U. Utah Phillips - 8 - Finale

0:50; this is why we need a real life "thieve's guild" like the one from B5"crusade", or at least a "Bum's Guild".

Thoughts on 0:26 to 0:42; first, someone actually DID at one point, put their own mortal soul up for auction on ebay. I don't remember the result. Also, the Robert Johnson thing; there's an african god known as Legba and he's known to be in charge of the crossroads. The devil part is probably just a trans-cultural warping, like the way the ancient greek god Pan is used as the image of the devil in modern western culture.

Well I actually spoke with a close friend of Robert Johnson's "step son", Robert Lockwood Jr., and he told me that the selling of his soul at the cross roads was just a rumor spread by Son House because Robert Johnson started playing secular music.

What was the significance of purporting it to happen at the crossroads?

The crossroads is just a metaphor for a serious decision, he could have taken the road of playing religious music, but instead, at the crossroads Robert Johnson took the road of playing secular music. Because Son House was a minister he thought that secular music was the devil's work, and therefore started the rumor that Robert Johsnon sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads.

I have to take biil maher's stance here: what does it say about a religion when ministers are spreading rumors about people?

well in reality i don't think that Son House meant to spread it maliciously, it is very possible that he may have just said something that was taken out of context by followers of his. I have the utmost respect for Son House as he himself is a fixture in pre World War II blues. I am not disagreeing with Bill Mahers stance though.

Dudeism

From the song by BTO "Little Gandy Dancer" To this! God bless your soul Utah. I was doing a web search and came upon this, I had no idea that I was going to be sitting on my ass and laughing so hard that I completely forgot about working. Thank you for sharing this with us!

Thank you so much for putting the whole performance on! Incredible storyteller.