I was just listening to Robert Peeples' 'Wicked Devil Blues' where he ends with ".. if the Devil gave me the power, I'd turn my baby into stone."
It seems that there are two tiers of songs that mention the Devil - the metaphorical "Devil Sent The Rain" (Patton), or even "Me and the Devil" (Johnson) where bad events or behaviour are explained by the Devil's outside influence. And then other songs demonstrate a whole other attitude such as Peeples' "I'm gonna pray to the devil ...", Johnson's "If I had possession over judgement day", (Peetie Wheatstraw's "I'm the high Sherriff of Hell!" seems like it would fall in this category though i haven't heard much by him, and don't know where the line comes from).
"I am The Devil" by The Mississippi Sheiks is more playful than dark, so i have that in the first category
So i got to wondering about examples of 'blasphemy' in the blues. Got any insight? Favourite examples?
