Recording
Cross Road Blues
Robert Johnson
- Released
- 1936
- Label
- Vocalion
- On one list
- Blues
- Updated
- 2026-08-30
Analysis
3 sections, the first drop at 1:07, 42% of the way in.
- Tempo
- 99.4 BPM
- holds throughout
- Dynamic range
- 4.9 dB
- compressed hard — very little between the quiet and the loud
- Length
- 2:38
- measured from the YouTube master
The record, end to end
Click the track to jump · ← → move between sections
- 0:00Aintro0
- 0:34Bpeakbar 14
- 1:02Aoutrobar 26
Drop at 1:07 (bar 28). A drop is a moment, not a stretch — marked on the track above rather than shaded across it.
0:00 · A · intro
opens the record below its own average energy · instrumental · one of 2 stretches of the same music (A)
- Lasts
- 0:34
- Energy
- 0
- Brightness
- 84
- Density
- 100
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
sits at the top of this record's range · sung
- Lasts
- 0:29
- Energy
- 100
- Brightness
- 100
- Density
- 0
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
the closing fall · instrumental · one of 2 stretches of the same music (A)
- Lasts
- 1:36
- Energy
- 15
- Brightness
- 0
- Density
- 7
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
Brightness and density are scored against this record's own sections, not against music in general — they say how its parts differ from each other, and nothing about how it compares to anything else.
- drums
- the drum kit, separated from the mix
- bass
- the bass part, separated from the mix
- vocals
- the voice, separated from the mix
- other
- everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings
Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.
- intro
- opens the record below its own average energy
- peak
- sits at the top of this record's range
- outro
- the closing fall
Measured from the YouTube master on . Section labels describe how the energy of the recording moves, not its musical form — a machine can see loudness climb and jump, it cannot hear a chorus arrive. Anything we were not confident enough to state is left out rather than shown with a caveat.
Ranked No. 1 in Blues
One man, one guitar, and a sense of pursuit that no amount of retelling has managed to domesticate. The myth around Johnson is a distraction from how precise the playing actually is.