Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was a gospel b… Read Full Bio ↴Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was a gospel blues singer, guitarist and songwriter.

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.

Nobody's Fault but Mine
Blind Willie Johnson Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Hey-ey
Nobody's fault-a but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul be lost

I, have a Bible in my arm
I have a Bible in my arm
If I don't read my soul be lost

Hmm-mm
Bible, taught me how to read
Bible, taught me how to read
If I don't read my soul be lost
Nobody's fault-a but mine

Lord, Lord
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read my soul be lost

I, was talkin' to my Lord
Have a Bible in my arms
If I don't read my soul be lost

Oh-ooh
Mother, she taught me how to read
Mother, she taught me how to read
If I don't read my soul be lost
Nobody's fault-a but mine

I
Lord, Lord
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read my soul be lost

And said that she taught me how to read
Said that she taught me how to read
If I don't read my soul be lost
Nobody's fault-a but mine

Help

Umm-mmm

Lord, Lord

Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read my soul-a be lost

Umm-mmm

Overall Meaning

Blind Willie Johnson's song "Nobody's Fault But Mine" is a powerful declaration of personal responsibility and the importance of self-education. The repeated refrain of "nobody's fault but mine" highlights this theme, emphasizing that the responsibility for the singer's spiritual well-being rests solely on his own shoulders. The singer acknowledges his reliance on the Bible, which he carries in his arms, and the role it has played in teaching him to read. He also credits his mother for teaching him to read, but ultimately, he recognizes that if he doesn't continue to read on his own, his soul will be lost.

The song's lyrics are both personal and universal, reflecting the struggle of many African Americans to gain literacy and education in the years following emancipation. It also speaks to the individual's struggle to achieve spiritual understanding and growth, regardless of external circumstances or influences.

The song's simplicity and repetition emphasize its message, and Blind Willie Johnson's powerful voice and slide guitar add dimension and depth to the lyrics. The song's haunting quality and emotional resonance ensure its lasting impact on the listener.

Line by Line Meaning

Hey-ey
Introductory sound to the song

Nobody's fault-a but mine
The singer's acknowledgement that if his soul is lost, it is due to his own negligence

Nobody's fault but mine
The singer's acknowledgement that if his soul is lost, it is due to his own negligence

If I don't read, my soul be lost
The importance of reading and its significance to the singer's faith

I, have a Bible in my arm
The singer's ownership of a Bible

I have a Bible in my arm
The singer's ownership of a Bible