Episode 2: THE PASSAGE OF ROBERT JOHNSON

The souls who work this ground have birthed the music so deep and mournful it is woven itself into the tapestry of this nation and become the soundtrack of its sorrow. And here, standing on the platform, its most enigmatic practitioner. Yeah, the mysterious soul whose life will become the stuff of myths, a bluesman whose talents are unmatched, and whose music will shape generations of singers and songwriters. He had a gum.

to the end of the line. Put us on an assembly belt and drag us straight into the balls. Well, what do you got to show for your work, big man? Nothing but more of it, I reckon. I bet a lot of people come up on in here scared of you, not me. You see uh with ken You and I not on account of our skin and nothing. I figured you don't have skin, not rightly? Nah, we can is suffering. I recogniz it was the first deal, a deal we broke, the tree of knowledge and the eating of its fruit.

That there was our first taste of free will, and the beginning of two sides of men, good and evil stirred together. Ever since then, man's worked the dirt and the Almighty has worked us over. But you and me we stuck somewhere in between all that. They tell us we're free people. But I'm spending my childhood on a plantation, hiding out from men with guns and ropes. Maybe that's why I decided I'm traveling so much once I got grown. Seeing where we are now, I'm guessing my traveling days

ain't over yet. Be rambling man. You and I I got a proposition of sorts. I know you've been on the job since before time itself got up and running. And I ain't even live as long as my old man, But I bet to feel it's the same. I'm thinking you and I could use a change of scenery. Let me not get ahead of myself. You know, my friends warned me against taking the deal. My family, blessed their hearts, thought I was smart enough not to do it. But here I am playing the long come.

at the crossroads, and that I did. It was a night not unlike this one, But I tell you like this, I have never been so cold as I was that night. The wind whipped and there was this kind of sleep that I take your face right off and make sure they only meet men on nights like that, so he knows they're serious. And he was not one to waste his time. We made a trade. Maybe it was just a fever dream. Either way, I woke up a changed man. I had a song in me, like a wolf beneath

the moon. I knew I couldn't sit, so I left. I chased the songs, and my fingers felt different, and when I held the guitar it was like I had been born with it. I couldn't farm no more. My hands couldn't plow or picked no more. I saw my reflection in the waters, and I saw a different face staring back at me. Not the face of a farmer, and not the face of a family man. Now I saw the face of a walking man. And that's the truth,

whether it happened in a dream or not. So I left, I howled, I played till my fingers blood and my thoat was raw. And while I was away, the devil came for everything I left behind, came from my sweet Virginia. She died and childbirth, and when I came home, they scorned me, said it was divine punishment for me selling my soul to the devil. But my grieving and my pain was necessary. It became the fuel for the flame. It completed my transformation. I had a river in me

now the blues. You know, it's not a secret that the dirt of a crossroad shres common ground with your world. This land's been filled with meaning, deep meaning since before any of us visitors got here. Roads are filled with intention. You understand people with purpose and drive making their way towards the destination or dying, trying. People in motion, whether willing or not, imbue the land with meaning. Not that

I got to tell you that. Oh sure, our ships and planes bring us closer, but the suffering of our people, all peoples will grow and there's no stopping that. He told me. So that's the knowledge I gained at the cost of my soul. Few good years of playing, and them hellhounds took the flesh right out of my neck. I knew they would. I know a lot of things. Yeah, I know. Folks won't find my grave because there won't be one. It's part of the deal. And so what

the Devil's honest. I'll tell you that he tells you what you'll get, and he delivers. All I ask for was knowledge. In my whole life, there's only ever been one type of some bitch that want to keep us uneducated, one type that stacks the deck against you before you're even born. One type of person that keeps knowledge from you. And they're in charge of who can know what? And don't they hate us? Learning sounds familiar, do it? I mean they say we're made in God's image, but they

don't mean us, No, they mean them. They're always going on hanging up portraits of a blue eyed Jesus and church halls. Then they say that old scratch is black. Of course they will. I tell you that man at the crossroads ain't looking nothing different than all of them paintings at that church. Hey, hey, was that a laugh

I heard from you, your big oarsman. I mean I couldn't rightly tell I mean, you know what I'm speaking true that they call America the Land of the Free, right considering how this country was built, is it any wonder folks around here got a messed up idea of what freedom is They always wanted to throw the blame on Satan or the old lady, not me. No, No, I got myself in this pot, and I guess I'm

gonna cook. You know, freedom only means something to folks if someone else has it worse, so that they can compare themselves. A man gets yelled at by the forming of a factory or in the yard and comes home and puts his hands on his wife or children. First time he gets a reason to. It's the land of subjugation, founded on a religion of subjugation. Violence comes from the top down. Might be time to change that the truth before I ask the devil for knowledge, ask the Lord

for mercy. Yeah, all I wanted was to not hurt anymore. Stop the cycle, just stop the hurting, stop being hurt. I suppose I asked because I didn't have the balls to take the yoke off myself. That's a sin too, you know, deciding to go by your own hand when salvation didn't come. I asked for strength when I wasn't granted the strength and change. I asked for the knowledge to know what to do. I knew I was talking out of turn. Why is it what made to play

the game before we even know the rules. Well, now I know everything. I saw it all right. Then that's the hounds ripped into my throat. Just added a little more gravel to these hit vocals. It's dissonance that makes music good.

into box cars to the roof thousands? More So, why is it that the guy who's been running the ship since before ships ain't got nothing to show for it? Make no mistake, it's us that holds the whole thing together. Probably think you got nothing in common with all of us load types in the mortal realm, that it's just a load power. You've been huffing too much of that dead smoke if you think otherwise. You can't act like I don't know. You got a job. You work for

your meal, just like all of us. The payment I'm giving you is proof of that. Yeah, I've been angling to meet you since I first read about You. Might not look like it, but I've always been keen on learning anything that catches my interest, and you, my friend, you are fascinating.

his first family. They've been selling that shit to us since the dawn, and I ain't buying it. Listen, God, play the serpent, don't you worry? The only thing you gots to do is say yes. Hell, you don't even got to talk. Just turn this big old engine around and drive it right through the purlygates, run old Saint Peter under these wheels, and we'll take what's ours. And what could we do that wasn't done to us? One hundredfold? Look at you, all crooked and hunchback from the pain

you've seen, what a lifetime of sufferer would do to him. Man, you ever reckon what it's done to you. I am the firstborn son of Adam. You are the firstborn son of Arabis. Look how the other children are being treated. I've played run down juke joints for Nichols. Sometimes not even that you are forgotten in this old passage Eon after eon? Why are you not a god?

been discarded. We deserve to take what's ours. Let the Father beg for forgiveness, for we're the ones who toil in his stead. We can resist evil, but there's no escape from righteousness. It punishes just and unjust, all the same. Why inherit sin but be denied our dominion? Take me up, Devin. They won't know what hit him. Imagine it looks on their faces when this old iron horse barrows through their pastures with these endless cause packed to the brim of

these souls they thought were beneath them. Come on, what do you say, your old cols man? Will you help me shake up the afterlife? I know you took all fears down the underworld way while he was still living. He played that good a song.

I know it all, and I know where it'll land, when it'll end, and I'll be exactly where I knew i'd always end up. Yeah, my friend at the Crossroads told me. He told me not to be afraid, told me I'd be just fine. Listen to the howling night, listen to the moms and the soul shu carrying. You can't escape it, can you? How long has it been since you've heard a song? When's the last time you've had that luxury? Do you hum it to yourself? Underneath

the rumbling of this ancient beast shoe stare? My people have sung songs of sorrow far before they even stepped foot on this land. That faith was unknown, as was their destination. But you and I changing that right now. I've never been to hell, but I know intimately the hymns of the damned. Let me play you the songs that the devil told me.

much bigger than the tawdry mythology surrounding it. His music carries on into the heavy Southern night, across the land, over the world, as he himself steals away on his passage.