Robert Johnson, the blues is a novel
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Jonathan Gaudet's book (Éd. Le Mot et Le Reste).
© Ed.
The Word and The Rest
By: Joe Farmer Follow
4 min
The year 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of bluesman Robert Johnson, whose saga has given rise to many writings over the decades.
In recent months, several books have once again told the epic story of this fascinating guitarist.
There is no shortage of biographies, but making his epic thrilling and believable has become a real challenge.
Jonathan Gaudet has chosen to romanticize the tumultuous adventure of a brazen, indomitable black man, kneaded in talent, jostled by life and celebrated too late.
"The ballad of Robert Johnson" (Ed. The word and the rest) is the film of a fleeting existence which always manages to move us and to question us.
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Born on May 8, 1911 in the heart of Mississippi, Robert Leroy Johnson has long been described as an enigmatic character, whose tenacious legend has it that he crossed the devil and sold his soul in exchange for an undeniable guitar virtuosity.
This fable is obviously not based on any proven fact, but persists despite everything in the minds of blues storytellers.
The reality is quite different and, even if gray areas remain, the life of Robert Johnson was much less romantic than it was presented.
Confronted with the harshness of racist America at the start of the 20th century, this young African-American from the southern countryside had to fight to exist and to assert his talent.
Jonathan Gaudet.
© Téo Gaudet
Although he imagined the epic of Robert Johnson, Jonathan Gaudet studied at length the archives, writings, audiovisual documents, to narrate as closely as possible the alleged human adventure of his hero.
The miserable social conditions of the black community a century ago set the stage for this very credible evocation which plunges us into a painful past punctuated by small glories and terrible disillusions.
Petticoat, rebellious spirit, fiery troublemaker, Robert Johnson seems to be chasing time under the admiring pen of the author-screenwriter.
This is indeed a theatrical or cinematographic vision of a unique destiny desired by Jonathan Gaudet.
The recording scenes in San Antonio and Dallas in 1936 and 1937 are almost palpable as the attention to detail and literary cadence easily transport us to this distant era.
Robert Johnson's grave in Greenwood, Mississippi.
© Xavier Bonnet
Although controversial, the disappearance of Robert Johnson in August 1938 joins, in the imagination of Jonathan Gaudet, the thesis most often considered: poisoning.
This freedom of interpretation of reality will undoubtedly annoy supporters of biographical authenticity, but what does it matter… Redrawing the contours of a life does not alter its value.
Playing with the key moments of a bygone era contributes to its present vigor.
Of course, Robert Johnson never set foot on the prestigious Carnegie Hall stage in New York, but he was there, on December 23, 1938, invisible but perceptible, absent but unavoidable, in the spotlight but stardust in the firmament of the blues.
"La ballade de Robert Johnson", by Jonathan Gaudet, published by Le mot et le rest
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To read also:
- "And the devil arose, the real life of Robert Johnson"
- "Growing up with Robert Johnson"
.
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