Tag Archives: deal with the devil

260 – Crossroads: The Devil And Robert Johnson

While he was an obscure and impoverished traveling musician while he was alive, the larger-than-life legends and posthumously released music of guitarist and singer Robert Johnson has turned him into the “King of the Delta Blues” venerated by some of the world’s greatest rock guitarists, from Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton to Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

One of the only two confirmed pictures of Robert Johnson

The 81st anniversary of Robert Johnson’s death was this last Friday, August 16th, and we talked about Robert Johnson in our very first podcast episode about musicians who sold their soul to the Devil. After all, the legend that he sacrificed his soul for musical talent at the Crossroads is probably even more famous than his music. They did make a film with The Karate Kid about it!

With songs like “The Crossroads Blues” and “Hellhound On My Trail”, Johnson certainly wasn’t afraid to use some of that occult imagery in his own music and in this episode, we delve much deeper into the truth behind the Robet Johnson legend. We cover his massive influence on the musicians that would cover him and use their own occult imagery to sell records and create a mystique around their songs.

Scott Markus from WhatsYourGhostStory.com joins Wendy and I as we cover these topics:

  • The real musician who told people he sold his soul to the Devil
  • The tragedies of Robert Johnson’s first two wives
  • The trickster god who lives at the Crossroads and the reason people mistake him for the Christian Devil
  • Were there two Robert Johnson’s touring the south in the 1930s and that’s why he has multiple gravestones?
  • Where he really learned his guitar tricks that made him a legend
  • The similarities between Robert Johnson and another flamboyant musician who was rumored to have made a deal with Satan, Paganini

We also talk about our appearance at the Michigan Paracon in Ste. St. Marie this weekend and we hope to see YOU there!

For the song this week, we knew that we wanted to do something bluesy but with a dark twinge. I just finished reading The Thicket by joe R. Lansdale and there’s a quote in there that really struck me:

Robert Johnson’s upbringing in the deeply religious South and the fact that anyone playing non-religious songs was playing “The Devil’s Music” reminded me of the fierce faith of the early Twentieth Century East Texan main character in The Thicket, so like Led Zeppelin borrowing from Robert Johnson, we thought we’d grab a great line from Joe Lansdale and then form a song around it.

When Johnson embraced his legend and the hardened life of women and booze of the juke joint circuit, the terrifying “Hellhound on his trail” instread becomes his faithful companion, so we inverted the idea of his song a little to make “Man’s Best Friend”.

Look back behind my shoulder 
I’m always on the run 
Look back behind my shoulder 
Is there some kind of phantom 
But Lord don’t strike me down 
I was just having fun. 

Ain’t no one keeping score 
for a broken promise 
Ain’t nobody keeping score 
for just a little weakness 
God’s a good idea 
but the Devil is us 

And every night 
in every town 
I get lost and I get found 
I tried so hard to shake this hellhound 
but he’s my best friend. 

Ain’t no one keeping score 
for a broken promise 
Ain’t nobody keeping score 
for just a little weakness 
God’s a good idea 
but the Devil is us 

And every night 
in every town 
I get lost and I get found 
I tried so hard to shake this hellhound 
but he’s my best friend.

1 – Making a Deal with the Devil: The Musicians Who Sold Their Souls to Satan

Across the ages, musicians have purportedly made a deal with the devil to be able to more masterfully compose and/or play their instruments. Today’s episode explores this idea, and Mike and Wendy discuss what things they consider worthy of a deal with the devil.

Mike and Wendy then dip into famous cases of making a deal with the Devil.  Musicians like Giuseppe Tartini who was born in 1692, his work is still popular, particularly his work, “The Devil’s Trill”, which was said to be inspired by a dream that he had that he was the Devil’s servant. It has been covered by Itzhak Perlman and a version by Vanessa Mae has over ten million hits on YouTube.

Niccolo Paganini is probably the first great example of legendary musicians who make a pact with Lucifer. He was said to be able to do supernatural things like sight-read music incredibly. His solos were notoriously difficult to play and his effect on audiences was said to be hypnotic and supernatural, like he was possessing the crowd.

The most famous American story of making a deal with the Devil is Robert Johnson, who died of poisoning at 27 years old and wrote the immortal blues classic, “Crossroads”. The Crossroads is a place in Mississippi that blues aficionados come to visit, that it is rumored where Johnson met the devil to sign the contract for his soul. They made a movie about it in the 80s called Crossroads starring The Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio. Johnson also wrote other songs like “Me and The Devil” and had a superstitious and dark vein in his music.

Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin also had rumors of Satan worship. Jimmy Page is a known occultist and bought Aleister Crowley’s house in Scotland (We’ll cover Crowley extensively sometime because he figures into the lives of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, he’s in a Top Ten UK single in the 1970’s, and he’s even on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, he was an emblem of the rock n’ roll generation and we’ll get into him when the time comes!) They coveredRobert Johnson’s “Travelin’ Riverside Blues” and their were rumors that Led Zeppelin signed a pact in their own blood.

Speak of the devil, the Church of Satan was founded by a musician. Anton LaVey was an organist that would often entertain by playing Jazz and Pop standards. Modern Satanists aren’t really occultists as much as they just use the imagery in their marketing, like Marilyn Manson’s shocking Christians in the late 90s or Mötley Crüe’s crossdressing Satanism in the early 80s (before they went with the biker look, there were pentagrams all over their albums, Shout At The Devil and Theatre of Pain).

Links about making a Deal With The Devil:

Listverse – “10 People Who Sold Their Soul To The Devil”

Crossroads movie Guitar Duel (Steve Vai vs. Ralph Macchio) [YOUTUBE LINK]

Vannesa Mae – “The Devil’s Trill” [YOUTUBE LINK]

Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding Blog – “Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in Rosedale, Mississippi”

The Human Marvels – Niccolo Paganini – The Devil’s Violinist”

Featured Song: Ol’ Scratch Blues

Lyrics:

Enjoy your time now,
enjoy it while you can,
you signed that paper,
you signed it with your hand.

And when you die,
you’re gonna fry,
for nothing but a lie.

The fortune and the fame,
and the ladies too,
But can you see that old black dog,
coming after you.

Enjoy your time now,
enjoy it while you can,
you signed that paper,
you signed it with your hand.

And when you die,
you’re gonna fry,
for nothing but a lie.

And when you die,
you’re gonna fry,
for nothing but a lie.

Nothing but a lie.