π LEGEND Β· EXP. NΒΊ0270
ACTIVE
Robert Johnson and the Crossroads
Robert Johnson and the Crossroads is a legend from Clarksdale, Mississippi, US β a folk story passed down over generations. This file collects its origins, its meaning and how it has been retold.
Where does the legend of Robert Johnson and the Crossroads come from?
- Location
- Clarksdale, Mississippi, US
- Kind of legend
- Myth
- Coordinates
- 34.2, -90.571
- Testimonies
- 0
- Last updated
LOCATION
What is the legend of Robert Johnson and the Crossroads?
The legend of the crossroads is the darkest and most seductive tale in American blues, and it clings above all to the guitarist Robert Johnson. As the story goes, the young Johnson was a mediocre player mocked by his elders in the Mississippi Delta. Then he vanished for a time and returned transformed, his fingers suddenly capable of impossible runs and aching, otherworldly tone. Whispers spread that he had gone at midnight to a lonely crossroads, guitar in hand, where a large dark figure met him, tuned the instrument, and handed it back, sealing a bargain for his soul in exchange for genius. The story drew power from Johnson's own haunted songs, with their hellhounds and devils, and from his death at just twenty-seven, reportedly poisoned. The tale echoes far older African and European motifs about spirits who guard the meeting of roads. Whether the crossroads sits in Clarksdale or nowhere at all, the myth binds forever the price of art, the pull of the devil, and the mournful sound of the Delta blues.
π Source: Enigma Atlas
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