There is no more potent musical myth than Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil at a Delta crossroads. Yet many blues fans who make a pilgrimage to the Delta, and Clarksdale Mississippi in particular, want nothing more than to visit the ‘real crossroads’. Many a local resident will roll their eyes when asked by eager Blues tourists to tell them where they can find the crossroads.
Other over eager visitors don’t even bother asking, they just head for the junction of Highway 61 and Highway 49 – pretty soon the cameras are out and they’re asking a passer by the “please take our photograph”. What few of these people realise is that the current crossroads of the two highways is at least half a mile from the one that would have existed in Johnson’s lifetime. The point is, there is no actual crossroads.
In Cross Road Blues Johnson is singing of man’s need to make choices, the fundamental choice between good and evil.
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees
Asked the Lord above “Have mercy, now save poor Bob, if you please”
In the Delta there was a story that went the rounds suggesting that if a Bluesman waited by the side of a deserted country crossroads in the dark of a moonless night, then Satan himself would come and tune his guitar. It’s a story made more relevant, in the construction of the Johnson Legend when coupled with his frequent references to the Devil. In songs such as, Me And The Devil Blues, he sings “Me and the devil, was walkin’ side by side”, Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) and Hell Hound on My Trail all cover aspects of Johnson’s deal with the Devil that have fuelled the myth these last seventy or so years
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