[punkrockmonday #25] Blind Willie Johnson

This is the most beautifully haunting song ever recorded.

The title is from an older gospel song that is about the day Jesus died. I'm also pretty sure that Ry Cooder studied it intensely while preparing the Paris, Texas soundtrack, musical accompaniment to another sad story.

Blind Willie Johnson also recorded the saddest song ever recorded, even sadder than Hank William Senior's I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry (Elvis' not unreasonable nomination for saddest song in the world), Motherless Children. Please get a few tissues before clicking on the below. I'm serious, you've been warned.

Johnson knew what he was talking about. His own mother passed when he was a young child. The reason he was blind was that his own step-mother poured lye into his eyes when he was six to get revenge upon his father for cheating. His sister helped raise him but then moved on the way he heartbrakingly describes in the song.

Eric Clapton did a pretty soulless version of Motherless Children. I can't bring myself to link to it.

Johnson also wrote and recorded some of the most hopeful songs ever recorded. Here he is with his wife, Angeline, singing Trouble will soon be Over.

Willie and Angeline are a love story for the ages. There was a parade on the streets of Houston with people singing gospel songs. Willie heard her voice and picked up his guitar and followed along. Until he died, they never stopped making music together.

His death is as depressing as his songs. Here's wikipedia:

Johnson remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing in the streets of several Texas cities including Beaumont. A city directory shows that in 1945, a Rev. W.J. Johnson, undoubtedly Blind Willie, operated the House of Prayer at 1440 Forrest Street, Beaumont, Texas. This is the same address listed on Johnson's death certificate. In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed in the August/September Texas heat. He lived like this until he contracted malarial fever and died on September 18, 1945. (The death certificate reports the cause of death as malarial fever, with syphilis and blindness as contributing factors.) In a later interview, his wife, Angeline said she tried to take him to a hospital but they refused to admit him because he was blind, while other sources report that his refusal was due to being black. 

I'm reminded of Socrates during the punishment phase of his trial saying that the city of Athens should provide him free meals for life. A decent society would have done the same for the person who gifted us with the most haunting, saddest, and triumphant songs. . .  And now the rest of us get to enjoy his art without any possibility of paying him back. So let's end with protest.

Maybe the building will be torn down some day. I don't know.

My friend Ed Song recently posted some rather profound meditations on the role of the garden in the Genesis story. I very much like this metaphor.  Gardening is something we do with and for each other. And it's not an impossible task. This morning you just have to pull some weeds and water the cucumbers and then you can tell already that things are better.  

1. [Punkrockmonday #1] The White Stripes - Jack the Ripper (orig. Screaming Lord Sutch), Black Math, and the Big Three Killed My Baby]
2. [Punkrockmonday #2] Roy Cook - Saint Paul Cathedral, Minneapolis Capitol Building, Aayla Secura Mosaic, and Firefly Class Spaceship
3. [Punkrockmonday #3] El Général- Rais Le Bled (President, Your Country)
4. [Punkrockmonday #4] Charlie Patton -High Water Everywhere, Part 2
5. [Punkrockmonday #5] Henry Rollins- What Am I Doing Here; Willie Nelson- Me and Paul; Rainbow Connection (orig. Kermit the Frog)
6. [Punkrockmonday #6] Philip Larkin - Church Going
7. [Punkrockmonday #7] David Bowie - Time
8. [Punkrockmonday #8] P.J. Harvey - When Under Ether; White Chalk; Broken Harp
9. [Punkrockmonday #9] Allison Kraus and Robert Plant - When the Levee Breaks (orig. Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie)
10. [Punkrockmonday #10] Doog - Famous Blue Raincoat (orig. Leonard Cohen); sElf - Back in Black (orig. AC/DC); Johnny Cash- Down There By the Train (orig. Tom Waits)
11. [Punkrockmonday #11] John Lee Hooker - Hobo Blues; Weird Al Yankovic - My Sharona; Edgar Cruz - Bohemian Rhapsody
12. [punkrockmonday #12] Pixar Studios - Cars 2; The Bang Bang - Sitting in a Car; Angry Samoans - Hot Cars; Black Flag - Drinking and Driving; Gary Numan - Cars; Queen - Bicycle Race
13. [punkrockmonday #13] Betty Bowers - Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage to Everyone Else
14. [punkrockmonday #14] Sesame Street - Sure Shot (orig. Beastie Boys)
15. [punkrockmonday #15] Neil Degrasse Tyson - Stupid Design
16. [punkrockmonday # 16] C.M. Punk - run up to Money in the Bank victory
17. [punkrockmonday #17] Dead Kennedys - Riot
18. [punkrockmonday # 18] Cookie Monster - God's Away on Business (orig. Tom Waits)
19. [punkrockmonday # 19] The Legendary K.O.- George Bush Don’t Like Black People
20. [punkrockmonday #20] Mance Lipscomb- Ella Speed
21. [punkrockmonday #21] Iggy Pop - Lust for Life; Iggy Pop - The Passenger; Iggy Pop - I'm Bored; Iggy Pop (orig. The Stooges)- I Wanna Be Your Dog; Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
22. [punkrockmonday #22] Iris Dement - Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day
23. [punkrockmonday #23] Louis C.K. - Are You a Lizard?; U2 - Maggie's Farm; Pink Floyd - The Post War Dream; Morrissey - Maggie on the Guillotine; Newtown Neurotics - Kick out the Tories
24. [punkrockmonday #24] The Maria Bamford Show 01 - Dropout; The Maria Bamford Show 02 - Maria Gets a Job