Hellhound on My Trail

Infobox Song
Name = Hellhound on My Trail


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Artist = Robert Johnson
Album =

Released = Start date|1937 | 09
Format = 78 rpm
Recorded = Dallas, Texas. Saturday, June 19, 1937
Genre = Blues
Length =
Label = Vocalion
Writer = Robert Johnson
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Misc = "Hellhound on My Trail" is an original blues song recorded by a young drifter from the Mississippi Delta, Robert Johnson, in Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, July 20, 1937, one of ten songs recorded in his second and last recording session for RCA. By the fall of 1938 he was dead, rumored to have been murdered during the summer, maybe stabbed to death or poisoned by a jealous lover. He was twenty-seven when he died. This song is one of twenty-nine songs that is all that is left of Robert Johnson. A somewhat mythological figure, little else is known about him.cite book
first=Samuel
last= Charters
authorlink = Samuel Charters
year= 1973
title=Robert Johnson
edition=
publisher=Oak Publications
location=New York
pages= pp 15-17, 69
id= ISBN 0-8256-0059-6 ]

According to legend, Johnson sold his soul to the devil in a Faustian deal at the crossroads in return for his musical talent. [cite web
url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1075057
title=Hellhound
publisher=npr.org
accessdate=2007-08-24]

This song fuels the mystery and lore surrounding him as it suggests a man in the grip of evil, and his deal with the devil has become part of popular culture. [cite web
url=http://hermes.lib.olemiss.edu/mystery/exhibit.asp?display=7&section=2
title=Robert Johnson
publisher=University of Mississippi
accessdate=2007-08-24 ] Rolling Stone Magazine considers Johnson's version of the song essential listening. [cite web
url=http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/5937559/page/5
title=The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time : Rolling Stone
publisher=rollingstone.com
accessdate=2008-07-27]

He played the guitar with a distinctive bottleneck slide style and sang with an intensity that was personal and chilling in its candor. No one remembers what he used for a bottleneck but his bottleneck playing was in an open E chord with the lower strings used as a drone-like accompaniment. Muddy Waters told Alan Lomax that he admired Johnson and had once seen him perform. However, the similarities in their styles are due to their borrowings from their teacher Son House. [Lomax, Alan (1993). "The Land Where the Blues Began". p 411. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-67850.]

Such is the customary modern understanding of the song. However, research by one blues scholar alternatively suggests that Johnson followed Johnny Temple and Joe McCoy in adapting Skip James's song "Devil Got My Woman". [Wald, Elijah (2004). "Escaping the Delta. Robert Johnson and the invention of the Blues". p. 171. Amistad. ISBN 0-06-052427-8.] According to a biography of Skip James, from recorded taped interviews, Joe Mcoy was responsible for the first recording of this "banal ditty", but it was not released until 1940.cite book
last = Calt
first =Stephen
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = I'd Rather be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues
publisher = Da Capa
date = 1994
location = New York
pages = p. 194
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0-306-80579-0]

ong

Although this is a twelve bar blues song in structure, it is unique in melody and verse form. The first and last verses may be the finest found in the blues, according to music historian Samuel Charters. The poetic imagery is brilliant and intense with a feeling of personal frenzy.cite book
first= Arnold
last= Shaw
year= 1978
title= Honkers and Shouters
edition=
publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company
location= New York
pages= pp 38-39
id= ISBN 0-02-061740-2] The song's lyrics reflect an agonized spirit for whom there is no escape. [cite book
first=Paul
last=Oliver
year=1990
title=Blues Fell This Morning
edition= 2nd Ed
publisher=Cambridge University Press
location=Cambridge
pages= pp 285-287
id= ISBN 0-521-37793-5 ] The vision of the hounds of hell coming to catch sinners was prevalent in southern churches at that time, and this may have been the image in Johnson's mind.:"I got to keep movinnnn', I got to keep movinnnn',:"Blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail,:"Mmmmm-mm-mm-mm, blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail,:"And the day keeps on worring' me, there's a hell-hound on my trail,:"Hell-hound on my trail, hell-hound on my trail.

Legacy

Robert Johnson has influenced generations of bluesmen, including Eric Clapton who recorded a tribute album to Johnson entitled Me and Mr. Johnson which includes "Hellhound on My Trail". Johnson is number five on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time with Clapton who is placed at number four. [cite web
url=http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5937559/the_100_greatest_guitarists_of_all_time/
title=The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
publisher=Rolling Stone
accessdate=2007-08-24 ] "Hellhound on My Trail" is listed as one of NPR's 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century because of the profound impact of the song on the evolution of the blues. [cite web
url=http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/vote/list100.html
title=The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century
publisher=npr.org
accessdate=2007-08-24 ] "Hellhound on My Trail" is now considered a classic.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://hermes.lib.olemiss.edu/mystery/exhibit.asp?ID=185 Robert Johnson death certificate - State of Mississippi]