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Hellhound on my Trail
Hellhound on my TrailI got to keep movin',
I've got to keep movin'
Blues fallin' down like hail,
(Blues fallin' down like hail)Umm mmm mmm mmm
Blues fallin' down like hail,
(Blues fallin' down like hail)And the days keeps on mindin' me,
there's a Hellhound on my trail,(Hellhound on my trail),
Hellhound on my trail.
So sang Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues, in 1937. Arguably, the most influential and the greatest of all Blues singers and composers, Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil in return for his uncanny ability to play and sing the blues, and this transaction supposedly took place down at a rural crossroads, a site Johnson memorialized in the song Crossroads, famously covered by Eric Clapton’s band Cream around 1969, which some critics claim contains the best electric rock guitar solo ever recorded. Until recently, no photographs of Robert Johnson were known to exist, (he died at the age of 27 -- poisoned in a juke joint by a jealous lover), but relentless researchers have now turned up two photographs.
In one photo Robert is all dandified up:
Robert Johnson
But in the other he looks more like a devil driven Blues Man.
Robert Johnson
NPR named the Robert Johnson song quoted above, Hellhound on my Trail to their list of the top 100 most important American songs of all time. The songs are listed in alphabetical order, not numbered and if you click this link Hellhound on my Trail you can listen to an audio file (provided you have the RealPlayer download), from NPR’s All Things Considered a well written essay about Johnson by Peter Breslow (if you can stand his voice – do they teach that treacle intonation at places like Brown?) that has clips of both songs, Hellhound and Crossroads. But the essay ends up being more about Breslow than about Johnson, but good nevertheless.
The New Republic reviews three recent books about Robert Johnson and you can read the review by clicking this link: Love in Vain then choosing the Google link Love in Vain by Mark Pollizzoti that will get around subscription requirements.
But that is not what this is about
But this blog-entry is not about Robert Johnson, that is just deep background: this post is about the Red Sox, because just like ol’ Robert Johnson, the Red Sox feel something creeping up behind them, and their personal Hellhounds pound up the trail dressed in pinstripes -- the Yankees, as in New York, New York! From 14 games behind the Red Sox at one point in the season, the Yanks are now only 4 ½ games back.
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Hellhound Pettitte
Hellhound A-Rod
Hellhound Posada
Hellhound Jeter
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I got to keep movin',
I've got to keep movin'
Blues fallin' down like hail,
(Blues fallin' down like hail)And the days keeps on mindin' me,
there's a Hellhound on my trail,
Posted at September 15, 2007 07:00 PM