ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads

It's a safe bet that all blues fans know who Robert Johnson was. Netflix's "ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads" looks at Johnson's life and work. Featuring interviews with Keb' Mo', Keith Richards, and even Johnson's grandson, it makes clear that Johnson was one of the greatest musicians of all time. Of course, it also notes the historical context (Johnson grew up in the deep south during the most racist period in our country's history). It's so sad that Johnson's life got cut short; I have no doubt that he would've continued making great music.

Basically, whether or not you're a blues fan, you gotta see this documentary. Pretty much all music in the US has its roots in the blues, and you owe it to yourself to hear Robert Johnson.

I had more fun watching the random documentaries about this case on youtube years ago. This documentary kinda kills the supernatural mystery of the story, I mean not exactly kills, but puts very little emphasis on the straordinariety of the story, which is what fascinates me most in the first place, and focus instead on a more mundane explanation for it all.

A comprehensive history of Blues Legend Robert Johnson, at least based on the limited information about him. Johnson was a legendary and innovative Guitarist who had a huge influence in modern music as we know it today. A must see if you are a fan of music, or of history in general.

I'm not a blues purist myself. I tend to like them distilled through the likes of the Stones, Clapton, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and others but I know just enough to be curious about the brief life and times of Robert Johnson, the great American blues guitarist and singer and founding member of the legendary "27" club, being the shared age at which a number of highly prominent musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Any Winehouse and others have died ever since Johnson's original demise.

Ideally, I suppose this rather brief Netflix documentary could have been edited down still more to 27 minutes to further emphasise the point but I guess that would have been taking things a bit too far, although so little is known about Johnson's life that I guess it could actually have been done in half the time.

Here, the little that is known about him, is fleshed out with animations and of course lots and lots of people talking about him. The great myth or legend, depending on your viewpoint about Johnson, is the whole deal about him selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads. More credible perhaps is that he went away and was taught by a master guitarist who allegedly said to him that the best place to rehearse and practice was in a graveyard at midnight.

Although it's clear there isn't much meat to the bone so far as his life story is concerned, it was still interesting to learn that he had two significant relationships in his life with very young women both of which were nipped in the bud we are told by over-protective family members who couldn't handle the fact that Robert made his living by playing what they called the devil's music, a.k.a. The blues. He did have a child by his second girlfriend (his first girlfriend also died tragically in childbirth before he could reach her) although the boy only had one memory of ever seeing his father and that only when he was being turned away by the boy's great grandfather on a surprise visit. The most interesting interviewees in the film I thought were of his only son and two subsequent grandsons, one of whom styles himself as a latter-day blues singer.

It really is a pity that there is no video footage available of the man himself in action but at least there is his legacy of 29 individual recordings and the bitter-sweet story is told that the legendary music historian and producer John Hammond had lined Johnson up to play in a special concert at New York's Carnegie Hall only to learn of course that Johnson had died some months before.

Unsurprisingly, I detected more than a hint of hyperbole and yarn-spinning by some of the contributors here, which I suppose is only to be expected. Nevertheless I found this introduction to one of the legendary figures of 20th Century music to be an informative and entertaining mini-documentary which may yet lead me down my own crossroads to take in some of Johnson's music.

The life of Robert Johnson, one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. A bluesman whose career ended before World War 2 and whose number of recorded songs is very limited, he influenced some of the greatest artists and bands of the century, including Muddy Waters, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Cream and Eric Clapton.

A musician who is well known to me, largely due to covers of his songs by Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Cream, the White Stripes and the Blues Brothers, amongst others, but whom many people will never have heard of. He died in 1938 at age 27 and his body of recorded work amounts to 29 songs yet his influence is immense.

This documentary goes some way to detailing his life and career, showing his great musical talent and capturing how influential he is. It also examines the age-old myth that he sold his soul to the devil to gain his talent, a well-worn blues jealousy not reserved exclusively for Robert Johnson. The filmmakers humour this notion though by researching how he got to be so good in such a short space of time.

The film could have been a bit more comprehensive though. Most documentaries tend to be padded with unnecessary interviews and editorials instead of information but this feels like it could have done with more information. That's one of the problems with Johnson though: not much is known about him.