Tag: robert johnson

Play Like Mr Johnson

I use the youtube to learn how to make new and exciting weird noises, but I don’t often use it to learn how to… you know… play.

I have no excuse for never learning how to play finger style guitar before. None except that I have no independence in the fingers in my right hand. For the lesson in the video, I can play the thumb part easy. I can play the non-thumb part easy. Can I play them both together? That would be a no.

Mr Johnson and I share a birthday. The least I can do is learn to play more like him (ie: steal from him*). Now that I’m 50, why not? I mean, Mr Johnson died at 27** so it’s really the least I could do, right?

*Is “ie” used correctly? Should it be “eg” or “re” instead? I didn’t sleep last night so I can’t do grammar.

**No one knows for sure how Robert died, but the most common theory is that he was chasing after a married woman and her husband poisoned him.

Someone Else Named Robert’s Birthday

I am not the only Robert who was born on May 8th. I’m not even the first.

Robert Johnson was born on May 8, 1911. He would have been 110 years old today.

There’s been a thing over the last few years where people have been trying to speed correct his records. It wasn’t unusual for recordings made in the 20’s and 30’s to be pressed a little too fast or two slow. Many people feel Johnson’s music runs too fast. It’s hard to deny that he’s a smidge chipmunky at times. Lots of people have been releasing “corrected” versions of his songs. I’ve never listened to them before. It’s always felt a little blasphemous.

I was looking for something to add to this post and a handful of speed corrections came up in the YouTube search. I figured what the hell, right? I’m 50 now who cares what I think.

It sounds all right to me. Maybe a little more natural. One of the comments on the post says that this version is exactly in the key of E which means that it’s probably correct, though Johnson cut these in a hotel room and who knows if his guitar was tuned to A=440 or what. It’s likely it was not. Oh well.

Happy Birthday, Robert Johnson.