Love It Loud
One of the first artists to inspire the urban legend of stars dying at the age of twenty-seven, which has since become a popular myth in the annals of rock and roll, Robert Johnson laid the foundation for many modern guitar techniques and how blues evolved over the decades since his passing in the summer of 1938. "Johnson did not receive much recognition until 1961, when Columbia Records released an album of his music called King of the Delta Blues Singers," explained author Patricia R. Schroeder in her biography Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture. "Not until his Complete Recordings appeared in 1990 did he receive widespread public acclaim. By that time he had been dead for over half a century, survived only by a few sketchy documents, the fading memories of ageing people who knew him or claimed to have known him decades ago, and twenty-nine recorded songs." It is shocking to believe that only a little over two dozen of Johnson's songs were captured on tape, which he had recorded for the for the American Record Corporation during 1936 and the following year. While little is known regarding Johnson's all-too-brief life, one of the more popular and widely-told stories that surround his his legacy is that he allegedly sold his soul to the devil in order to master the guitar, a myth that was explicitly referenced in the 1986 blues drama Crossroads. Regarding the origin of this legend, biographer Bill McCulloch stated, "Our investigation showed that the first mention of Johnson selling his soul came in a Pete Welding essays (in Down Beat) in 1966 with the infamous quote attributed to Son House, 'that Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for learning to play like that.'" Despite only less than thirty of Johnson's songs surviving, his music has inspired countless generations of musicians and blues lovers, with his work being covered by such diverse artists as Eric Clapton, Cowboy Junkies and The White Stripes.
"From 1970-75, when we could do no wrong, it was all done on momentum and adrenaline and the fact we were having the greatest time meeting people, we had a great career surge during that time," Elton John told Billboard regarding his early success. "Then it's someone else's turn, and you switch off for a couple of years because you want a personal life or whatever. You lose that adrenaline and you don't really get it back." From his eponymous sophomore album in 1970 until the end of the decade, John and his regular collaborator, lyricist Bernie Taupin, enjoyed numerous Platinum-selling records and hit singles, inspiring legions of young musicians and helping to shape how the subsequent glam scene of the late 1970s would wear its rock 'n' roll influences on its sleeve. Born Reginald Dwight in 1947, Born Reginald Dwight in 1947, John showed skills on the piano from a young age and regularly performed for his parents and their friends, while also expressing interesting in growing up to become a concert pianist. Influenced by the likes of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, John continued to master the piano and finally made his live debut in 1961 at a London hotel, earning £1 for his performance. Following the poor performance of his debut album Empty Sky in 1969, John enjoyed his breakthrough the following year with the ballad Your Song. This would be the first in a string of hits for the young artist, which was soon followed by Tiny Dancer (now imortalised by the 2000 movie Almost Famous), Rocket Man and his first American number one, Crocodile Rock. John's 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is considered one of the most influential albums of its era and is regularly included in lists of all-time best albums.
Being responsible for the best-selling album of all time, with his 1983 classic Thriller having sold over fifty million copies worldwide. Born in August 1958, Jackson was a natural-born performer and at the age of just eight he joined his siblings in a group called the Jackson Brothers. Changing their name to the Jackson 5, they signed with Motown Records in 1968 and enjoyed their first U.S. number one a year later with I Want You Back. Even as the group continued to revel in their success, Jackson launched his own solo career in 1971 and over the next few years received acclaim in his own right with such hits as Got to Be There and Ben. But it would be his 1979 funk and disco-infused record Off the Wall, marking his move from Motown to Epic, which would launch him into a superstar. The success of the album and its accompanying singles Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough and Rock with You put pressure on Jackson, but he returned four years later with Thriller, marking another collaboration with producer Quincy Jones. Embracing his love of rock music and guitar, Jackson invited such celebrated musicians as Paul McCartney and Eddie Van Halen to perform on the album, as well as horror icon Vincent Price. By 1987, Jackson had become the biggest artist in the world and would continue his rise with Grammy Award-winning Bad, producing several hit singles, including Smooth Criminal (later covered by Alien Ant Farm. After enjoying box office success with the motion picture Moonwalker, Jackson returned with another acclaimed album, Dangerous, this time marking an appearance from Slash, then still reeling from his success with Guns N' Roses. But scandals began to plague Jackson's life during the 1990s and beyond, and he passed away unexpectedly in the summer of 2009 at the age of just fifty.
"Twentieth-century music is based on the blues. You wouldn't have jazz or any other modern music without the blues," stated rock legend Keith Richards in his foreword for the biography Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters, "And therefore every pop song, no matter how trite or crass, has got a bit of the blues somewhere in it - even without them knowing, even though they've washed most of it out." Along with Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters is one of the most influential and celebrated blues artists of all time, cited by countless musicians as a pioneer and inspiration in their own work. Born McKinley Morganfield in 1913, one year after the sinking of the Titanic and a year before the outbreak of war across Europe, Muddy was raised by his grandmother, who allegedly was only in her early thirties when he was conceived and who was ultimately responsible for the nickname that he would later become known professionally by. Raised on a plantation in Mississippi during the early years of the Great Depression, Muddy learned the harmonica as a means to provide a distraction from the struggles of poverty, before finally being able to afford a phonograph. Among the artists whom he would regularly listen to and ultimately become inspired by were such guitarists as Barbecue Bob and Blind Lemon Jefferson and before long he had expressed his own desire to make music. In 1932 he married a local girl from the plantation called Mabel Berry, and his wedding celebration saw an appearance from blues guitarist Robert Nighthawk, who performed for the crowd. A few years later, Nighthawk announced that he was travelling to Chicago to pursue his musical dreams and invited Muddy to join him but he declined the offer, only to discover soon afterwards that Nighthawk had managed to release a record. But by the end of the decade he had begun to gain a strong reputation of his own in the area for his guitar playing, and in August 1941, four months before America joined the Second World War, Muddy was visited by folklorist Alan Lomax, who intended to record various blues musicians in the area. In 1947 he was invited to record with Delta pianist Sunnyland Slim, and three years later Muddy enjoyed his commercial breakthrough with the hit single Rollin' Stone. Success followed over the next decade, although Muddy never became a household name, but he did prove to be an inspiration to young musicians, with his first hit even providing the name for one of the biggest rock bands in the world, the Rolling Stones. Muddy died in 1983 at the age of seventy.
