Hell Hound On My Trail

Robert Johnson “Hellhound On My Trail” (2:35)
(June 20, 1937)

“Hellhound On My Trail” is the first of ten songs recorded by Robert Johnson on the second day of his last recording session in a makeshift studio at the Brunswick Record Building, 508 Park Avenue, in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, June 20, 1937. 

By the fall of 1938 Robert Johnson was dead, at the age of 27.

Although this is a twelve bar blues song in structure, it is unique in melody and verse form. The first and last verses may be the finest found in the blues, according to music historian Samuel Charters. The poetic imagery is brilliant and intense with a feeling of personal frenzy. The song’s lyrics reflect an agonized spirit for whom there is no escape. 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.