[Slowhand] Robert Johnson references

[tim shipp]

A recent post referenced Robert Johnson and his perceived sudden and 
miraculous transformation to guitar virtuoso.

The popular story is that Robert would hang around juke joints as a skinny 
kid where Son House and Willie Brown would be playing. On one occasion, Son 
House told the story of folks coming outside on the porch while Son was 
taking a break and asking him to come back inside and make Robert put down 
the guitar and stop making such a terrible racket with it. The story 
concludes with Son saying Robert disappeared for awhile before reappearing 
6-9 months later as a virtuoso guitar player, telling Son, "Come see what I 
can do NOW"!!

Over the years, I've become friends with Steve LaVere, easily the foremost 
Robert Johnson researcher in the world. Steve pointed out to me one time 
that around the time this allegedly occured, Son did a couple of stretches 
in Parchman...therefore his 6-9 month time frame was probably closer to over 
2 years. Robert spent a great deal of time with a local guitarist named Ike 
Zinnerman around Hazelhurst learning and maturing.

Another post in the past couple of months re-introduced the theory that 
Robert Johnson's music was recorded and plays "too fast". I asked Steve 
about this one time as well, and years ago Steve actually went to the 
trouble of locating a piano player who played in Johnsons era who had 
encountered Johnson on several occasions, one of them being one of the 
recording sessions (don't remember if it was San Antonio or Dallas session). 
Steve recorded some music by this piano guy on the same type of ancient 
equipment, listened to it played back, and played Robert's stuff for the 
piano guy to listen to. The piano guy (can't remember his name), stated that 
the music WAS Robert and it WAS the proper tone, speed, pitch, etc. Steve 
has also played Roberts music for Roberts former friends and girlfriends, 
such as Willie Mae Powell (whoa ohh, Willie Mae).

One last story involving Steve and Eric Clapton. Steve discovered that 
Robert Johnsons music was NOT public domain, as was assumed by the many 
artists who recorded his tunes in the 60's and 70's. He filed copyright 
paperwork for the material and became the rightful owner of the royalties 
due. He began contacting artists such as the Stones, Grateful Dead, Clapton 
to obtain royalties due. Of these, many outright refused...some of them 
remain in litigation limbo to this day. When he approached Eric Clapton and 
Robert Stigwood. Clapton's reply was, "Gladly, how much"?

What is NOT widely known is that Steve LaVere continued researching Robert 
Johnson for another 15+ years, placing the monies collected from the music 
into a trust until he located Robert's half sister and informed her she had 
the right to the royalties of the music. It was during these meetings that 
Steve obtained the two known photo's of Robert Johnson we know. (A third 
photo of Robert actually exists which Steve has seen, but that's another 
story for another day).