While the lyrics of his songs were usually religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. It is characterized by his slide guitar accompaniment and tenor voice, and his frequent use of a lower-register 'growl' or false bass voice.
According to his death certificate, Johnson was born in 1897 near Brenham, Texas. (Earlier, Temple, Texas had been suggested as his birthplace.) When he was five, he told his father he wanted to be a preacher and then made a cigar box guitar for himself. His mother died when he was young, and his father remarried soon after her death.
Johnson was not born blind. Although it is not certain how he lost his sight, his alleged widow Angeline Johnson told Samuel Charters that when Willie was seven his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man; and that she in spite blinded young Willie by throwing lye in his face.
Johnson made 30 commercial recording studio record sides (29 songs) in five separate sessions for Columbia Records from 1927–1930. On some of these recordings Johnson uses a fast rhythmic picking style, while on others he plays slide guitar. According to a reputed one-time acquaintance, Blind Willie McTell (1898–1959), Johnson played with a brass ring; but the bluesman Tom Shaw, interviewed by Guido van Rijn in 1972, says that he used a knife. However, in enlargement, the only known photograph of Johnson seems to show that there is an actual bottleneck on the little finger of his left hand. While his other fingers are apparently fretting the strings, his little finger is extended straight—which also suggests there is a slide on it as well.
It is believed that Johnson married at least twice. He was married to Willie B. Harris. Her recollection of their initial meeting was recounted in the liner notes for Yazoo Records's album Praise God I'm Satisfied. He was later alleged to have been married to a woman named Angeline. Johnson was also said to be married to a sister of blues artist L. C. Robinson.[citation needed] No marriage certificates have yet been discovered. As Angeline Johnson often sang and performed with him,[citation needed] the first person to attempt to research his biography, Samuel Charters, made the mistake of assuming it was Angeline who had sung on several of Johnson's records. However, later research showed that it was Willie B. Harris.
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 an interview, Angeline said that she tried to take him to a hospital, which refused to admit him because he was blind. Other sources report that the refusal was due to his being black.[citation needed]
According to his death certificate, he was buried in Blanchette Cemetery, Beaumont. The location of that cemetery had been forgotten until it was rediscovered in 2009. His exact gravesite remains unknown; but in 2010, the researchers who had identified the cemetery erected a monument there in his honor.
His father would often leave him on street corners to sing for money. Tradition has it that he was arrested for nearly starting a riot at a New Orleans courthouse with a powerful rendition of "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down", a song about Samson and Delilah. According to Samuel Charters, however, he was simply arrested while singing for tips in front of the Customs House by a police officer who misconstrued the title lyric and mistook it for incitement. Timothy Beal argued that the officer did not, in fact, misconstrue the meaning of the song, but that "the ancient story suddenly sounded dangerously contemporary" to him.
Several of Blind Willie Johnson's songs have been interpreted by other musicians, including "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed", "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine", "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground", "John the Revelator", "You'll Need Somebody on Your Bond", "Motherless Children" and "Soul of a Man".
"Dark Was the Night" is one of the music tracks on the Voyager Golden Record, copies of which were placed in 1977 on both the unmanned Voyager Project space probes. It is the penultimate track, preceding only the Cavatina from Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 130: the blind musician and the deaf one side by side. The astronomer Timothy Ferris, who worked with Carl Sagan in selecting those tracks, has said:
"Johnson's song concerns a situation he faced many times, nightfall with no place to sleep. Since humans appeared on Earth, the shroud of night has yet to fall without touching a man or woman in the same plight."
In 2012, Voyager 1 left the solar system and entered interstellar space, the first manmade spacecraft so to do. Voyager 2 is expected to do the same around 2016.
Ry Cooder's slide guitar title song and soundtrack music of the Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas (1984) was based on "Dark Was the Night".
"Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" was played in the TV series The West Wing (season 5) episode 13, The Warfare of Genghis Khan. "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine" was played in the TV series The Walking Dead (season 5) episode 4 Slabtown.
Jesus Is Coming Soon
Blind Willie Johnson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Well, we done told you, our God's done warned you,
Jesus coming soon.
We done told you, our God's done warned you,
Jesus coming soon.
In the year of 19 and 18, God sent a mighty disease.
It killed many a-thousand, on land and on the seas.
[Chorus]
Great disease was mighty and the people were sick everywhere.
It was an epidemic, it floated through the air.
[Chorus]
The doctors they got troubled and they didn't know what to do.
They gathered themselves together, they called it the Spanishin flu.
[Chorus]
Soldiers died on the battlefield, died in the counts too.
Captain said to the lieutenant, "I don't know what to do."
[Chorus]
Well, God is warning the nation, He's a-warning them every way.
To turn away from evil and seek the Lord and pray.
[Chorus]
Well, the nobles said to the people, "You better close your public schools."
"Until the events of death has ending, you better close your churches too."
We done told you, our God's done warned you,
Jesus coming soon.
We done told
you, our God's done warned you,
Jesus coming soon.
Blind Willie Johnson's song "Jesus Is Coming Soon" is a warning to the people about the second coming of Jesus Christ. The song starts by saying that God has warned the people, and that Jesus is coming soon. The lyrics then go on to describe a great disease that spread in 1918, killing many people on land and sea. The disease was an epidemic and doctors were unable to find a cure for it. The chorus is repeated after each verse, emphasizing the urgency of the message.
The lyrics then describe the soldiers who died in wars, and how the captains and lieutenants didn't know what to do. The last verse warns the people to turn away from evil and to seek the Lord and pray. The nobles are also mentioned, who ask the people to close their public schools and churches until the events of death have ended. The song ends with the chorus, reinforcing the message that Jesus is coming soon.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, we done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus coming soon.
We have already informed you and God has cautioned you as well that Jesus will be coming soon.
In the year of 19 and 18, God sent a mighty disease. It killed many a-thousand, on land and on the seas.
In the year of 1918, God sent a deadly disease that took lives of thousands on land and sea.
Great disease was mighty and the people were sick everywhere. It was an epidemic, it floated through the air.
The epidemic was very powerful, and people fell sick everywhere, as it was airborne.
The doctors they got troubled and they didn't know what to do. They gathered themselves together, they called it the Spanishin flu.
Despite their medical expertise, the doctors were perplexed, and they named the deadly disease Spanish flu.
Soldiers died on the battlefield, died in the counts too. Captain said to the lieutenant, 'I don't know what to do.'
Many soldiers died on battlegrounds and elsewhere, and even the captain didn't know what to do.
Well, God is warning the nation, He's a-warning them every way. To turn away from evil and seek the Lord and pray.
God is cautioning the country and urging them to turn away from evil, seek the Lord, and pray in every possible way.
Well, the nobles said to the people, 'You better close your public schools.' 'Until the events of death has ending, you better close your churches too.'
The elites advised the public to close their schools and churches due to the ongoing death events.
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus coming soon.
We have already informed you and God has cautioned you as well that Jesus will be coming soon.
Lyrics © ALPHA MUSIC, INC.
Written by: WILLIE JOHNSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@jodybanks5344
God is great and praise be to blind willie's music for helping me hear what Jesus was saying in order to be saved! Praise be to Jesus, thank you lord. And thanks to the Holy Spirit ! Amen!
He is just steps away from us and will fulfill his prophecy!
@nathaniel.7172
Amen.
@KOSMICKEN09
Crazy that Jack White covered this on snl last night 💜
@jamesroy9182
Brilliant choice.
@Kevin-fj5oe
Jesus never let us alone never even when we forget him
@onepom63
God bless blind willie, an inspiration, keep us close to Jesus.
@WelcomeToAlcatraz
Thanks for putting this together. Its good to hear Blind Willie Johnson get some praise from a fellow blind blues musician. Its unfortunate Johnson died alone and poor in the shell of his burnt down house...no doubt hes in a better place.
@librarianeric
This is unbelievable! Thanks for posting this!
@adonaiyah2196
That interview was exceptional
@dwyermckerr99
Praise Blind Willie Johnson!