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And such is the Tales of all that is paranormal in the World.
Pazuzu was an Assyrian and Babylonian demonic god of the first millennium BC. He normally has a dog-like face like here, and where his body is depicted he has a scaly torso, a snake-headed penis, the talons of a bird and usually wings. He is often regarded as an evil underworld demon, but he seems also to have played a beneficent role as a protector against disease-bearing winds (especially the west wind). He was closely associated with the demoness Lamashtu who stole babies from their mother's womb or when newly born. Pazuzu acted to counter her evil: he forced her back to the underworld. Amulets of Pazuzu like this were therefore placed in windows hung inside and out of dwellings, attached to bedroom furniture. Smaller versions were hung around the necks of pregnant women. Pazuzu Head Assyria Artifact The Exorcist Prop 4 X 2 inches Item is shipped United States only Standard ~ Flat Rate Shipping Service
ROBERT
JOHNSON’S
DEAL WITH THE DEVIL AND THE
CROSSROADS CURSE
Interestingly,
there are other contenders
in the myth of Robert Johnson's
devil-purchased soul -- and
the crossroads of US 61 and
US 49 in Clarksdale is where
most blues tourists pay their
respects (the newest Romantics
album is called "61/49"
for this reason). Of course
-- as with ancient Roman tourists
setting off to find "sites"
from Greek myths -- the location
of Johnson's crossroads is
not exactly something that
can be proven. He was born
in Hazelhurst, and his supposed
grave is in Quito (near Itta
Bena) -- but Rosedale did
figure in the lyrics for one
of Johnson's most famous songs,
"Traveling Riverside
Blues".
Story
by Matt Morgan, Artwork by
Ricardo Pustanio
Meeting with the Devil
at the Crossroads
A "vision",
as told by Henry Goodman
Robert Johnson been playing down in
Yazoo City and over at Beulah trying
to get back up to Helena, ride left
him out on a road next to the levee,
walking up the highway, guitar in his
hand propped up on his shoulder. October
cool night, full moon filling up the
dark sky, Robert Johnson thinking about
Son House preaching to him, "Put
that guitar down, boy, you drivin' people
nuts." Robert Johnson needing as
always a woman and some whiskey. Big
trees all around, dark and lonesome
road, a crazed, poisoned dog howling
and moaning in a ditch alongside the
road sending electrified chills up and
down Robert Johnson's spine, coming
up on a crossroads just south of Rosedale.
Robert Johnson, feeling bad and lonesome,
knows people up the highway in Gunnison.
Can get a drink of whiskey and more
up there. Man sitting off to the side
of the road on a log at the crossroads
says, "You're late, Robert Johnson."
Robert Johnson drops to his knees and
says, "Maybe not."
The man stands up,
tall, barrel-chested, and black as the
forever-closed eyes of Robert Johnson's
stillborn baby, and walks out to the
middle of the crossroads where Robert
Johnson kneels. He says, "Stand
up, Robert Johnson. You want to throw
that guitar over there in that ditch
with that hairless dog and go on back
up to Robinsonville and play the harp
with Willie Brown and Son, because you
just another guitar player like all
the rest, or you want to play that guitar
like nobody ever played it before? Make
a sound nobody ever heard before? You
want to be the King of the Delta Blues
and have all the whiskey and women you
want?"
"That's a lot
of whiskey and women, Devil-Man."
"I know you,
Robert Johnson," says the man.
Robert Johnson, feels
the moonlight bearing down on his head
and the back of his neck as the moon
seems to be growing bigger and bigger
and brighter and brighter. He feels
it like the heat of the noonday sun
bearing down, and the howling and moaning
of the dog in the ditch penetrates his
soul, coming up through his feet and
the tips of his fingers through his
legs and arms, settling in that big
empty place beneath his breastbone causing
him to shake and shudder like a man
with the palsy. Robert Johnson says,
"That dog gone mad."
The man laughs. "That
hound belong to me. He ain't mad, he's
got the Blues. I got his soul in my
hand."
The dog lets out a
low, long soulful moan, a howling like
never heard before, rhythmic, syncopated
grunts, yelps, and barks, seizing Robert
Johnson like a Grand Mal, and causing
the strings on his guitar to vibrate,
hum, and sing with a sound dark and
blue, beautiful, soulful chords and
notes possessing Robert Johnson, taking
him over, spinning him around, losing
him inside of his own self, wasting
him, lifting him up into the sky. Robert
Johnson looks over in the ditch and
sees the eyes of the dog reflecting
the bright moonlight or, more likely
so it seems to Robert Johnson, glowing
on their own, a deep violet penetrating
glow, and Robert Johnson knows and feels
that he is staring into the eyes of
a Hellhound as his body shudders from
head to toe.
The man says, "The
dog ain't for sale, Robert Johnson,
but the sound can be yours. That's the
sound of the Delta Blues."
"I got to have
that sound, Devil-Man. That sound is
mine. Where do I sign?"
The man says, "You
ain't got a pencil, Robert Johnson.
Your word is good enough. All you got
to do is keep walking north. But you
better be prepared. There are consequences."
"Prepared for
what, Devil-man?"
"You know where
you are, Robert Johnson? You are standing
in the middle of the crossroads. At
midnight, that full moon is right over
your head. You take one more step, you'll
be in Rosedale. You take this road to
the east, you'll get back over to Highway
61 in Cleveland, or you can turn around
and go back down to Beulah or just go
to the west and sit up on the levee
and look at the River. But if you take
one more step in the direction you're
headed, you going to be in Rosedale
at midnight under this full October
moon, and you are going to have the
Blues like never known to this world.
My left hand will be forever wrapped
around your soul, and your music will
possess all who hear it. That's what's
going to happen. That's what you better
be prepared for. Your soul will belong
to me. This is not just any crossroads.
I put this "X" here for a
reason, and I been waiting on you."
Robert Johnson rolls
his head around, his eyes upwards in
their sockets to stare at the blinding
light of the moon which has now completely
filled tie pitch-black Delta night,
piercing his right eye like a bolt of
lightning as the midnight hour hits.
He looks the big man squarely in the
eyes and says, "Step back, Devil-Man,
I'm going to Rosedale. I am the Blues."
The man moves to one
side and says, "Go on, Robert Johnson.
You the King of the Delta Blues. Go
on home to Rosedale. And when you get
on up in town, you get you a plate of
hot tamales because you going to be
needing something on your stomach where
you're headed."
A deal with the
Devil, pact with the Devil, or Faustian
bargain is a cultural motif widespread
wherever the Devil is vividly present,
most familiar in the legend of Faust
and the figure of Mephistopheles, but
elemental to many Christian folktales.
In the Aarne-Thompson typological catalogue,
it lies in category AT 756B –
"The devil's contract."
According
to traditional Christian belief in witchcraft,
the pact is between a person and Satan
or any other demon (or demons); the
person offers his or her soul in exchange
for diabolical favours. Those favours
vary by the tale, but tend to include
youth, knowledge, wealth, or power.
It was also believed that some persons
made this type of pact just as a sign
of recognising the Devil as their master,
in exchange for nothing. Regardless,
the bargain is a dangerous one, for
the price of the Fiend's service is
the wagerer's soul. The tale may have
a moralizing end, with eternal damnation
for the foolhardy venturer. Conversely
it may have a comic twist, in which
a wily peasant outwits the Devil, characteristically
on a technical point. Among the credulous,
any apparently superhuman achievement
might be credited to a pact with the
Devil, from the numerous European Devil's
Bridges to the superb violin technique
of Niccolò Paganini.
“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.”
-- Robert Johnson’s
“Crossroad Blues”
Robert
Johnson, born Robert Leroy Johnson (May
8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is
among the most famous of Delta blues
musicians. His landmark recordings from
1936–1937 display a remarkable
combination of singing, guitar skills,
and songwriting talent that have influenced
generations of musicians. Johnson's
shadowy, poorly documented life and
death at age 27 have given rise to much
legend. Considered by some to be the
"Grandfather of Rock-and-Roll",
his vocal phrasing, original songs,
and guitar style have influenced a broad
range of musicians, including John Fogerty,
Bob Dylan, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix,
The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, The Allman
Brothers Band, The Rolling Stones, Paul
Butterfield, The White Stripes, The
Black Keys, The Band, Neil Young, Warren
Zevon, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric
Clapton, who called Johnson "the
most important blues musician who ever
lived". He was also ranked fifth
in Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest
Guitarists of All Time. He is an inductee
of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Around 1936, Johnson sought out H. C.
Speir in Jackson, Mississippi, who ran
a general store and doubled as a talent
scout. Speir, who helped the careers
of many blues players, put Johnson in
touch with Ernie Oertle, who offered
to record the young musician in San
Antonio, Texas. At the recording session,
held on November 23, 1936 in rooms at
the landmark Gunter Hotel which Brunswick
Records had set up as a temporary studio,
Johnson reportedly performed facing
the wall. This has been cited as evidence
he was a shy man and reserved performer,
a conclusion played up in the inaccurate
liner notes of the 1961 album King of
the Delta Blues Singers. Johnson probably
was nervous and intimidated at his first
time in a makeshift recording studio
(a new and alien environment for the
musician), but in truth he was probably
focusing on the demands of his emotive
performances. In addition, playing into
the corner of a wall was a sound-enhancing
technique that simulated the acoustical
booths of better-equipped studios. In
the ensuing three-day session, Johnson
played 16 selections, and recorded alternate
takes for most of these. When the recording
session was over, Johnson presumably
returned home with cash in his pocket;
probably more money than he'd ever had
at one time in his life.
Among the songs Johnson
recorded in San Antonio were "Come
On In My Kitchen", "Kind Hearted
Woman Blues", "I Believe I'll
Dust My Broom", and "Cross
Road Blues". "Come on in My
Kitchen" included the lines: "The
woman I love took from my best friend/Some
joker got lucky, stole her back again,/You
better come on in my kitchen, it's going
to be rainin' outdoors." In "Crossroad
Blues", another of his songs, he
sang: "I went to the crossroads,
fell down on my knees./I went to the
crossroads, fell down on my knees./I
asked the Lord above, have mercy, save
poor Bob if you please./Uumb, standing
at the crossroads I tried to flag a
ride./Standing at the crossroads I tried
to flag a ride./Ain't nobody seem to
know me, everybody pass me by."
When his records began
appearing, Johnson made the rounds to
his relatives and the various children
he had fathered to bring them the records
himself. The first songs to appear were
"Terraplane Blues" and "Last
Fair Deal Gone Down", probably
the only recordings of his that he would
live to hear. "Terraplane Blues"
became a moderate regional hit, selling
5,000 copies.
In 1937, Johnson traveled
to Dallas, Texas, for another recording
session in a makeshift studio at the
Brunswick Record Building, 508 Park
Avenue. Eleven records from this session
would be released within the following
year. Among them were the three songs
that would largely contribute to Johnson's
posthumous fame: "Stones in My
Passway", "Me and the Devil",
and "Hellhound On My Trail".
"Stones In My Passway" and
"Me And The Devil" are both
about betrayal, a recurrent theme in
country blues. The terrifying "Hell
Hound On My Trail"—utilising
another common theme of fear of the
Devil—is often considered to be
the crowning achievement of blues-style
music. Other themes in Johnson's music
include impotence ("Dead Shrimp
Blues" and "Phonograph Blues")
and infidelity ("Terraplane Blues",
"If I Had Possession Over Judgement
Day" and "Love in Vain").
Six of Johnson's blues
songs mention the devil or some form
of the supernatural. In "Me And
The Devil" he began, "Early
this morning when you knocked upon my
door,/Early this morning, umb, when
you knocked upon my door,/And I said,
' Hello, Satan, I believe it's time
to go,'" before leading into "You
may bury my body down by the highway
side,/ You may bury my body, uumh, down
by the highway side,/So my old evil
spirit can get on a Greyhound bus and
ride."
It has been
suggested that the Devil in these songs
does not solely refer to the Christian
model of Satan, but equally to the African
trickster god, Legba..
“.
. . the Devil hangs close
to the Mississippi River
. . . putting
down his X . . . [and] Voodoo
oozes from New Orleans
for a reason . . .”
-- The Crossroads Blues
Society
In the
last year of his life, Johnson is believed
to have traveled to St. Louis and possibly
Illinois, and then to some states in
the East. He spent some time in Memphis
and traveled through the Mississippi
Delta and Arkansas. By the time he died,
at least six of his records had been
released in the South as race records.
His death occurred
on August 16, 1938, at the age of twenty-seven
at a country crossroads near Greenwood,
Mississippi. He had been playing for
a few weeks at a country dance in a
town about 15 miles (24 km) from Greenwood.
There are a number
of accounts and theories regarding the
events preceding Johnson's death. One
of these is that one evening Johnson
began flirting with a woman at a dance.
One version of this rumor says she was
the wife of the juke joint owner who
unknowingly provided Johnson with a
bottle of poisoned whiskey from her
husband, while another suggests she
was a married woman he had been secretly
seeing. Researcher Mack McCormick claims
to have interviewed Johnson's alleged
poisoner in the 1970s, and obtained
a tacit admission of guilt from the
man. When Johnson was offered an open
bottle of whiskey, his friend and fellow
blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson knocked
the bottle out of his hand, informing
him that he should never drink from
an offered bottle that has already been
opened. Johnson allegedly said, "don't
ever knock a bottle out of my hand".
Soon after, he was offered another open
bottle of whiskey and accepted it, and
it was that bottle that was laced with
strychnine. Johnson is reported to have
started to feel ill into the evening
after drinking from the bottle and had
to be helped back to his room in the
early morning hours. Over the next three
days, his condition steadily worsened
and witnesses reported that he died
in a convulsive state of severe pain
- symptoms which are consistent with
strychnine poisoning. Strychnine was
readily available at the time as it
was a common pesticide, and although
it is a very bitter-tasting substance
it is extremely toxic, and a small quantity
dissolved in a harsh-tasting solution
such as whiskey could possibly have
gone unnoticed, but (over a period of
days due to the reduced dosage) still
produced the symptoms and eventual death
that Johnson experienced.
The precise location
of his grave remains a source of ongoing
controversy, and three different markers
have been erected at supposed burial
sites outside of Greenwood. Research
in the 1980s and 1990s strongly suggests
Johnson was buried in the graveyard
of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist
church near Morgan City, Mississippi,
not far from Greenwood, in an unmarked
grave. A cenotaph memorial was placed
at this location in 1990 paid for by
Columbia Records and numerous smaller
contributions made through the Mt. Zion
Memorial Fund. More recent research
by Stephen LaVere (including statements
from Rosie Eskridge, the wife of the
supposed gravedigger) indicates that
the actual grave site is under a big
pecan tree in the cemetery of the Little
Zion Church north of Greenwood along
Money Road. Sony Music has placed a
marker at this site.
In 1938, Columbia
Records producer John Hammond, who had
heard Johnson's records, sought him
out to book him for the first "From
Spirituals to Swing" concert at
Carnegie Hall in New York. On learning
of Johnson's death, Hammond replaced
him with Big Bill Broonzy, but still
played two of Johnson's records from
the stage. Robert Johnson has a son,
Claude Johnson, and grandchildren who
currently reside in a town near Hazlehurst,
Mississippi.
Even
in death Johnson could find
no rest and even now the site
of his actual final resting
place is still debated among
historians and devotees. In
Mississippi there are two
grave sites bearing his name.
Just like the location of
Johnson’s crossroads,
his final resting place may
never be known for certain,
although the most likely contender
is the grave located in Quitto,
near Itta Bena, Mississippi.
Without Robert Johnson and the music
of the Delta Blues much of the music
we know and love so well today would
not exist. Certainly soul and R&B
owe a tremendous debt to Johnson, but
in every sense, rock and roll would
not be rock and roll had Johnson never
existed or made that sinister deal with
the Devil. It may just be that Johnson
did make that deal after all and some
think that there is evidence existing
today that proves it.
They call it the Crossroads Curse and
there are those who point to this theory
to prove that the curse of Johnson’s
devilish bargain has had far-reaching
and unexpected consequences.
It has been said by many that Johnson
never particularly liked the song, although
he obliged his record producer with
at least three known versions. Nevertheless,
modern musicians who weren’t even
born when Johnson was walking the roads
of the Mississippi Delta have since
learned to worship at the shrine of
his talent and it is this song –
“Crossroad Blues” –
in particular that is most associated
with modern adaptation as well as modern
tragedy.
Popular rock musicians who have performed
the song include Eric Clapton and Cream,
The Allman Brothers Band, and Lynyrd
Skynyrd; and Led Zeppelin has lifted
several of Johnson’s more sexual
allusions for use in their lyrics. The
Crossroads Curse may have touched even
Kurt Cobain, the founder of Nirvana.
Each of these bands has been the target
of intense professional and personal
tragedies that make some wonder whether
the Devil isn’t still taking his
payment all these long years later…
Eric Clapton and Cream recorded “Crossroad
Blues” for their “Cream:
Wheels of Fire” LP at the height
of their fame. Within a few short years,
the band was disbanded and Clapton was
wallowing in the throes of heroin addiction.
Years later, having cleaned up his life
and enjoying a profitable solo career,
Clapton was tragically struck by the
death of his two year old son who fell
from an apartment window to death several
stories below.
The tragedy surrounding The Allman Brothers
Band is practically legend in the annals
of rock and roll. At the height of their
fame, in 1971, Duane Allman, who is
said to have loved performing “Crossroad
Blues” live, was tragically killed
in a motorcycle accident at another
crossroads near Macon, Georgia where
he swerved his motorcycle to avoid hitting
a truck. He died later from his injuries.
Just over a year later, in 1972, another
band member, guitarist Berry Oakley,
was killed while riding his motorcycle;
he died less than a mile from the spot
where Duane Allman had met his death.
Though the band soldiered on, Duane’s
brother Gregg felt compelled to immortalize
his brother’s connection to a
crossroads in the song “Melissa”:
“Crossroads
will you ever let him go?
Or will you hide the dead
man’s ghost?”
Johnson's
recordings have remained continuously
available since John Hammond convinced
Columbia Records to compile the first
Johnson LP, King of the Delta Blues
Singers, in 1961. A sequel LP, assembling
the rest of what could be found of Johnson's
recordings at that time, was issued
in 1970. In the UK, both albums were
issued as a two-LP set by Blue Diamond
Records in 1985 under the same name,
King of the Delta Blues Singers. An
omnibus two-CD set (The Complete Recordings)
was released in 1990 and produced by
Beryl Cohen Porter [Sony/Columbia Legacy
46222], containing all 41 known recordings
of his 29 compositions.
A 1996 plastic
jewel-case remaster of the Complete
set [Sony/Columbia Legacy 64916] corrected
fidelity and pitch problems from the
cardboard-packaged box. The more recent
CD re-releases of "King of the
Delta Blues Singers" Volumes 1
& 2 improve the sound quality far
more dramatically, but don't include
10 alternate takes (and two accidental
introductions) found on Complete. Volume
one includes a recently discovered alternate
take of "Traveling Riverside Blues"
which is not included on the Complete
collection. This now brings the number
of known Johnson recordings to forty-two.
Of course, some people thereabouts
will tell you that the real
crossroads where Robert
Johnson gave away his soul
is located at the intersection
of US 61 and US 49 in Clarksdale,
Mississippi and this is
the location where many
blues fans go to pay their
respects to the Father of
the Delta Blues.
Crossroads
is a 1986 cult film inspired
by the legend of Robert
Johnson. The film was directed
by Walter Hill and featured
an original score featuring
Ry Cooder and Steve Vai.
Starring Ralph Macchio,
renowned guitarist Steve
Vai also appears in the
film as the devil's guitar
player in the climactic
guitar duel. The original
music score was composed
by Ry Cooder.
Crossroads
(1986) which is loosely based on the
theme of a blues artist selling his
soul to the devil and, more specifically,
about a young white blues guitarist's
search for Johnson's 'missing' thirtieth
song (there are only 29 individual songs
in Johnson's recorded repertoire). Johnson
is played by Tim Russ, while Joe Seneca
plays Willie Brown (a contemporary of
Johnson's mentioned in the song "Cross
Road Blues"). Some scenes in the
movie are meant to portray moments in
Johnson's career as flashbacks, e.g.
a recording session at the very start
of the movie, and a portrayal of the
"selling his soul to the devil"—events
which are part of the legend about him.
Johnson's music for the film was played
& orchestrated by Ry Cooder and
Steve Vai, and in some cases Johnson's
actual recordings are heard in the film.
While the film is almost entirely a
fictitious creation based on the crossroads
myth associated with Robert Johnson,
those associated with it especially
director Walter Hill have remarked that
it was made with complete respect and
admiration for the legend of the real
performer.
CROSSROADS
Plot summary
Eugene Martone (Macchio) has a fascination
for the blues while he studies classical
guitar at the Juilliard School for performing
arts in New York City. Researching blues
and guitar music brings famed Robert
Johnson's mythically creative acclaim
to his attention; especially intriguing
is the "missing song" that
was lost, supposedly evermore to the
world.
In his quest to find
this song, he discovers old newspaper
archive clippings that, fortunately
or not, the blues legend Willie Brown
is yet alive and incarcerated in a nearby
minimum security hospital.
On a visit to meet
this musical icon, Eugene gets thwarted
by Willie who denies that he is that
Willie Brown and doesn't have any idea
what Eugene is saying. Undaunted and
to get around the minimum security surrounding
the old man, Eugene gets a job as an
orderly so he can grill the old man
as work time permits. Willie again protests
and denies that he is the same Willie
Brown for whom Eugene is looking.
Eugene then plays
some blues guitar for Willie and the
old man finally acknowledges that the
kid can indeed play well, just with
no soul. Willie then says he knows the
missing Robert Johnson tune but refuses
to give it to Eugene unless the boy
busts him out of the facility and gets
him to Mississippi. Eugene agrees and
they head for Mississippi, but the boy
soon realizes that Willie is constantly
running minor scams such as claiming
he has more money then he has to cover
their bus tickets. With no money, they
end up “hoboing” from Memphis
to Mississippi.
During their quest,
Eugene and Willie experience the blues
legacy of Robert Johnson first-hand,
taking part in an impromptu jam session
at a roadhouse or "jukejoint"
as "Blind Dog" Willie puts
it. Eugene is deeply impressed and his
feelings of the authenticity of Willie
being an old bluesman takes firm hold
in his mind.
A romantic interest
surfaces in the guise of a hitchhiker,
Frances, (Jami Gertz) who follows them.
She and Eugene end up sharing a tender
moment in a hayloft. She soon thereafter
becomes miffed at the mission at hand
and leaves the two guys, so now Eugene
gets a feel for the blues, playing on
an old Fender Telecaster guitar and
a Pignose. His style and mood is now
totally altered and affirmed, making
him really want to become a "blues-man"
too.
They ultimately get
to the crossroad and finally meet Ol'
Scratch, the devil who probably bartered
for and won Johnson's soul in exchange
for the gift of his masterful guitar
and musical style. Eugene then finds
out that Willie Brown made a similar
deal with Scratch back in his day. Now
that he is an old man, Brown says he
didn't get what he really wanted and
is concerned the line on his soul will
be up when he dies.
Not wanting to risk
his young friend's soul, Willie forbids
Eugene to get involved any further than
he already is. In fact, Brown now confesses
that there was no missing song for Eugene
to learn but that he (Eugene) has proven
himself far beyond what learning any
blues song could ever teach him. Eugene
wants to go for broke here and assuredly
views himself as a savior to his friend
Willie; just maybe he'll find the truth
about Johnson's instant musical abilities
once and for all.
Brown finally
returns to the crossroads with Eugene
in hope of breaking off the deal when
he also bartered his soul. There, speaking
out of turn, Eugene offers to try to
win Brown's soul back in a head-cutting
duel with any guitar player of the devil's
choice. Scratch chooses Jack Butler
(played by Steve Vai), a modern blues-metal
man who has also sold his soul for musical
abilities. After a blistering guitar
duel, Eugene eventually manages to incorporate
the classical training he received at
Juilliard and wins the challenge.
Robert got "buried"
in more places than most blues guys.
The location of Robert Johnson's grave
is only one item on the list of mysteries
surrounding his life and untimely death.
Recent evidence points to Little Zion
as the real final resting place. A rumor
that the original marker placed at Little
Zion in August 2001 was removed to make
way for this larger monument.
There
are very few images of Johnson; only
two confirmed photographs exist. An
eight-second film, which was thought
to show Robert Johnson, was proved not
to be him; an image of a poster in its
background advertised a film which was
released two years after his death.
The entire
Robert Johnson Music collection is available
on The Complete Recordings (1990, 2004)
".32-20
Blues"
"Come on in My Kitchen" [two
versions]
"Cross Road Blues" [two versions]
"Dead Shrimp Blues"
"Drunken Hearted Man" [two
versions]
"From Four Till Late"
"Hellhound on My Trail"
"Honeymoon Blues"
"I'm a Steady Rollin' Man"
"I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"
"If I Had Possession Over Judgment
Day"
"Kind Hearted Woman Blues"
[two versions]
"Last Fair Deal Gone Down"
"Little Queen of Spades" [two
versions]
"Love in Vain" [two versions]
"Malted Milk"
"Me and the Devil Blues" [two
versions]
"Milk Cow's Calf Blues" [two
versions]
"Phonograph Blues" [two versions]
"Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The
Devil)"
"Rambling on My Mind" [two
versions]
"Stones in My Passway"
"Stop Breakin' Down Blues"
[two versions]
"Sweet Home Chicago"
"Terraplane Blues"
"They're Red Hot"
"Traveling Riverside Blues"
[two versions]
"Walkin' Blues"
"When You Got a Good Friend"
[two versions]
Films
about Robert Johnson
Crossroads, 1986 (loosely based on the
theme of a blues artist selling his
soul to the devil. Robert Johnson is
mentioned several times, and some scenes
of the movie are meant to portray moments
in Johnson´s career as flashbacks,
e.g. a recording-session at the very
start of the movie, and a portrayal
of the "selling his soul to the
devil"-event which is part of the
legends about him)
The Search for Robert Johnson, 1992
Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life
and Music of Robert Johnson, 1997
Hellhounds On My Trail: The Afterlife
of Robert Johnson (2000). Directed by
Robert Mugge.
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