Robert Johnson never wore glitter and spangly pants. He didn't have the silver or the gold. He never played Madison Square Garden. He did not have a long and successful career.
He may or may not have met the Devil down at the crossroads. He did somehow learn to play blues guitar like a demon from another realm. He did record a couple handfuls of blues tunes.
He died early, some say, poisoned by a jealous husband.
Anyway, Johnson not only left us with an extraordinary catalog of tunes. He inspired generations of guitar players and singers. These people are not "shredders." They are not overly concerned with technique. They are people searching for that elusive quality we call "soul." They all revered "the blues," and many of them, no matter where they came from, found something in Johnson's work that took them to a place they never knew existed.
Or maybe they just found a human place.
They are musicians and singers like Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Peter Green, Mike Bloomfield, Jimmy Page, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy and Duane Allman.
Here's Mick Jagger and company from 1972 performing Johnson's "Love In Vain." It's one of my favorite blues songs of all time, brought to you by a band of boys from London. It's a perfect example of how music binds us. A slow blues. No blistering scales. Beautifully rendered. The spangles and glitter don't really get in the way. I'm thinking Robert Johnson wouldn't have minded at all.