Foo Fighters Acknowledge NWO??

Originally posted by Saucerful_of_SecretsOh and I took a rock history class at a university and they taught us without flinching that Rock and Roll was started by Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil.

Robert Johnson is but one of many blues musicians from the early-to-mid 20th century who claimed or sang of deals or encounters with the devil or 'dark figure', and he was not the first. The first, as far as I know, was Peetie Wheatstraw, followed by Tommy Johnson.

Robert Johnson's own version of the tradition is the most well-known, and the most direct (as Tommy and Peetie didn't record songs about this story), but it has an extremely loose connection to selling your soul, and a looser connection still to the devil (read the lyrics - it could be argued that his soul going down, seeking God's help to bring it up, is an allegory for the question of an either good or sinful life, but it isn't directly expressed in those terms). Clapton released his own version of Johnson's Crossroads in '69, which certainly helped to solidify Johnson's role in cultivating the tradition.

If you want a real Robert Johnson devil song, listen to Hellhound on my Trail; I prefer it to Crossroads (and Ramblin' on my Mind trumps both).

[edit on 23-10-2007 by alexg]

[edit on 23-10-2007 by alexg]