The Mississippi Blues Trail marker reads: “ROBERT JOHNSON – A seminal figure in the history of the Delta blues, Robert Johnson (1911-1938) synthesized the music of Delta blues pioneers such as Son House with outside traditions. There are supposedly 3 places where he is buried but according to the actual grave digger thus is where he rests, There are 3 places where they say he's buried but this is the one he is actually buried in. He in turn influenced artists such as Muddy Waters and Elmore James. However sincere Thomas’s testimony may have been, the evidence was always scant—considering, especially, that the death certificate named a “Zion Church.” But for all intents and purposes, Johnson basically now had two memorials resembling grave markers within two miles of each other. While rumors of the reinterment prompted speculation that Johnson’s body may have been moved from one cemetery to another, McDonald’s records said otherwise. What hotels are near Robert Johnson's Grave? No one seemed to know exactly where his mortal remains were buried, and the idea took hold that there were at least three possible gravesites. (Bruce Conforth, fittingly, was also founding curator of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This is the version of our website addressed to speakers of English in the United States. Johnson’s compositions, notable for their poetic qualities, include the standards ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ and ‘Dust My Broom.’ Johnson’s mysterious life and early death continue to fascinate blues fans. The leafy green once foretold the future. Throughout his short life, he moved around between Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee, and didn’t leave much of a trail. The point is that the Devil is in rock music’s DNA, and the stories around Johnson helped put it there. After an African-American cemetery was bulldozed, families wondered what happened to the graves. The church’s pastor, Reverend James Ratliff, was one of many locals who had first heard of Johnson because of the plans for the memorial. Steven Johnson, the musician’s grandson, recalls a similar exchange he had with Clapton, who said that Robert’s playing simulated the sound of three guitars with just one. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Morgan City and one at the Payne Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Quito. Wardlow, the co-biographer and a self-appointed “blues detective,” began his search for Robert Johnson’s death certificate in 1965. He found the stories neither scary nor particularly alluring, but he always felt, he says, that they were concealing or misleading, “that there was truth that hadn’t been told.”. Howlin’ Wolf, for example, was actually born before Johnson—but because Wolf lived longer, he’s sometimes considered a follower of Johnson’s rather than a contemporary. Zion MB, and its obelisk commemorating the musician, are still standing—even if Johnson is actually buried elsewhere. Where he’s buried is another mystery. Just two months before that dedication, however, a smaller stone had been set in his honor in the nearby town of Quito, also in Leflore County, outside the Payne Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. The photo below shows the Robert Johnson headstone beneath a large pecan tree. Available through Amazon.com and these Amazon affiliates: Would you like to leave a comment or question about anything on this page? But despite Robert Johnson’s importance in blues history and his major influence on the music, much of his life is shrouded in mystery. To the African Americans who created it, blues was not necessarily “dark, scary, devilish music,” says Wald. Once Eskridge came forward, however, the case seemed pretty decisively closed.
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