Love in Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson

By Alan Greenberg

Book Overview

Robert Johnson was undoubtedly the most outstanding of the Mississippi Delta blues musicians and also one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but his short life remains steeped in mystery and wrapped in some of the most enduring legends of modern music. Love in Vain is Alan Greenberg's remarkable, highly acclaimed, and genre-defying screenplay and is widely considered to be one of the foremost books on Robert Johnson's life and legacy and an extraordinary exercise in American mythmaking. Newly revised and complete with extensive historical notes on Johnson's life and the culture of the Mississippi Delta and blues music during the 1930s, Love in Vain is at once a classic of music writing and a screenplay whose reputation lies firmly in the realm of great American literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816680809
• ISBN13: 9780816680801
• Release Date: October 2012
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

When will someone turn this into a movie?

It's a long way from the Mississippi Delta to Australia but this screenplay allowed me to visualise and feel the passion and raw edge to the music and landscape of Robert Johnson. It seems a shame that no Director has been brave enough to attempt to put this tale onto film as it could surely be an outstanding work if properly attacked. The comprehensive attached notes provide the reader with an opportunity to fill in any gaps in their knowledge to the point where one can almost picture the juke joints with their duelling musicians. The brutality of life in this community was shocking to me and the early death of Robert Johnson now seems to be less of a tragedy and more of an inevitability.

Groundbreaking Book

I never read anything like this before--it was like watching an amazing movie in written form. This unique book is an undiscovered gem.

Best damn book on Robert Johnson or any bluesman, ever.

Robert Johnson was my friend. And I feel that Alan Greenberg sets the record straight about all the lies and crap about Robert's life.

A neglected American masterpiece about a great fallen angel.

First released by Doubleday fifteen years ago, this humble trade paperback is as fine a literary work as any published in our time. This neglected American masterpiece about the great--and greatly mysterious--fallen angel, 1930s blues genius Robert Johnson of Mississippi, is about to be transformed into a cinematic classic as well, directed by Martin Scorsese. "This might be the best movie you'll see all year--even if it's inside your head." --Entertainment Weekly

Unsung, groundbreaking, visionary masterwork for all tastes.

When first published by Doubleday in 1983, this breathtaking work (soon to be directed by Martin Scorsese) was the 1st American screenplay published by a major house as literature. Its 2nd Edition includes a foreword by Martin Scorsese and beautiful photographs by the author. This overlooked work of surpassing brilliance is as great a 'portrait of the artist' as anything yet written into the canon, and its magical spiritual vision of the black soul, and the black artist's soul, is something every human being regardless of race should witness. I defy anyone to put this book down, either physically or critically!