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New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence (Read 5,454 times)
Edith Grove
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New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Dec 17th, 2015 at 2:26pm
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New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence



By Dylan Baddour
Published Thursday, December 17, 2015


...

This photo, found in an antique auction desk in Florida in 2013, is purported to show American blues legend Robert Johnson (left), according to Lois Gibson, an award-winning forensic artist and facial analyst in Houston.



A newly-analyzed photo purportedly shows Robert Johnson, the mysterious blues legend whose meager recordings became a groundwork for American popular music.

Only two such photos have been unequivocally confirmed, and the prospect of another is held as a holy grail in blues society.

Johnson was an influential early blues singer and guitarist whose songs have been covered by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, Fleetwood Mac and countless others. He also infamously is alleged to have made a deal with the devil, who personally tuned Johnson's guitar at a crossroads in Mississippi, thus giving him his extraordinary guitar skills in exchange for his soul.

He wandered the South and earned acclaim picking guitar tunes, but he made just two recordings—in San Antonio in 1936 and in Dallas in 1937.

The identification comes from Lois Gibson, award-winning forensic artist for the Houston Police Department and professional analyst of historical photographs. She also announced identification of a Johnson photo in 2008; that one was accepted by the Johnson estate but widely contested by blues historians.

The new photograph turned up in an antique Winthrop desk, filled with odds and ends, bought in a 2013 auction by Donald Roark, a 64-year-old retired lawyer and professor in Pensacola, Florida.

In a cluttered draw was a three-by-five inch photo of four people seated at a public table, the man in question on the left.

"I guess it was because of the hat," Roark said, recalling his first glimpse of the picture, and his memory of the photo cover of the Robert Johnson album he owns. "I chuckled and thought that guy kind of looks like Robert Johnson."

When he asked his wife who the man looked like, she said Robert Johnson. He sat on the suspicion for two years, until reaching out to Gibson's manager online for a professional take on the photograph.

It was one of the five-or-so requests for a photo identification Gibson gets each month, she said.

"Ninety-nine percent of them I look at and well, I don't laugh in their face, but I shrug it off," she said.

But the purported Johnson photo gave her pause. Gibson, who spent the last three decades analyzing and reconstructing faces, said she recognized Johnson's face. But the scene offered further evidence—three people who Gibson identified as known acquaintances of Johnson: Calletta Craft, Johnson's wife from 1931, who bears a marked eye condition; Estella Coleman, who housed Johnson since 1933; and her son Robert Lockwood Jr.

That crowd would set the purported image in the mid 1930s, before Johnson made a name as a nomadic guitar player and blues singer, and before was afforded the privilege to record.

Two years after his first session, Johnson died in 1938 at age 27 (making him the first great musician in the notable company of the "27 Club," alongside Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain).






But his enduring sound, captured in Texas studios, helped motivate music for decades to come with its eerie invocations of the devil. His sound famously inspired the young ensemble that would become the Rolling Stones. The Washington Post reported in 2011 there are 30 records with at least one cover of a Johnson song on them that have sold more than a million copies.

Because of Johnson's mysterious legacy, blues scholars are eternally skeptical of the emergence of new photos. A May 2015 article in Texas Monthly evoked a purported Johnson image—confirmed as the image currently in question--which scholars swiftly dismissed.

But Gibson, who won a Guiness World Record for most successful forensic artist, said that historical scholars are not qualified to make those assertions about photographs.

"These blues people are not specialists in facial structure. I am," she said. "They would not know a superciliary arch from a philtrum."

With only two sure photos of Johnson, shot in studio and documented at the time, a broad consensus on the authenticity of the newly-surfaced photo is unlikely.


http://www.chron.com/entertainment/music/article/New-photo-of-bluesman-Robert-Jo...
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Freya Gin
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #1 - Dec 17th, 2015 at 9:29pm
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Wow. The only photo I'd ever seen before is that one of him playing his guitar and smiling. I didn't even know there were any others.

As an aside, am I the only person who likes the alternate take of "Cross Roads Blues" better than the more famous 1st take? It has a certain eerie quality to me. Judge for yourself.
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sweetcharmedlife
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #2 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 9:39am
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Cool.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #3 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 11:03am
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That's cool.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #4 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 12:22pm
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I remember my best friend in college bought his box set...

I should explore his music more. 

Great photo, thanks.
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« Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2015 at 12:28pm by Factory Girl »  

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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #5 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 1:50pm
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Coming soon: the Robert Johnson family photo album, baby pictures and all the shit, cradle to grave.  Found at a Tallapoosa swap meet.
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That guy that punched Mick at Altamont...and all the Hell's Angels...all that bad acid let them hear A Bigger Bang!!
 
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #6 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 2:16pm
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not him..gibson is a liar. only two confirmed pics still.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #7 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 3:11pm
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A thread about Robert Johnson is very much Stones content...as his music was very influential on the Stones evolution.

Love in Vain...
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #8 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 4:47pm
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Factory Girl wrote on Dec 18th, 2015 at 3:11pm:
A thread about Robert Johnson is very much Stones content...as his music was very influential on the Stones evolution.

Love in Vain...


much more, including Stop Breaking Down, Walking Blues, Come On In My Kitchen Me and the Devil Blues

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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #9 - Dec 18th, 2015 at 5:32pm
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Funny, I was listening to LIV and saw this.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #10 - Dec 19th, 2015 at 4:49am
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Thank you kindly Voo!  Stop Breaking Down, among others, is a treasure and Stones do it justice!

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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #11 - Dec 20th, 2015 at 8:49am
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I think its kinda creepy that there are so few pics of him...was that part of the deal w/ The Dark Lord?
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #12 - Dec 20th, 2015 at 10:30am
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I remember a few years ago his supposed guitar went on an auction, think they wanted 6 million for it. If it's real then what an artifact to own!
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #13 - Dec 20th, 2015 at 10:41am
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Holden wrote on Dec 20th, 2015 at 10:30am:
I remember a few years ago his supposed guitar went on an auction, think they wanted 6 million for it. If it's real then what an artifact to own!

If it's real. It belongs in a museum.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #14 - Dec 20th, 2015 at 10:49am
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Pharma wiz Martin S. just paid $2 mil for a WU Tang private cd--he has money to burn.

He was recently arrested (on a separate matter) and is out on $5 mil bail.

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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #15 - Dec 22nd, 2015 at 10:59am
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I understand why a lot of you untrained suburban Alan Alda types think that's Robert Johnson, but its not.  Eyebrows are too high and sinovial, nose too narrow, eyes too close together.  If that's Robert Johnson, I'm Sweet Dick Willie.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #16 - Dec 22nd, 2015 at 12:03pm
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sirmoonie wrote on Dec 22nd, 2015 at 10:59am:
I understand why a lot of you untrained suburban Alan Alda types think that's Robert Johnson, but its not.  Eyebrows are too high and sinovial, nose too narrow, eyes too close together.  If that's Robert Johnson, I'm Sweet Dick Willie.


Eh, the confusion is understandable; there is a certain resemblance, and a person can look like someone else from a different angle, let alone factoring in age, etc.

Just out of curiosity, what does Alan Alda have to do with this? That part of your post mystified me.
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sweetcharmedlife
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #17 - Dec 23rd, 2015 at 10:03am
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sirmoonie wrote on Dec 22nd, 2015 at 10:59am:
I understand why a lot of you untrained suburban Alan Alda types think that's Robert Johnson, but its not.  Eyebrows are too high and sinovial, nose too narrow, eyes too close together.  If that's Robert Johnson, I'm Sweet Dick Willie.


Hello SDW.  Nolte - The Rocks Off patron saint
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #18 - Dec 23rd, 2015 at 4:17pm
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I once saw some bald people with blue paint all over their bodies. I didn't like it.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #19 - Dec 23rd, 2015 at 9:20pm
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Freya Gin wrote on Dec 22nd, 2015 at 12:03pm:
sirmoonie wrote on Dec 22nd, 2015 at 10:59am:
I understand why a lot of you untrained suburban Alan Alda types think that's Robert Johnson, but its not.  Eyebrows are too high and sinovial, nose too narrow, eyes too close together.  If that's Robert Johnson, I'm Sweet Dick Willie.


Eh, the confusion is understandable; there is a certain resemblance, and a person can look like someone else from a different angle, let alone factoring in age, etc.

Just out of curiosity, what does Alan Alda have to do with this? That part of your post mystified me.


So they all look the same, is what I'm hearing you say.  Well, ain't that just the Dickens.  The Mormons said that about the dark skinned Lamanites, who dwelt in the Americas.  It was Mormon Jesus/god who initially marked the Lamanites with a darker skin color to identify them and their state of earth-bound ("erf-bown") wickedness.  (Willard Romney was a Mormon.  Still is, I believe).

I don't have time for this.  I'm late for a Trump banquet.  That is NOT Robert Johnson.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #20 - Dec 24th, 2015 at 8:34am
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sweetcharmedlife wrote on Dec 23rd, 2015 at 10:03am:
Hello SDW.   


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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #21 - Dec 24th, 2015 at 11:24am
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Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Dec 24th, 2015 at 8:34am:
sweetcharmedlife wrote on Dec 23rd, 2015 at 10:03am:
Hello SDW.   


SDW? Steel Driving Whammer?

Sweet Dick Willie.
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Re: New photo of bluesman Robert Johnson unearthed; only third photo in existence
Reply #22 - Dec 24th, 2015 at 12:28pm
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Then is SDWW... Sweet Dick Wet Willie
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