Click on the Red Arrow to hear the soundtrack. Lyrics and music written and performed by the author.
A beat-up guitar hanging over his shoulder,
tall, lanky Robert Johnson was on his way back
to Helena. A car left him next to the levee on this
full moon night. He thought about Son House
and what he’d said after Robert had picked up
Son’s steel guitar and started fiddling with it.
“Put it down, sound like you stranglin’ frogs.”
Robert meant to prove Son and everybody wrong.
A barrel chested black man, standing by a tree said:
“You wanna play that guitar like
nobody ever played it before, or you wanna go back
to Robinsdville and play harp with Willie Brown.”
Robert felt the moon getting hotter than the noonday sun.
A black dog in the ditch was howling and moaning,
causing him to shake and shudder. The dog started
a soulful moan causing the strings o his guitar
to hum and sing with dark, bluesy chords that possessed
Robert. He looked into the dog’s eyes, glowing deep violet,
and he kew he was staring into the eyes of a hellhound.
The man said:
“The dog ain’t for sale, but the sound
can be yours, that’s the sound of the real delta blues.”
“I want that sound.”
“It’s yours
if you just keep walkin’ north, but there’s consequences.
You’ll be in Rosedale at midnight under a full moon,
and you’ll have the blues like nobody has before.”
“What’s these consequences?”
“My left hand will forever be wrapped around your soul,
other words, your soul belongs to me.”
“Step back Devil-Man, I’m goin’ to Rosedale, I am the blues.
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Poetry and Music written, composed, and sung by the artist.
