There are many songs that involve the protagonist in the story making a deal the Devil for a reward of some sort, money, fame, power. Sometimes the protagonist is able to make the deal and come out the better end, like the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Charlie Daniels.
The song is a tale, about a young fiddle player making a deal with the Devil, the Devil challenges the fiddle player to a duel with fiddles, if the young boy wins, he gets a fiddle made of gold, and if he loses, the Devil gets his soul, the song is pretty self explanatory, and I don’t need to get into the nitty gritty of the song to explain it.
But this blog post today, is just to explain how throughout the music industry there has been myths and tales about music artists making a deal with a Devil to get there fame, talent, etc.
One of the main artists that stand out (and the reason for this post) is blues artist, Robert Johnson, born in May 1911, quickly became known as a master of the blues, mainly the delta blues.
Like the blues itself, Johnsons musical talent is shrouded in mystery, the legend goes, one night a young Johnson, took his tutors guitar to a near by crossroads near to where Johnson lived, where he came across a tall dark figure (The Devil) who tuned the guitar, showed Johnson how to play a few licks on the guitar, and in exchange for his soul, offered him fame and the talent to master the blues.
The legend continues that once he had mastered the blues, and became famous, the devil collected his due, and Johnson died (accounts vary on how the died, some sources say syphilis, others say that Johnson was murdered by a jealous husband). He was only 27.
I’ve heard references that Jerry Lee Lewis, sold his soul to the devil to get his talent to play the piano, but as of this post The Killer is still alive and the Devil hasn’t came to collect anything from Lewis, and deserves his own blog post. So I’ll get round to that eventually.
Thoughts on Robert Johnson’s music
Now, Johnson has a massive hit on his song “Cross Road Blues” in which he describes his encounter the Devil, the guitar playing is really something else, many people who have been influenced by Johnsons music claim that “it sounds like two people playing” however many sources claim that it was just Johnson in the studio, which I’m assuming this is where the deal with the Devil tale comes from.
Roberts influence on the blues genre bas influenced a lot of artist, and his music and tale of mystery continues to interest people to this day!
Album Suggestions and link to Spotify profile.
A decade of hits - The Charlie Daniels Band
King of the Delta Blues Singer - Robert Johnson
King of the Delta Blues Singer Volume 2 - Robert Johnson.