At the Crossroads…

Crossroads: In search of moments that changed music

by Mark Radcliffe (2019 Cannongate Books)

The Crossroads: where Robert Johnson bargained his soul for the Devil’s music; where Tony Iommi guillotined his fingers and was inspired by the gypsy jazz guitar legend Django Reinhardt; where Kurt Cobain’s girlfriend’s deodorant inspire the grunge anthem of the 1990s. Rock and pop are strange ephemera yet can mark us for life. Radcliffe takes us on a tour through an eclectic landscape of creativity. He points out the places and moments where new musical genres were invented, where unforgettable characters emerged. This is his readable and enjoyable walk through many stand-out moments in pop music history.

The book is a memoir, a view from the wings, an insight into the music industry icons that he mat and interviewed, a peek behind the main story and an appreciation of the innovators. On occasion it is a road trip too, for example as he and his mates search for Johnson’s fabled “Crossroads” and finds as many claims to it as the pieces of the True Cross. But the book is also a celebration of music and his life in it, as drummer, DJ and broadcaster. It was written at a time when he was in remission from cancer and there is an exuberance and lightness to it that feels natural and unpretentious. Crossroads is shaped by his lifetime of musical memories.

I have to confess I came to this book reluctantly, but was persuaded by Linda reading me highlights that made her chuckle. My hesitation was because I found Mark Radcliffe’s bumbling delivery on BBC Radio 2’s Folk Show profoundly irritating, but I was delighted to find that his writing is not. When he does appear in the stories it is always in a typically English self-deprecating light. The chapters are short and packed with stories and surprising connections.

Amazing then that a concept album about mental illness made by four blokes seemingly devoid of charisma could become one of the biggest-selling and most enduring albums in recording history

(Radcliffe on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, p.221)

Personally speaking (and listening)

We are each naturally drawn to the sound worlds that carry meaning for ourselves. From Crossroads that for me will include Hendrix at Woodstock, shredding the flag with his screaming feedback; 576 voices meticulously taped, one-by-one, to construct 10 c.c.’s “I’m Not In Love” (was it ever “just a silly phase I’m going through”?); the breath-taking wistful yearning of Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?“. But other chapters, just as arresting, capture the raw energy of the Ramones or the sunshine of calypso, ska and reggae ushered in by the Empire Windrush.

So I learned a lot and enjoyed the different perspectives on things I was already familiar with. I was reminded of some music that was a soundtrack to my own life, and was prompted to search out some other less familiar sounds.

Elsewhere on the shelves…

• See also Fabulous Creations – Vanishing Worlds – Welcome (grandpops-bookshelf.co.uk) on David Hepworth’s love letter to the LP.
• When Words Fail by Ed Vulliamy: a moving collection of extraordinary gigs by war reporter and music critic (with illustrations by his Mum, the late great Shirley Hughes).
• The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross: this is a wonderful history of modern classical music.
• Does anyone remember Sounds Interesting on BBC Radio 3? It was presented by Derek Jewell (jazz and popular music critic of The Sunday Times) who together with John Peel shaped my listening habits in the 1970s and beyond. See The Radio 3 Timeline – BBC 100 (Derek Jewell interviewing Rick Wakeman)

Credits

• Image of The Crossroads at Clarkedale MS: By Joe Mazzola – ClarksdaleMS Crossroads – Robert Johnson – Wikipedia
• Image of Woody Guthrie: By Al Aumuller/New York World-Telegram and the Sun – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c30859. (Copyright status unclear) Woody Guthrie 2 – Woody Guthrie – Wikipedia