Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson And The Invention Of The Blues (2004) - Plot & Excerpts
Excellent overview but not so much of Robert Johnson as the history of the Blues in America. The book is divided into three parts: the land where Johnson lived (Mississippi Delta), what we actually know of Robert Johnson's life and to what degree the blues was actually influenced by Johnson who Clapton said, "was the greatest blues man whoever lived". A primary theme of the history is how blues is perceived by its two primary audiences. First, blues was originally a popular form of music played and marketed to African Americans. In time the high society felt a romantic nostalgia for this primitive folk style with obvious roots in West Africa. Eventually this would lead to the second and primary consumers of marketed blues music today, white people. There are some major problems with this idea of blues being simply folk music. All of the major early blues artists were professional musicians and the best ones (Lonnie Johnson) were proficient in a number of different styles. No doubt there are strong roots in Africa (the blue notes, slide guitar technique began on a diddley bow, an instrument with strong similarity to instruments played on the West African coast) but the greats no doubt had professional training and acted as professional musicians. Just as musicians are asked to play songs today from standard radio fare the old blues musicians did the same. Also people in the Delta though primarily African American had wide variety in tastes. Thanks to the invention of the phonograph and growing popularity of radio the idea that blues was the only thing they were exposed to is absurd. Other styles (i.e. jazz, jug bands, classical, ragtime, etc.) also influenced these artists. There is proof available that blues artists could well have been trained by classically trained former slaves; the influence of 19th Century Spanish guitar master Tarrega is cited in particular. It wasn't uncommon for the southern aristocracy to train their slaves to perform chamber music and have classical ensembles. After the blues revival in the 1960s the audience became increasingly white. To this day there are many areas in the rural south where African Americans listen to the blues, but with the mainstream African American audience music evolved and moved on (soul, r&b, funk, hip hop). Whites may have romanticized these rugged rural folk artists singing their days laments but for the general African American audience it came to be associated with places like Mississippi. Not only was it considered old fashioned or countrified, it also came to be associated with the severe oppression old south. Robert Johnson himself is often viewed by whites as this 'ghost' out of the Delta who hoboed around the country. To a degree this part of his myth is true, he was definitely well traveled and probably received some training in New Orleans. Johnson was a young, talented and very ambitious musician in his time. Outside of Mississippi he had one song that made wide appeal, Terraplane Blues. The remarkable thing about the 36 recordings we have of him are the variety. He's a much more versatile player than many of the other artists from the same region. This indicates he really hadn't found his voice as a musician and had he lived into his sixties may have well been part of the jump blues of the forties, or Chicago Blues of the 1950s & 1960s. We just don't know. One thing you can count on, he had dreams of escaping the Delta and no doubt had his eyes on the wealthier cities to the north. Finally, Wald points out that Johnson had relatively little if any impact on the blues world in the years after his death. Even today most blues musicians like the idea of listening to Johnson better than actually listening to him. His primary influence has been via the 1960s folk revival and his adoption among sixties rockers (especially the British rockers) as a cult figure, the ultimate Byronic hero of the blues. After all, the man did die at 27 after being poisoned in a Juke Joint by the owner. The owner's wife was amid an affair with the wandering musician. Today he has three grave markers in the Delta and no one is actually sure where he resides. Personally, I like to think Bob wouldn't have it any other way. "You may bury my body, down by the highway side. Baby I don't care where you bury me when I'm dead and gone. You may bury my body, down by the highway side. So my ole evil spirit, can catch a greyhound bus and ride" ~ Robert Johnson, Me and the Devil Blues.
Seeing colossal blues hero Robert Johnson on the cover of Elijah Wald's "Escaping the Delta" made me pause with doubt because what I certainly was not in the market for was another feverish bio of Robert Johnson that focused on the mystical to the exclusion of all else. Most pleasantly, this is definitely not the case with this interesting and readable work.The book starts slowly as author Wald consumes nearly seventy pages with an exhaustive history of the pop music scene of the Delta region of the American South. Chronicling juke box lists, the careers of artists both well-known and obscure, and emphasizing his thesis over and over again, Wald lays thorough groundwork for the chapters that follow. Once you get rolling, however, the book is a pleasurable read and we get a complete overview of the ingredients that went into the blues, its curious nurturing process, the artists themselves, and the fruits that grew from the seeds of these musical pioneers. We even get a track-by-track analysis of the songs Johnson recorded, a canon of work that has possibly influenced more people than any other body of work in rock and blues history.Wald's purpose is to shine a light onto the real world of working musicians during the early part of the century and show that the invention of the blues was not what you might have been told. Seminal artists like Ma Rainey, Charley Patton, Son House, and, yes, even Robert Johnson did indeed play the blues, but they also played lots of other music from Bing Crosby to Broadway and even hillbilly songs. The musicians of this era were simply trying to get paid as working musicians, which meant playing what the people wanted to hear. Then, as now, popular music was rarely genre specific, it need only be catchy, danceable, and innocuous. Say what you will about Robert Johnson's work, it is certainly not often described using any of those adjectives and the earthier, acoustic blues Johnson is known for has never had a huge pop music audience, then or now. The author devotes much of his time to pounding this point home, but it's a worthwhile endeavor if you care to see the reality instead of the fantasy.Wald's knowledge of the artists and songs and his dogged devotion to cutting through the baloney and getting to the facts within the folktales is fresh and largely free of hyperbole. There are plenty of revelations in the book, for instance: I had no knowledge of the true roots of hillbilly music and how popular this music form was among blacks or how white executives suppressed it for the purposes of segregation. Also, we are given a unique behind-the-scenes peek into the milieu of the musicians commonly referred to as blues artists during the early part of the 20th century. It is both fascinating and informational reading for me because Wald demystifies the clichéd image of the tormented blues singer, schooled by Satan, and destined for a life of misery that matched their lyrical tales, myths spread by the single-minded agendas of the record company men who were trying to market a product. The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and scores of others, who were influenced by these artists and their live hard, die young reputation, particularly the infamous Mr. Johnson, helped perpetuate these exaggerations to their fans and thus we have the distortions Wald sought to correct.You don't have to be a fan of the blues to appreciate the breadth of research and myth-busting that is achieved here. Elijah Wald has put a great deal of research into this book and augmented it with the words of those who were there, living and playing the blues (along with all the other genres of music their audiences wanted to hear). I have read some of the reviews and the angry ones seem to be from fans that have had their romantic world of lonesome crossroads in the middle of the night, tortured souls howling at the moon, and deals with the devil put through the shredder of reality. While that's a lot of hard luck for them; it's good news for those of us who'd rather get the straight dope than the well-worn fairy tales. I believe any fan of popular music will enjoy it and take away a much more informed mind about an art form and an artist long on superstitions, folktales, and legends but woefully short on facts and candor.
What do You think about Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson And The Invention Of The Blues (2004)?
Started reading at my daughter's in Philly. This book is not so much about Robert Johnson as the construct of rural blues. The book was not great prose, but I learned a lot about the blues from 20s to 40s. Great stuff that is! You must get a hold of Rhapsody (I do the $12 month subscription) as you read this book. Reading about Bukka White, Sonny Boy Williamson, or Dinah Washington is a bit pointless without listening to the songs. He says the most underrated blues artist are Bessie Smith, Leroy Carr and Skip James. I was moved to buy an album from itunes (Mississippi Sheiks). I always felt that Jack White's version of "Sitting on Top of the World" (from Cold Mountain soundtrack) was the best I had ever heard. But I found that he copied it almost note for note and instrument for instrument from the Mississippi Sheiks.
—Mike Horne
though at times bordering on nerdy academia, the book is insightful and informative and delivers a distinct, hard-to-argue-with, viewpoint, that is, modern audiences (mostly white) trace the blues from now-to-then, from the stones to muddy waters and ultimately to robert johnson and therefore see RJ as a one-of-a-kind force; but viewing the blues chronologically, from wc handy, ma rainey, son house, etc. to RJ perhaps shows things more realistically - that robert johnson was a professional musician of some skill, like dozens of others in the delta, but his legend is exagerrated
—Pmacke
This book actually annoyed me. The author's premise is worthy enough - to demystify Delta Blues musicians by asserting that they were professional musicians just as in search of success as anyone else. However, the author's main agenda seems to be telling the reader OVER AND OVER that he's the only one who gets it, which he does with irritatingly faulty logic. He insists that all accounts of Johnson's life are subject to skepticism since nothing is verifiable. Then he insists that he KNOWS Johnson intended to include an extra verse to "Crossroad Blues" because "he can be heard preparing to go into it before the engineer must have signaled he was out of time." Somehow the author who disputes first-hand accounts of those who knew Johnson knows precise occurrences in a motel room recording session over seventy years ago because of a momentary catch he perceives in Johnson's voice. I could go on and on, but the point is simply that the author's intrusive and insistent voice render the book a displeasure to read, even if one agreed with the author's premise.
—Jay B. Larson
