Crossroads

Crossroads, Hellhound on my trail, Me and the devil blues, Last fair deal gone down. Just to mention some of his devil related songs, Robert Johnson is the first faustian musician(from the Goethe's Faust myth) that history knows about. Story tells that after drinking and playing in Yazoo City he was walking back to Helena. There was a strange man in the crossroads, that told him -you're late Robert Johnson.  Robert Johnson answered as he fell on his knees -maybe not. There was a dog that made company to the strange man, howling with bright white eyes, as bright as the full moon that night. That "man's" hound started to howl differently, musically, notes, rhythms, that guitar like sound haunted Johnson. As soon as he heard it Johnson said to the man, What's that sound?, i want it. The man just smiled because Johnson just said exactly what he wanted to hear, he just answered -It's yours Robert Johnson but i need something in exchange. -What is it? I'll give you anything Johnson answered. After a small pause that man with that devilish smile said -Your soul Robert Johnson, if you keep on walking North my hand will be forever around your soul and everybody that hears your music will be possessed by it, you'll have the blues like no man has ever had it, but beware the consequences Robert Johnson. -Step off devil man, I'm the blues Johnson answered, he kept on walking north with the full moon on his back, sure as hell he didn't knew what he got into that day.

Cool shit huh? well first than anything Robert Johnson, the father of the Delta Blues, one of the oldest blues genres straight outta Mississippi. There's not much documented information about Robert Johnson which makes him more mysterious and interesting to write about and impressively there are only 2 confirmed pictures of him. Second, the Faustian myth that consists in selling your soul or exchanging it for material possessions. And third, last but not least interesting the crossroads deal and the Hoodoo, some voodoo and christian mix made when the white people brought African slaves to America and tried to make them believe the same stuff as them.A Hoodoo bad ass witch is supposed to be able to kill you with a single curse. You may be thinking, what does Robert Johnson have to do with a German myth and an African American set of beliefs? Well this is their crossroads, LOL. Faust, that in English means lucky is the first man that sells his soul to the devil for a material possession, being a tired scholar he decides to call the devil and says -screw reading I'm tired of this shit I'd rather sell my soul for knowledge and magic than keep on reading, and so he did old muthafucka had Mephistopheles at his services for years but at the end the devil drags his soul to hell, all that knowledge and magic didn't save you at the end Faust. In Goethe's play Faust is saved by his love for an innocent girl called Gretchen that Faust dooms by desiring her.

Now back to Hoodoo people, There's some sort of intermediary between the loa(their gods) and the humans called Papa Legba that is the guardian of the crossroads, he's the guy you go to if you wish to speak to a god. Guess where you do you have to go to meet him, that also happens to be the portal between our worlds and where Faust and Robert Johnson went to see their respective demons? That's right man the thing that connects all sorts of roads, the crossroads. In the first half of the 20th century many blues players believed or used certain terms of Hoodoo and some even carried even such things as hex bags or mojo hands(spell bags that usually were made for good luck which contained bones or herbs). You can hear about this sorts of stuff in many Mississippi born blues players' songs.


Now back again to Robert Johnson, he was always on the run, he liked to travel a lot. I say that's bull..., he was already running away from the deal but there are two things you can't truly escape from, the devil and the taxman. I'd be shitting myself if any of them both was after me and so did Robert Johnson, also it is said that Robert Johnson protected his style very fiercely. If in the middle of a performance he noticed someone tried to copy him he'd leave right away in the middle of the performance. His style was the only thing he possessed and he protected it like if it was his very soul. Robert Johnson's death was as shady as his life, some say the Hellhounds claimed his soul, some other say an angry husband poisoned him, and of course there's the guy that says claims he was abducted by aliens(me). Those damn aliens have no talent so they always have to be stealing ours.Robert Johnson died in 1938 at his impressive 27, and like in the other forever 27's there was no autopsy. Well people I'm getting hungry so that's it for today. The electric ladyland educating people one by one, remember kids don't believe everything you read specially in other blogs.

"The thing about Robert Johnson was that he only existed on his records. He was pure legend"
Martin Scorsese

Ohh i almost forgot!!
Movies related with the post
-Faust 1926: The wager between God and the devil to turn a man's heart to evil
-Crossroads 1988: A kid with a wish of learning the blues breaks Willie Brown (the harmonica player Robert Johnson mentions in Crossroads blues) and go to Mississippi just to discover that Willie Brown made the same deal as Robert Johnson and try to save him