Crossroads - Live

This was originally recorded by the blues musician Robert Johnson in the 1930s. According to legend, Johnson went to the crossroads and made a deal with the Devil, giving up his soul in exchange for the ability to play the blues. The story originates from an interview with the blues singer Son House, who explained how Johnson went from being a terrible guitar player to a very good one in a very short period of time. Over the years, the story grew into the tale of Johnson selling his soul to the Devil. Johnson fueled the legend on his track "Me And The Devil Blues," where he sings about his meeting with Satan himself. In that song, Johnson explains that as part of his deal with the Devil, the Prince Of Darkness would harvest all of Robert's "Childrens" at the age of 27, which is exactly how old he was when he died in 1938. A spooky correlation is the number of music stars who have died at age 27. Some members of the "27 Club" include Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Al Wilson (Canned Heat), Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones) and Kurt Cobain. (Thanks to music historians Dwight Rounds and Ed Parker for their help with this.)

Cream's version is a compilation of parts of two Johnson songs: "Crossroads Blues" and "Traveling Riverside Blues."

Inside the gatefold of the 2-disk LP Wheels Of Fire, the song listings for Sides 3 (including "Crossroads") and 4 are misleadingly subheaded, "Live at the Fillmore." Same with Disk 2 of the 2-CD versions. "Crossroads" was recorded at the Winterland Ballroom, also in San Francisco. Just one of the four live songs on these two LP sides, "Toad," was actually recorded at the Fillmore, but the Fillmore name had a lot more marketing appeal. "Crossroads" was recorded at Winterland on March 10, 1968, a Sunday, during the first of the two Cream shows that night. "Crossroads" immediately followed "Spoonful" in the performance, whereas on the album, "Crossroads" comes right before "Spoonful."