It was raining the other day as I was driving to my straight gig, window shield wipers were not keeping the beat with the radio, I remembered several years ago the Keltner clan made a trip to Florida with the goal of visiting Disney World. We had a great trip, lots of fun and laughs, even Ben enjoyed himself. On the way back as we were driving the Florida panhandle we drove thru a ferocious thunderstorm. All this setup leads to, we drove twice thru Mississippi, did we come close to “The Crossroads”. Yes, those “crossroads”, where one goes to deal with the devil. Soooo, off on another internet wormhole, well we drove Hwy 10 thru Mississippi which is quite a long ways from Clarksdale and the “crossroads” of Hwy 61 and 49, although some say its Hwy 8 and 1 south of Rosedale. Either way we missed it, course I wasn’t even thinking about it when we drove thru Mississippi but that’s beside the point.
The point is what supposedly happened there, Robert Johnson most famously comes to mind, its the old “sold his soul to the devil for “fill in the blank”” bit. Musicians and artists are notorious for these kind of rumors, where / how did they get that unworldly talent / ability? Must have dealt with the devil, and no, its not Steve Vai. It couldn’t possibly be that they practiced their backsides off, it had to be something supernatural. Some openly embrace the occult, Jimmy Page and Richie Blackmore come to mind, there was one musician who went out of his way to embrace the crossroads bit. I bring you one Niccolò Paganini, violin / guitar virtuoso, 27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840.
It was rumored that Paganini’s mother made a deal with the devil to trade her son’s soul in exchange for him being a famous violinist. Whether it was his mom or ole Nick himself that supposedly made the pact doesn’t really matter, it’s what was done with the rumor that matters and Paganini milked it. Now stop me when you’ve heard this story before, the violin at that time was considered the devil’s instrument. So. Paganini plays the devils instrument, he took to wearing all black, he grew his hair long, he was a heavy drinker and notorious womanizer. He was one of the first musicians of his time to perform without sheet music, he had memorized his pieces. This allowed him to flail and gyrate about the stage as his whims led him. In a piece on the interwebs I found in-titled “A Violinist and the Devil” had this remarkably descriptive piece. “Paganini, himself, presented a striking figure. He was tall and remarkably thin, with hollow cheeks, very long fingers, pale skin, “flaming eyes” and “thin lips that held a sardonic smile.” He also often dressed in all black for performances. Together with his virtuosity, and the fact that the violin had long been considered the “Devil’s instrument,” by the time one half-crazed fan at a concert in Vienna claimed he saw the Devil helping Paganini play, the other patrons only had to look at him to be convinced.” Sound familiar?
It was reported that noted bluesman Son House saw Robert Johnson play several times and he was just terrible, to the point audiences would demand he quit playing guitar and just play his harmonica. According to House, Robert disappeared for a time and when he reappeared his abilities on the guitar were drastically improved, almost supernaturally (!?!) And here come the rumors……..! Throw in a good old fashioned questionable death and we have all the makings of a Satanic Movie of the Week. And speaking of deaths, both of our honorees fit the bill. Paganini was once thought so near death a priest was called to administer Last Rites, well Nick thought that a bit premature so he refused, thus putting into effect rule #14 for getting a demonic rumor started, piss off the church. A week later he died from internal bleeding before a priest could be summoned, that caused the Church to deny him a Catholic burial. It took until 1874 before he was properly buried in Parma, Italy. Robert Johnson on the other hand was supposedly poisoned by one of his women friends or perhaps by the husband of one his women friends. Johnson is credited with being the first member of the notorious 27 club. And your Mom thought the Rolling Stones were devils in disguise, no it goes way back farther than that.
I’ve always been fascinated by this stuff. Until we meet again, and not at a crossroads…….
Make a JoyFull Noise,
dave
