Robert Johnson 1911-1938

Robert Johnson poses with fellow blues musician Johnny Shines in a photograph released in February 2014. I particularly do not believe this is Robert Johnson... but I posted it anyway... 

Perhaps the most infamous music deal ever struck involved no contracts and no lawyers. The blues singer Robert Johnson, so legend goes, acquired his unearthly musical talent after meeting the devil at a crossroads.

Until now, there were only 2 verified photographs of Johnson (1911-1938), who remains the most inspirational musician produced by the Mississippi  Delta and the man Eric Clapton once anointed as 'the most important blues musician who ever lived'. 

In February 2014, a third, newly cleaned-up and authenticated image has been released by the Johnson estate showing him standing next to musician Johnny Shines.

Forensic work on the photograph began in 2007, when Lois Gibson, who works with the Houston police department, analysed the features of the long-fingered figure holding the guitar. Gibson, who found the identity of the sailor kissing the nurse in the Life magazine photo of Times Square on VJ day the II World War end, has ruled that 'it appears the individual is Robert Johnson. All the features are consistent, if no identical.' The only differences, she added, were due to the angle of the camera or the lighting. 

The new photograph came to light 8 years ago, when a classical guitarrist called Steven 'Zeke' Schein was searching eBay for an old guitar. He spotted a thumbnail picture with a caption that read 'Old Snapshot Blues Guitar BB King???' and bought it. On inspection neither man in the photograph looked like BB King, but Schein noticed the length of the man' fingers on the guitar and the way his left eye was narrower than his right.

One of the other 2 known photographs of Johnson is postage stamp size and is thought to have been taken in a booth in the 1930s. It was first published in Rolling Stone in 1986, the year that Johnson was introduced into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, and shows him in a button-down shirt, staring directly at the lens. A cigarette hangs from his lips and his long fingers rest on a guitar neck.

The 2nd image was taken at the Hooks Bros photographic studio in Memphis. In it, Johnson sits cross-legged on a stool with his guitar, wearing a pin-striped suit and a tie. This portrait was used on the cover of Robert Johnson: The complete Recordings, the 2-CD boxed set issued by Columbia Records in 1990. 

Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson's son wins rights to photo profits

Only two known photos exist of the legendary Delta bluesman whose songs influenced a host of famous musicians. 

Associated Press in Jackson, Mississippi 

The Guardian

21 February 2014

Claud Johnson, the son of legendary Delta bluesman Robert Johson can keep profits from the only 2 known photographs of his father, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday, 20 February 2014.

The case turned on a technicality. The court ruled other family members knew as early as 1990 about the photos and royalty payments. A court declared the son, Claud Johnson, the musician's sole heir in 1998.

Under Mississippi's statute of limitation, the state supreme court ruled a legal challenge should have been filed no later than 1994. A lawsuit by other family members over the photos was filed in 2000.

The court rejected arguments that the clock started when Claud Johnson was named sole heir.

Robert Johnson - who is said to have sold his soul to the Devil for prowess on the guitar and whose songs have influenced a host of famous musicians - was destitute when he died in Mississippi in 1938 at age 27. His estate is valuable, partly because of a collection of his recordings that featured a photo of Johnson on its cover and won a Grammy in 1990.

One of the photos is a studio portrait taken of the Mississippi bluesman by Hooks Brothers Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The other photo, known as 'the dime store portrait' of 'the photo booth self-portrait', was taken by Robert Johnson himself.

On one side of the dispute were descendants of Johnson's late half-sister, Carrie Harris Thompson. While they didn't dispute that the copyrights to Johnson's musical compositions belong to Claud Johnson, they argued that, as the heirs of Thompson, they were entitled to the fees generated from the Johnson photographs because they were Thompson's personal property.

On Claude Johnson's side were also record company representatives and a promoter who had signed a contract with Thompson in 1974 for her rights to Johnson's work, photographs and other related material. In return, Thompson was to receive royalties that resulted from the promoter's efforts.

The promoter later signed a deal with CBS Records to release a collection of Robert Johnson's 29 recorded songs. CBS, later acquired by Sony, released a boxed set of Johnson's recordings that sold more than a million copies and won the 1990 Grammy for Best Historical Album.

Thompson died in 1983, but her heirs argued they were entitled to royalties.

Claud Johnson, whose parents were not married, found out about his father's estate in the early 1990s and was later named his father's sole heir.

Leflore County circuit judge Ashley Hines ruled in 2001 that when Claud Johnson was declared the musician's sole heir, the royalties especified in the 1974 contract were to go to him. 

The Supreme Court found in 2004 that the question of whether the photos were the personal property of Carrie Thompson was never litigated. It directed Hines to rule on the issue.

Hines, without a trial, found in 2012 that the statute of limitations had run out on the legal challenge by Thompson's heirs and the photos were Claud Johnson's. 

Supreme Court presiding Justice Jess Dickinson, writing in Thursday's 20th February 2014 decision, rejected arguments Thompson's heirs thaty they didn't sue because they thought they were the only heirs to the Johnson estate. 

A blues club near the crossroad of highways 61 and 49, where, according to legend, the musician Robert Johnson sold his soul.

Claud Johnson, the son of blues guitarrist Robert Johnson, with his son Michael Greg Jenson. 

Mr. Claud Johnson and son Steven with Grammy for Robert Johnson.

Standing from left to right:  Steven Johnson (grandson) & VP Robert Johson Blues Foundation, Michael L. Johnson (grandson) and Chief Executive Officer of RJBF.

Sitting on couch left to right:  Ben Minnifield, Global VP Marketing & Media RJBF, Dr. Tanya Scott, Global VP Business Development RJBF, Claud Johnson (son) and Founder of RJBF, Vasti Jackson, Artistic Director and star of the theatrical production 'Robert Johnson: The Man, the Myth, the Music!'.