Blind Willie Johnson was born in 1892, passing away in 1945. His music was inspired by his spirituality. He had a deep gravely voice, often imitated, never bettered. As were many of his peers, he was born in Texas. Willie was not born blind, and no one knows what happened to create his blindness, although it has been rumoured that he caught a face full of lye, thrown at him by his step-mother, who had just been beaten by his father for carousing with other men. Times were a bit different back then. To start the music, we have one his most famous tunes.
Motherless Children Have A Hard Time
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Here is Eric Clapton‘s version.
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In his short recording career, he cut 30 songs, all between 1927 and 1930. Again, the impact of those 30 songs has been staggering. Check out this amazing live footage of Jack White performing Blind Willie’s “John The Revelator” Not quite the way that Willie would have done it, I’m sure.
John The Revelator
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Blind Willie died in 1945. He lived in poverty his whole life. The story goes that his house burned down. Having nowhere else to go, he lived in the ruins, eventually catching malarial fever. His death certificate reads, malarial fever, syphilis and blindness as the causes of death. His legacy is now potentially universal. His song “Dark Was The Night” was covered by many artists and included on the discs placed on the Voyager I and II spacecrafts.
Dark Was The Night
There are many covers of his tunes. Here are some that you may or may not of heard at one time or another.
Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, and Beck. Very diverse groups, very diverse times. Another man who is greatly responsible for what we listen to today.
Great stuff, great covers. The original of Dark Was The Night is haunting.
No kidding. Can you imagine Plutonians playing that disc and hearing multiple versions of that one
Missing video for John the Revelator
Happens sometimes. They restrict it or pull it. I’ll try and find another. Thanks.
They made it private. Put up a different one for you
Thanks very much, John. I think the original one was by Blind Willie Johnson, which would have been very different. I saw a Danish group called John the Revelator at the Sydney Blues Festival eighteen months ago. They have been around since the 60s and essentially play in the style of early Fleetwood Mac.
I’ll check them out
I remembered them as Danish. In fact, they’re Dutch. http://www.johntherevelator.nl/