Blues: The Devil's Music (2008)

Long known as the “devil’s music,” thanks to the legend surrounding bluesman Robert Johnson’s alleged deal with the devil at a Mississippi crossroads, “Old Nob,” as he’s known, has become firmly identified with blues music.

The devil is often just a metaphor used by blues singers to describe a cheatin’ woman, a bad boss, or even the evil in the world, and not a literal being. Still, from his first appearance in Clara Smith’s 1924 song “Done Sold My Soul To the Devil,” the devil persists in the culture of the blues. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular blues songs to evoke the devil’s name.

Brownie McGhee – “Dealing With the Devil” (1941)
Recorded during the Piedmont bluesman’s brief incarnation as “Blind Boy Fuller No. 2,” Brownie McGhee’s “Dealing With the Devil” is a classic tale of love gone wrong. Singing that “my woman don’t love me no more,” McGhee goes on to describe a lover that tries to poison him with “salt in his gravy” and “potash in his tea;” she “has a shotgun in the corner” and a “blackjack on the bed;” and he doesn’t understand why she “goes to bed with an icepick in her hand.” Delivered in Fuller’s traditional ragtime-influenced finger-picked style, McGhee’s spry, almost comedic reading of the song belies its seriousness.   BUY!

Charley Patton – “Devil Sent the Rain” (1929)
Patton’s “Devil Sent the Rain” is a plain-and-simple song of grief. Although the only remaining recording of this early track is pretty scratchy, as are many old blues 78s from the 1920s, the singer’s feelings are clear despite the ancient recording’s raw sound: his mother has died and he’s going to leave home to wander. Patton sings “Good Lord sent sunshine, devil he sent the rain” in response to his loss, adding “I didn’t know I loved her ‘til they eased her down.”   BUY!

Clutch – “The Devil & Me” (2007)
With an evil blues-metal soundtrack and stunning sandpaper guitars, rockers Clutch delivered one of the most chaotic-sounding songs on the subject with the open flame that is “The Devil & Me.” Turning the Robert Johnson myth on its head, the song speaks of a split between the protagonist and the devil, referring to some shadowy deal with the verse “the devil and me had a falling out, violation of contract beyond a shadow of a doubt.” Singer Neil Fallon doesn’t say exactly what caused the rift between the “best of friends” but the song cleverly name checks Beale Street in Memphis and Skip James’ classic “Killing Floor,” both places where one might run across the Prince of Darkness.   BUY!

Lonnie Johnson – “Devil’s Got the Blues” (1938)
Johnson’s classic song compares the blues to the devil – when one overtakes you, the other can’t be far behind. Johnson sings “the blues is like the devil, it comes on you like a spell, it will leave your heart full of trouble and your poor mind full of hell.” The protagonist is personifying the blues lifestyle, claiming that “the blues will drive you to drink and murder” whether due to heartbreak, poverty, or just good, old-fashioned depression. Johnson’s song includes a fine six-string performance by the influential guitarist.   BUY!

Peetie Wheatstraw – “Devil’s Son-In-Law”
Some time during the 1930s, bluesman William Bunch adopted the name and persona of “Peetie Wheatstraw,” also known as “the Devil’s Son-In-Law” and “the High Sheriff of Hell,” and all but two of his records were released under the Wheatstraw name. Although most historians believe that Bunch took on his diabolic moniker as a marketing ploy – playing up his macho image to sell more records – he penned several songs boasting of his connections to the underworld, including the ethereal “Devil’s Son-In-Law.” A larger-than-life figure that died young (the fate, it seems, of those that fool around with the devil), Bunch/Wheatstraw inspired a character in writer Ralph Ellison’s classic novel Invisible Man.   BUY!

Robert Johnson – “Cross Road Blues” (1936)
The myth behind Robert Johnson’s enormous talent, of course, is that the bluesman met the devil at the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi and sold his soul in exchange for his guitar-playing prowess. Oddly enough, Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” has nothing to do with any late-night bargaining with the devil, its lyrics instead describing the singer’s desperation to get home as darkness is falling. With the lynching of African-America men in the Southern United States not unusual during the 1920s and ‘30s, Johnson’s fears were not entirely unfounded. Regardless, the myth of Johnson’s shadowy midnight tryst has endured. The song available on Johnson’s The Complete Recordings set.   BUY!

Robert Johnson – “Hell Hound On My Trail” (1937)
Recorded during his last RCA studio session in 1937, Johnson’s “Hell Hound On My Trail” sounds terrifying. Over a strummed guitar, Johnson wails a desperate tale of a man trying to escape his fate – whether it’s the devil coming to collect on the Faustian bargain made by the singer, or just the police looking to arrest and jail him. Either way, Johnson maximizes the impact of the song through his use of brilliant poetic imagery and a vocal delivery that borderlines on the edge of desperation.

Robert Johnson – “Me and the Devil Blues” (1937)
The last of the fabled bluesman’s devil-related songs, “Me and the Devil Blues” seems to be a standard-issue blues tune about having trouble with your woman. In this case, the devil might personify the singer’s troublesome lover, or it might be a reference to the artist’s belief that the woman’s love would lead him to the grave…or maybe both. Johnson’s final verse, “you may bury my body down by the highway side, so my old evil spirit can catch that Greyhound bus and ride” touches upon the blues tradition of anonymous roadside internment.

Sam Collins – “Devil In the Lion’s Den” (1927)
This song by obscure bluesman Sam Collins offers one of the earliest references to the devil in blues music. The singer, a “motherless child” (another blues tradition), states “yon’ come the devil, we gonna set this town on fire” before boasting of his personal powers (“I got ways like a devil, sleep in the lion’s den”) before letting his woman know that he’ll be “goin’ up the country” when she asks him to stay. Not unlike modern rap songs with their braggadocio, Collins’ “Devil In The Lion’s Den” may be the first recorded tale of the ramblin’, gamblin’ man.   BUY!

Skip James – “Devil Got My Woman” (1931)
Country bluesman Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman” is a song of romantic entanglement. James opens the song by singing “I’d rather be the devil, to be that woman man” before blaming the evil one’s influence for his lover’s infidelity, closing the first verse with “was nothin’ but the devil, changed my baby’s mind.” It turns out that the song’s protagonist is not without blame, ‘cause it turns out that the “woman I loved, took her from my best friend,” later adding “but he got lucky, stoled her back again.” Although delivered with James’ typical high wail and accompanied by a haunting guitar track, the song displays an irony usually absent from the bluesman’s repertoire.   BUY! 

Also on That Devil Music:
Spotlight On R.L. Burnside
Lost & Found: Preacher Boy

The Blues Images 2020 Calendar Is Here!

The Reverend has hung a copy of John Tefteller’s incredible Blues Images calendar on his office wall for over a decade now, its brilliant imagery and blues spirit providing inspiration for my own humble creative efforts. When the leaves begin to turn each autumn, I look forward to receiving the 12”x12” square box with the next year’s calendar enclosed, and I’m happy to say that the 2020 edition is now available!

For the neophytes among you, the Blues Images calendar features vintage advertising artwork from long-gone blues label Paramount Records that noted record collector and dealer Tefteller literally rescued from a dumpster over 20 years ago. Each year’s calendar preserves an immensely-valuable visual history of the early years of the blues; I donate my copies at the end of each year to the Bill Schurk Sound Archives at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

The 2020 calendar offers the imaginative pen-and-ink art promoting Paramount releases of plastic fantastic sides like Charley Spand’s “Ain’t Gonna Stand For That,” Leola B. Wilson’s “Ashley Street Blues,” Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Bad Luck Blues,” and a holiday-themed December ad featuring Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe’s “Read Your ABC’s.” There are little photos of B&W advertising artwork reproduced in the empty squares among the days as well.

This year, for the first time, the Blues Images calendar features more photographic advertising art than pen-and-ink drawing, probably because printing technology had improved by the 1930s-era date of many of these ads. As such, the calendar features rare, not-seen-for-decades photos of artists like B.B. King, Victoria Spivey, the Mississippi Sheiks, Bo Carter, “Texas” Alexander, Lonnie Johnson, and Bessie Jackson instead of the usual B&W drawings. Each calendar page is annotated with historical and biographical information about the featured artist, and each month also includes the birth and death dates of classic blues artists.
 
The Blues Images 2020 calendar cost slightly more than some cheap wall-hanger you’d buy from the mall or local bookstore, but for the hardcore blues fan, Tefteller packs a lot of value for the $24.95 (plus shipping) it will cost you. Each Blues Images calendar includes a full-length CD that features rare, impossible-to-find, and often one-of-a-kind tracks, many of them sourced from Tefteller’s extensive personal collection. The performances, which include the songs from the original advertising as well as related releases, have been remastered from the original 78rpm records using the ‘American Epic’ digital process that makes the sound on these antique shellac marvels really pop out of your speakers.

For 2020, Tefteller expanded the reach of the enclosed CD’s coverage to span from the late 1920s through the late 1940s, which encompasses a heck of a lot of great blues sides. The 2020 CD opens with a rare track from the calendar’s cover artist, the phenomenal blues legend B.B. King. “Got the Blues” is a jaunty, jazzy track released as King’s second single in 1949 by the Bullet Records label. It wouldn’t chart, but that’s OK ‘cause a couple of years (and a half-dozen singles) later, B.B. would strike gold with the R&B chart-topping “3 O’Clock Blues.” Still, “Got the Blues” sketches out the bluesy, jazz-flecked sound that King would take to the bank over the decades to follow.

Victoria Spivey’s “Blood Thirsty Blues” takes the listener back to the 1920s – 1927 to be exact – the song’s vaudeville roots apparent in its early jazzlike feel. Spivey recorded with greats like Louis Armstrong and King Oliver throughout her career, so the jazz influences heard in her vamping blues are honest. The Mississippi Sheiks’ “Baby Keeps Stealing Lovin’ On Me” is a prime slice of jug band blues dating to 1930 while Sheiks’ guitarist Bo Carter’s “Howling Tom Cat Blues” is an enchanting, underrated track from 1931.

There’s a lot of other great stuff on this year’s CD, including tracks by “Texas” Alexander with the Mississippi Sheiks (“Days Is Lonesome,” 1930), Blind Lemon Jefferson (“Bad Luck Blues,” 1930), Lonnie Johnson (“She’s Making Whoopee In Hell Tonight,” 1930), and Bessie Jackson (“Shave ‘Em Dry,” 1935), all of which are represented by cool advertising artwork across the months. The CD includes another ten tracks for which there is no artwork, but represents a treasure trove of blues music nevertheless. You’ll find three recently-discovered (and unreleased) demos by obscure bluesman Juke Boy Barner, a couple of songs by Blues Boy Bill (one of ‘em previously unreleased), and super-duper-rare recordings by folks like William Moore, Mississippi Sarah, and Joe Stone (a/k/a Jaydee Short).

The annual Blues Images calendar and CD is a “must have” addition to the collection of any serious old-school blues fan. Blues Images sells other cool blues-related stuff, too, like posters, t-shirts, CDs from previous years, and past years’ calendars. You can find it all on the Blues Images website. Tell John that “the Rev sent ya!”