This song, like 2 of the other songs on "Second Chances I", was written at a time in my life when I felt I didn't fit neatly into any place, and I was ambivalent about the many roads laid before me.
I used the man Robert Johnson as the song's figurehead for many reasons. He's widely regarded as the inventor of the Blues, a style of music without which we wouldn't have jazz, rock, pop, or pretty much any of the music we listen to today. He also is enshrouded in a spooky legend where he meets the Devil at a crossroads and sells his soul so he can be the best guitarist who ever lived.
The crossroads is also a symbol of the apex at which we make a pivotal choice (which direction will I go?) and linked to this can be the experience of indecision, a theme in this song.
The legend is so profound in its many angles and its depth, that it's stuck with me ever since I first heard of it. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you've been at a point in your life when you've been faced with many choices, none of them particularly ideal... or maybe you felt that you were selling out, and even wondered if the selling out wasn't worth it to achieve a greater goal.
If you've faced any of these things, this song is for you, too.
lyrics
There's a boy from Mississippi
Old at heart, not fully grown
Only ever cared about the blues, but he can't lose
Can't go back home
And I feel just like Robert Johnson
Standing at these four old roads
But every road I take just leads me back to the same old show
They build a high rise where the old church used to be
They say the city's growing fast
And everybody's special, everybody's cool, and everybody has a story from their past
And I still feel like Robert Johnson
Playin' catch-up with the moon
'Cause every song I sing just takes me back to the same old tune
North, south, east, and west
The wind blows, the wind blows
Here one minute, gone the next
The wind blows, the wind blows
Nobody's every seen the man behind the mask
But do they really need to know?
And it's to early to know which road that I am on
And it's too damn late to turn the boat around
And I still feel like Robert Johnson
One foot in and out the door
The devil knows that it's my soul, my soul, my soul that I'm looking for
credits
from Second Chances I,
released February 14, 2024
Music and lyrics by Pierson Keating
Piano, vocals - Pierson Keating
Drums - Aaron Latos
Bass - Alex Browne
Pedal steel guitar - J. Tom Hnatow
Recorded to 8 track tape by Cole McClendon
Mixed by Gus Young
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