Crossroads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l16jlallBMs

Cross Road Blues is one of Delta Blues singer Robert Johnson’s most famous songs. The lyrics plainly have the narrator attempting to hitch a ride from an intersection as darkness falls. But in close association with the mythic legend of Johnson’s short life and death, it has come to represent the tale of a blues man going to a metaphorical crossroads to meet the devil to sell his soul in exchange for becoming a famous blues player. The term is often used metaphorically as an abstraction of places or occasions where people meet. Originally the blues "Crossroads" was a literal right-angle crossing of two railroads - "where the southern cross the Dog - in Moorhead, Mississippi. The ‘Southern’ was a line of the southern railway, sold to the Columbus and Greenville Railway in 1920. The Dog was the ‘Yellow Dog’ officially the Yazoo Delta Railroad, part of the Illinois Central Railroad system after 1897. This place is mentioned in a number of blues, including the recorded works of W.C.Handy and Bessie Smith. Crossroads has been covered by many different artists. The most famous by Cream for their 1968 album ‘Wheels of Fire’. Other cover versions range from Elmore James, Cowboy Junkies, Lynyrd Skynyrd (live), Molly Hatchet and Rush.