Sweet Home Chicago
Encyclopedia
"Sweet Home Chicago" is a popular blues standard
in the twelve bar form
. It was first recorded and is credited to have been written by Robert Johnson
. Over the years the song has become one of the most popular anthems for the city of Chicago
despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics.
The melody was previously used in a number of recorded blues songs, including "Honey Dripper Blues", "Red Cross Blues" and the immediate model for the song: "Kokomo Blues". Some have lyrics of the typical AAB structure e.g.
Others have the AB + refrain structure e.g.
Elijah Wald
suggested that the Indianapolis
-based Scrapper Blackwell
was the first to introduce a reference to the relatively close Kokomo, Indiana
with this AAB verse
More copied was the version recorded a year earlier in 1927 by Madlyn Davis
with the refrain:
In 1932, Jabo Williams
recorded "Ko Ko Mo Blues," with the same refrain and included the counting line
In 1933, James Arnold laid claim to the song, styling himself Kokomo Arnold
and his version as "Old Original Kokomo Blues".
In 1959, Arnold told Jacques Demetre that he had composed "Kokomo Blues". 'The Eleven Light City' was, he claimed, the name of a Chicago drugstore where a girlfriend worked, and 'Koko' their brand name of coffee.
Kokomo was a city of little significance to a Southern audience. Papa Charlie McCoy
changed the reference to the better known Baltimore. Robert Johnson changed the character of the song to one of aspirational migration, replacing back to Kokomo with to Chicago, and replacing that eleven light city with another migrational goal that land of California.
Johnson sang this as a refrain, and also as a first verse. Otherwise, his text retained the structure of Arnold's hit record, with similar counting verses:
His guitar accompaniment did not follow Kokomo Arnold's bravura bottleneck guitar, but rather the boogie
piano accompaniments by Roosevelt Sykes
to the 'Honey Dripper' songs and by Walter Roland
to the 'Red Cross' songs.
Johnson did not live to enjoy national popularity. If he had become a star with a following in Chicago, he might have altered the chorus with its confusing geographical coupling. As it is, he succeeded in evoking an exotic modern place, far from the South, which is an amalgam of famous migration goals for African Americans leaving the South. To later singers this contradictory location held more appeal than obscure Kokomo. Tommy McClennan
's "Baby Don't You Want To Go" (1939) and Walter Davis
's "Don't You Want To Go" (1941) were both based on Johnson's chorus. Later singers used Johnson's chorus and dropped the mathematical verses.
Johnson recorded the song during his first recording session in November 1936, and it was released on Vocalion Records (catalog number 03601). He gives a stirring performance, with a driving guitar rhythm and a high, near-falsetto vocal. It was a limited release race record
, and was not a big-seller. The song's popularity grew only after Johnson's death in 1938.
The lyrics only obliquely refer to Chicago itself, in the song's refrain, where the song narrator pleads for a woman to go with him back to "that land of California
/ my sweet home Chicago". Indeed, California is mentioned in the song more than Chicago, both during this refrain and in one of the stanzas ("I'm goin' to California/ from there to Des Moines, Iowa"). These perplexing lyrics have been a source of controversy for many years. In the 1960s and 1970s, some commentators speculated this was a geographical mistake on Johnson's part. This is clearly untrue, as Johnson was a highly sophisticated songwriter and used geographical references in a number of his songs. One interpretation is that Johnson intended the song to be a metaphor
ical description of an imagined paradise combining elements of the American north and west, far from the racism
and poverty inherent to the Mississippi Delta
of 1936.. Like Chicago, California was a common such destination in many Great Depression
Era songs, books, and movies. A more sophisticated and humorous interpretation (and one more consistent with all of the lyrics) has the narrator pressuring a woman to leave town with him for Chicago, but his blatant geographic ignorance reveals his attempt at deceit. Another explanation suggests that Johnson was conveying a trip across the country, as mentioned in the line, "I'm going to California/from there to Des Moines, Iowa", and that the end destination was Chicago, Illinois, a state sharing borders with Iowa. There is yet another unverified suggestion in Alan Greenberg's Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, that Johnson had a remote relative who lived in Port Chicago, California
, which if true would add ambiguity as to which Chicago the lyrics are referring.
As the song grew to be a homage to Chicago, the original lyrics that refer to California were altered in most cover version
s. The line "Back to the land of California" is changed to "Back to the same old place", and the line "I'm going to California" becomes "I'm going back to Chicago". This altered version dates back to pianist
Roosevelt Sykes
.
California Avenue is a thoroughfare which runs from the far south to the far north side of Chicago. The original road predates Johnson's recording and may have been the subject of the "land of California" references.
The authorship of the song is a matter of some dispute. The musical atmosphere of the blues and folk community of the 1930's lent itself to considerable borrowing of music and lyrics back and forth. Reportedly, songs recorded by bluesmen Scrapper Blackwell
and Kokomo Arnold
bear striking similarity to "Sweet Home Chicago", having been recorded years before. Leroy Carr
]'s "Baby Don't You Love Me No More" (Scrapper Blackwell played guitar and accompanied Leroy Carr who played the piano) shares the rhythmic approach and the feel of the initial two verses.
, the copyright to the song was owned by businessman Stephen LaVere, who in 1973 convinced Johnson's half-sister Carrie Thompson to sign a contract splitting the royalties with LaVere.
The list of artists who have covered the song is immense, including Junior Parker
(who had a #13 R&B chart hit in 1958 with the song), Magic Sam
, Buddy Guy
, Earl Hooker
, Honeyboy Edwards
, Freddie King
, Luther Allison
, Johnny Shines
, Keb' Mo'
with Corey Hart, Foghat
, Status Quo, Johnny Otis
, Fleetwood Mac
, Eric Clapton
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
, The Blues Band
, and The Blues Brothers
, while The Replacements and Los Lobos
each covered it live but never released it. LaVere once remarked "It's like 'When the Saints Go Marching In
' to the blues crowd."
Blues standard
A blues standard is a blues song that is widely known, performed, and recorded by blues artists. The following list identifies blues standards and some of the blues artists that have recorded them...
in the twelve bar form
Twelve bar blues
The 12-bar blues is one of the most popular chord progressions in popular music, including the blues. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics and phrase and chord structure and duration...
. It was first recorded and is credited to have been written by Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given...
. Over the years the song has become one of the most popular anthems for the city of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics.
The melody was previously used in a number of recorded blues songs, including "Honey Dripper Blues", "Red Cross Blues" and the immediate model for the song: "Kokomo Blues". Some have lyrics of the typical AAB structure e.g.
Oh my days are so long, babe, you know my nights are lonesome too
Oh my days are so long, babe, my nights are lonesome too
I can’t find my honey dripper, Lord I don’t know what to do
Others have the AB + refrain structure e.g.
If anybody don’t believe I’ve got a Red Cross man
Go out in my back yard to get my Red Cross can
Oh, baby don’t don’t you want to go
Go with me and my man down to the Red Cross Store
Elijah Wald
Elijah Wald
Indeed, his first book was a collaboration with his biologist mother entitled Exploding the Gene Myth, in which they wrote that "The myth of the all-powerful gene is based on flawed science that discounts the environment in which we and our genes exist." "There are no definitive histories," he...
suggested that the Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
-based Scrapper Blackwell
Scrapper Blackwell
Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell was an American blues guitarist and singer; best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues style, with some critics noting...
was the first to introduce a reference to the relatively close Kokomo, Indiana
Kokomo, Indiana
Kokomo is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States, Indiana's 13th largest city. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard and Tipton counties....
with this AAB verse
Mmmm, baby don't you want to go
Pack up your little suitcase, Papa's going to Kokomo
More copied was the version recorded a year earlier in 1927 by Madlyn Davis
Madlyn Davis
Madlyn Davis was an American classic female blues singer. She was active as a recording artist in the late 1920s, and her best known tracks were "Kokola Blues" and "It's Red Hot"...
with the refrain:
And it’s hey, hey baby, baby don’t you want to go
Back to that eleven light city, back to sweet Kokomo
In 1932, Jabo Williams
Jabo Williams
Jabo Williams was an African American boogie-woogie and blues pianist and songwriter. His total recorded output was a mere eight sides, which included his two best-known "stunningly primitive" offerings, "Pratt City Blues" and Jab's Blues"...
recorded "Ko Ko Mo Blues," with the same refrain and included the counting line
One and two is three, four and five and six
In 1933, James Arnold laid claim to the song, styling himself Kokomo Arnold
Kokomo Arnold
Kokomo Arnold was an American blues musician.Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana...
and his version as "Old Original Kokomo Blues".
Now one and one is two mama, two and two is four
You mess around here pretty mama, you know we got to go
Cryin O, baby don’t you want to go
Back to the eleven light city, to sweet old Kokomo
In 1959, Arnold told Jacques Demetre that he had composed "Kokomo Blues". 'The Eleven Light City' was, he claimed, the name of a Chicago drugstore where a girlfriend worked, and 'Koko' their brand name of coffee.
Kokomo was a city of little significance to a Southern audience. Papa Charlie McCoy
Papa Charlie McCoy
Charles "Papa Charlie" McCoy was an African American delta blues musician and songwriter.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, McCoy was best known by the nickname 'Papa Charlie'. He became one of the major blues accompanists of his time...
changed the reference to the better known Baltimore. Robert Johnson changed the character of the song to one of aspirational migration, replacing back to Kokomo with to Chicago, and replacing that eleven light city with another migrational goal that land of California.
But I'm cryin' hey baby, Honey don't you want to go
Back to the land of California, To my sweet home Chicago
Johnson sang this as a refrain, and also as a first verse. Otherwise, his text retained the structure of Arnold's hit record, with similar counting verses:
Ooh, baby don't you want to go
Ooh, baby don't you want to go
Back to the land of California, To my sweet home Chicago
Now one and one is two mama, two and two is four
I'm heavy loaded baby, I'm booked I've got to go
Refrain
Now two and two is four, four and two is six
You gonna keep on monkeying around with your friend, boy, you gonna get your minutes all in a trick
Refrain
Now six and two is eight, eight and two is ten
When your wife she trick you one time, she sure gonna do it again
Refrain
I'm going to California, from there to Des Moines, Iowa
Somebody will tell me, that you need my help some day
Refrain
His guitar accompaniment did not follow Kokomo Arnold's bravura bottleneck guitar, but rather the boogie
Boogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie music. The characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie was then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. The earliest recorded...
piano accompaniments by Roosevelt Sykes
Roosevelt Sykes
Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.-Career:Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on...
to the 'Honey Dripper' songs and by Walter Roland
Walter Roland
Walter Roland was an American blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist, guitarist and singer, noted for his association with Lucille Bogan, Josh White and Sonny Scott. Music journalist, Gérard Herzhaft, stated that Roland was "a great piano player.....
to the 'Red Cross' songs.
Johnson did not live to enjoy national popularity. If he had become a star with a following in Chicago, he might have altered the chorus with its confusing geographical coupling. As it is, he succeeded in evoking an exotic modern place, far from the South, which is an amalgam of famous migration goals for African Americans leaving the South. To later singers this contradictory location held more appeal than obscure Kokomo. Tommy McClennan
Tommy McClennan
Tommy McClennan was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist.-Life and career:McClennan was born on a farm near Yazoo City, Mississippi, United States, and grew up in the town...
's "Baby Don't You Want To Go" (1939) and Walter Davis
Walter Davis (blues)
Walter Davis was an African American blues singer and pianist.Davis had a rich singing voice that was as expressive as the best of the Delta blues vocalists...
's "Don't You Want To Go" (1941) were both based on Johnson's chorus. Later singers used Johnson's chorus and dropped the mathematical verses.
Johnson recorded the song during his first recording session in November 1936, and it was released on Vocalion Records (catalog number 03601). He gives a stirring performance, with a driving guitar rhythm and a high, near-falsetto vocal. It was a limited release race record
Race record
Race records were 78 rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans during the early 20th century, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. They primarily contained race music, comprising a variety of African American musical genres including blues, jazz, and gospel music, though comedy...
, and was not a big-seller. The song's popularity grew only after Johnson's death in 1938.
The lyrics only obliquely refer to Chicago itself, in the song's refrain, where the song narrator pleads for a woman to go with him back to "that land of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
/ my sweet home Chicago". Indeed, California is mentioned in the song more than Chicago, both during this refrain and in one of the stanzas ("I'm goin' to California/ from there to Des Moines, Iowa"). These perplexing lyrics have been a source of controversy for many years. In the 1960s and 1970s, some commentators speculated this was a geographical mistake on Johnson's part. This is clearly untrue, as Johnson was a highly sophisticated songwriter and used geographical references in a number of his songs. One interpretation is that Johnson intended the song to be a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ical description of an imagined paradise combining elements of the American north and west, far from the racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and poverty inherent to the Mississippi Delta
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...
of 1936.. Like Chicago, California was a common such destination in many Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
Era songs, books, and movies. A more sophisticated and humorous interpretation (and one more consistent with all of the lyrics) has the narrator pressuring a woman to leave town with him for Chicago, but his blatant geographic ignorance reveals his attempt at deceit. Another explanation suggests that Johnson was conveying a trip across the country, as mentioned in the line, "I'm going to California/from there to Des Moines, Iowa", and that the end destination was Chicago, Illinois, a state sharing borders with Iowa. There is yet another unverified suggestion in Alan Greenberg's Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, that Johnson had a remote relative who lived in Port Chicago, California
Port Chicago, California
Port Chicago was a town on the southern banks of Suisun Bay, in Contra Costa County, California. It was located east-northeast of Martinez, at an elevation of 13 feet...
, which if true would add ambiguity as to which Chicago the lyrics are referring.
As the song grew to be a homage to Chicago, the original lyrics that refer to California were altered in most cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s. The line "Back to the land of California" is changed to "Back to the same old place", and the line "I'm going to California" becomes "I'm going back to Chicago". This altered version dates back to pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Roosevelt Sykes
Roosevelt Sykes
Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.-Career:Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on...
.
California Avenue is a thoroughfare which runs from the far south to the far north side of Chicago. The original road predates Johnson's recording and may have been the subject of the "land of California" references.
The authorship of the song is a matter of some dispute. The musical atmosphere of the blues and folk community of the 1930's lent itself to considerable borrowing of music and lyrics back and forth. Reportedly, songs recorded by bluesmen Scrapper Blackwell
Scrapper Blackwell
Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell was an American blues guitarist and singer; best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues style, with some critics noting...
and Kokomo Arnold
Kokomo Arnold
Kokomo Arnold was an American blues musician.Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana...
bear striking similarity to "Sweet Home Chicago", having been recorded years before. Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. He first became famous for "How Long, How Long Blues" on Vocalion Records in 1928.-Life and...
]'s "Baby Don't You Love Me No More" (Scrapper Blackwell played guitar and accompanied Leroy Carr who played the piano) shares the rhythmic approach and the feel of the initial two verses.
, the copyright to the song was owned by businessman Stephen LaVere, who in 1973 convinced Johnson's half-sister Carrie Thompson to sign a contract splitting the royalties with LaVere.
The list of artists who have covered the song is immense, including Junior Parker
Junior Parker
Junior Parker was an American Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth"...
(who had a #13 R&B chart hit in 1958 with the song), Magic Sam
Magic Sam
Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett was an American Chicago blues musician. Maghett was born in Grenada, Mississippi, United States, and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter...
, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, Earl Hooker
Earl Hooker
Earl Hooker was an American Chicago blues guitarist, perhaps best known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", Hooker performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker as well as fronting his own bands...
, Honeyboy Edwards
David Honeyboy Edwards
David "Honeyboy" Edwards was a Delta blues guitarist and singer from the American South. Edwards was the last Delta bluesman before his 2011 death.-Life and career:Edwards was born in Shaw, Mississippi...
, Freddie King
Freddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
, Luther Allison
Luther Allison
Luther Allison was an American blues guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas and moved with his family, at age twelve, to Chicago in 1951. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being...
, Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, "Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth...
, Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo is an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.-Early life:From early on he had an appreciation for the blues and gospel music...
with Corey Hart, Foghat
Foghat
Foghat are a British rock band that had their peak success in the mid- to late-1970s. Their style can be described as "blues-rock," or boogie-rock dominated by electric and electric slide guitar. The band has achieved five gold records...
, Status Quo, Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
, Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
, The Blues Band
The Blues Band
The Blues Band is a British blues band formed in 1979 by Paul Jones, former lead vocalist and harmonica player with Manfred Mann, and vocalist/slide guitarist Dave Kelly, who had previously played with the John Dummer Blues Band, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker...
, and The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
, while The Replacements and Los Lobos
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
each covered it live but never released it. LaVere once remarked "It's like 'When the Saints Go Marching In
When the Saints Go Marching In
"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a spiritual, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band...
' to the blues crowd."