Putting The Record Straight About The Fathers Of All Modern Music

If you trace whatever style of popular modern music you hear or listen to, all the way back to its roots, you will end up at the name of one man. This was a man who lived far too short a life, but a man who left a legacy that reverberated, and continues to do so, throughout the last almost 100 years.

Born in 1911 (or possibly 1912) Robert Leroy Johnson lead the life of a travelling musical performer and on his way around the Mississipi Delta almost single handedly set the template for the blues and good ol' Rock n Roll, to name but two styles heavily influenced by Johnson.

I say almost single handedly because at the start of his interest in playing the guitar, Robert Johnson sought out another historically neglected man called Ike Zimmerman. Like Robert, Ike was a dedicated musician and had a great deal to do with Johnson's development as a musician and songwriter.

Ike Zimmerman was a little older than Robert (born in 1907) and took the ambitious youngster under his wing not only as a guitar teacher, but maybe also as something of an elder brother or father figure. Zimmerman took Johnson into his home where he lived for one or two years. During that time the eager to learn student came on in leaps and bounds, no doubt as a result of long periods of practice with a master musician.

It is claimed that both musicians would go and practice at some local graveyard so as not to disturb anybody. Of the two musicians, only one of them made any recordings and that was Johnson. And it is surely for this reason Johnson is the man who is solely credited with being the father of the blues and rock n Roll. As a practicing dual instrumentalist singer songwriter myself, there is no doubt in my mind that Ike Zimmerman had a lot to do with the style credited to Johnson. To nail this claim squarely on the head, it is said that before his time with Zimmerman Johnson was not really a very good guitarist. What's more, some of Zimmerman's family have claimed that at least three of Johnson's songs ('Dust My Broom', 'Come On In My Kitchen' and 'Ramblin On My Mind') were written by Ike Zimmerman long before Johnson ever came across him. All that being said, it was Johnson who went the trouble to record those songs and a lot more songs which were unquestionably of his own creation, all of which went on to cement his place in popular music history as the father of the blues.

Many later highly successful artists like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Robert Plant and even Bob Dylan, have given credit to Robert Johnson as a major influence of their music. And whilst all of these artists have at some time or other appeared very high on lists such as the '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time', they all doff their cap to Robert Leroy Johnson.

Sadly Johnson never lived long enough to enjoy the fruits of his musical creativity. At the tender age of 27 he died in what have been called mysterious circumstances. Officially what killed Johnson was an attack of syphilis. Anecdotally, Johnson was poisoned by the agrieved bar owner husband of one of his sexual conquests. Some have even claimed that Johnson had done a Faustian deal with the devil to become the great musician and that his death was merely a case of Satan cashing in his chips and grabbing Johnson's soul. Whatever it was, it was very much an enormouse loss to music and culture. However, by that time Johnson had more than made his mark on all of us.

Ike Zimmerman lived until 1967 and passed away at the age of sixty from a heart attack. After his seperation from Johnson Zimmerman did continue to play around the Mississipi Delta until sometime in the 1950's when he became a Pentecostal Minister.

Despite these losses of both of these early musical titans, the music lives on and on and on. And those of us who are privileged enough to earn a living from it should be eternally grateful that Zimmerman and Johnson ever lived at all and gave us the gift with which we have been blessed.