The blues singer 'Robert Johnson' - the movie 'Crossroads' - and Tim McGraw's song 'How bad do you want it?'? There was a superstition among Blues guitarists in Mississippi, around Robert Johnson's time, that stated that when one took his guitar and stood at a crossroads at night, at the stroke of midnight a big, black man would come, take the guitar, and tune it-and the owner would soon become a virtuoso. However, there was a dark side to the deal-it was thought to be a selling of one' soul to the Devil, in return for musical prowess, often accompanied by fame, fortune, and other worldly pleasures.
When Johnson was starting out, he'd ask to jam with older musicians like Son House, Willie Brown, and Charley Patton. They let him-but didn't think that he was very good. But one time, after a six month absence, when Johnson said he'd been visiting his father, he again asked to play-and the more experienced men were so stunned by the improvement that word got around that Robert Johnson had 'gone to the crossroads'-in his case, one in Clarksdale,Mississippi, where Highways 61 and 49 meet. Ironically, there is a graveyard there, which is one of three that claim to hold the remains of Robert Johnson.
'Crossroads' tells a story of how a young man sets the soul of a bluesman (in this case, Willie Brown) free from the devil's powers obtained at a crossroads, by bringing him back to the scene of the transaction, and winning a guitar 'duel' with the devil (actually his representative, played by Steve Vai).
I'm sorry I'm not familiar with Tim McGraw's song, but if it contains words like 'devil', crossroads' or the phrase 'sell my soul', it's from the same general source-that is, the superstitions and folklore of early-to-mid 20th century Mississippi and environs, probably inspired by some older sources, notably
"Young Goodman Browne" by Nathaniel Hawthorne-a definitely pre-blues era story, of a meeting of a young man with the Devil, that takes place...at a crossroads.. Just to add to the great answer above, its also likely that a rumour of a tie-up with the Devil wasn't an altogether bad idea for people (like Johnson) who risked life & limb playing in the kinds of places that musicians played at in those days, where a nightly stabbing was a common occurance, especially over women. To paraphrase Eddie Murphy, singers don't even have to look good ....Johnson's wandering eye was legendary. |
