A Friend of the Devil

Remember when we dethroned Robert Johnson as King of the Blues and coronated Charley Patton in his place? Sure you do. We talked about the Pilgrims and Sandlot. It was a really great moment. I felt like we really connected. Anyway, this entry is going to be kind of like that. Because before Bobby, there was Tommy Johnson: the original friend of the devil.

If you know the name Tommy Johnson, it’s probably because you remember the character based on him from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?


I'm right here, man

In the movie, Johnson’s character claims that he sold his soul at a crossroads in exchange for musical prowess. If that sounds familiar, it should. Because it’s pretty much the same story Robert Johnson would claim about a decade later.

"We are still trying to establish the correlation between the surname 'Johnson' and heathenism"

Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t but whatever he did, it worked.

Tommy Johnson was born in Terry, Mississippi in 1896. By 1914, he was starting to establish himself as a force to be reckoned with in the Delta Blues scene. While Charley Patton could give him a run for his money when it came to guitar playing--and guitar trickery--few other Delta Bluesmen could match his hand when it came to vocals. His range could go from a growl to a falsetto quicker than he could flip his guitar--which was pretty damn fast.

To put it simply: Tommy Johnson had game. Mad game. So, why is it that he only recorded for two years, from 1928 to 1930, when he was an active performer until his death in 1956? The answer to that lies in one of his most popular tunes: “Canned Heat.”

Canned Heat is actually a trademark for a certain brand of solid alcohol/paraffin fuel that is packed into small cans and used to heat food. Incidentally, it is also a trademark of an alcoholic--which Tommy Johnson unashamedly was. He was such an alcoholic that, when he signed a copyright deal to allow another group rights to one of his melodies, he was so drunk that he believed he had signed away his rights to record.

While we only have two years worth of his recordings at our disposal, that is not to say that any of his legacy has been lost. When he died in 1956, blues and rock musicians mourned and, because we need another reason to worship Bonnie Raitt, it should be noted that she paid for his headstone. Due to a land dispute the headstone was never actually placed on his grave. Instead, you can visit it at the Crystal Springs, Mississippi Public Library.

His legacy also lives on most notably in the 60s blues rock band that took their name from his hit and created the classic “On the Road Again,” inspired by his own “Big Road Blues.”