Early
Days
["Blind" Willie Johnson] was born in
Marlin, Texas, about 1902, and blinded
at age seven. [He] taught himself to play the guitar and accompanied
himself as he performed at Baptist Association meetings and churches
around Hearne, Texas. At age twenty-five he married a young singer
named Angelina, sister of blues guitarist L. C. "Good Rockin'"
Robinson (1915-76). Angelina accompanied Johnson on some of his
recordings for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930. Blind Willie
made his professional debut as a Gospel artist; he was known to
his followers as a performer "capable of making religious
songs sound like the blues" and of endowing his secular songs
with "religious feeling."
Style
& Influence
Johnson's unique voice and his original compositions
influenced musicians throughout the South, especially Texas bluesmen.
.He .sang
in a "rasping false bass," and played bottleneck guitar
with "uncanny left-handed strength, accuracy and agility."
So forceful was his voice that legend has it he was once arrested
for inciting a riot simply by standing in front of the New Orleans
Customs House singing If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building
Down, a chant-and-response number that stimulated great audience
enthusiasm.
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Well, if I had my way
Well, if I had-a, a wicked world
If I had-a, ah Lord, tear this building down.
~ "Blind" Willie Johnson
If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down
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Legacy
Johnson's celebrity career ended with the Great
Depression, after which he continued to perform as a street singer
but did no further recording. He died in Beaumont
around 1950. He left behind a legacy of musical masterpieces, some
of which have been rerecorded on Yazoo Records. His work includes
such classics as Nobody's Fault but Mine, Dark Was
the Night-Cold Was the Ground, God Don't Never Change,
Mother's Children Have a Hard Time, Bye and Bye I'm
Going to See the King, God Moves on the Water, Jesus Make
Up My Dying Bed, and I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole.[2]
[Johnson]...made some 30 commercial recording studio
record sides for Columbia Records from 1927 through 1930. His records
have kept his music tremendously influential and his songs have
been covered by several popular artists, including Led Zeppelin
who covered Nobody's Fault But Mine and Beck and The White
Stripes who have covered John the Revelator. [His]...recording
of Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground was included
on the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space with the Voyager spacecraft
in 1977, and for this reason was used in the widely seen science
show Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan in 1980. This
recording also got Johnson mentioned on an episode of the fictional
television series The West Wing (see "The Warfare of Genghis
Khan"); the fictional Assistant White House Chief of Staff
Josh Lyman using Johnson's recording to show the depth and soul
behind the space program. The song is also used in Walk the
Line, a biopic of country singer Johnny Cash; and The Devil's
Rejects, a serial killer film by rocker Rob Zombie. Ry Cooder,
who based his desolate soundtrack to Paris, Texas on Dark
Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground), described it as "The
most soulful, transcendent piece in all American music."[3]
[1] 180px-Blindwilliejohnson.jpg
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Willie_Johnson]
(image is in the public domain).
[2]
Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "JOHNSON, BLIND WILLIE,"
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/JJ/fjoaw.html
(accessed February 3, 2006).
[3] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Willie_Johnson]
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