Talk:Cross Road Blues

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Hey wait a sec. No one knows if thats what he was refering too. He really might have just wanted a ride when he said I wanted to flag a ride, because it would be common for a blues man to flag a ride in thoose days

[edit] Potential merge with Crossroad Blues article

According to AMG website, the correct songtitle is "Cross Road Blues" - suggest we merge the two articles under this heading. Anyone disagree ?

Derek R Bullamore 16:40, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

AGREE with merger. But you have to clean up the folklore scholarship. See below. Pustelnik (talk) 00:38, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Use of N-Word

See WP:Profanity for details. To maintain historical accuracy in quotes and expression, censorship should not be used. Mipchunk 21:19, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

I've reinstated this again, after a good faith edit replaced it with underscores. Jonobennett (talk) 13:18, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Meaning is not clear cut; alternate explanation

I have a problem with the way this article is written, because the author writes as if his or her assertation about the song is undisputable. Unless some1 interviewed Johnson and HE said the song is about someone just trying to hitch a ride rather than be caught outside in the deep south after dark, then there is nothing "plain" in its explanation. The assumptions seem rather POV. I'm not gonna make any rewrites just yet. i don't have any source material to back up anything.

However, I'd like to point out there appears to be (in my opinion this time, lol) a strong spiritual element to this song. Upon listening more, I think its possible the song's protagonist (Robert Johnson) is suggesting he's a ghost trying to get to heaven and escape from hell. My reasons for this are as follows...

The Crossroads could definately be a meeting place between land of the living and land of the dead, this concept would have been known to Johnson and many blacks in the deep south
Po' Bob appeals first to God to save him. This could be an appeal to "open heaven's gates" for a wandering spirit. I know this idea may seem like a stretch on the surface, but the rest of the song lends some credence to it.

When Po' Bob says no one seems to "know me", this could really mean "saw me". The only reason they would not physically see him is if he was a ghost. Now if our Po' Bob expect someone to know him, as in be familiar with him, he's probably in a familar area. And if he's in a familiar area, it doesn't make sense that no one in the town would pick him up unless they truly could not see him. The time of day in the song is clearly dusk, so the only reason they couldn't see him is if he was a ghost.

The Willie Brown reference seems to be a dead ringer for me. In the 4th stanza of the song, Po' bob says "you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown". Now if someone could physically run and tell his friend where he's at, couldn't Po' Bob just run himself and get out of the dark before sunset and the KKK showed up. Last line of that stanza says "I got the crossroad blues this mornin', Lord, baby I'm sinkin' down". I could be flat wrong. But I think he's saying he got killed that morning and is afraid he's going to hell (hence, sinkin down). Po' Bob has been at the crossroads (a physical destination or death) since morning and now its dusk. What would any logical person be doing waiting at a crossroads for that long when he could go run to his friend Willie Brown (presumably in less time than it took the sun to go down at or during dusk)? It just doesn't make any sense. And this is the second time (1st was in stanza 3) that Po' Bob mentions "sinkin' down".

i've got no clue on the meaning of the last stanza, but it doesn't negate anything in the previous ones. In short, it looks like Bob is spirit in limbo (at the crossroads between lands of the living and dead) and is appealing to God to let him into heaven. Unless he gets there, he's gonna "sink" below which is probably hell. Holla back and let me know if you think i'm onto something. I'll check JSTOR in the meantime and see what articles exist on Robert Johnson and this song.Scott Free 17:00, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Litwack didn't know the folklore. Look at the article on Papa Legba, then tell me what Robert Johnson was doing at the crossroads. This was also referrenced in O Brother, Where Art Thou? when they ask the Black musician "What were you doing at that crossroads at midnight, anyway?" See also Crossroads (culture) Pustelnik (talk) 00:22, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

I've edited the wordings a tad to maintain neutrality on the subject. The previous wordings were very strong in their assertion that the Johnson was in fact talking about the racism that persisted while also overly labelling the other notion as a 'legend'. --BlueStream (talk) 11:25, 27 May 2008 (UTC)