About the Author:
David Honeyboy Edwards has been traveling and performing for over 67 years. Already in the Blues Hall of Fame, he was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Robert Was Crazy About Women And Crazy About His Whiskey. I met Robert Johnson in Greenwood in 1937, in the fall. He was traveling around through the country all the time by himself, playing country dances all through them little Delta towns like Indianola, Leland, on over to Greenwood. He was hustling. He had made a few little records, and more probably the quarters and nickels and dimes was easier for him to make because he had a little something on wax. His songs was on the jukeboxes and everyone was listening to them for a nickel a crack. When I first met him he was on Johnson Street near Main in Greenwood, playing right back on the alley. He was right outside of Emma Collinssshe kept a good-timing house and used to sell whiskey, too. He was standing on a block and had a crowd of people back in the alley ganging around him. But they didnt know who he was! I didnt know at first either, and when I first walked up I thought he was sounding a little like Kokomo Arnold. I walked up with my little old guitar, put mine on back and started listening. He was playing the blues so good. One woman, she was full of that old corn whiskey, she said, Mister, you play me Terraplane Blues! She didnt know she was talking to the man who made it! She said, If you play me Terraplane Blues Ill give you a dime! He said, Miss, thats my number. Well, you play it then. He started playing and they knew who he was then. He was playing and trembling and hollering. It was a little after noon and the people was coming out of the country, coming to town. He had the street blocked with people listening to him play. He was dressed nice, wearing a brown hat. He wore a hat most of the time, broke down over that bad eye. I got acquainted with him when he finished playing. We started talking and I found out he was from around Robinsonville, had just been through Tunica. I asked him did he know my cousin there, Willie Mae Powell, and he said Thats my girlfriend! And I said Thats my first cousin! So we started to laughing, chatting it up a little bit and we kind of hooked up and started drinking and hanging around together. Thats how I got attached with him. I met him and found out he was going with my cousin.
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