chs 1 through 10-4

Whatever Happened To

Robert Johnson

If Robert Johnson really did make a deal with the devil, he got the short end of the stick as payment came due at the age of twenty-seven. Fellow bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson had advised Johnson never to drink from an open bottle. Johnson, who was playing an extended engagement at a club near Greenwood, Mississippi, became involved with a woman at the time and ignored this advice. He was most likely poisoned by strychnine. He would die a couple of days later on August 16, 1938.

As much of his life has been shrouded in mystery, so was his death and burial. There are three sites that purport to be his final resting place.

He was most likely buried in an unmarked grave in the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery near Morgan City, Mississippi, not far from where he died. A cenotaph is a monument placed for a person whose remains are elsewhere, so this as his final resting place is not a foregone conclusion. The Columbia label paid for a two-thousand-pound monument listing all of his songs.

A second gravestone marker was placed in the Payne Chapel Cemetery near Quito, Mississippi. It simply says; “resting in the blues.” Since the cemetery’s owner paid for the stone, it remains the least likely place.

The third entrant in the Robert Johnson grave sweepstakes is located in Little Zion Cemetery, which is north of Greenwood. The gravedigger’s wife has pointed to a place under a pecan tree as Johnson’s final resting place. Sony music paid for this third monument.

Only two authenticated pictures of Johnson have been found, and his body of recorded work remains very small. Still, he is revered as one of the founders of the blues. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and posthumously received a Grammy Lifetime Award in 2006.

“I went down to the crossroad, fell down on my knees. I went down to the crossroad, fell down on my knees. Asked the Lord above, ‘Have mercy now save poor Bob if you please.’” Lyrics taken from “Cross Road Blues,” recorded November 27, 1936.

Son House

As World War II and the American landscape began to change, the career of Son House began to wane. He finally disappeared and became a forgotten figure.

The early sixties blues revival led to his rediscovery. He was found living in Rochester, New York, working for the New York Central Railroad. His twenty-year railroad career came to a quick end as he appeared at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival and for the next decade toured throughout the United States and Europe.

Son House toured and recorded for another decade and became a well-respected link to the past. He retired for the final time in 1974 and passed away at the wise old age of eighty-six. He is buried in the Mount Hazel Cemetery in Detroit. The city’s blues society erected and paid for his tombstone.

Charley Patton

The Holly Ridge Cemetery in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, is a stark place that forms the background for the final resting place of Charley Patton.

He would never achieve wide commercial success or acclaim during his lifetime. He was a man of the road who only recorded a few times during his time on earth. He died of heart problems at Heathman-Dedham Plantation on his forty-second birthday, April 28, 1934. The newspapers of the time made no mention of his passing. His only known photograph adorns his tombstone. His epitaph reads, “The foremost performer of Early Mississippi blues whose songs became cornerstones of American Music.” Amen!

Memphis Minnie

Memphis Minnie may have been a traveling woman, but she stopped long enough to marry three times and all to blues guitarists. First came Joe McCoy, then Casey Bill Weldon, and finally Ernest Lawlers, with whom she recorded over two hundred sides. She finally retired to Memphis in 1957. Lawlers passed away in 1961. Memphis Minnie spent her last years in a nursing home and died on August 6, 1973.

She now resides in the New Hope Baptist Church cemetery, in Wallis, Mississippi. Bonnie Raitt paid for her tombstone, which reads, “The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie’s songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we hear them as if they were our own.”

Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon outlived most of his contemporaries, finally passing away on January 29, 1992. He was active to almost the end of his life, with his album Hidden Charms winning a 1989 Grammy Award.

He was always a smart businessman and established his own publishing company, Ghana Music, in 1957. Even at that early date, he realized that his songs needed protection. In many ways his legacy will never die as the five hundred or so songs he composed will continue to be reinterpreted by future generations of artists.

He continued to tour in the United States and Europe and became respected by many of the leading bluesmen of the day. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence in 1994.

If you are ever passing through Alsip in Cook County, Illinois, and come across Burr Oak Cemetery, stop and look for the willow trees. It is there you will find the final resting place of Willie Dixon.

Philip and Leonard Chess

The Chess Brothers continued to expand their roster and vision throughout the sixties. The history of both the blues and rock ’n’ roll can be found on their colorful old 78s and 45s.

In 1955, they started the Argo label for jazz and pop releases. Radio stations at the time limited the number of releases they would play from one label, and so the Chess brothers found an easy way for their artists to gain more exposure.

Leonard’s health began to fail during the late sixties, and they sold the label for $6.5 million in 1969. While that is still a lot of money today, it was an extraordinary amount in the late sixties. Unfortunately, money does not equal health, and Leonard Chess died on October 16, 1969, at the age of fifty-two. He is buried under an unassuming stone in Westlawn Cemetery in his adopted home of Chicago.

Clapton would stay in touch with and honor the blues heritage throughout his career. Author’s collection

Both Leonard and Philip were inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1995 as nonperformers. Leonard was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Sometimes, however, money and age due work out well. Philip Chess retired to Arizona in 1972 and as of this writing is still alive and forty years into his retirement, having outlived virtually all of the old bluesmen who recorded for his label.

Howlin’ Wolf

Howlin’ Wolf passed away on January 10, 1976, and was put to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois. Rumor has it that Eric Clapton donated the gravestone.

He continued to record and tour until near the end of his life. In 1971, he and longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin traveled to London to record an album with some of the cream of second-generation British blues players and musicians. The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions were a critical and commercial success and featured such artists as Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Ringo Starr, and Klaus Voormann, among others.

Howlin’ Wolf was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as an early influence. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored three of his songs among the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock ’n’ Roll. “Smokestack Lightning” (1956), “Spoonful” (1960), and “The Red Rooster” (1962) are permanently enshrined in the mecca of American rock music. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in his likeness on September 17, 1994, as a part of their blues series.

Howlin’ Wolf was one of the few bluesmen of his generation to become financially secure. His wife Lillie managed his career for years and handled his finances and provided a stable home environment. She remained active by appearing at various blues events until her death in 2001. She was buried next to her husband.

Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters’s career flourished during the 1970s. He won six Grammy Awards during the decade, all for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording. They Call Me Muddy Waters (1971), The London Muddy Waters Session (1972), The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album (1975), Hard Again (1977), I’m Ready (1978), and Muddy “Mississippi” Waters Live (1979) all introduced him to a new generation of fans and cemented his legacy.

He was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame (1980), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987), and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1992). Like his old friendly rival, he was honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a twenty-nine-cent stamp that bore his likeness. “Rollin’ Stone” (1950), “Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954), “Mannish Boy” (1955), and “Got My Mojo Working” (1957) were all honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame among the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock ’n’ Roll. Rolling Stone named him the seventeenth greatest artist of all time.

His gravestone is unimposing, unlike his legacy, which remains one of the most important in blues/rock music.

Alexis Korner

Alexis Korner lived hard, played hard, and died hard. A heavy smoker all of his life, he succumbed to lung cancer on January 1, 1984. He was cremated, with his ashes scattered at his home in Wales.

Korner never achieved the popularity of many of the musicians who cashed in on his blues sound. He did, however, have a colorful and varied career. He left Blues Incorporated in 1966; formed C.C.S. (Collective Consciousness Society) in 1970, which produced the hit single “Whole Lotta Love”; and then formed Snape in 1973 with Boz Burrell, Mel Collin, and Ian Wallace, formerly of King Crimson. In 1981, he became a member of Rocket 88 with such stalwarts as Ian Stewart, Jack Bruce, and Charlie Watts.

In the midst of his group experiences, he found time to become a noted broadcaster, interviewer, and historian. He also flourished as one of the grand old men of the British blues, despite his young age. He was honored on his fiftieth birthday at a gala concert featuring Eric Clapton, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Paul Jones, and Zoot Money. The Party Album is a live chronicle of the concert and forms a fitting epitaph of his career.

Cyril Davies

Cyril Davies may have been a talented musician and seminal British blues figure but when it came to genetics, he received the short end of the stick. He died at the age of thirty-one on January 7, 1964.

It is doubtful that the early Delta blues masters could have envisioned where Eric Clapton and his generation would take the sound they invented. Author’s collection

After splitting with Korner and Blues Incorporated, he formed the Cyril Davies All-Stars in 1962. They recorded a few tracks with Davies, which can be found on a number of anthology albums.

The cause of his death is not definitely known. Leukemia, pleurisy, and lung cancer have all been mentioned as possibilities. The giant and very complete website Find a Grave (findagrave.com) is still seeking information about his final resting place at this writing.

Chris Barber

Chris Barber was born on April 17, 1930. That may seem like a long time ago, but Chris Barber and his band are still on the road. Trumpeter Phil Halcox, who retired on July 16, 2008, played with Barber for fifty-four years, having joined his band in 1954. It is thought to be the longest continuous relationship in modern music.

His lasting legacy insofar as the blues is concerned was his recognition of a new music form. Barber allowed some of his musicians to explore and perform it and was adaptable to their ideas. He later served as a concert producer who brought many noted American blues artists to the British Isles. While he has played jazz music all of his life, it was these early contributions to the formation of the British blues that cemented Barber’s legacy.

The stage was set! The blues had traveled from the bayous of the Mississippi Delta to the inner city of Chicago, and traveled thousands of miles to Great Britain. A generation of young English musicians was coming of age, and they had immersed themselves in this new musical form. They were about to change and twist the sound, while taking it in many directions. One of the most talented, Eric Clapton, was about to take the stage.