November is Guitar Month at CBC Music, and we’re using it as a chance to look at some of the greatest guitar players in music history. When it comes to blues, the name that always rises above the rest is Robert Johnson. But rather than tell the same old story the same old way, let’s have a look at the legend through an art form decidedly different from the blues: Japanese manga.
The horror genre and the blues aren’t exactly synonymous, but when they do intersect, the man standing at the crossroads is almost always Robert Johnson. The most famous tale in all of blues mythology is, of course, Johnson’s Faustian pact with Old Scratch, which saw Johnson sell his soul to the devil one night at a crossroads in Mississippi — a devil who took Johnson’s guitar, tuned it, played a few songs, then returned it, bestowing Johnson with an unnatural talent for the blues.
In actuality, according to Robert Palmer’s book Deep Blues, Johnson was taught by one Ike Zinneman, who instilled the young man with a “flowing East Coast style.” Johnson also apparently crossed paths with bluesman Tommy Johnson, and adopted a pact-with-the-devil reputation to bolster his own image. Most details of Johnson’s life — and death, due to poisoning at age 27 — are cloudy at best. This, combined with song titles such as “Crossroad Blues,” “Hellhound on my Trail” and “Me and the Devil Blues,” has only added to Johnson’s diabolical reputation.
It’s that last song that was appropriated as the title for a manga series that put a supernatural spin on Johnson’s mysterious life. (Manga, for the uninitiated, is the term for the popular pulp-style of black-and-white comic books from Japan, read from right to left.) The series, called Me and the Devil Blues: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson, created by writer/illustrator Akira Hiramoto, was released in Japan in 2005 and translated for the North American market by now defunct Del Rey Manga in 2008.
Beginning in 1929, the story follows “RJ,” who, despite hanging around the local juke joint with famous bluesmen Son House, Willie Brown and Charley Patton (just as Johnson did in real life), is an abysmal musician. After a particularly spooky late-night rendezvous with a mysterious man at a crossroads, RJ becomes a master of the slide guitar. He also learns that months have passed over the course of that night, and his wife and unborn child have died (in reality, Johnson’s wife, Virginia, died in childbirth before he ever met Son House, Brown and Patton).
The story then barrels headlong into the surreal when RJ meets Clyde Barrow, who’s on the run after his love, Bonnie Parker, has been gunned down. RJ is forced to join Barrow on a crime spree that results in the bluesman being thrown in jail, with Barrow posing as a reporter to break Barrow out before his scheduled lynching. Enter the town's blind benefactor, who enforces prohibition with the death penalty and has a disturbingly close relationship with a young boy. Said benefactor also lives in a mansion with a secret room containing dolls made with real body parts. When Barrow shoots his way out of town with RJ in tow, the benefactor puts literal hellhounds on their trail.
The whole thing is as twisted as it sounds, and Hiramoto’s depiction of the era is frighteningly evocative, from the brutal, violent racism to the shadowy, atmospheric artwork and authentic-sounding speech. The creator obviously did his research and nails small details, such as the use of a bottleneck for a guitar slide.
Me and the Devil Blues is a fascinating collision of history and mythology, American folklore and a distinctly modern Japanese form of storytelling. Despite winning awards, though, it may have been a little too uncanny for readers — it was cancelled, in 2006, after its 28th instalment, and the story remains unfinished. Given Johnson’s sketchy biography, it’s frustratingly appropriate. More importantly, it illustrates just how powerful the myth of Robert Johnson has grown, drawing people from all over the world to that infamous crossroads on a moonlit night.
Inside the Music will feature Robert Johnson on its Nov. 17 episode. Inside the Music airs on Sundays at 3 p.m. (3:30 NT) on CBC Radio 2, Sundays at 9 p.m. (10 AT, 10:30 NT) on CBC Radio One.
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