#481 Robert Johnson, 'Cross Road Blues' (1937)

 

I am familiar with this one.  My Dad had the LP "King of the Delta Blues Singers".  I later bought his complete recordings on CD. This is probably his best known song, behind maybe "Sweet Home Chicago".  

There were lots of great delta blues artists, but Johnson is the best known.  Besides the quality of his work, his popularity probably had a lot to do with the LP of his recordings being more available and finding its way to England where young people like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards heard it.  Plus the whole mythology that developed around him (check it out if you don't know what I'm talking about).  

And then of course that corny movie with the Karate Kid guy. 

I haven't heard this in years.  Looking forward to it.


-------------------------------

Yeah, great.  The quality of the recording is remarkably good, considering it was probably a single microphone on a reel to reel tape in a hotel room.  But that's what makes it so personal, it does feel like I'm sitting there with him.

Unfortunately my Dad passed away a few years ago.  I'd like to ask him how he first came upon this record.  He had a trunk full of LPs.  His collection was heavy on things like the Kingston Trio, with a couple of the more popular Jazz albums from the time (Take Five, for example).  And then there were some heavier things by black artists like Muddy Waters, Lighting Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and this album.  I wonder where he came upon these and what he thought when he first heard them.  It's pretty shocking stuff for someone used to the Kingston Trio (not a diss!).  Especially for a white guy in Texas in the early 60s.  I obviously didn't know him then, but I think he was sort of a beatnik.

Ask your relatives stuff while you can - I think I should call my Mom....




Comments

  1. RonDecember 3, 2021 at 8:07 PM

    Great song. Your father had great taste in music. Robert Johnson, Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and Blind Willie McTell are probably my all-time favorite acoustic Bluesmen.

    I got that "Complete Recordings" double CD set and I absolutely hated the sequencing they did by putting all the variations of the same song back-to-back. I would have preferred the "original" albums in order with the variations being the bonus tracks at the end of disc 1 & disc 2 (or if it would fit, have the albums on 1 and the variations on 2). Sadly, i rarely played those CDs because of this. I did have the LPs but they are long gone now.

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