert Spencer was listed in the 1920 census as living in Lucas, Arkansas, with Will and Julia.Robert attended school in 1924 and 1927.The quality of his signature on his marriage certificate suggests that he was well educated.A school friend, Willie Coffee, who was interviewed and filmed in later life, recalled that Robert was already noted for playing the harmonica and jaw harp.Coffee said that Robert may have been living and studying in Memphis.[13]
Robert adopted the name Johnson after Julia told him about his father.She died in childbirth.Surviving relatives of Virginia said that this was a punishment for Robert's decision to sing secular songs.Johnson accepted the phrase as a description of his resolve to abandon the settled life of a husband and farmer and become a full-time blues musician.There are no comments at this time.
Willie Brown lived in Robinsonville, where Son House moved around this time.Johnson was remembered as a competent harmonica player but an embarrassingly bad guitarist by House.After leaving Robinsonville, Johnson may have been searching for his father.He learned the guitar styles of House and Ike from here.According to legend, Zimmerman learned to play guitar by visiting graveyards at night.Johnson seemed to have acquired a guitar technique when he appeared in Robinsonville.When the legend of Johnson's pact with the devil was well known among blues researchers, House was interviewed.His equivocal answers have been taken as confirmation that he attributed Johnson's technique to this pact.[5]
Johnson fathered a child with Vergie Mae Smith.He married Caletta Craft in 1931.After Johnson left for a career as a "walking" or nomadic musician, Caletta died in 1933.[18]
Between the cities of Memphis and Helena, and the smaller towns of the Mississippi Delta and neighboring regions of Mississippi and Arkansas, Johnson moved frequently.On occasion, he traveled further.Johnny Shines was with him in Chicago, Texas, New York, Canada, Kentucky, and Indiana.Henry had a musical engagement with him.Louis.He stayed with his family or female friends in many places.He formed long-term relationships with women that he would return to occasionally.He stayed with women he was able to seduce.Johnson's hosts were ignorant of his life elsewhere.He used at least eight different names.[26]
Biographers have looked for consistency from musicians who knew Johnson in different contexts, such as Shines, who traveled extensively with him, Robert Lockwood, Jr., and David "Honeyboy" Edwards, whose cousin Willie Mae Powell had a relationship with Johnson.From a large amount of conflicting and inconsistent accounts, biographers have tried to summarize Johnson's character.He was well mannered, soft spoken, and indecipherable.He was pleasant and outgoing in public, but in private he was reserved and liked to go his own way."Musicians who knew Johnson testified that he was a nice guy and fairly average, except for his musical talent, his weakness for whiskey and women, and his commitment to the road."[31]
In a new town, Johnson would play for tips on street corners or in front of a barbershop.Musical associates have said that in live performances Johnson often did not focus on his dark and complex original compositions, but instead pleased audiences by performing more well-known pop standards of the day.He had no problem giving his audience what they wanted, even though he had an interest in jazz and country music.In every town he stopped, he established ties to the local community that would serve him well when he passed through again a month or a year later.
Johnson and Shines met in 1936.He thought Johnson was a year older than himself.In Samuel Charters's Robert Johnson, Shines is quoted describing Johnson.
Robert was friendly even though he was not always happy.I was hanging around Robert for a while.He vanished one evening.He was kind of odd.Robert would be standing up playing a game.It was a pleasure and a hustle at that time.Money would be coming from all directions.Robert would just pick up and walk away.You would not see Robert in two or three weeks....We began journeying off.I was just following along.[33]
Johnson had a long-term relationship with Estella Coleman, a woman about 15 years his senior and the mother of the blues musician Robert Lockwood, Jr.He asked young women living in the country with their families if he could go home with them, and in most cases he was accepted until a boyfriend arrived or Johnson was ready to leave.
Johnson had performed in the area around Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1941.The historian Samuel Charters was able to add that Will Shade had once played with Johnson in West Memphis, Arkansas.In the last year of his life, Johnson is thought to have traveled to St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, and New York City.The first "From Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York was arranged by record producer Don Law after he was directed by John H. Hammond, who owned some of Johnson's records.He played two of Johnson's records from the stage when he replaced him with Big Bill.
In Jackson, Mississippi, around 1936, Johnson sought out H. C. Speir, who ran a general store and acted as a talent scout.Johnson's first sessions in San Antonio, Texas, were recorded by Don Law after Johnson was introduced to him by a salesman for the ARC group of labels.The recording session was held in a room at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, which was set up as a temporary recording studio.Johnson played 16 selections and recorded alternate takes for most of them.He was said to be a shy man and a reserved performer.In the liner notes of King of the Delta Blues Singers, the conclusion was played up.The slide guitarist had speculated that Johnson played facing a corner to enhance the sound of the guitar, a technique he called "corner loading".There is no evidence that Johnson ever recorded facing into a corner.There was a misinterpretation of the original notes from the session and Frank Driggs liner notes for the first Johnson reissue.[39]
"Come On in My Kitchen", "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" and "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" are some of the songs Johnson recorded in San Antonio."Terraplane Blues" and "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" were the first recordings that he would hear.5,000 copies of "Terraplane Blues" were sold.
His first recorded song, "Kind Hearted Woman Blues", was part of a cycle of spin-offs and response songs.It was the most musically complex in the cycle and stood apart from most rural blues as a thoroughly composed lyric.In contrast to most Delta players, Johnson absorbed the idea of fitting a composed song into the three minutes of a 78-rpm side.Most of Johnson's "somber and introspective" songs and performances come from his second recording session.[42]
Johnson traveled to Dallas, Texas, for another recording session with Don Law in a makeshift studio on the third floor of the Warner Bros. building.Within a year, eleven records from this session would be released.Johnson did two takes of most of the songs.There is more opportunity to compare different performances of a single song by Johnson than there is for any other blues performer of his time and place.Almost half of Johnson's songs were recorded in Dallas.
The cause of Johnson's death was unknown, but he died at the age of 27.It wasn't until almost 30 years later, when a Mississippi-based musicologist researching Johnson's life found his death certificate, that it was reported publicly.There was no formal autopsy done as a dead black man was found by the side of the road near a farm, a pro forma examination was done to file the death certificate, and no immediate cause of death was determined.It is likely that he had congenital syphilis and that it was a factor in his death.30 years of local legend and oral tradition has built a legend which has filled in gaps in the scant historical record.[47]
There are differing accounts of the events preceding his death.Johnson was playing for a few weeks at a country dance in a town about 15 miles from Greenwood.Johnson was murdered by the jealous husband of a woman with whom he had been having an affair, according to one theory.A married woman gave Johnson a bottle of whiskey poisoned by her husband because he was flirting with her.Johnson was admonished to never drink from a bottle that he hadn't seen opened by the man who knocked the bottle out of his hand.Johnson said to never knock a bottle out of his hand.He accepted another bottle that was poisoned.Johnson was helped back to his room in the early morning hours after he began to feel unwell.His condition worsened over the next three days.He died in a state of severe pain, according to witnesses.The man who murdered Johnson was tracked down by Robert "Mack" McCormick, but he wouldn't reveal the man's name.There are no comments at this time.
At least one scholar disagrees with the idea that strychnine was the poison that killed Johnson.In his book, Tom Graves argues that strychnine can't be faked, even in strong liquor, because of its distinctive odor and taste.Graves claims that death from the poison would occur within hours, not days, and that a significant amount of strychnine would have to be consumed in one sitting.48
The authors of Up Jumped the Devil suggest that the poison was from dissolved mothballs.This was a common way of poisoning people in the rural South.The poison was enough to cause Johnson to bleed, as he had been diagnosed with an ulcer and esophageal varices.He died after two days of abdominal pain, vomiting, and bleeding from the mouth.[49]
R. N. Whitfield wrote a note on the back of Johnson's death certificate after conducting an investigation into his death.
I talked with the white man who lived at the place where the negro died.The owner of the plantation said the negro man came from Tunica two or three weeks before he died to play the banjo.He said he wanted to pick cotton and stayed in the house with some of the negroes.The white man didn't have a doctor for the negro because he had not worked for him.He was buried in a homemade coffin.The man died of STDs, according to the plantation owner.50
David Connell suggested in 2006 that Johnson may have had Marfan syndrome, which could have affected his guitar playing and contributed to his death.There are 51 and 52 words.
Three different markers have been put up for Johnson's grave, but the exact location is not known.
According to the documentary The Search for Robert Johnson, due to poverty and lack of transportation, Johnson is most likely to have been buried near where he died.
As a young man living on a plantation in Mississippi, Johnson wanted to become a great blues musician.According to one of the legends, Johnson was told to take his guitar to a crossroad at midnight.The location of the crossroads is claimed by at least a dozen other sites.There was a large black man who took the guitar and made it sound better.The guitar was returned to Johnson by the Devil after he played a few songs.The legend of Faust mirrors the story of a deal with the Devil.Johnson was able to create the blues in exchange for his soul.
The legend was developed over time and has been chronicled by three people, one of whom believes that the legend is largely based on Johnson's rediscovery by white fans more than two decades after his death.Son House once told Pete Welding a story about Johnson's rapid mastery of the guitar.Down Beat reported it as a serious belief in 1966.There were two years between House's observation of Johnson as a novice and his confirmation that he was a master.
Further details were absorbed from the imaginative retellings by Robert Palmer and Greil Marcus.Johnson received a gift from a large black man at a crossroads.There is disagreement as to when the crossroads detail was attached to the Robert Johnson story.The full chapter on the subject in Tom Graves' biography, "Crossroads," suggests an origin in the story of the blues musician Tommy Johnson.The story was collected from his brothers in the 1960s.One version of Ledell Johnson's account was published in David Evans' 1971 biography of Tommy Johnson and was repeated in print in 1982.[63]
The meeting was not at a crossroads but in a graveyard.Steve LaVere heard a story about a man who learned to play the guitar at midnight while sitting on tombstones.The playing of the young Johnson is believed to have been influenced by Zimmerman.[64]
The story is clearer thanks to recent research by the blues scholar Bruce Conforth.The graveyard was quiet at night and no one would disturb them, but it was not the Hazlehurst cemetery as had been thought.Johnson was accompanied back to the Delta to look after him after he spent a year living with and learning from Zimmerman.
There are other tourist attractions that claim to be "The crossroads" in Clarksdale and Memphis.The residents of Rosedale, Mississippi, claim that Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the intersection of highways 1 and 8 in their town.The location of the mythical crossroads may not be known because of Robert Johnson, according to the blues historian.[67]
Some scholars argue that the devil may refer to the Christian figure of Satan as well as the trickster god of African origin, Legba, in these songs.When African-Americans were born in the 19th or early 20th century, they said they had sold their soul to the devil at the crossroads, according to Harry M. Hyatt.There was evidence suggesting African religious retentions surrounding Legba and the making of a "deal" with the devil at the crossroads, according to Hyatt.[68]
The Blues and the Blues singer has special powers over women.The Blues singer could have any woman they wanted.When Robert Johnson came back after leaving his community as a mediocre musician, people said he must have sold his soul to the devil.There is an old African association with the crossroads where you find wisdom, and then you go down to it to learn in a Faustian pact.To become the greatest musician in history, you have to sell your soul.69
The blues scholar David Evans disagreed with the view that the devil in Johnson's songs is derived from an African deity.
There are a lot of problems with this myth.Blues singers never mention Legba or any other African deity in their songs or other lore, even though the devil imagery found in the blues is familiar from western folklore.The actual African music connected with cults of Legba and similar trickster deities sounds nothing like the blues, but rather features polyrhythmic percussion and choral call-and-response singing.70
The myth that every musician was a child of the Devil was dismissed by the musicologist Alan Lomax.71
The Delta blues style is considered a master of the blues by Johnson."You want to know how good the blues can get?" asked Richards of the Rolling Stones in 1990.This is it.According to the book Escaping the Delta, Johnson was most respected for his ability to play in a wide range of styles, from raw country slide guitar to jazz and pop licks.His first recorded song, "Kind Hearted Woman Blues", more resembled the style of Chicago or St. Louis, with a full-fledged, abundantly varied musical arrangement.Unusual for a Delta player of the time, the recording shows what Johnson could do outside of a blues style."They're Red Hot", from his first recording session, shows that he was also comfortable with an "uptown" swing or ragtime sound similar to that of the Harlem Hamfats, but as Wald remarked, "no record company was heading to Mississippi in search of a down[75]
Microtonality was an important aspect of Johnson's singing.His singing conveys powerful emotion because of the subtle inflections of pitch.The most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice is Johnson's music.The range of tone he can pack into a few lines is astonishing.The song's "hip humor and sophistication" is often overlooked.Wald wrote that "enerations of blues writers in search of wild Delta primitivism have been inclined to overlook or undervalue aspects that show Johnson as a polished professional performer."[78]
Johnson is known for his use of the guitar as the other vocalist in a song."In Africa and in Afro-American tradition, there is a tradition of the talking instrument, beginning with the drums and then the six- strings with bottleneck-style performance; it becomes a competing voice."[69]
One of the all-time greats on the guitar, Johnson mastered the instrument.His approach was very advanced.When Brian Jones introduced him to Johnson's music, he asked, "Who is the other guy playing with him?"Not realizing it was Johnson playing a guitar."I was hearing two guitars, and it took a long time to realize he was doing it all himself", said Richards, who later stated that "Robert Johnson was like an orchestra all by himself".His guitar technique is politely reedy but ambitiously eclectic, moving from hen-picking and bottleneck to a full deck of chucka-chucka rhythm figures.[75]
In The Story with Dick Gordon, Bill Ferris, of American Public Media, said that Robert Johnson and the British Romantic poets were geniuses at wordsmithing poetry.The Blues are deeply sexual.I'm going to check my oil, if you don't like my apples, not to shake my tree.Every verse has a sexuality associated with it.[69]
Jon Wilde speculated without proof that Johnson's recordings may have been accidentally speeded up to make them sound more exciting.He didn't give a source for the statement.According to the hypothesis, Johnson's recordings were made on five different days, spread across two years at two different studios, making uniform speed changes or malfunctioning.Wilde's hypothesis was not supported by the fact that fellow musicians, contemporaries and family who worked with or witnessed Johnson perform spoke of his recordings for more than 70 years before.[83]
The approaches to Delta blues were fused with those from the broader music world.The slide guitar work on "Rambling on My Mind" is pure Delta and Johnson's vocal there has a touch of...The train imitation on the bridge is not typical of Delta blues, it is more like something out of a show.The older bluesman recorded versions of Preaching the Blues and Walking Blues in his vocal and guitar style.As with the first take of "Come On in My Kitchen", the influence of Skip James is evident in James's "Devil Got My Woman" but the lyrics rise to the level of first-rate poetry, and Johnson sings with a strained voice found nowhere else in his recorded output[84]
The sad, romantic "Love in Vain" blends several of Johnson's influences.The words of the last sung verse are from a song Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded in 1926."Milkcow's Calf Blues" is the most direct tribute to Kokomo Arnold that Johnson has ever made.[86]
"From Four Until Late" shows Johnson's mastery of a blues style not usually associated with the Delta.He sings the lyrics in a way that is similar to Lonnie Johnson, and his guitar style is more akin to a player from the 19th century.Two departures from the usual Delta style are "Malted Milk" and "Drunken Hearted Man".The arrangement of "Life Saver Blues" was copied by both.The two takes of "Me and the Devil Blues" show the influence of Peetie Wheatstraw, calling into question the interpretation of the piece as "the heart-cry of a demon-driven folk artist".[78]
Outside of his own time and place, Johnson has had an enormous impact on music and musicians.His influence on the younger generation was smaller because he was a performer who played on street corners, juke joints, and at Saturday night dances.He died young after only recording a few songs.Johnson's records were less appreciated than his performances, even though he was well-traveled and admired."Terraplane Blues", sometimes described as Johnson's only hit record, outsold his others, but was still only a minor success.
If one had asked Johnson's fans about him in the first 20 years after his death, they would have been confused.If Robert Johnson had never played a note, the evolution of black music wouldn't have happened.The album King of the Delta Blues Singers, a collection of Johnson's recordings, was released by Columbia Records in 1961.
There are two markers on the Mississippi Blues Trail, one at Johnson's birthplace in Hazlehurst and the other at his presumed gravesite.The 90's
The genres of music that developed after Johnson's death were rock and roll and rock.Four of his songs were included in a set of 500 by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A decade and a half before rock and roll, Johnson recorded these songs.In 1986, almost a half century after his death, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him as an early influence.The song "Stop Breakin' Down Blues" from 1937 is so far ahead of its time that it could have been a rock demo in 1954.[75]
Many of the artists who claim to have been influenced by Johnson the most, injecting his revolutionary stylings into their work and recording tribute songs and collections, are prominent rock musicians from the United Kingdom.His impact on these musicians, who contributed to and helped to define rock and roll and rock music, came from the collection of his works released in 1961.
Johnson's revolutionary guitar playing has led contemporary critics, assessing his talents through the handful of old recordings available, to rate him among the greatest guitar players of all time:
Johnson was rated in the top ten on each of the lists.The boogie bass line he created for "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" has become a standard guitar line.At the time it was completely new, a guitarist's version of something people would otherwise have heard from a piano.According to the New York Times, Johnson used his guitar to play rhythm, bass and slide simultaneously, all while singing.[98]
Until the publication of Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson, little of Johnson's early life was known.There are two marriage licenses for Johnson in the records offices.Conforth and Wardlow think that Johnson lied about his age in order to get a marriage licence.According to Carrie Thompson, Robert's mother remembered his birth date as May 8, 1911.He was not listed among his mother's children in the 1910 census.According to the 1920 census, he was 7 years old, but the entry showing his attendance at Indian Creek School, in Tunica, Mississippi, listed him as 14 years of age.
There are five significant dates from his career, including Monday, Thursday and Friday, November 23, 26, and 27, 1936, at a recording session in San Antonio, Texas; and Saturday and Sunday, June 19 and 20, 1937, in Dallas.His death certificate was discovered in 1968.[101]
Efforts were made to discover Johnson's biography, but it was almost impossible because his records were so popular.In the 1960s, a full account of Johnson's brief musical career emerged from accounts by Son House and Johnny Shines.The reminiscences of Don Law who recorded Johnson in 1936 were included in the sleeve notes to the album King of the Delta Blues Singers.Law portrayed Johnson as very young and shy.
Mack McCormick began researching his family background in 1972, but died without ever publishing his findings.Johnson's research became a legend.Peter Guralnick's Living Blues summary was published in book form as Searching for Robert Johnson.Later research sought to confirm or add details to the account.Stephen LaVere wrote a revised summary for the booklet accompanying the Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings, and it is maintained at the Delta Haze website.In the documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson, there are interviews with David "Honeyboy" Edwards and Johnny Shines, as well as short interviews of surviving friends and family.Can't You Hear the Wind Howl: The Life and Music of Robert Johnson is a film that combines documentary segments with recreated scenes of Keb' Mo' as Johnson.Interviews are contributed by Shines,Edwards and Robert Lockwood.The published biographical sketches achieve coherent narratives by ignoring reminiscences and hearsay accounts which conflict with other accounts.
It was thought that no images of Johnson existed until the 1980s.Three images of Johnson were found in the possession of his half- sister.The "dime-store photo" and the "studio portrait" were copyrighted in 1986 and 1989 by Stephen LaVere, who had obtained them from the Thompson family.The studio portrait was first published in a 1989 article by Stephen Calt and Gayle Dean Wardlow in 78 Quarterly.Both were prominently featured in the printed materials associated with the 1990 CBS box set of the "complete" Johnson recordings.The "estate share" of all the money paid to LaVere by CBS and others ended up going to the son of Robert Johnson who was born out of wedlock.In his book, Peter Guralnick stated that he was shown a photograph of Robert Johnson and his nephew Louis, taken at the same time as the famous "pinstripe suit" photograph.This photograph has never been made public.
The November 2008 issue of Vanity Fair magazine has a photograph that purports to show Johnson posing with Johnny Shines.The authenticity of the clothing was claimed by a forensic artist and by Johnson's estate, but has been disputed by some music historians.Both David "Honeyboy"Edwards and Robert Lockwood didn't know who the man in the photo was.The software concluded that neither man was Johnson or Shines.It is now known that Johnson did not meet Shines until early 1937, which is when the photo was taken.In December 2015, a fourth photograph was published, purportedly showing Johnson, his wife Calletta Craft, Estella Coleman, and Robert Lockwood Jr., but her identification of Johnson has been dismissed by other facial recognition experts.There are a number of glaring errors in this photo: it has been proven that Craft died before Johnson met Coleman, the furniture is from the 1950s, and the Coca-Cola bottle cannot be from prior to 1950.
The third photograph of Johnson was published in 2020.It is believed to have been taken in Memphis on the same day as the verified photograph of him with a guitar and cigarette (part of the "dime-store" set), and is in the possession of Annye Anderson, Johnson's step-sister.Anderson grew up in the same family as Johnson and has claimed to have been present when the photograph was taken.The cover image for the book Brother Robert: Growing Up with Robert Johnson was published in Vanity Fair in May 2020 and is believed to be authentic by a Johnson scholar.115
Johnson did not leave a will.The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that the son of Robert Johnson was a retired truck driver named Claud Johnson.The court heard that he was born to a woman who had a relationship with Robert Johnson.The relationship was attested to by a friend, Eula Mae Williams, but other relatives descended from Robert Johnson's half-sister, Carrie Harris Thompson.The judgment allowed Claud Johnson to get over $1 million in royalties.The father of six children died on June 30, 2015, at the age of 83.[118]
There is a possibility that more than one Robert Johnson was traveling around the region making music at the time of his life.Blues musicians from this time often claimed to be someone else.Robert Johnson claimed to be someone else.[118]