Robert Johnson is a mythical character in blues history, in large part because so little is really known about him, which leaves plenty of room for invention. In his short career (he probably died in 1938 when he was in his late 20s, poisoned by the husband of a woman he had been having an affair with), his emotional style and vivid songwriting influenced generations of future musicians. He recorded Traveling Riverside Blues in 1937, a song with cleverly raunchy lyrics about the sexual exploits of a man with a woman in every Mississippi River town in Delta country.
RadioLab devoted a short podcast to the Robert Johnson legend in April 2012; you can stream it here.
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