Archive Review: Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was the Night (1998)

Although revered by folk and rock artists like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin, seldom does Blind Willie Johnson’s name come up in conversation when people talk about the giants of the blues. One reason for this, perhaps, is that Johnson’s songs hewed closer to the gospel roots of the blues than those of his musical contemporaries. Another reason for Johnson’s relative obscurity was his personal struggle for salvation that would cause him to turn his back on “the devil’s music.”

Regardless, Blind Willie Johnson’s catalog of songs – many derived from the church hymns of his youth – stand up alongside any of the early-era bluesmen, and have been covered by artists as diverse as the Rev. Gary Davis, Son House, Hot Tuna, and the Rolling Stones. Johnson’s haunting vocals often times mimic the glossolalia, the “speaking in tongues” of the fundamentalist church. Johnson also developed a unique and powerful slide-guitar technique that modern-day artists have tried to master for decades.

Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was the Night

A sixteen-song compilation that includes some of Blind Willie Johnson’s best performances, Dark Was the Night is part of Sony Legacy’s late ‘90s Mojo Workin’ series of blues releases. The album’s namesake, “Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)” is the heart of any Blind Willie Johnson compilation, the song included on a “sounds of the earth” recording that was shot into space with the Voyager One space probe. For good reasons, too, was this song chosen as one of humankind’s best moments to introduce to whatever life may exist elsewhere – Johnson’s performance here is as otherworldly as you get.

Recorded solo by Johnson in December 1928, the song opens with a weeping slide-guitar run that will chill your blood, followed quickly by Johnson’s mournful moan, a non-verbal expression of emotion that needs no words. By contrast, the gruff “Lord I Just Can’t Keep From Crying,” recorded in session just a couple of days later, is a fierce, determined gospel-blues foot-stomper that features Johnson’s roaring vocals rising above his serpentine slide playing. His wife, Willie B. Harris, provides higher-pitched backing vocals that stand in stark counterpoint to Johnson’s growling voice.

It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine

Dark Was the Night features many of Johnson’s gospel-oriented tunes, which are uniformly graceful and dignified. Some stand out, though, exemplary performances like that of “Let Your Light Shine On Me,” recorded in 1929, sitting a little closer to traditional folk hymns while others, like the incredible “John the Revelator,” existing on an entirely higher level. With Harris once again accompanying, Johnson’s inspired vocals here truly jump out of the grooves to grab you by the ears. With just a perfunctory rhythm guitar soundtrack, Johnson delivers a powerful, feverish performance of the tradition song that would later inspire the great Son House to try and duplicate it on his own.

Johnson’s “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” is one of his better-known songs and, since its release in 1928, has become a blues standard. Johnson’s vocals here are often slurred, reduced to grunting out the words with a religious fervor while his stellar guitar work sounds like a heavenly chorus. Although suffering somewhat by sub-standard sound…probably taken from an old 78rpm record rather than whatever master may have survived…“The Soul of A Man” is an upbeat, spiritually-charged essay on man’s place in this world, Johnson’s soulful, earthbound vocals complimented by Harris’s more ethereal harmonies.     

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

There are a number of Blind Willie Johnson compilation albums on the market, and although I personally consider Dark Was the Night to be one of the best available for sound quality and song selection, most any of ‘em will do if you’re looking to experience this gifted artist’s music. As long as the album you’re looking to buy includes a few key songs – “Dark Was The Night,” “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” and “John the Revelator” among them – then you can’t go wrong. More transcendent music doesn’t exist in the blues world, and Blind Willie Johnson’s mesmerizing slide-guitar work is second to none. (Legacy Recordings, released June 30th, 1998)