Histo-Taiment

Blind Willy Johnson & Voyager 1

Blind Willy Johnson & Voyager 1

January 25, 1897 - September 18, 1945

The life history of this blues giant was tragic during his lifetime but reached unprecedented heights (and distances) after his death.

Voyager 1 was launched on Sept. 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the part of our solar system where our sun's Heliosphere ends. In other words, Voyager was sent where our solar center stops and deep space begins. Currently, Voyager has been in that area for some time and will be the first human-made object to leave our system. In itself, this is not such an extraordinary story. Since the time we as a species had evolved to the point where we could ask ourselves philosophical questions we have intermittently asked ourselves:

"What lies beyond that hill? What is beyond the horizon? What can be found on the other side of the water?"

That we as humans would shoot a spacecraft into space to give some beginning of an answer to the next question in that sequence was only a matter of time:

"What lies beyond our solar system?"

The remarkable thing is that Voyager has something with it that dares me to be positive over time. There is a gold plate attached to the spacecraft that contains images and sounds of our planet and humanity. Call it a kind of postcard of Earth. If Voyager is ever going to be intercepted by an alien race one of the first things they will hear is the blues sound of Blind Willie Johnson with his song "Dark was the night cold was the ground." And very occasionally I dare to daydream about a race discovering this thinking to themselves:

"That humanity we want to meet, with them we want to become friends..."

Born January 25, 1897, in a small town in Texas, Pendleton. As a black family in the South, the family had it anything but easy yet they attended church every Sunday. Something that would have a lasting impact. Johnson was not only a blues musician but also an evangelist. He is said to have received his first instrument from his father when he was five years old a cheap so-called "cigar box guitar." In those days a very cheap and rudimentary instrument. Most were composed of what might be called garbage. Empty oil cans and even car license plates were used for them.

Johnson was not born blind. Several stories circulate but the most widely accepted is that of the result of a domestic dispute between his father and his stepmother. I had to read it three times myself before I truly believed it. Yes, I know that black people were seen as inferior in the South in the late nineteenth century. But still, the harshness of indifference does not enter my mind even today. The story is that his stepmother was unfaithful and got into a heated argument with Johnson's father about it. Whether that argument was verbal or physical I couldn't quite verify so I'll leave that in the middle. What I do know is that the stepmother afterward poured a liquid containing lye also known as sodium hydroxide into the boy's face, leaving him permanently blind. Nowhere can I find anything verifiable that would indicate that the police were involved in the case let alone child protection. Something we find very hard to imagine today.

What is certain is that his time in recording studios began on Dec. 03, 1927, in Dallas for Columbia. Before that, his time was divided between preaching and making some money on the street as a street musician. In 1926 or 1927 he was sort of unregistered married to one Willie B. Harris and a daughter was born named Sam Faye Johnson. At that first session, Johnson played 6 songs. For that, he was paid $50 per "usable" side for a single. At the time, a rather substantial sum for an unknown artist. But the music industry in those days did not shy away from exploiting budding artists much more than they sometimes dare to do today. In exchange for that $50 and a bonus, he then had to cede all rights. His first single was a considerable success with the songs; "I know his blood can make me whole" and "Jesus made up my dying bed". The song that would become historically important was the fifth he recorded: "Dark was the night cold was the Ground" and was the B-side of his second single.

Although his music could be called successful, his life did not improve. In 1945, his house was destroyed by a fire. However, Johnson had nowhere else to go so he continued to live in the ruin. Being exposed to the elements one miserable night proved to be the beginning of a slowly miserable end. He was hypothermic and wet but still went out the next day to play in the streets to earn some money. His condition grew noticeably worse. He developed malaria fever and no hospital would admit him either because he was blind or, as with most hospitals he applied to, because he was black. He finally died on September 18, 1945. And if that wasn't enough, fate also pursued him in death. He was buried at the Blanchette Cemetery in Beaumont. The location of that cemetery was forgotten by time and so his grave also disappeared. The location was found again in 2009 and in 2010 researchers had a monument erected there in his memory.

His music was brought back from oblivion in the 1960s largely due to Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music. Several great artists have since covered his work in various styles. These include Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. A tribute album made in 2016 was even nominated for two Grammys.

In 1977, the famous astrophysicist Carl Sagan and a team of scientists were tasked with putting together a collection to represent the Earth and Humanity. A gold record was mounted on the Voyager explorer and NASA consultant Timothy Ferris chose "Dark is the Night, cold was the Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson.

In 2010, the song was also selected by The Library of Congress, officially becoming part of America's heritage.