LogFAQs > #962959855

Blind Wille, back again with Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground. A very special song for anyone who knows its history.

https://youtu.be/BNj2BXW852g

I could talk about Blind Wille Johnson, and this song all day. He is such a tragic figure, and I find all of his music to just be so powerful.

When he was 7 Wille's stepmother blinded him with lye to punish his father for yelling about her infidelity. He spent his life after that getting kicked down and kicked around. He died at the age of 48, cold and alone, living in the burned down ruins of his home. No hospital would take him, and no friends would help him. The man knew the struggles like none of us could imagine.

Decades after Wille's death, we launched Voyager 1. Today it is approaching 15 billion miles from planet earth. Inside is a golden record, made to last for hundreds of billions of years. Aside from the drawings on the plate, it includes recordings from various artists and cultures.

My mom was a big space dork and listened to a copy of the record all the time. This song stood out to me as a kid, and is probably the reason I got so into the blues.

It's a crazy to think that his music will be just floating endlessly through the void ling after we as a species have ceased to exist.

"For humankind fears the dark, and so we sent a man who knew it well."