"Hellhound on My Trail" (originally "Hell Hound on My Trail") is a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

song recorded by

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yaz ...

bluesman

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

in 1937. It was inspired by earlier blues songs and blues historian

Ted Gioia Ted Gioia (born October 21, 1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian. He is author of eleven books, including ''Music: A Subversive History'', '' The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire'', ''The History of Jazz'' and ''Delta Blu ...

describes it as one of Johnson's "best known and most admired performances—many would say it is his greatest".

Background

Prior to Johnson's song, the phrase "hellhound on my trail" had been used in various blues songs. 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" 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". The

Biddleville Quintette The Biddleville Quintette was a vocal group from the Biddleville neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, who recorded traditional black gospel for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1929. Although little information is availabl ...

's 1926 religious recording "Show Pity Lord" opens with a religious testimony declaring that "The hell hound has turned back off my trail". Blues writers, such as

Elijah Wald Elijah Wald (born 1959) is an American folk blues guitarist and music historian. He is a 2002 Grammy Award winner for his liner notes to ''The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box: The Journey of Chris Strachwitz''. Life Wald was born in 19 ...

, see Johnson following Johnny Temple (1935 "The Evil Devil Blues") and Joe McCoy (1934 "Evil Devil Woman Blues") in adapting

Skip James Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9, 1902October 3, 1969) was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. AllMusic stated: "This emotional, lyrical performer was a talented blues guitarist and arranger with an impressiv ...

's 1931 song "Devil Got My Woman". The emotional intensity, guitar tuning and strained singing style of "Hell Hound on My Trail" are also found in James' performance. In the 1980s, however, another James record "Yola My Blues Away" (1931) became widely available on reissue recordings. "Devil Got My Woman" shares the tuning and vocal styles that Johnson displayed, but the "Hellhound" melody is closer to "Yola" than to "Devil". From the latter, Johnson took the device of repeating the end of lines with an attached musical phrase. Additionally, he used the lyrics of one of the verses from "

Come On In My Kitchen "Come On in My Kitchen" is a blues song by Robert Johnson. Music writer Elijah Wald has described it as "a hypnotic lament" and "his first unquestionable masterpiece". A sometime traveling companion and fellow musician, Johnny Shines, recalled t ...

". Blues historian Edward Komara concluded "It is probable that Johnny Temple used the "Devil" attachment phrases and lyrics while teaching "Yola" to Johnson".

Composition and lyrics

"Hell Hound on My Trail" is a solo performance by Johnson with vocal and slide guitar. He used an open E minor guitar tuning with the lower strings providing a droning accompaniment;

Charles Shaar Murray Charles Shaar Murray (born Charles Maximillian Murray; 27 June 1951) is an English music journalist and broadcaster. He has worked on the ''New Musical Express'' and many other magazines and newspapers, and has been interviewed for a number of ...

describes "the bottleneck ... mak ngthe treble strings of his guitar moan like wind through dead trees". Gioia notes that the lyrics " ealwith the familiar blues theme of the rambling musician, but now the trip takes on darker tones, the traveler is ''pursued''". Music historian

Samuel Charters Samuel Barclay Charters IV (August 1, 1929 – March 18, 2015) was an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet. He was a widely published author on the subjects of blues and jazz. He also wrote fiction. Overview Cha ...

believes the first and last verses may be the finest found in the blues. The vision of the hounds of hell coming to catch sinners was prevalent in southern churches at that time and this may have been the image in Johnson's mind: Johnson recorded the song during his last recording session in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday, June 20, 1937. It was the first song he recorded that day and the first single released from that session.

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...". 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...".Peter Guralnick, ''Searching for Robert Johnson'', 1992, ISBN 0-525-24801-3, p.44 In 1983, Robert Johnson's "Hell Hound on My Trail" was inducted into the

Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs the ...

Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording". Writing for the Foundation,

Jim O'Neal Jim O'Neal (born November 25, 1948, Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States) is an American blues expert, writer, record producer, and record company executive. He co-founded America's first blues magazine, ''Living Blues'', in Chicago in 1970, and w ...

described it as "among the deepest and darkest of Robert Johnson's legendary blues masterworks." The song is listed as one of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's "100 most important American musical works of the 20th century".

References

{{authority control Blues songs Robert Johnson songs 1937 songs Songs written by Robert Johnson Songs about dogs Fictional dogs Vocalion Records singles Okeh Records singles