Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life & Music of Robert Johnson

Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life & Music of Robert Johnson (1997)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Danny Glover hosts and narrates this documentary tracing the life and music of Robert Johnson, the famed bluesman who recorded just 29 songs but managed to leave a lasting legacy decades after his murder. Jim O'Neil, Johnny Shines, Honeyboy Edwards, John Hammond, Jr., Eric Clapton and Keith Richards are among the people interviewed as they talk about Johnson, his impact and the various stages of his life both fact and fiction. Overall this is a decent documentary but it's still miles behind 1992's THE SEARCH FOR ROBERT JOHNSON and it should be noted that a few of the interviews here are actually taken from that earlier documentary. I think the main problem with this documentary is that the story structure is just all over the place and I never really felt that the film ever built up a good flow. The entire thing seemed to move at different paces and in the end it just felt a bit uneven with some strange and boring re-enactments that really didn't add anything to the picture. Of course, the strongest aspect is simply the music itself. We get several audio clips of Johnson's music and this here is certainly the main reason to tune in. There's also the mysterious story of Johnson himself as people believed that he had sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for being able to play music. There's also the mysterious death where he was poisoned and buried in a location that no one knows. Fans of Johnson might want to check this out but those new to him should probably start with the 1992 picture.

This is interesting if you are a Blues fan, like I am. I also recommend "Hellhounds On My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson (2000)". Danny Glover does a good job of covering his life. This documentary has a tendency to propagate the myths of RJ more than the fact.

Robert Johnson is rightly recognized as one of the blues greats, but he wasn't widely acknowledged until decades after his death. The documentary "Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life & Music of Robert Johnson" looks at him and the stories about him. Danny Glover hosts, with Keb' Mo' playing Johnson. The documentary does kind of over-emphasize things like Johnson's trading his soul for skills, but I do like that it helps to introduce people to Johnson's music. As it was, it was the British Invasion of the '60s that introduced Americans to a lot of the music that was right under Americans' noses but unacknowledged. I recommend the documentary.

I watched one documentary about Robert Johnson that focused entirely on his legendary deal with the devil... which is an interesting part of the story, but that's not really who Robert Johnson was.

And I've seen documentaries about Robert Johnson that scorned the mythology about the crossroads and focused entirely on the music... which is just as interesting, certainly more relevant, but that's really only a part of who Robert Johnson was.

This one is striking because it balances the two, but it also goes to lengths to try and give the viewer a glimpse into who he was as a man by interviewing people that knew him, were acquainted with him, and had anecdotes to tell the view that weren't about chords, lyrics, or Faustian pacts.

That's the documentary about Robert Johnson that I have always wanted to see, but don't think anyone else has ever made. It's almost as magical as his music, and when it does cover his music it dives a little deeper than just his three most popular songs.