Revelation Blind Willie Johnson The Biography. by D.N. Blakey

We are told when the bottleneck rattles along the fret board and are alerted to the fact that on at least one occasion Johnson omits to begin a verse with “Well”. This gives us vital and hitherto undocumented information such as “Intro is three brisk strums on guitar” and “Sometimes Johnson sounds like he says unna for gonna!” Why would he? Inserted after the lyric “Well, if I had my way” is the comment “(sounds like fi)'. Then, for those who weren’t paying attention the first time round, we have them again, in exactly the same format but this time we get “Lyrics with commentary”.

First we have them, in upper case, with the lines double spaced so that we get approximately ten lines on each page. Johnson’s image, from the one known photograph of him, is repeated no less than twenty times throughout the pages, often with a full page being used to carry a single, postage stamp size, reproduction.Īs if the rain forests aren’t creaking enough (and less so as time goes by) Blakey gives us the lyrics of Willie’s songs…twice. Pages with the most text on them have around 250 words and there aren’t many pages like that.

To get an idea of what this book does, I think that I need to begin by throwing a few statistics your way. If I would be able to stick my neck out and offer a few theories or speculations into the bargain then even better. For me, if I were to embark upon going to the trouble of writing any lengthy piece of work, particularly of an academic nature and then go through the process of proof reading, artwork, publishing etc., then I would want to make sure that the piece is well researched, informative and with an element, no matter how small, of entertainment thrown in to help things on their way.

I’ve not written one and I am more than likely not to. There are still many artists from the world of blues, gospel, songster and other related music who’s biographies are well overdue. Review of Revelation - Blind Willie Johnson. Review of Revelation - Blind Willie Johnson - The Biography

Revelation Blind Willie Johnson The Biography. by D.N. Blakey