Blues Trivia: Test Your Blues Knowledge

No evidence. The myth came from Son House, who said Johnson went away for 6 months and came back a master. The crossroads story was Son House's metaphor. Johnson himself sang about "Hellhound on my trail" — he feared God, not the devil. He died at 27, poisoned by a jealous husband. Born May 8, 1911.

In 1949, B.B. was playing a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. Two men fought over a woman named Lucille. They knocked over a kerosene heater, the hall caught fire. B.B. ran out, then ran back in to save his $30 Gibson guitar. He nearly died. He named all future guitars Lucille to remind himself never to do something stupid again. Born Sep 16, 1925.

His grandmother Della Grant started calling him "Muddy" as a baby because he loved playing in the muddy water of the Mississippi Delta. Waters was his real last name. Born McKinley Morganfield on Jan 4, 1913 in Rolling Fork, MS.

Yes. Chester Arthur Burnett was 6'3" and weighed 300+ lbs. He was a farmer before blues. His size + voice terrified audiences. He'd get on his knees, crawl, roll on the floor howling. Born Jun 10, 1910. Hubert Sumlin, his guitarist, was 5'5" — the visual was comedy.

Yes, and behind his head, and with the guitar on fire. He learned it from watching T-Bone Walker and Buddy Guy do it in the 50s. Hendrix played left-handed on a right-handed Strat strung upside down. Born Nov 27, 1942. Died at 27.

His older brother Jimmie Vaughan was already "Stevie" in the Dallas scene. When Stevie Ray started playing at 12, they called him "Little Stevie" to tell them apart. The name stuck even when he was 6'0" and Jimmie was shorter. Born Oct 3, 1954.

"Crazy Blues" by Mamie Smith, recorded August 10, 1920. It sold 75,000 copies in one month — huge for 1920. Before this, record companies thought Black people didn't buy records. This song proved them wrong and launched "race records."

"Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson, recorded 1927. NASA put it on the Voyager Golden Record in 1977. It's now 14 billion miles from Earth. If aliens find it, the first music they hear is Delta blues slide guitar.

Several. "Whole Lotta Love" = Willie Dixon's "You Need Love". "The Lemon Song" = Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor". "Dazed and Confused" = Jake Holmes song. They settled out of court with Dixon in 1985 for $1M+. Page always credited them in interviews, just not on album sleeves.

"Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson, covered 500+ times. Cream's 1968 version as "Crossroads" is most famous. Also: Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rush, The Doors, John Mayer. The 1936 recording is only 2:29 long.

Willie Dixon wrote it for Muddy Waters in 1954. "Hoochie coochie" = a sexually provocative dance from 1890s carnivals. The song lists the man's powers: gypsy woman, black cat bone, mojo, John the Conqueror root. It's a brag about his sexual/magical power. Dixon said "I was writing about myself."

Mississippi Delta, 1890s-1900s. Specifically: Dockery Plantation near Cleveland, MS. Charlie Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf all lived/worked there. It was a 10,000-acre cotton plantation. The blues came from field hollers, work songs, and spirituals.

From 17th century English "blue devils" = feeling sad/depressed. By 1800s, "having the blues" meant melancholy. W.C. Handy published "Memphis Blues" in 1912 and "St. Louis Blues" in 1914, popularizing the term for the music. The color blue = sadness in Western culture.

1916-1970: 6 million Black Americans left the South for Chicago, Detroit, NYC, LA. They brought Delta blues with them. In Chicago, Muddy Waters plugged in, added drums and electric bass. Acoustic Delta blues became electric Chicago blues. Without the Great Migration, no rock and roll.

Polish immigrant brothers Leonard and Phil Chess opened Chess Records in Chicago, 1950. They recorded Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry. Willie Dixon wrote most of the songs. Chess defined electric blues. The Rolling Stones named themselves after a Muddy Waters song and recorded at Chess in 1964.

Bessie Smith. In the 1920s, she made $2,000 per week ($35,000 today). She owned a private railroad car, traveled with 40-person troupe. "Empress of the Blues." Born Apr 15, 1894. Died in 1937 car crash — the hospital myth is false.

"The Blues Brothers: Briefcase Full of Blues" (1978) — 3.5 million copies. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Purists hated it, but it introduced John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles to MTV generation. Second: Eric Clapton's "Unplugged" (1992) — 26 million, but that's only half blues.

B.B. King — 15 Grammys + 44 Blues Music Awards. Buddy Guy is second with 8 Grammys + 38 BMAs. Buddy is 88 and still winning. He won 2019 Grammy at age 83.

"Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson — 3:20 of just moaning and slide guitar, no words. For songs with lyrics: "Spoonful" by Howlin' Wolf — Cream's live version is 16:59. Studio version is 2:45.

Myth. There's no "devil's tuning." Open tunings (D, G, E) were used because they sound good and are easier for slide. Church said blues was sinful because it was played in juke joints on Saturday night, not because of tuning. Son House was a preacher who played blues — he saw no conflict.

No. Memphis Minnie owned a beauty salon. Blind Willie Johnson was a preacher. W.C. Handy was a bandleader. Ma Rainey owned theaters. Many were professional musicians by 1920s. The "poor sharecropper" image came from 1960s folk revivalists who romanticized poverty.

Yes. Robert Johnson died at 27 in 1938. Then: Brian Jones (1969), Jimi Hendrix (1970), Janis Joplin (1970), Jim Morrison (1971), Kurt Cobain (1994), Amy Winehouse (2011). Johnson's death started the myth. He was poisoned with strychnine-laced whiskey by a jealous husband.