The Man Who Sold His Soul to The Devil (Robert Johnson)

The Mysterious story of one of the greatest Blues Artists of all time.

[vqynkvt]

Insane he’s being talked about today, imagine being that well known.

[wi-fi]

"little is known about his life... it's still a mystery"
Proceeds to talk about his life in details until death..

[solidrockofjesuschristmini]

Imagine becoming insanely famous in a short period during a time there was no social media, radio is very limited, television hasn't even taken off, that's impressive

[qwerty.]

He turned his back to the audience while he played, gives me chills.

[Brandon-jbrn]

I wouldnt trust the devil when it comes to giving out music abilities...dude lost to a boy with a fiddle

[Badliquor]

Me: searches how to learn the guitar fast
Google: pick the right guitar. Learn your strings. Stay consistent and practice alot
Bing:

[hexdrummin]

Song title: Hell Hound on my Trail


Everybody: Naw he didn't sell his soul

[xenopis]

This is what any performer would want to achieve. Be so different and good, that people blame the devil's work. Liszt, Paganini and Robert Johnson are brilliant examples of that.

[MsTinkerbelle]

Imagine having so much talent people think it must be paranormal…the guy taught himself by watching and listening to others and that in itself is admirable.

[axlelijah]

imagine being dead for 100 years+ and people still talked about you

[TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

Imagine being so good at the guitar that the public thinks you sold your soul to get that good. I’d take that as a compliment to the highest degree.

[bencastillo]

I remember on a Netflix short documentary stated that Robert played everyday during his absence but practiced at a cemetery until he felt his music to being close to perfect.

[mitchellpotts]

This would have made a good 90's movie starring Denzel

[b.g.]

Christians - "He sold his soul to the devil!"
Skeptics - "He just practiced."
History Channel - "It was Aliens!"

[Karmel_Rust]

People like nah he didn’t sell his soul

Robert: sings about selling his soul

[richardwere]

''A black man playing the Guitar''....

Crowd: WIZARD!!!

[thundarrisaboss]

no joke, my brother and i both started playing guitar in our teens. i wasnt a prodigy or anything, but through grinding away, i was making significant progress. my brother was grinding too, but he seemed to have a real problem with rhythm. he would write these riffs, that were just not quite right. i would take them and "fix" them. well, fast forward to our 20s, and im getting downright competent as a writer/performer. but my bro is still not quite right. he is homeless at the time, and ends up going to a hippie town, to sell acid. ends up staying the whole summer. when he comes back to see me, i was BLOWN away. he was writing and playing on another level. he told me he took way too much acid one night, and played on the street corner for 2 days straight. on the 2nd night, he was still tripping HARD. he told me something just clicked. and it all made sense to him. still blows me away.

[kevkeisha]

My Theory...
Because he had no formal training, he was doing things on the guitar that people did not understand. Fiddling with the guitar in an "unorthodox" way. After obsessive practice, things started to click and eventually became technique. Once he had technique, he could use it in any manner he wanted. Unusual techniques to the people witnessing this would seem incredibly advanced once the playing was attuned to melodies they could understand.

[sammyquinn]

I've been obsessed with music since 1960. With me it's been an obsession. There's nothing I won't listen to that includes disc techno and yes rap. The Robert Johnso story bothered me for years and one day I quit being lazy and started doing my own research on it. It's a fascinating story, but this story has more outright fantasy to it than anyone I've ever studied. He's from Mississippi and as a child all he wanted to do was sing and play the blues. For whatever reason no one would help him. He forged ahead and tried being self taught. He just didn't seem to have any aptitude for music. As a young adult he would tell bar owners I'll play for free but he was so bad bar owners stopped letting him play for free cuz we can't sell drinks to people who aren't here. Blues legend Son House remembers Robert. Son House said when the pub owners no longer let him play for free he was going to move away. No body cared. Sure enough he disappeared for several months, however he came back, and this is when all the nonsense about RJ began. I'll be brief. When he left town the letter grade for his talent was clearly an F. When he returned it was no better than a C minus. True to form he never gave up. During his lifetime no one thought he was a rising star.When he took the stage when the band was on break at least people didn't walk out. He was never a star performer ever. He recorded 11 songs over a 4 year period. Not exactly a bluesman in demand. He had a bad habit of messing with married women. So his death is shrouded in mystery. Many claim a jealous husband poisoned him, it was never proven because frankly no one cared. He was the first member of the 27 club if that means anything. Fast forward to 1961. An engineer at Columbia records saw an ad in a trade publication. Those little fly by nite recording studios had decided to cell off the catalogs of their deceased artists. And they were going cheap. So this engineer got Columbia to buy a bunch of them. After all no residuals to the artists they're dead. Johnson's 11 songs were among the ones released. One snag though, Columbia wanted to put Johnson's picture on the cover. No one in Mississippi rembered who he was and they couldn't drum up so much as a snap shot of him so they had an artist draw a bluesman with his head down. Now the miracle of Robert Johnson begins. What makes this fascinating, is in the history of music there has never been such an obscure unknown unheralded bluesman who became a super star 30 years after he was dead. Mind you his songs that Columbia released did not sell all that well. Pick it up in 1965 and rock n roll was here to stay. All the young performers who would go on to be mega stars were just getting going. Clapton Beck, Hendrix Trower even Kieth Richard's Pete Townsend Mick Ralph's Bob Dylan George Harrison. American kids were buying up fan magazines like they were free. When all the those young up coming mega stars where asked who are some of your influences every one of them mentioned Robert Johnson. So the American rock media asked who the hell is Robert Johnson? That is how he become famous. Maybe he did sell his soul to the devil. The devil just forgot to tell him you won't be a mega star til you've been dead 30 years. Don't be playin' poker with the devil.

[denverbranson]

Guitar teachers HATE him: see how this man learned to play the blues with one simple trick!! 😈