Great news for fans of the master bluesman Robert Johnson. Another photo of him has been found.

Story in today's The Observer (UK).

[www.guardian.co.uk]



Robert Johnson poses with fellow blues musician Johnny Shines in the newly released photograph. Photograph: Robert Johnson Estate/Getty Images



Perhaps the most infamous music deal ever struck involved no contracts and no lawyers. The blues singer Robert Johnson, so the legend goes, acquired his unearthly musical talent after meeting the devil at a crossroads.

Until now, there were only two verified photographs of Johnson (1911-1938), who remains the most inspirational musician produced by the Mississippi Delta and the man Eric Clapton once anointed as "the most important blues musician who ever lived". This weekend a third, newly cleaned-up and authenticated image has been released by the Johnson estate showing him standing next to musician Johnny Shines.

Forensic work on the photograph began in 2007, when Lois Gibson, who works with the Houston police department, analysed the features of the long-fingered figure holding the guitar. Gibson, who found the identity of the sailor kissing the nurse in the Life magazine photo of Times Square on VJ day the second world war ended, has ruled that "it appears the individual is Robert Johnson. All the features are consistent, if not identical." The only differences, she added, were due to the angle of the camera or the lighting.

The new photograph came to light eight years ago, when a classical guitarist called Steven "Zeke" Schein was searching eBay for an old guitar. He spotted a thumbnail picture with a caption that read "Old Snapshot Blues Guitar BB King???" and bought it. On inspection neither man in the photograph looked like BB King, but Schein noticed the length of the man's fingers on the guitar and the way his left eye was narrower than his right.

One of the other two known photographs of Johnson is postage stamp size and is thought to have been taken in a booth in the 1930s. It was first published in Rolling Stone in 1986, the year that Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and shows him in a button-down shirt, staring directly at the lens. A cigarette hangs from his lips and his long fingers rest on a guitar neck.

The second image was taken at the Hooks Bros photographic studio in Memphis. In it, Johnson sits cross-legged on a stool with his guitar, wearing a pin-striped suit and a tie. This portrait was used on the cover of Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings, the two-CD boxed set issued by Columbia Records in 1990.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-03 13:47 by Silver Dagger.

Hardly a "new" picture, this has been discussed before:
[www.iorr.org]
[www.iorr.org]

Some debate as to whether it's actually RJ or not.


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-03 13:07 by Deltics.

I met Johnny Shines in 1991 at the Folklife festival in Washington DC, usa and he signed me a book written on the blues. He played at the festival and I was very impressed to meet him and to shake his hand also knowing about his friendship with Robert Johnson.
Rock and roll,
Mops

I didn't know they had plastic surgery back in those days.

Quote
His Majesty
I didn't know they had plastic surgery back in those days.

Maybe they asked the devil for a pretty face as well as their blues skills...

"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Has it ever been documented that Johnson had enormous hands?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-03 16:38 by tatters.

Quote
tatters
Has it ever been documented that Johnson had enormous hands?

Judge for yourself.




"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Nice work Deltics

Got any premiere shots of Skip James not from the 60's?

not Robert Johnson or Johnny Shines

This is news because the photo has been accepted by the Estate. I always thought that it was probably Johnson. Stein ended up payinf over $2000 for an old photo. Obviously, someone else thought it was him as well. The opinion from Gibson is also very strong

Quote
Rollin' Stoner
not Robert Johnson or Johnny Shines

there's only one way to find out

The hands are what stands out the most as being different. Thick and huge on the dubious pic, long and skinny on the supposedly two real ones.

Robert "change yer hands" Johnson.

Quote
Deltics

Quote
tatters
Has it ever been documented that Johnson had enormous hands?

Judge for yourself.

He's got tentacles for fingers.

Obviously a photoshop job, since the guy on the right is Jamie Fox.

Looks like the same dude to me.

His hand is in a fretting position in one photo so that's why it looks a bit different to the hand in the new photo (grab a guitar and have a look at your fretting hand) but the length of the hand is basically the same in both photos and also similar facial features, receding chin etc.

Man, he had enormous hands.

Chuck has enormous hands as well.
I always wondered how Chuck could play some guitar chords with those, but he did ok I guess

I'd say if the earlier photos were Robert Johnson, then the new one is as well.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-04 13:56 by howled.