a case of the blues?

yeh, of course Bo's meant to have influenced the Stooges a fair bit...I feel I SHOULD listen to his stuff but I never have

OK, I'm trying Hooker and Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson

Can't go wrong with Robert Johnson

TED wrote:

Can't go wrong with Robert Johnson

yup - 'Crossroads'!!!!!!

What do you think of it Nadja.

love it!!!!!!!!!

what's with all the myth that sprang up around him, selling his soul to the devil or something??

Didn't he kill his wife or something ?

did he?? didn't know about that...just vaguely heard about the legends that surround him (there's got to be reasons for those!)

i think it was all blown out of proportion, from recollection, i think it was, guy, decent guitarist went away for awhile, learned from some other guy, came back was amazing, the hendrix of his day apparently, and people thought he had sold his soul to the devil, hearing this he spread the rumour himself with songs like hellhound on my trail and me and the devil blues, he also aparently turned his back on the crowd a lot so they couldnt see how he played - as ppl would intently watch a guitarist to see exactly what he was doin

and i think it all ended with him gettin poisoned by a guy who thoght he was after his girl, thought it probly wasnt as elaborate as a poisoning and more of a beating up or something, dunno

honeyboy edwards has spoken of him, he was a friend of johnsons, and an amazing blues player as well, been listening to him and to top it all he's still alive!! a friend of robert jonhsons (granted not as old as him at the time, something like 5 - 10 years difference) but still!

I suppose it must be an old idea, selling your soul to the devil in return for amazing musical talent...it's what they also said about Italian violinist Nicolo Paganini in the 19th century!
hmmm...

I interviewed a lot of those old dudes, including Honeyboy, and another guy who worked with Johnson, about those myths.

They believed it and they didn't, As Honeyboy says, "Robert was a bullshitter'. But by playing the blues, you put yourself in danger of being picked up for vagrancy, or simply murdered, at the time when nobody bothered if another black man died.

In places like Clarksdale, you can feel the devil close, I'm not surprised they felt conscious of it.

waow, cool info first of all, thanks paul! also, cant believe you met honeyboy!! that mustve been cool, like meeting tangible history

interesting topic! like so many people I came to the Stooges through punk and never thought about the blues and those type of influences too much at first