Blind WIllie Johnsons epic song about the Spanish Flu epidemic set to scenes from the public domain film Blood of Jesus … with an introduction from Blind Willie McTell. Blood of Jesus was one of the few films shot by an African American director in the 1940s and was considered lost until copies were discovered in a Texas warehouse in the 1980s. Of all the tragic stories of blues artists, Blind Willie Johnsons is surely one of the saddest. He was blinded by his mother who threw lye in his face as a way of getting back at her cheating husband. His father, who took advantage of the boys condition and his musical ability, would drop him off in the city to sing and beg on street corners, which led to his arrest. After a fire destroyed his home, he returned to the burned out ruins, sleeping on a bed soaked with water from the firefighting. He subsequently got pneumonia, but was turned away from all the local hospitals because he was black. He died sleeping in the ruins of his burned out home.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 06:30:17 +0000
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