Robert Leroy Johnson ~ Pact with the devil

 ~     

I have learned so much about music from films; a case in point is one I saw in 1986, an American musicaldrama film, inspired by the legend of Robert Leroy Johnson (link below). It was directed by Walter Hill from a screenplay by John Fusco, and stars Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca and Jami Gertz with an original score by Ry Cooder and classical guitar by William Kanengiser and harmonica by Sonny Terry. Steve Vai appears in the film as the devil's virtuosic guitar player in the climactic guitar duel.   

 

Today is the birthday of Robert Leroy Johnson, the most influential blues man nobody ever heard of. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his recording career spanned only seven months, he is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style, and as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as perhaps "the first ever rock star"    

 

In late 1938, John Hammond sought him out for a concert at Carnegie Hall, From Spirituals to Swing, only to discover that Johnson had recently died. Hammond was a producer for Columbia Records which bought Johnson's original recordings from Brunswick Records which owned them. The musicologist Alan Lomax went to Mississippi in 1941 to record Johnson, also not knowing of his death. In 1961, Columbia released an album of Johnson's recordings titled King of the Delta Blues Singers, produced by producer and music historian Frank Driggs. It is credited with bringing Johnson's work to a wider audience.      

 

Eric Clapton called Johnson "the most important blues singer that ever lived". With the group Cream he recorded a cover of Johnson's Crossroads in 1968. Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Plant have cited both Johnson's lyrics and musicianship as key influences on their own work.     

 

In 1983, Johnson's Hell Hound on My Trail was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording". Writing for the Foundation, Jim O'Neal described it as "among the deepest and darkest of Johnson's legendary blues masterworks." The song is listed as one of the NPR "100 most important American musical works of the 20th century"        

 

In 2013, Soap&Skin did a cover of Me and the Devil Blues by Johnson, released as a single in 1938. It tells the story of the singer's waking up one morning to the devil knocking on the door, telling him that "it's time to go." The lyrics concluded with the lines "You may bury my body down by the highway side" / "So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride."     

 

In 1969, the Rolling Stones recorded an updated rendition of Love In Vain featuring an electric slide guitar solo on their Let It Bleed album. The popularity of their adaptation led to a lawsuit over the copyright, which was eventually resolved in favor of Johnson's estate. Various artists have recorded the song. Critic Richie Unterberger describes it as "as close to the roots of acoustic down-home blues as the Stones ever got". Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards recalled:

"For a time we thought the songs that were on that first album [King of the Delta Blues] were the only recordings (Robert Johnson had) made, and then suddenly around '67 or '68 up comes this second (bootleg) collection that included "Love in Vain". "Love in Vain" was such a beautiful song.   

Much of his story has been reconstructed by researchers. Johnson's poorly documented life and death have given rise to legends. The one most often associated with him is that he sold his soul to the devil at a local crossroads in return for musical success. Much of what is known about him was reconstructed by researchers such as Gayle Dean Wardlow and Bruce Conforth, especially in their 2019 award-winning biography of Johnson: Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson (Chicago Review Press). Two films, the 1991 documentary The Search for Robert Johnson by John Hammond Jr., and a 1997 documentary, Can't You Hear the Wind Howl?: The Life & Music of Robert Johnson, which included reconstructed scenes with Keb' Mo' as Johnson, attempted to document his life, and demonstrated the difficulties arising from the scant historical record and conflicting oral accounts.    

 

Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, in, 1911, to Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson. Julia was married to Charles Dodds (born February 1865), a relatively prosperous landowner and furniture maker, with whom she had ten children. Charles Dodds had been forced by a lynch mob to leave Hazlehurst following a dispute with white landowners. Julia left Hazlehurst with baby Robert, but in less than two years she took the boy to Memphis to live with her husband, who had changed his name to Charles Spencer.  Robert spent the next 8–9 years growing up in Memphis and attending the Carnes Avenue Colored School where he received lessons in arithmetic, reading, language, music, geography, and physical exercise.  It was in Memphis that he acquired his love for, and knowledge of, the blues and popular music. His education and city upbringing placed him apart from most of his contemporary blues musicians.      

 

When his mother informed Robert about his biological father, he adopted the surname Johnson, using it on the certificate of his marriage to fourteen-year-old Virginia Travis in February 1929. She died in childbirth shortly after. Surviving relatives of Virginia told the blues researcher Robert "Mack" McCormick that this was a divine punishment for Robert's decision to sing secular songs, known as "selling your soul to the Devil". McCormick believed that Johnson himself accepted the phrase as a description of his resolve to abandon the settled life of a husband and farmer to become a full-time blues musician.             

 

Johnson went to Martinsville, close to his birthplace, possibly searching for his natural father. Here he mastered the guitar style of House and learned other styles from Isaiah "Ike" Zimmerman. Zimmerman was rumored to have learned supernaturally to play guitar by visiting graveyards at midnight. Johnson seemed to have miraculously developed a mature guitar technique. Blues musician Son House, was interviewed at a time when the legend of Johnson's pact with the devil was well known among blues researchers. He was asked whether he attributed Johnson's technique to this pact, and his equivocal answers have been taken as confirmation.      

 

Over the years, the significance of Johnson and his music has been recognized by the Rock and Roll, Grammy, and Blues Halls of Fame, and by the National Recording Preservation Board.         

 

His death like his life, was obscure and vague; Johnson died on August 16, 1938, at the age of 27, near Greenwood, Mississippi, of unknown causes. It is likely he had congenital syphilis and it was suspected later by medical professionals that this may have been a contributing factor in his death. According to one theory, Johnson was murdered by the jealous husband of a woman with whom he had flirted. In an account by the blues musician David 'Honeyboy' Edwards, Johnson had been flirting with a married woman at a dance, and she gave him a bottle of whiskey poisoned by her husband. When Johnson took the bottle, Edwards knocked it out of his hand, admonishing him to never drink from a bottle that he had not personally seen opened. Johnson replied, "Don't ever knock a bottle out of my hand". Soon after, he was offered another (poisoned) bottle and accepted it. Johnson is reported to have begun feeling ill the evening after and had to be helped back to his room in the early morning hours. Over the next three days his condition steadily worsened. Witnesses reported that he died in a convulsive state of severe pain. The musicologist Robert "Mack" McCormick claimed to have tracked down the man who murdered Johnson and to have obtained a confession from him in a personal interview, but he declined to reveal the man's name. 

While strychnine has been suggested as the poison that killed Johnson, at least one scholar has disputed the notion. Tom Graves, in his book Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson, relies on expert testimony from toxicologists to argue that strychnine has such a distinctive odor and taste that it cannot be disguised, even in strong liquor. Graves also claims that a significant amount of strychnine would have to be consumed in one sitting to be fatal, and that death from the poison would occur within hours, not days.      

In their 2019 book Up Jumped the Devil, Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow suggest that the poison was naphthalene, from dissolved mothballs. This was "a common way of poisoning people in the rural South", but was rarely fatal. However, Johnson had been diagnosed with an ulcer and with esophageal varices, and the poison was sufficient to cause them to hemorrhage. He died after two days of severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and bleeding from the mouth.     

The Leflore County registrar, Cornelia Jordan, years later and after conducting an investigation into Johnson's death for the state director of vital statistics, R. N. Whitfield, wrote a clarifying note on the back of Johnson's death certificate:

I talked with the white man on whose place this negro died and I also talked with a negro woman on the place. The plantation owner said the negro man, seemingly about 26 years old, came from Tunica two or three weeks before he died to play banjo at a negro dance given there on the plantation. He stayed in the house with some of the negroes saying he wanted to pick cotton. The white man did not have a doctor for this negro as he had not worked for him. He was buried in a homemade coffin furnished by the county. The plantation owner said it was his opinion that the man died of syphilis.     

In 2006, a medical practitioner, David Connell, suggested, on the basis of photographs showing Johnson's "unnaturally long fingers" and "one bad eye", that Johnson may have had Marfan syndrome, which could have both affected his guitar playing and contributed to his death due to aortic dissection.  

     

Tombstone of Robert Johnson
 

     
            

     

Viewfinder links:       

         

Cream       

Ry Cooder         

Bob Dylan      

Robert Leroy Johnson        

Robert Johnson- Crossroad film        

Ralph Macchio        

Robert Plant       

Keith Richards     

Rolling Stones           

        

        

        
        

        

        

        

        

        

        
        
     
Net links:       

        

Robert Johnson recordings         

        

        

        

        
        

        

        

        

        

        

        
        
     
YouTube links:       

         

Cream ~ Crossroads

Robert Johnson - 

            Come On In My Kitchen       

            Crossroad         

                  Love In Vain     

            Sweet Home Chicago Blues                 

Rollling Stones ~ Love In Vain                   

        

        
        

        

        

        

        

        

        
        

        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Friday, May 8, 2026         
        

~ 
Music Notes

MAIN MENU - Blog Articles

~

Steve Vai articles/mentions

 ~     

    

 

mentions:      

Crossroads

Giuseppe Tartini ~ Devil's Trill Sonata            

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Vai   

date & photographer unknown   

 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

 

 

 

~

Music People

MAIN MENU - Blog Articles 
~

 

 

 

 

20,000 vinyl LPs 221: Crossroads ~ Robert Johnson

~     

Crossroads original soundtrack vinyl LP front cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®

Robert Leroy Johnson was born on May 8, 1911, in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. He was an American blues singer, songwriter and musician. Johnson's poorly documented life and death have given rise to much legend. The one most closely associated with his life is that he sold his soul to the devil at a local crossroads to achieve musical success. The film, Crossroads, was based on this ledgend.  

 

Crossroads original soundtrack
vinyl LP album front cover
photo of album cover by Styrous®

         
The recordings by Johnson in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. He is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style. In September of 1998, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum paid tribute to Robert Johnson even though Johnson only recorded 29 songs before dying in August of 1938.   

Robert Johnson, Memphis - circa 1935

photo by the Hooks Bros

     

Hellhound on My Trail is the reason Johnson had such an influence on the Delta Blues form of music. It is his most famous song out of the 29 songs recorded before his early death. The song is rated as one of the 100 greatest musical works of the 20th century by National Public Radio and as the best blues poetry by music historian Samuel Charters. Johnson is a legendary figure who allegedly sold his soul to the devil in return for his musical talent. The song is meaningless if detached from his persona as his early death is believed to be related to the song—he had a hellhound after him because of his bargain with the devil. It is entwined with his mystique.  

      

"The Crossroads", where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for mastery of the blues, according to the legend, is the intersection of U.S. Routes 61 and 49, at Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States.

      

Clarksdale, MS Crossroads 

photo by Joe Mazzola

The 1986 film, Crossroads, directed by Walter Hill and starring Ralph Macchio, was based on this Johnson legend. I think this is the best film Macchio has appeared in; he did not actually play the guitar but he does an amazing job of going through the motions of doing it.       

      

Crossroads movie poster

The film featured a score written by Ry Cooder, which was performed by Arlen Roth, Steve Vai and Cooder on guitars and Sonny Terry along with Frank Frost on harmonicas.          

Ry Cooder & Sonny Terry  

photo by Susan Titelman

Crossroads original soundtrack 

vinyl LP album back cover detail

detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®

Ry Cooder is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer and record producer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries, so, he was a perfect choice to score the music for the film.         

He has played with John Lee Hooker, Captain Beefheart, Gordon Lightfoot, Ali Farka Touré, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, David Lindley, The Chieftains, The Doobie Brothers, and Carla Olson & the Textones (on record and film). He formed the band Little Village. He also produced the Buena Vista Social Club album (1997), which became a worldwide hit. Wim Wenders directed the documentary film of the same name (1999), which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000.    

Cooder was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" (David Fricke's Picks). A 2010 ranking by Gibson placed him at number 32.    

        

Crossroads original soundtrack 

vinyl LP album back cover
back cover photos by Susan Titelman

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

Arlen Roth is an American guitarist, teacher, and author. From 1982–1992, he was a columnist for Guitar Player magazine. Those ten years of columns became a book, Hot Guitar. He has performed and recorded with the Bee Gees, Rory Block, Cindy Cashdollar, Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan, Duane Eddy, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, John Entwistle, Art Garfunkel, Danny Gatton, Vince Gill, Levon Helm, Bill Kirchen, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, David Lindley, Don McLean, Steve Morse, Phil Ochs, Brad Paisley, John Prine, John Sebastian, Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Phoebe Snow, James Taylor, Kate Taylor, Livingston Taylor, Rick Wakeman, Joe Louis Walker, and Steve Wariner.              

Crossroads original soundtrack 

vinyl LP album back cover detail
back cover photos by Susan Titelman

detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®

Steve Vai is an American guitarist, composer, singer, songwriter, producer and three-time Grammy Award winner. He has worked with Frank Zappa and played in Zappa's band from 1980 to 1983. He has recorded and toured with Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake, as well as recording with artists such as Public Image Ltd, Mary J. Blige, Spinal Tap and Ozzy Osbourne.          

Crossroads original soundtrack 

vinyl LP album back cover detail

detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®

My favorite cut on the album is Viola Lee Blues. It has a dixieland, funeral procession feeling to it but a little more upbeat and opens with a great mandolin played by Cooder. It features Walt Sereth who plays soprano sax, George Bohannon on baritone horn with a vocal by Cooder (link below).        

       

Crossroads original soundtrack 

vinyl LP album back cover detail

detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®

Sonny Terry was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occasionally imitations of trains and fox hunts. In 1938 Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals to Swing concert, and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress.      

Terry was also in the 1947 original cast of the Broadway musical comedy Finian's Rainbow. He also appeared in the film The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg. He appeared in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. Terry collaborated with Ry Cooder on Walkin' Away Blues. He performed the cover of Crossroad Blues by Robert Johnson for the film Crossroads.     

Crossroads original soundtrack 

vinyl LP record label, side 1

photo by Styrous®

Crossroads original soundtrack 

vinyl LP record label, side 1

photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Crossroads, Backing Vocals – Bobby King, Terry Evans, Willie Green, Bass – Nathan East, Drums – Jim Keltner, Guitar, Vocals – Ry Cooder, Harmonica – Sonny Terry, Piano – Jim Dickinson - 4:23

A2 - Down In Mississippi, Bass – Jorge Calderon, Drums – Jim Keltner, Guitar, Mandolin – Ry Cooder, Percussion – Miguel Cruz, Piano – Jim Dickinson, Vocals – Bobby King, Terry Evans, Willie Green* - 4:26

A3 - Cotton Needs Pickin’, Bass – Richard "Shubby" Holmes, Drums – John Price, Guitar – Otis Taylor, Ry Cooder, Organ – Jim Dickinson, Vocals, Harmonica – Frank Frost - 2:58

A4 - Viola Lee Blues, Bass – Jorge Calderon, Drums – Jim Keltner, Horn [Baritone] – George Bohannon, Piano, Guitar – Jim Dickinson, Saxophone [Soprano] – Walt Sereth, Vocals, Mandolin – Ry Cooder - 3:11

A5 - See You In Hell, Blind Boy, Arranged By [Strings] – Kirby Johnson, Piano – Van Dyke Parks, Synthesizer – Alan Pasqua, 2:12

Side 2:

B1 - Nitty Gritty Mississippi, Backing Vocals – Bobby King, Terry Evans, Willie Green, Bass – Nathan East, Drums – Jim Keltner, Guitar – Ry Cooder, Vocals, Piano – Jim Dickinson - 2:57

B2 - He Made A Woman Out Of Me, Bass – Nathan East, Drums – Jim Keltner, Guitar – Ry Cooder, Organ – William "Smitty" Smith, Piano – Jim Dickinson, Vocals – Amy Madigan - 4:12

B3 - Feelin' Bad Blues, Guitar – Ry Cooder, Keyboards [Dolceola] – Jim Dickinson - 4:17

B4 - Somebody's Callin' My Name,  Arranged By, Guitar – Ry Cooder, Vocals – Arnold McCuller, Bobby King, Sam King, Willie Green - 1:45

B5 - Willie Brown Blues, Bass – Nathan East, Drums – John Price, Guitar – Ry Cooder, Harmonica – Frank Frost, John "Juke" Logan, Piano – Jim Dickinson, Vocals – Joe Seneca - 3:46

B6 - Walkin' Away Blues, Guitar – Ry Cooder, Harmonica – Sonny Terry - 3:40

Companies, etc.

    Pressed By – Specialty Records Corporation

Credits:

    Engineer [Second] – David Ahlert, Judy Last, Tony Chiappa
    Mastered By – Bernie Grundman
    Recorded By – Mark Ettel
    Remix – George Massenburg

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Barcode (text): 0 7599-25399-1
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 1: Side A, etched except SRC[logo] stamped): 1-25399-A-SR1 SRC[logo]
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 1: Side B, etched except SRC[logo] stamped): 1-25399-B-SR2 SRC[logo]
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 2: Side A, etched except SRC[logo] stamped): 1-25399-A-SR3 SRC[logo]
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 2: Side B, etched except SRC[logo] stamped): 1-25399-B-SR2 SRC[logo]
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 3: Side A, etched except [SRC logo]): 1-25399-A-SR3 1-1 [SRC logo]
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 3: Side B, etched except [SRC logo]): 1-25399-B-SR3 [SRC logo] 1-

Ry Cooder ‎– Crossroads - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Label: Warner Bros. Records ‎– 1 - 25399
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1986
Genre: Blues, Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack, Delta Blues

       
Viewfinder links:        

Bee Gees        
Captain Beefheart        
Eric Clapton
Bob Dylan         
Duane Eddy
John Lee Hooker         
Steve Martin       
Van Morrison
Phil Ochs     
Ozzy Osbourne          
Public Image Ltd (PiL)         
The Rolling Stones     
John Sebastian         
Simon & Garfunkel           
Spinal Tap       
Sonny Terry     
Rick Wakeman       
Whitesnake         
Neil Young          
Frank Zappa          
       
Net links:        
       
Cast        
Film's music chronology          
Plot        
     
Reference sites:          
       
choose901 ~ Hooks Brothers Photography Documented Black Memphis    
eltastate.edu ~   
     Hooks Brothers: Portrait of 20th Century African-American Life in Memphis  
Mississippi Blues Travelers ~ Hooks Brothers Photography Studio
NPR ~ Robert Johnson At 100, Still Dispelling Myths
Robert Johnson Blues Foundation ~ Robert Johnson      
udiscovermusic ~ The Devil’s Music: The Life And Legacy Of Robert Johnson 
     
YouTube links:        
        
Crossroads ~ 
    Crossroads - Ry Cooder (Studio Version)       
    Down In Mississippi      
    Cotten Needs Pickin'          
    Viola Lee Blues    
    See You in Hell, Blind Boy   
    He Made a Woman Out of Me              
    Feelin' Bad Blues     
    Somebody's Callin' My Name     
    Willie Brown Blues   
    Walkin' Away Blues                  
    Steve Vai vs Ralph Macchio Epic Guitar Battle                
    Crossroads guitar duel (extended version) (9 min., 30 sec.)     
   
          
         
           
  
             
Styrous® ~ Friday, May 8, 2019                

~

20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
MAIN MENU - Blog Articles
~