Meet Me at the Crossroads

 

 

Some background to my experience:

I discovered the blues in the early 80's.  My first experience was buying Muddy Waters' album "I'm a King Bee".  I didn't have any idea what I was buying at the time.  It was just on the shelf at Musicland, a music outlet at my local mall. (Remember malls? They were the go-to place for shopping back in the day and a decent place to hang out even if you weren't shopping).

Anyway, I bought the record without having any idea what I was getting, just because it was on sale.  I got home and put it on the turn table and was transported to a world I had never known existed previously.  

You have to understand: from the time I was born (1961) until about 1978, my total experience was country music.  Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, they were my total experience, barring the occasional snippets of music I heard when hanging out with school friends.  And those friends were into either heavy metal music (my first experience hearing AC/DC was while a freshman riding around with a few seniors at lunch) or pop music.

But in 1978 I transitioned to the local pop music radio.  But pop music was disco and R &B and the like.  Bee Gees, Village People, Donna Summer and Electric Light Orchestra.  My universe was expanding in the late 70's and I gradually started to realize there were different musical worlds out there.  So by 1981 I was willing to listen to anything.  It was during this time that I also discovered jazz.

But for a time I was entranced by the music of the blues.  Granted, I didn't identify with it lyrically, but then no form of music ever touched me lyrically as a genre. The traditional "life is hard and I got a long road to hoe to get to happiness" theme was not my experience. I just liked the melodies and the sound of the instrumentation.  Blues really hit me in that respect.

So when Crossroads hit the theaters I was already attracted by the musical portion.  At the time I was also attracted to Ralph Macchio as an actor, so having his name on the marquee also gave me an incentive to see the movie.  I later learned it was directed by one of my favorite directors, Walter Hill, but I have to admit, at that time I hardly ever paid attention to the director's credits in film (with the exception of John Carpenter, of course, who has always been a draw for me, dating back to my first experience with him with Halloween).

This Crossroads should NOT be confused with that turkey featuring the "no talent" (as an actress) Britney Spears.  It's an entirely different movie, with it's basis on the legend of Robert Johnson, the ultimate king of the blues, who supposedly made a deal with the devil for his bluesmanship. Which is part of the driving force behind this film, as you will see.

(There are also several other movies out there with "Crossroads" in the title.  It's apparently a very attractive title.  I counted 14 others.  But stick with the 1986 film if you want a very good drama.  No telling what you'll get if you go down those other "crossroads"... Some of them, to be fair, may be actually good, but if you want to go with this theme, there is only one that I know of that fits it).

Crossroads(1986):

Eugene Martone (Raph Macchio) is a talented guitarist studying at Julliard (the mecca for talent in the music world.  You get in that door and you really have something to write home about.).  But according to his professor, he is wasting his talent messing around with this "primitive music" called the blues. Dr. Santis  informs him that "excellence in primitive music is cultural... you have to be born with it". And coming from rich money (and Long Island to boot), Eugene is unlikely to have been born with it.

 

But Eugene is nothing if not dedicated to his sideline interest.  In an effort to become known in the blues world he seeks out one of the last remaining original blues me, Willie Brown (Joe Seneca).  Eugene is is convinced that this Willie Brown is also the man who played with Robert Johnson under the name Blind Dog Fulton.

 

But Willie is incarcerated in a minimum security old folks home, basically a prison but for people who are old and not considered too much of a risk.  What Eugene wants is to get Willie to teach him the legendary missing 30th song from Robert Johnson's recording sessions.  Willie tells him he will teach it to him, but only if Eugene helps him escape the prison and get back to Mississippi.

Willie tells Eugene that he has a money stash to help chip in for the trip, but he won't show the wad of dough in New York City.  He insists that Eugene pay the bus fare to Memphis and he will pay the rest of the way.  But, of course, when they get to Memphis it comes to light that Willie's "stash" only amounts to $40.  That won't get them anywhere near Mississippi...

So they have to start hitchhiking, or, as Willie refers to it, "hoboing".  Along the way they meet up with a runaway, Frances (Jamie Gertz). And end up rescuing her from a sleazeball bar owner whose intentions are not entirely pure. 

 

Although Frances and Eugene start out at odds, they eventually hook up.  

 

And Eugene, being a young man with the requisite hormones of said such, but also with the sense of said such, falls in love with Frances.  But Frances is a bit more jaded for a girl of her age.  So she takes off, leaving Eugene to his hormones and sense.

The ultimate goal of Willie comes to light, as the reason why he wanted to get to Mississippi was to get back to the crossroads where he made a deal with the devil umpteen odd years ago.  The original go between, the Devil's assistant  (Joe Morton), shows up, but Willie insists on talking to the big guy himself, the man who calls himself Scratch (Robert Judd).

 

Scratch tells Willie he won't negate the contract for his soul.  But if Willie is willing to pit a contest with Scratch's #1 guitarist, Jack Butler (Steve Vai), and Willie wins, he'll tear up the contract.  But Willie is not a guitarist.  But Eugene is.  And Eugene, not believing in all this mumbo-jumbo about selling a soul to the Devil, agrees to sit in as Willie's substitute in the battle.

Of course, the battle is real, as the scene shifts to a juke joint in Hell.  And Jack Butler, the guitarist representing Scratch in the contest turns out to be the epitome of a heavy metal wizard who had previously sold his own soul for the wizardry.  And the guitar battle that ensues is one of the main reasons I have always liked this movie.  On a list of musical sequences in film, this ranks in the top 5 for me.  Jack and Eugene alternate, much like a heavy metal/blues version of "Dueling Banjos", with Jack playing a heavy metal piece and Eugene countering with a blues rendition of the piece.

 

 

Ultimately Eugene reverts to his classical training, and it is entirely a mystery to Jack. (Apparently Jack was not the most open musical guy, like I was and am.  He had not had much experience with that genre and ends up losing the contest, which leads to Scratch tearing up the contract.

Crossroads is a decent film in terms of acting, but for me, the draw is really the music.  It's not a musical in the sense of the traditional term. You want a real musical with blues as it's basis The Blues Brothers is a better choice.  But for drama and character, this one would be a better selection.  Macchio and Seneca fit well together on screen.  I can't say the same about Jamie Gertz.  Gertz and Macchio just don't have the chemistry.  It's hard to believe that pairing would happen, for me.  Probably because I see myself in Eugene and I personally would never have made it past the physical attraction into the emotional attraction part with Frances. 

Most of the time when Eugene is playing, we get a close up of hands playing the guitar without the long shot of Macchio.  There is a purpose to this,of course.  Macchio is not actually playing the guitar for the soundtrack. (Whether Macchio can actually play guitar or not I admit i don't know..) For his guitar playing it is actually guitar wizard Ry Cooder.  Steve Vai, on the other hand, is really a guitar player.  (Along with Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson, Vai has been on tour playing in what has been called the "G3 Tour"). I'm pretty sure Vai could have pulled off the classical music guitar if it had been Vai himself and not the character he played, Jack Butler.

Fortunately, unlike Eugene and Willie, I have this old Plymouth to get on down the road. So drive safely, folks.

Quiggy