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The English Beat - Ranking Full Stop

In Cross Road Blues, Johnson sings an age old tale about a man’s choice between good and evil: I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees/Asked the Lord above ‘Have mercy, now save poor Bob, if you please.’

There is a longstanding Delta legend of a bluesman who waited by the side of a deserted crossroads one night for Satan to come and tune his guitar. It’s a story made more relevant when coupled with Johnson’s frequent references to the Devil, including in the song Me And The Devil Blues, in which he sings, Me and the Devil, was walkin’ side by side.

But Johnson certainly was not the only blues artist who sang about the Devil.

While Johnson’s incredible improvements on the guitar, as detailed by Son House, were certainly miraculous, a 2008 story in Living Blues Magazine offers a more viable explanation. In that two year period, when Johnson first travelled the Delta, he met guitarist Ike Zimmerman, who took the young artist under his tutelage. According to blues scholar Bruce Conforth, Johnson spent the better part of a year living with Zimmerman, and studying his craft.


The English Beat - Ranking Full Stop
  • Produced by: Bob Sargeant
  • Released in: 1981
  • Genre: Ska

"The Beat were all about inclusion, rather than exclusion, and this showed in their personnel and their music influences. The band crossed over fluidly between soul, reggae, pop and punk, and from these disparate pieces they created an infectious dance rhythm."

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