Hellhound on My Trail
"Hell Hound on My Trail" | |
---|---|
Vocalion | |
Songwriter(s) | Robert Johnson |
"Hellhound on My Trail" (originally "Hell Hound on My Trail") is a blues song recorded by Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson in June 1937 and released as a 78 rpm single on Vocalion Records that September. It was inspired by earlier blues songs[1] and blues historian Ted Gioia describes it as one of Johnson's "best known and most admired performances—many would say it is his greatest".[2]
Background
Prior to Johnson's recording, the phrase "hellhound on my trail" had been used in various blues songs.[1] Sylvester Weaver's "Devil Blues", recorded in 1927 contains: "Hellhounds start to chase me man, I was a running fool, My ankles caught on fire, couldn't keep my puppies cool"[3] and "Funny Paper" Smith in his 1931 "Howling Wolf Blues No. 3" sang: "I take time when I'm prowlin', an' wipe my tracks out with my tail ... Get home and get blue an' start howlin', an' the hellhound on my trail".[4] The Biddleville Quintette's 1926 religious recording "Show Pity Lord" opens with a religious testimony declaring that "The hell hound has turned back off my trail".[5]
Blues writers, such as
In the 1980s, however, another James record "Yola My Blues Away" (1931)
Composition and lyrics
"Hell Hound on My Trail" is a solo performance by Johnson with vocal and slide guitar. He uses an open E minor guitar tuning, with the lower strings providing a droning accompaniment; Charles Shaar Murray describes "the bottleneck ... mak[ing] the treble strings of his guitar moan like wind through dead trees".[14]
Gioia notes that the lyrics "[deal] with the familiar blues theme of the rambling musician, but now the trip takes on darker tones, the traveler is pursued".[2] Music historian Samuel Charters considers the first and last verses possibly the finest in all of the blues.[15] The vision of hellhounds coming to catch sinners was prevalent in Southern churches at that time, and Charters feels this may have been the image in Johnson's mind:[15]
I got to keep movin', I've got to keep movin', blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail
Umm-mm-mm-mm, blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail
And the day keeps on worrin' me, there's a hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail
Johnson recorded the song during his last recording session in Dallas, Texas, on June 20, 1937.[2] It was the first song he recorded that day, and the first single to be released from that session.[2]
Recognition and influence
The critic Rudi Blesh, in his 1946 book Shining Trumpets: a History of Jazz, reviewed Johnson's recording, stating: "With all its strangeness, 'Hell Hound' is not only an authentic blues, but a remarkable variation in which the standard harmony is altered in a personal and creative way to permit the expression of uncanny and weird feelings. Johnson's strident voice sounds possessed like that of a man cast in a spell and his articulation, like speech in possession, is difficult to understand...".[17] In his 1992 book Searching for Robert Johnson, Peter Guralnick described the recording as "Johnson's crowning achievement and one that is almost universally recognised as the apogee of the blues...".[18] According to Hill, "Hellhound on My Trail" is "noted as one of blues music’s most terrifying songs, as well as a cornerstone of early blues music."[16]
In 1983, Robert Johnson's "Hell Hound on My Trail" was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording".[11] Writing for the Foundation, Jim O'Neal described it as "among the deepest and darkest of Robert Johnson's legendary blues masterworks."[11] The song is listed as one of NPR's "100 most important American musical works of the 20th century".[19]
References
- ^ a b c
Pearson, Barry Lee; McCulloch, Bill (2003). Robert Johnson: Lost and Found. Champaign, Illinois: ISBN 978-0-252-02835-9.
- ^ a b c d
ISBN 978-0-393-33750-1.
- ^ Okeh Records OK 8534
- ^ Vocalion Records Vo 1614
- ^ Paramount Records Pm 12424
- ^ Vocalion Records Vo 02987
- ^ Decca Records De7822
- ^ Paramount Records Pm 13088
- ^ a b
ISBN 978-0060524272.
- ^
Calt, Stephen (1994). I'd Rather be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues. New York City: Da Capa. p. 194. ISBN 0-306-80579-0.
- ^ a b c O'Neal, Jim (November 10, 2016). "1993 Hall of Fame Inductees: Hell Hound On My Trail – Robert Johnson (ARC/Vocalion, 1937)". The Blues Foundation.
- ^ Paramount Records PM 133072
- ^
Komara, Edward (2007). The Road to Robert Johnson. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: ISBN 978-0-634-00907-5.
- ^
ISBN 0-312-06324-5.
- ^ a b
ISBN 0-8256-0059-6.
- ^ a b Hill, Karlos K. (May 11, 2015). "The Lynching Blues". University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture. University of Mississippi. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
- ^ Rudi Blesh, Shining Trumpets: a History of Jazz, 1946, p.121
- ^ Peter Guralnick, Searching for Robert Johnson, 1992, ISBN 0-525-24801-3, p.44
- ^ Breslow, Peter (June 5, 2000). "Hellhound on My Trail". NPR Music. Retrieved July 1, 2014.