Robert Johnson sells his souls to the devil

Sometime in the mid-1930s: Number 5 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk musicThe Faustian tale of the troubled man making a pact with the devil is a recurring motif in Christian mythology. It often seeped into music – two centuries ago, people believed the Italian violinist Paganini's powers were satanic. But none of these myths have proved quite as enduring as that of Robert Johnson. The bluesman Son House, a contemporary of Johnson, insisted he was a decent h...

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