In 1961 Columbia Records released an album called Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers. It featured 16 tracks of haunting blues guitar, played with such virtuosity that many of its listeners found it hard to believe that the man responsible was playing on his own, on one guitar, with no other accompaniment.
It would become one of the most influential albums of all time and go on to have an indelible impact on the future of the nascent rock 'n roll genre - heard and burned into the brains of a generation of young British musicians from Eric Clapton to Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, who would sit and play it repeatedly, trying to figure out the secrets of Johnson's virtuosity and reinterpret them for a new, hungry, American blues-obsessed audience.
Across the pond, Johnson's music had an equally mind-blowing effect on a young folk musician named Bob Dylan, who was taken by the guitarist's unique lyrics and songs which referenced the devil, heartbreak and a life of despair, tragedy and a sense of constantly being on the run from the demons of his past...