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Book Jacket Copy:
When Robert Johnson was younger, he liked to go to the juke joints and listen to musicians
like Son House. It wasn’t long before Johnson began playing guitar in-between sets, a performance few people appreciated.
“Robert, he’d get the guitar and go to bamming with it, you know?” House told a writer years later.
“Just keeping noise, and the people didn’t like that. They’d come and tell us, ‘Why don’t you
or Willie [Brown] go in there and stop that boy? He’s driving everybody nuts.’”
Two years later,
when House heard Johnson play again, he couldn’t believe the change. “And that boy got started off playing …
and when he got through, all our mouths were standing open. All! He was gone!”
How did Johnson become so
good so fast? He made a pact with the devil at the crossroads, according to legend. Several years later Johnson died of mysterious
causes. He was only 27. The devil, some say, came to collect his soul as payment.
In this new, highly readable
biography of Johnson’s life, music critic and novelist Tom Graves gives you the real story behind the “Crossroads
Legend.” But the debunking of that myth doesn’t lessen the appreciation that contemporary musicians and blues
fans have of Johnson, who is said to be the greatest blues musician who ever lived.
Table of Contents
Foreword
By Steve LaVere, ix
Preface
Fact, Myth and the Musician, xiii
Introduction
The Lowland Mississippi Delta Plantation Blues,
1
The Life of Robert Johnson
1. The Early Years, 13
2. Johnson as a Young
Man, 19
3. The Walking Musician Years, 23
4. The Recording Years, 31
5. Death of a Delta Bluesman, 39
The Afterlife of Robert Johnson
6. Legend of the Crossroads,
51
7. John Hammond Resurrects Johnson, 57
8. A New Audience, 65
9. A Global Phenomenon, 71
10. The Movie That Changed the Legend, 83
11. The Feud Over the
Johnson Photos, 87
12. The Complete Recordings Defies Sales Expectations, 97
13. A Son Is
Found, 103
14. The 3.5-Second Piece of Celluloid, 109
Afterword
Legends Live On, 113
Appendix
A Brief Discussion of Johnson’s Music, 117
Bibliography, 125
Index, 129
| Copyright
2008 / 147 pages / 5.25 x 8.25 format / Bibliography / Index / ISBN: 978-0-9816002-1-5 / $14.95 (paper) |
Order an inscribed copy of Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife
of Blues Legend Robert Johnson.
Inscribed copies of Crossroads are available for
$14.95 each plus $4.00 for postage and handling. For a personal inscription, simply supply the message you wish.
Checks and money orders can be mailed to: Crossroads, 2197 Cowden Ave., Memphis, TN 38104 (total comes to $18.95
per book). Also you can pay via Paypal at the link below. Bulk order discounts also are available.
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Ask About Tom Graves' Lecture Series on
Robert Johnson
Author Tom Graves is available for readings, lectures, and presentations on Robert Johnson.
For further information and to answer inquiries he may be contacted at:
tomgravescrossroads@yahoo.com
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