Max's Musings

Soundtrack, Feb 7, The Cross Roads Blues

I seem to spend an enormous amount of time in Google Holes.

It always starts with me researching some obscure topic for a story I'm writing. It might be anything: the Elysian Mystery Cult, or maybe Old English cuss words, or the gay scene in 1933 London, but while sniffing about, my mental nose scents something interesting, something tangential to my original search, and I click on it. That leads to another irrersistable scent and, like a dog following his nose, I'm off into a Google Hole. I might come up anywhere. The other day, I started reading about the Acubierre drive--a hypothetical faster-than-light drive--and, four hours later, wound up reading about Chaucer's The Knight's Tale. I don't recall the convoluted path from hither to yon. The point is, that's just one example of a Google Hole. They're digital black holes, with the same kind of irresistable pull as the physical ones Einstein predicted.

Sometimes, though, there's a wormhole at the bottom that leads to a productive end. The one I mentioned above, the one that led the Chaucer, is one of those. It led led to the first of my "Lauderdale Tales" .

I found today's song at the end of another Google Hole.

Rolling Stone called the 1930s blues artist Robert Johnson, "possibly the first ever rock star." At first glance, that seems like a curious statement. Johnson released exactly two recordings in his career, and neither got wide release. Indeed, in his lifetime, he was barely known outside the Missippi Delta, where he was one of the founding artists for the Delta Blues style.

While the general public and the recording industry largely ignored him, other musicians took note of his musical genius. His recording of "The Cross Roads Blues," in particular, had signficant influence on blues musicians of later decades. Over time, that influence broadened and, eventually, rock stars like Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Bob Dylan cited his work as a critical influence.

In his own time, his genius was so evident that a legend grew up that his song "The Cross Roads Blues" was about a Faustian bargain he made at a cross roads, acquiring musical talent in exchange for his soul. I find that, shall we say, doubtful. More likely, the the legend arose in part because, at the time in the American South, crossroads were seen as the location for such devlish encounters. Couple that with his untimely death and the fact that religious groups regarded the blues as the devil's work, and you've got the seeds for the legend.

I see I've gone down a Google Hole here in this blog, so, back to the point.

I don't remember where I started, but one day about a year ago I wound up reading about Robert Johnson, "The Cross Roads Blues," and that Faustian legend. The result was this story: "At the Crossroads" . The song itself doesn't appear in the story, nor does the devil, but the song and the legend were what influenced the story. That's the connection to the theme of this blog, so here we are.

Here's Johnson, performing "The Cross Roads Blues."


You may be more familiar with Eric Clapton's version.