Greil Marcus --- Mystery Train -- Deluxe 2020 edition



ROCKMAN

From Bob Margolin:

"In 1978 I was playing guitar in Muddy Waters’ band at Paul’s Mall, a great club in Boston. Before the show started, I was sitting at a table with a friend who pointed out there was a woman sitting back-to-the-wall with her arms crossed over her purse. I said, “I bet there’s a story to that…” After the first set the woman approached me and asked me if I could bring her backstage to meet Muddy. She said, “I’m Robert Johnson’s sister and I have photos of him. I want to see if Muddy knew him in Mississippi.” After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I brought her right back to Muddy, who couldn’t wait to see the photos. They were indeed the two famous ones. I don’t recall her saying she had more. It was indeed Annye Anderson. I didn’t imagine she could be alive in 2020."

"Muddy looked at the one with Robert making a chord on a guitar and said, “Look, he has frog fingers!” — a little webbing between the bottoms of his fingers. Muddy said he loved Robert’s music, he always cited Robert and Son House as his main influences. But Muddy said he had not seen Robert in Mississippi, he had tried to go to a show but there were too many people to get in, so he only knew Robert from records. Muddy was thrilled and enthralled by Robert’s images, exactly as all Blues fans are. In Muddy’s 1983 obituary in Rolling Stone, ultimate music writer Peter Guralnick described that moment as his favorite with Muddy — a rare one where Muddy was a Blues fan, even as he was a legend himself."

[m.facebook.com]

COOL story ..... ^^^^^^^^



ROCKMAN

5/25/20
Since without your writing I might never have heard his
otherworldly music, how intriguing is it to learn of a
newly-discovered, third photo of blues singer Robert Johnson?

It will adorn the cover of his sister Annye Anderson’s upcoming
book, Brother Robert: Growing Up with Robert Johnson.

Unlike the previous two, this one almost looks like it was
taken yesterday. His beauty is never more evident.Annye
recalled it was taken at “a make-your-own-photo place on
Beale Street, near Hernando … right next door to Pee Wee’s,
the bar where Mr. Handy wrote his blues.”
Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee.
------------------------------------ Johnny Savage


I prefer the mythic, spooky cigarette photo.
But the book is so interesting and compelling the new photo is just lagniappe.
......Greil Marcus



ROCKMAN

Quote
Rockman
Here's one for ya .... a few years ago
my good mate Roger decided to take trip
to Southern states of US .... So I asked him
while in Mississippi could he get me small jar
of dirt from a crossroad ....

So yeah Roger gets the dirt okay but when he
eventually gets to LA to fly out they do a
random luggage check on him ... They find the
jar of dirt and ask him what it is and what its all about ....

Totally embarrassed he tries to explain where it's
from and the Johnson devil/crossroad connection ....
They confiscate the dirt ... give him complete security
check over and eventually release him with strict warning ....

We still laugh about it to this day ..... Crossroad Blues but NO dirt

Classic

Clinton Heylin

When the King of the Delta Blues came home — the family life of Robert JohnsonAnnye Anderson, Johnson’s devoted stepsister, remembers how the travelling musician transformed her young life whenever he returned to Memphis

[www.spectator.co.uk]

Quote
Cristiano Radtke
Clinton Heylin

When the King of the Delta Blues came home — the family life of Robert JohnsonAnnye Anderson, Johnson’s devoted stepsister, remembers how the travelling musician transformed her young life whenever he returned to Memphis

[www.spectator.co.uk]

It's a pity that for that article Clinton Heylin used the fake photograph of Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines, which does not show Johnson and Shines instead of the newly discovered Johnson portrait from the book he is reviewing [www.amazon.com]

Whoever posted about that book "Up Jumped the Devil" (I think it was Rockman)...THANKS!

Read it...great stuff.

Sticky

I just finished reading this new book, pretty good, about half of it is about growing up with him, the other half is about all the legal hassles to prevent folks that have no right to his music attemptimg to copywrite his work to profit from it (sadly not very successfully).

Interesting interview with Johnson's stepsister about her book and her memories from Robert Johnson.

'Brother Robert' Reveals True Story Of Growing Up With Blues Legend Robert Johnson

December 29, 2020

The long-awaited Robert Johnson biography by Mack McCormick is finally being released next year. I wonder if it will include the unseen RJ photos that have been rumoured to exist and that he allegedly had gotten from his family.

Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey

The drama of In Cold Blood meets the stylings of a Coen brothers film in this long-lost manuscript from musicologist Mack McCormick, whose research on blues icon Robert Johnson's mysterious life and death became as much of a myth as the musican himself

Little is known about blues master Robert Johnson, giving rise to legends that he gained success by selling his soul to the devil. Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey is musicologist Mack McCormick's all-consuming search to uncover Johnson's life story. McCormick spent years of his career reconstructing Johnson's mysterious life and death, but never made public his discoveries. Biography of a Phantom publishes his compelling work for the first time, including 40 unseen black-and-white photographs.

The book explores McCormick's sleuthing for Johnson's loved ones and to gather oral histories. An editor's preface and afterword from Smithsonian curator John W. Troutman reckons with the damage McCormick did to the Johnson family and examines the controversy of white male enthusiasts assuming owenership over Black narratives and legacies in the blues community.

Robert Johnson died at twenty-seven of unknown causes, and Biography of a Phantom includes Mack's vivid account of the theory supported by his research and interviews. While Johnson died before achieving widespread recognition, his music took on a life of its own and inspired future generations. Biography of a Phantom, filled with lush descriptive fieldwork and photographs, is an important historical object that deepens the understanding of a stellar musician.

[www.barnesandnoble.com]#

wwhhoooo sounds good ....

Always wanted ta read Mack's story ....



ROCKMAN

Thanks for the heads-up!

Quote
Cristiano Radtke
Interesting interview with Johnson's stepsister about her book and her memories from Robert Johnson.

'Brother Robert' Reveals True Story Of Growing Up With Blues Legend Robert Johnson

December 29, 2020

If you read the book you will see that she didn't like Mack McCormick who "borrowed" photos of Robert Johnson that he never returned to the family

Quote
albop

Quote
Cristiano Radtke
Interesting interview with Johnson's stepsister about her book and her memories from Robert Johnson.

'Brother Robert' Reveals True Story Of Growing Up With Blues Legend Robert Johnson

December 29, 2020

If you read the book you will see that she didn't like Mack McCormick who "borrowed" photos of Robert Johnson that he never returned to the family

Thank you, I didn't read her book.

Judging by the description of Mack's biography, I guess this subject will be covered.

With a little help from a black and white converter





HMN