Early life and recording debut Born near
Holly Springs, Mississippi, Johnson sang and played with Magic Sam and other blues artists, such as
Billy Boy Arnold,
Junior Wells and
Howlin' Wolf, in the 1950s. and some years later was
sampled on many
hip hop tracks. The song has been described as "among the most affecting of the
civil rights era," and provided the title track of his second album. However, at Hi Records, Johnson was always to some extent in the shadow of Al Green, commercially if not artistically. Reviewing one of his last albums for Hi, 1976's
Total Explosion,
Robert Christgau wrote in ''
Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981): "Johnson has tended to disappear in between Willie Mitchell and Al Green, but on this LP he takes his harmonica up to the microphone and stands clear as a lapsed bluesman. Good move. His voice is still shriller, and more strained than Green's, but that can be a satisfying distinction in the right context."
1980s: Retirement After his years with Hi ended, Johnson produced two LPs for his own Shama label, the second of which, the soul/funk
Ms. Fine Brown Frame (1982), The title track of that album was Johnson's last hit record. Around the mid-1980s, Johnson mostly retired from performing, making only occasional appearances at blues clubs. At that time, he opened a chain of seafood restaurants,
1990s: Return to music In 1992, Johnson found out that his song "Different Strokes" had been
sampled by several
rappers, including
Wu-Tang Clan,
Public Enemy,
Kool G Rap,
Hammer,
De La Soul, and the
Geto Boys. This stimulated his interest in making a comeback in the
music industry. Johnson was one of the most sampled artists, largely from "Different Strokes" and "Is It Because I'm Black". He felt passionately that taking music from an original artist without proper compensation constituted theft, and he sued other artists for copyright infringement.
Any Way the Wind Blows documentary The 2015 documentary
Any Way the Wind Blows, directed by Rob Hatch-Miller, premiered at the
Chicago International Film Festival. It takes its inspiration from events in the life of this "mostly forgotten" (according to
Greil Marcus) soul singer from the 1970s seeking a second attempt at a career. While his records were being sampled by artists from Wu-Tang Clan to
Kid Rock, to
Jay-Z and
Kanye West, Johnson often found himself with neither credit nor money. == Personal life and death ==