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Bettina De Mesa

Eiland

English103 (H)

September 24, 2012

Crossroad Blues

Unlike the slowly growing urban metropolises of the 1930s, the Depression era south possessed a

provincial perspective towards the treatment of African Americans. In observation of that period,

Mississippian Robert Johnson demonstrated his ability as a songwriter to portray the African American

injustice prevalent in the south while simultaneously cementing his notoriety. Through the use of various

critical perspectives, Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” ultimately shows the injustices and unwarranted

human desires that people were prone to possessing in the 1930s.

Dissecting Johnson’s “Crossroad Blues” through a historical eye emphasizes the discrimination

and societal injustice towards African Americans rooted in the stanzas of the lyrics. At the end of the

Civil War, African Americans slowly garnered power through means of literacy, enfranchisement and a

galvanizing political clout. With a deep seated fear embedded in African Americans to their white

counterparts, the civil rights movement moved at a lethargic pace. The protagonist in the song trying to

“flag a ride” (Johnson 4-5) before the night fell is referencing the “sun down laws” that were in effect

during the 1930s, which restricted African Americans from being outdoors once darkness came about.

These discriminatory rules inconvenienced the Black community to an insurmountable degree as many of

them found difficulty in gaining transportation. Stemming from the memoirs of writer Patricia Adams,

she recalled her activist mother stating that if blacks were “not out of town before sundown, they were

harassed by the police, and sometimes they were picked up and dropped at the city limits. Some of them

lost their jobs” (Adams). Johnson then introduced this aspect of social discrimination through the line

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“didn't nobody seem to know me, babe, everybody pass me by” (Johnson 6) assumingly ascribing to the

white bus drivers who preferred to ignore black travelers (Sugrue). Referring back to Patricia Adam’s

narrative, she could recall an event where working class Black maids were purposefully overlooked by a

white bus driver:

“The bus driver was driving as though he was in a hurry. When we got to the Rossmoyne district,

the bus driver sped up even more, passing the first bus stop. A Black maid was left standing on

the curb… two elderly Black maids were standing on the curb, waiting for the bus. The bus driver

wasn't slowing down.” (Adams)

From Adam’s personal anecdote, it is evident that blacks needed to follow these rules to in a strict manner

in order to maintain the “peaceful” co-existence that they resided in. However, most blacks at that time

were too poor to pay for transportation and relied heavily on switching freight trains and hitching rides

(Weingroff). “In short, if you were a nonwhite motorist you were expected to stay in your place as a

second-class citizen. The etiquette says, ’when on wheels, do as you would on foot’” (Kennedy). In

further elaboration, it has been shown that a black man living in Mississippi at that time had to encounter

the fear of lynching and arbitrary violence every day. He alluded to this aforementioned fear in the line, “

you can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown” (Johnson 10-11) as a cry for help since night fall

is soon approaching, leaving him with a greater likelihood of being beaten. Within the Deep South,

lynching proved to be a common occurrence as its participants truly believed that blacks were beginning

to gain too much freedom. In Trudier Harris’ study of burning rituals, she had concluded that

“Lynching was equated with guilt and punishment ensued to restore the “threatened” white

society to its former status of superiority. The punishments, according to the black writers,

become a way in which whites consolidate themselves against all possible encroachments upon

their territory by blacks.” (Harris 6)

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To preserve the solemnity of the ritual, “when the slave finally died, women drank the warm blood; the

body was cut up and roasted, and the most distinguished members of the community received "delicacies"

such as fingers or the fat around the liver or heart”(Parker). The act itself bonded the predominantly

Christian Southerners who “felt that they must have committed some great sin for that bunch of feckless,

effete Northerners to defeat them,” casting out the blacks to symbolically cast out sin (Parker). When the

sun sets, the ritual of the hunt begins, explaining the fear that Johnson exemplified in the lines “standin' at

the crossroad, baby, risin' sun goin' down…And I went to the crossroad, mama, I looked east and west”

(Johnson 13-14) portraying his growing awareness to the surrounding dangers within the environment.

Since the Jim Crow laws stated that “blacks could not leave their homes after 10 p.m.”, the “sun goin’

down” (Johnson 14) demonstrates the anxiety of the sun setting due to the fact that for each hour he does

not find transportation before the curfew, he’s putting himself at greater risk for death (Packard). Using a

historical perspective, it is shown that these symbolic rituals were everyday occurrences to African

Americans in the South, accenting the civil rights issues that were gravely ignored at the time.

Analyzing this song through a biographical perspective demonstrates the notoriety that Johnson

gained by weaving myth and reality into an obscure folklore stating his negotiation with the devil. Most

blacks, including Johnson, were limited to working on plantations and other agricultural jobs (Schuster).

After working at the sharecropping fields, Johnson relaxed at juke joints, entertainment made for dancing,

which popularized the “ragtime beat” that became well associated with the blues. Within those clubs,

great artists like Charley Patton, Son House, and Willie Brown had made appearances to play guitar at the

“Saturday Night Balls.” Enamored by the playing styles of Patton, Johnson began following the

musicians in the late 1920’s. Johnson had referenced his friendship with Willie Brown through the line “

you can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown” (Johnson 12-13) representing the closeness

between the mentor-student relationship they had formed while performing together. One of Johnson’s

close mentors, Son House recounted of when “he’d slip off and come over to where we were…and sit

down…and watch” (Rucker). Brown’s influence on Johnson had greatly impacted his musical styles and

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teachings that Johnson he had referred to him in the song as an immediate source for help. Johnson had a

propensity towards traveling from one area to another, as to escape the hardships of plantation life.

Shown by the lyrics “tried to flag a ride” (Johnson 3-4) Johnson’s penchant for the vagabond lifestyle had

kept him enthralled by the thrill of wandering. According to his companion, Johnny Shines, the lauded

blues musician, said Johnson would “just pick up and walk off and leave you standing there playing. And

you wouldn't see Robert no more maybe in two or three weeks.... So Robert and I, we began journeying

off. I was just, matter of fact, tagging along” (Bianco 3-5). In an interview with Jas Obrecht, Shines had

stated that in order to gain money traveling they would:

“Work in the streets. I’d go over here and start playing, and he’d go over there and start playing.

He’d draw his gang; I’d draw mine… Just try to find out where the black neighborhood was.

Whichever side we find the black kids on, that’s the side we go, ’cause that was the black side.”

(Johnny Shines: The Complete Living Blues Interview)

It was his constant traveling that kept him from developing a relationship with his son, Claude Johnson.

In a 1997 interview, the acclaimed blues singer’s son recalled his grandparent’s remarks about Johnson:

“They told my daddy they didn't want no part of him. They said he was working for the devil. I

stood in the door, and he stood on the ground, and that is as close as I ever got to him. He

wandered off, and I never saw him again.” (Bragg)

In analyzing Johnson’s work, it’s apparent that his wanderlust and propensity for music had led him

living a secluded and isolated lifestyle that made him into a blues legend.

Adopting an archetypal perspective towards “Cross Road Blues,” the main protagonist in

Johnson’s lyrics relates closely to the representation of the “shadow” figure. According to Jung, most

individuals are naturally disconnected from their true self, harboring a mask to correspond within the

standards of society. The shadow is the dissociated second personality of a character which represents

their impulses, taboo desires and unfulfilled aspirations (Fraim). Paralleled to the reality of natural human

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psyches, this classification tends to show the rambunctiousness and impulsivity that most humans are

eager to possess, but are unwilling to admit (Young).

“Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines

himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's

conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to

correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually

subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets

corrected.” (Jung)

This archetype embodies the character’s true wants within him and the ideals of society. The persona

within the character is divided, with one side pleading for forgiveness and the other contemplating on his

Faustian deal. The protagonist described in the lyrics “went to the crossroad” (Johnson 1-2), a path that

most individuals encounter at some point of their lives. It marks the pivotal moment where a conflicting

decision needs to be made. This perpendicular road could be seen as a visual cross. The horizontal axis

marking the representation of the visual world similar to most individual’s façade while the vertical axes

demonstrates the unknown and mysterious, concurrent with the shadow archetype. The point where these

paths meet facilitates the symbol of neutrality, where our unconscious desires and our mask intersect.

With reference to the aforementioned path, the protagonist in the lyrics “fell down on [his] knees”

(Johnson 1-2), representing his surrender to the desires of his shadow and the temptations of the devil.

Soon after, the symbolism of darkness appears with “risin’ sun goin’ down” (Johnson 7-9).

“Either way, darkness is frequently associated with negative emotions — fear, hatred, anger, pain,

etc. As probably the most Primal Fear in the human psyche, don't expect darkness to be pleasant,

even when it's not actively malevolent.” (Anatomy of a Soul)

Not only is a shadow formed by the contrast of shade and light, the darkness associated with it dates back

to the most primitive fears of the human psyche such as anger, confusion as well as countless others. The

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connection between shadows and darkness are intertwined as both are uncharted territories in an

individual’s psyche. Rather than diminishing the importance of the shadow it could be used to gain

valuable personal knowledge, untapped by previous suppressions. However, the character mentioned in

the lyrics had resorted to grieving over his loss of persona over the gain of catharsis through revealing his

true desires.

With further elaboration on the archetypal perspective, it is evident that the character’s

negotiation with the Devil asserts his descent from God’s good graces. This fall is characterized with the

decline of one’s being, from a higher to a lower state, usually involving spiritual corruption or dissolution

of innocence. The role of the devil is useful as the character must divide the conscience against good and

evil, to later reach the state of heightened knowledge. It involves an experience that changes a person‘s

outlook and way of thinking. Jung viewed that:

“The fall is the necessary and unavoidable consequence of the evolution of the psyche, basically a

positive process to acknowledge horror for the evil of one’s sins in general and achieve

enlightenment.” (Becker 115)

Within “Cross Road Blues” it is apparent that the character has already fallen into the depths of evil as he

states “I went to the cross road, fell down to my knees” (Johnson 1-2) in order to appeal to God’s

forgiving nature. As the religious expression of the unconscious, the Lord represents the “force or reason

and its ideal of perfection and fulfillment” (Becker 116). In contrast, the first son of God, Lucifer, must

show the “dark, amoral cause of nature, energy, drives and evolution through division and conflict

(Becker 116). In short, the character’s slippage in morality had incited for a redefinition of one’s self,

similar to many aspects of the human persona. He is pleading with the lord to “have mercy, now save

poor Bob, if you please” (Johnson 3). His naiveté towards his actions had disappeared, although it

appeared to be futile as his soul had already been “sinkin' down” (Johnson 9), signifying that his search

for enlightenment and redemption had failed.

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Through the medium of music, Johnson was able to create a composition that portrayed

the inequality that African Americans faced in that particular era. Johnson simultaneously garnered a

reputation of being the original creator of the blues, often being lauded by acclaimed musicians such as

Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. The speculation over Johnson’s deal with the devil had incited the

Faustian bargain motif within the Blues and Rock and Roll Industry. The message that this song brings is

effective in fueling Johnson’s story, but also speaks out for the average African American.

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