Here are a few facts behind Robert Johnson as they were told to me by Honeyboy Edwards
The devil at the crossroads myth is older than Johnson, Skip James, Petie Wilson, Tommy Johnson, and other older delta musicians already used this schtick, so it was something that Johnson embraced as a gimmick.
He left the area for over a year and when he returned he had become much better, more likely due to practicing and gigging around other parts, but who knows, the devil works in mysterious way!
Every one of Johnsons songs can be traced to older songs, unfortunately Robert wasn't as original as we give him credit for . . . but he did develop a very cool fingerstyle way of playing.
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