February 7, 2024 • 28 mins
August 6, 1938. The Mississippi Delta. The Badlands… In this hauntingly melodic episode of The Passage, the Ferryman, voiced by the enigmatic Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, The Walking Dead), finds himself aboard a steam engine train, its whistle echoing through the twilight of the afterlife. As the train slows to a halt, a figure steps into the dim light, guitar in hand, a shadowy silhouette against the misty backdrop—Robert Johnson, voiced by Tristan Mack Wilds (The Wire / Red Tails), the legendary bluesman whose music was said to be born at the crossroads of despair and genius.
There's not much left of Robert Johnson on Earth, just a handful of records and a legacy shrouded in mystery. But here, in the liminal space between worlds, his story unfolds, a tale as haunting as his music. The Ferryman listens to his presence a silent invitation for the soul of the blues to sing its truth.
Johnson's life was a symphony of sorrow and longing, his music the voice of a nation's grief, suffering, and aching need to belong. He speaks of rejecting the life of a working man for the existence of a wandering spirit, a choice that led him down a path lined with loss and lament. The tragic death of his wife while he was away haunts his melodies, a reminder of the price paid for the life he chose.
As the train chugs through the ethereal landscape, the conversation turns to the legend that has immortalized Johnson—the tale of selling his soul to the devil at a dusty Mississippi crossroads in exchange for unrivaled mastery of the blues. The Ferryman, a collector of stories, is intrigued. Is this myth the key to Johnson's otherworldly talent, or merely a metaphor for the sacrifices and dark bargains made in the pursuit of greatness?
But Robert Johnson has a proposition of his own, a final tune to play in this twilight journey. His fingers dance on the strings, the notes a whisper of light and shadow. What does a man who's already gambled with the devil offer to the Ferryman of souls?
This episode of The Passage delves into the depths of the human spirit, where pain and artistry intertwine, and the crossroads represent the eternal choices that define us. Join us as we ride the rails of fate with Robert Johnson, his life a testament to the power of music to capture the heart of a nation's soul. Written by Steven Williams.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, I am the fairy man.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The human spirit is my business. Their madness, their passion,
the wonderful and monstrous ways they burn out their brief candle.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I regret to tell you that very many American lives
in love. What herd to shouts from the car, he's dead.
Whether he rebird to president or four hours, people must
get up and identifica.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I am here in the in between, to collect their
spirits and carry them to what comes next. This road
is not on any map. It spans the thresholds between
their most forbidden desires and their greatest fear. All I
(01:20):
ask for in payment is a tale and accounting of
their lives and the great temporary that is the land
we're living. These are their stories.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
This is the Passage.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
August sixth, nineteen thirty eight, The Mississippi Delta, the bad Lands. Yeah,
the nights here are damp and tipid, the reek of cypress,
rust and blood. The smell that seeps out of the
(03:10):
swamps and hangs in the mist. This is fertile ground
from which so much has come and so much exploited,
seated by the leathered hands of black sharecroppers and tenant farmers.
The souls who work this ground have birthed the music
(03:34):
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,
(03:56):
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.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Despite this, he leaves behind very little, like a ghost who,
in the land of the living now only exists in
his records. His spirit exists here, freshly disembodied, holding the moonlight,
still an old guitar in hand. Yeah, Robert Johnson, Robert,
(05:15):
I'm here to offer you passage.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Is that so? I thought I heard screams off in
the distance, But it turns out just to be the
squeal of your train grind into a hole. All that
momentum mosse just for me. Yeah, it's a lot of
train for one guy. This is true, you know, without
meaning to, my hand keeps finding its way back to
(05:43):
my throat. But it's intact once more, no hanging tendons,
no blood pooling into my collar bombs. How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
How about that? You leave in the shape you prefer?
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Is that so?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, you're looking good kid.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
You know, once I saw you on sightly Locomotive, I
felt relief. Believe it or don't, It seems my gamble
paid off. Even now I can still see the faces
contorting and pain and the dark masses of smoke billowing overhead.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Sorry it's unsightly. I mean, what do you want to
shiney one?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Now?
Speaker 5 (06:24):
How much for a ticket?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Ain't payment? As your story?
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Who show was hot in here? Didn't think? I still
feel things when my body went to the dogs. I
ain't no more dilly dallying.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Take a seat, thank you?
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Mind if I tune this girl?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Look while we talked, it wouldn't seem unnatural if you didn't.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Much blushed. Now I can see you've been on the
job a good while. There are plenty of rugging mean, nonjurine,
you got here too, a lot better than the greyhound.
Probably ain't always been this way, though, you know they
say back in the old days you work then oire,
(07:23):
But the times are changing faster than your train could blink. Yeah,
it seems like you had to econdomize the world's getting
big all the time. Stands the reason. That's got to
be a more efficient way to carry the abundance souls
to the end of the line. Put us on an
assembly belt and drag us straight into the balls. Well,
(07:46):
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.
(08:16):
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
(08:37):
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.
(09:00):
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,
(09:20):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Was it worth it?
Speaker 5 (09:42):
That's all I ever asked. You can never know a
thing until it's over, and I don't think it's over yet.
The hell I look like living until I'm soiling myself
died back in worse eyes, being chased from the gulf
to the tip of Maine and back again, just because
I'm darkening some white man's eyesight. Is it any wonder
that the Blues was born from this country? What if
(10:04):
I tell you the story goes just like they say,
I met the snake. They said I'd find him there
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.
(10:27):
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
(10:57):
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
(11:19):
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,
(11:42):
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
(12:03):
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
(12:27):
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
(12:52):
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
(13:14):
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
(13:35):
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.
(14:00):
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
(14:20):
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
(14:40):
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,
(15:05):
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,
(15:28):
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.
(15:52):
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
(16:12):
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
(16:35):
more gravel to these hit vocals. It's dissonance that makes
music good.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, distenance, I know all about it. This is very true.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Why sure it is? The animals gotta figure it out, eat, sleep, fight,
rut when you can. Anything else is nonsense. The only
other thing any good is music, and that just helps
us make sense of it all. I mean, your soul
is at as low as we sing? Do you sing?
(17:09):
You know? The serpent gave the woman knowledge, then she
gave it to us. That's how come women are smarter
than us. Don't trust the men. Folk trust the animal.
Trust the women trust the goat, trust the witches. Don't
trust the preacher.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Man.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Why you think they don't let women preach because they'll
tell the truth, because they know how this world was built.
I didn't listen, ain't no woman could tell me nothing.
It took the serpent to set me straight. And now I.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
See what do you see? Oh?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Now I'm getting that. Everybody is so sure that I'm
going to burn. But I don't think that's the case.
You see, we got free will, He gave it to us,
and he punishes us for exercising it. But we do
you think humans are the only ones with it? Why
(18:12):
you think he ran Elucifer out of town in the
first place. None of us are beholden to someone else's rules,
not even you, and you know that deep down. How
many of the damn do you got back there? Shoved
into box cars to the roof thousands? More So, why
(18:39):
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
(19:02):
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
(19:23):
learning anything that catches my interest, and you, my friend,
you are fascinating.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, I gotta warn Yeah, yeah, that cannot be distracted
by a flattery.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I figure you say something like that, but I know
you want something just like I do. I'm pretty sure
I know where you're taking this big steamer. But I
got a better idea. You and me, we can break out.
People say everything works out according to God's plan? How'd
that go for Judas? How that go for them folks
(19:56):
who died in them fields in Georgia and Florida and Mississippi.
You think they getting some kind of reward? You think
a lot doesn't miss his wife. You think job forgot
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
(20:17):
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
(20:39):
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
(21:05):
after eon? Why are you not a god?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Well, I'm the only thing more dependable than a devil's
cunning is a man's hubrius.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Oh man, you're not wrong. Fella, you're not wrong. You
got me dead to rights there. Oh man, I've been
turning this idea over in my head since I considered
that deal in the first place. Enemy and my enemy, right? Yeah,
(22:00):
what use is free will? Maybe I'm being used, But
are and I using him the same? You think we
are as similar? But the blues binds man, beast and
every other being together as one. You think the devil
don't have the blues. We all know sorrow, we've all
(22:23):
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.
(22:44):
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
(23:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
But you just wait till you hear this one. You
don't think God damn my soul.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Just for fame, huh?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
In this country, fame never got a black man nothing
but killed. Maybe that'll change one day, who knows. I
won't be around to see it. But I know I'm
not the son of a muse. And what's a song
without the human element? You see, fairy man, I didn't
shake Old Scratch's hand for money. Now you can take
(23:48):
me to hell and keep up this endless game of yours,
or you can come with me. You don't have to
make a decision. Now I know how long this ride is.
I know it all, and I know where it'll land,
(24:10):
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,
(24:36):
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
(24:59):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
The stories about him will never mention the most important detail.
Robert Johnson earned his talent with sweat and toil, and
Robert himself wouldn't say it. The Devil at the Crossroads
was in awe of the man he meant when he
(26:10):
walks away. He knew he'd gotten a bargain. Robert's music
will far outlive him, and his work will become so
much bigger than the tawdry mythology surrounding it. His music
carries on into the heavy Southern night, across the land,
(26:34):
over the world, as he himself steals away on his passage.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
The Passage stars Dan Fogler as the Ferryman. This episode
features Tristan mack Wilds as Robert Johnson. Written by Stephen
Williams with additional writing by Dan Bush and Nicholas Dakowski.
Our executive producers are Nicholas Dakowski, Matthew Frederick, and Alexander Williams.
First assistant director, script's supervisor and production.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Coordinator Sarah Klein.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Music by Ben Lovett, additional music by Alexander Rodriguez. Casting
by Sunday Bowling, Kennedy and Meg Mormon. Editing and sound
designed by Dan Bush. Dialogue editing and sound mixing by
Juan Campos. Additional sound editing by Racket Sound. Our supervising
producer is Josh Than. Created by Dan Bush and Nicholas Dakowski.
Produced by Dan Bush. The Passage is a production of
(27:42):
iHeartRadio and Cycopia pictures
Yeah, I am the fairy man.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The human spirit is my business. Their madness, their passion,
the wonderful and monstrous ways they burn out their brief candle.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I regret to tell you that very many American lives
in love. What herd to shouts from the car, he's dead.
Whether he rebird to president or four hours, people must
get up and identifica.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I am here in the in between, to collect their
spirits and carry them to what comes next. This road
is not on any map. It spans the thresholds between
their most forbidden desires and their greatest fear. All I
(01:20):
ask for in payment is a tale and accounting of
their lives and the great temporary that is the land
we're living. These are their stories.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
This is the Passage.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
August sixth, nineteen thirty eight, The Mississippi Delta, the bad Lands. Yeah,
the nights here are damp and tipid, the reek of cypress,
rust and blood. The smell that seeps out of the
(03:10):
swamps and hangs in the mist. This is fertile ground
from which so much has come and so much exploited,
seated by the leathered hands of black sharecroppers and tenant farmers.
The souls who work this ground have birthed the music
(03:34):
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,
(03:56):
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.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Despite this, he leaves behind very little, like a ghost who,
in the land of the living now only exists in
his records. His spirit exists here, freshly disembodied, holding the moonlight,
still an old guitar in hand. Yeah, Robert Johnson, Robert,
(05:15):
I'm here to offer you passage.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Is that so? I thought I heard screams off in
the distance, But it turns out just to be the
squeal of your train grind into a hole. All that
momentum mosse just for me. Yeah, it's a lot of
train for one guy. This is true, you know, without
meaning to, my hand keeps finding its way back to
(05:43):
my throat. But it's intact once more, no hanging tendons,
no blood pooling into my collar bombs. How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
How about that? You leave in the shape you prefer?
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Is that so?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, you're looking good kid.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
You know, once I saw you on sightly Locomotive, I
felt relief. Believe it or don't, It seems my gamble
paid off. Even now I can still see the faces
contorting and pain and the dark masses of smoke billowing overhead.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Sorry it's unsightly. I mean, what do you want to
shiney one?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Now?
Speaker 5 (06:24):
How much for a ticket?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Ain't payment? As your story?
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Who show was hot in here? Didn't think? I still
feel things when my body went to the dogs. I
ain't no more dilly dallying.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Take a seat, thank you?
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Mind if I tune this girl?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Look while we talked, it wouldn't seem unnatural if you didn't.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Much blushed. Now I can see you've been on the
job a good while. There are plenty of rugging mean, nonjurine,
you got here too, a lot better than the greyhound.
Probably ain't always been this way, though, you know they
say back in the old days you work then oire,
(07:23):
But the times are changing faster than your train could blink. Yeah,
it seems like you had to econdomize the world's getting
big all the time. Stands the reason. That's got to
be a more efficient way to carry the abundance souls
to the end of the line. Put us on an
assembly belt and drag us straight into the balls. Well,
(07:46):
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.
(08:16):
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
(08:37):
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.
(09:00):
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,
(09:20):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Was it worth it?
Speaker 5 (09:42):
That's all I ever asked. You can never know a
thing until it's over, and I don't think it's over yet.
The hell I look like living until I'm soiling myself
died back in worse eyes, being chased from the gulf
to the tip of Maine and back again, just because
I'm darkening some white man's eyesight. Is it any wonder
that the Blues was born from this country? What if
(10:04):
I tell you the story goes just like they say,
I met the snake. They said I'd find him there
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.
(10:27):
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
(10:57):
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
(11:19):
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,
(11:42):
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
(12:03):
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
(12:27):
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
(12:52):
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
(13:14):
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
(13:35):
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.
(14:00):
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
(14:20):
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
(14:40):
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,
(15:05):
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,
(15:28):
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.
(15:52):
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
(16:12):
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
(16:35):
more gravel to these hit vocals. It's dissonance that makes
music good.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, distenance, I know all about it. This is very true.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Why sure it is? The animals gotta figure it out, eat, sleep, fight,
rut when you can. Anything else is nonsense. The only
other thing any good is music, and that just helps
us make sense of it all. I mean, your soul
is at as low as we sing? Do you sing?
(17:09):
You know? The serpent gave the woman knowledge, then she
gave it to us. That's how come women are smarter
than us. Don't trust the men. Folk trust the animal.
Trust the women trust the goat, trust the witches. Don't
trust the preacher.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Man.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Why you think they don't let women preach because they'll
tell the truth, because they know how this world was built.
I didn't listen, ain't no woman could tell me nothing.
It took the serpent to set me straight. And now I.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
See what do you see? Oh?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Now I'm getting that. Everybody is so sure that I'm
going to burn. But I don't think that's the case.
You see, we got free will, He gave it to us,
and he punishes us for exercising it. But we do
you think humans are the only ones with it? Why
(18:12):
you think he ran Elucifer out of town in the
first place. None of us are beholden to someone else's rules,
not even you, and you know that deep down. How
many of the damn do you got back there? Shoved
into box cars to the roof thousands? More So, why
(18:39):
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
(19:02):
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
(19:23):
learning anything that catches my interest, and you, my friend,
you are fascinating.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, I gotta warn Yeah, yeah, that cannot be distracted
by a flattery.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I figure you say something like that, but I know
you want something just like I do. I'm pretty sure
I know where you're taking this big steamer. But I
got a better idea. You and me, we can break out.
People say everything works out according to God's plan? How'd
that go for Judas? How that go for them folks
(19:56):
who died in them fields in Georgia and Florida and Mississippi.
You think they getting some kind of reward? You think
a lot doesn't miss his wife. You think job forgot
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
(20:17):
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
(20:39):
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
(21:05):
after eon? Why are you not a god?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Well, I'm the only thing more dependable than a devil's
cunning is a man's hubrius.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Oh man, you're not wrong. Fella, you're not wrong. You
got me dead to rights there. Oh man, I've been
turning this idea over in my head since I considered
that deal in the first place. Enemy and my enemy, right? Yeah,
(22:00):
what use is free will? Maybe I'm being used, But
are and I using him the same? You think we
are as similar? But the blues binds man, beast and
every other being together as one. You think the devil
don't have the blues. We all know sorrow, we've all
(22:23):
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.
(22:44):
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
(23:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
But you just wait till you hear this one. You
don't think God damn my soul.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Just for fame, huh?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
In this country, fame never got a black man nothing
but killed. Maybe that'll change one day, who knows. I
won't be around to see it. But I know I'm
not the son of a muse. And what's a song
without the human element? You see, fairy man, I didn't
shake Old Scratch's hand for money. Now you can take
(23:48):
me to hell and keep up this endless game of yours,
or you can come with me. You don't have to
make a decision. Now I know how long this ride is.
I know it all, and I know where it'll land,
(24:10):
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,
(24:36):
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
(24:59):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
The stories about him will never mention the most important detail.
Robert Johnson earned his talent with sweat and toil, and
Robert himself wouldn't say it. The Devil at the Crossroads
was in awe of the man he meant when he
(26:10):
walks away. He knew he'd gotten a bargain. Robert's music
will far outlive him, and his work will become so
much bigger than the tawdry mythology surrounding it. His music
carries on into the heavy Southern night, across the land,
(26:34):
over the world, as he himself steals away on his passage.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
The Passage stars Dan Fogler as the Ferryman. This episode
features Tristan mack Wilds as Robert Johnson. Written by Stephen
Williams with additional writing by Dan Bush and Nicholas Dakowski.
Our executive producers are Nicholas Dakowski, Matthew Frederick, and Alexander Williams.
First assistant director, script's supervisor and production.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Coordinator Sarah Klein.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Music by Ben Lovett, additional music by Alexander Rodriguez. Casting
by Sunday Bowling, Kennedy and Meg Mormon. Editing and sound
designed by Dan Bush. Dialogue editing and sound mixing by
Juan Campos. Additional sound editing by Racket Sound. Our supervising
producer is Josh Than. Created by Dan Bush and Nicholas Dakowski.
Produced by Dan Bush. The Passage is a production of
(27:42):
iHeartRadio and Cycopia pictures
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