Book Review: 'Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson'
A Book by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow
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There are many, many books about Robert Johnson and many that I have read, but this one has to be one of my favourites and a great book to read for any level of fan. Whether you are just on your route to discovering the blues king who sold his soul to the devil—or whether you've been listening to him for a few years now and have come to see many different aspects of his life, this is probably the ultimate book on everything Robert Johnson and every bit of possible research that you could want.
I'm going to make this nice and easy and go through the summary first and then, we will have a look what I thought of it and why. I hope you enjoy this review and I also hope that you too, whether Robert Johnson fan or newly coming into the early blues—read this book because I'm very sure you'll enjoy it.
Summary and Overview
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This book begins very clearly with quite a while before Robert Johnson is born. Starting with a marriage between two people in the mid-1800s, this book will then go on to become a part of Robert's story when he is born to a woman looking for her place in the world after a number of failed and sometimes abusive relationships.
By the time Robert Johnson is born, there are already failed marriages, a few more children, two or three different homes that aren't stable because of how small they are and the obvious racism that coated the American South lifestyle back then.
The book explains how Robert Johnson moved whilst growing up between the Mississippi Delta and Memphis, Tennessee. He grew up between his mother and a man she had married before. He lived with people he didn't know and he actually went to school—though it was rare for a child of colour to attend any school at all. There was a school (though small) especially for children of colour.
Each and every thing that Robert Johnson experienced during his childhood, though little is known about it on a factual basis, seems to have influenced his want to perform the blues. Even though it was called "the devil's music"—Robert Johnson still wanted to play it on the basis of it being influential and brilliant for storytelling.
The book then explains the beginnings of Robert Johnson's career, when he became an audience member for Charley Patton and then, when he began meeting other blues artists. Of course, before you ask—yes, it does go through the myth and legend that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil for his guitar skills.
The latter part of the book is dedicated to the downfall of Robert Johnson. It explains his drinking problem mixed with his abandoning of various women he would pick up (often reflected as a characteristic attributed to the fact his mother kept abandoning him as a child). After which, he was possibly poisoned with whisky and eventually, coughed up blood and died at the age of 27. Though many of the facts about his death are unknown, this book makes it very clear that these are all speculations and none of them are entirely confirmed.
This book goes through various details that have been made up from interviews with people who knew Robert Johnson and people that had researched him for a time. It uses interviews and quotations on Robert Johnson from people who knew him personally to colour the story with factual and yet a storytelling atmosphere. Heavy on the research, this book makes for a brilliant piece of literature about one of the greatest blues singers to ever exist.
My Opinions
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Robert Johnson's life is a strange, mysterious, and complicated one and if you want to read a book that tries to clear the majority of that up without overloading you with research methods—then Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson is for you. I feel like this book gives some reality to Robert Johnson since he has become myth through the Faustian Pact legend surrounding him.
The one thing I enjoyed the most about this book though is the writing style. It's so well written that it doesn't overload you with information to begin with and then break it down. Every chapter is dedicated to a different thing in Robert Johnson's life and each chapter expands and tells the entire story of research that has been accumulated.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that in no way whatsoever is it boring. It doesn't get mundane or boring, even though what Robert Johnson is doing at that time may not be entirely interesting (I don't know, maybe he started drinking and got into a fight again). But the book manages to intwine whatever it is into the Robert Johnson story as something profound and likely to have influenced something somewhere later on, or have been influenced by something before.
Conclusion
One of the best books on Robert Johnson I have ever read and also one of the greatest biographies I've ever read. This book gives a great overview of Robert Johnson's life, explores every aspect we know about—gives you theories that other people had of what was happening even if we don't know it factually and offers a lot of story of those who knew him personally. There is a lot of research that has gone into this book and you can really tell that there has been a lot of concentration on writing style and getting across the factual and legendary stories of Robert Johnson.
About the Creator
Annie Kapur
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
Secondary English Teacher & Lecturer
🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)
🎓Film & Writing (M.A)
🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
📍Birmingham, UK
X: @AnnieWithBooks
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