"Crossroads"
'The Black Rider', 1993
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Today, we hit our final song of the C’s! After 25 C songs without missing a week, I’m gonna take a short break. I think that’ll be a thing going forward, a pause for a month or so to regroup after each letter. Well, maybe not after “U” or something. Only four songs there, and that’s counting two “Untitled”s. But after any letter than takes us a while. We’ve been in the C’s since December!
It’d be nice to wrap with one of the big “C” songs, a “Chocolate Jesus” or a “Christmas Card from a Hooker.” Alas, that’s not the way the alphabet shakes out. Our grand “C” finale is “Crossroads,” a song that, though I like The Black Rider album, I didn’t even remember existed.
Perhaps that’s because this song seems really tied to the Black Rider play. To the point that the lyrics about magic bullets don’t make any sense if you don’t know the plot. Compare to some other Black Rider songs we’ve seen – the title track, “The Briar and the Rose” – whose lyrics clearly connect to the plot, but work just as well if you’re coming in cold.
What might differentiate those songs from “Crossroads”? Easy answer: Tom Waits actually wrote those other lyrics!
The words to “Crossroads” are credited entirely to the play’s co-writer William Burroughs (Waits did the music). Which makes sense when you listen to it, because the lyrics read more as a poem than a song. Even though they’re accompanied by music, Tom mostly recited them. I’m not sure how you would sing a “verse” like:
George Schmid was moving in a series of convulsive spasms
Like someone in an epileptic fit
With his face contorted and his eyes wild like a lassoed horse
bracing his legs, but something kept pulling him on
Now he is picking up the skulls and making the circle
And who is George Schmid, the protagonist of the song? Tom Waits Library explains:
George Schmid: Character from the "Black Rider "play (Thalia cast: Klaus Schreiber). Schmid appears in a story told by the old forester to main character Wilhelm. Schmid tried to mold magic bullets that hit everything. But as he is seized with fear, he gets into the devil's power and dies. "A man figures it's his bullets, so it will hit what he wants to hit. But it don't always work that way"
The site further adds that, in the play, “Crossroads” soundtracks a flashback telling Schmid’s origin story. And includes these two photos of the song being performed on stage, which depict, I assume, Schmidt standing on the titular crossroads.
At the end of the song, after he gets through all the lyrics-slash-narration, Tom begins to wordlessly moan. He’s found a way to “sing” even when given words that don’t scan as music. Those closing seconds are the best part of the song.
Ranking "C" Songs
If you’ve been around a while, you know that when I finish with a letter, I rank all the songs that began with it. So here’s my ranking of all 25 “C” songs, from best to worst-but-still-pretty good:
Crossroads
P.S. My new book!
One reason now is a good time for a short pause is that…I’m about to publish my third book! It’s called Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members and features my original interviews with over 40 musicians who’ve played with Dylan, from the ‘60s through more recently. Some names you’ll know and more names you won’t who share incredible, often never-told-before stories about their time with Dylan. It arose out of my other newsletter.
I can’t claim there’s a ton of Tom Waits content in it, but a few of the artists I spoke with have worked with Tom too: Duke Robillard, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Fred Tackett. Jeff Bridges in a non-musical capacity. Plus Dylan and Waits share obvious similarities as two reclusive oddballs who have written some of the best songs of the last 100 years. I’d love to read this sort of book about working with Tom.
It’s officially out June 27 but—shhh—you can already order hardcovers from the printer and paperbacks from Amazon. Ebooks as well as physical-copies availability from other places coming on the 27th. This shortlink will have everything as it gets added.
