Come On in My Kitchen
Encyclopedia
"Come On in My Kitchen" is a blues
song
by Robert Johnson. Johnson recorded the song on Monday, November 23rd, 1936 at the Gunter Hotel
in San Antonio, Texas
- his first recording session. The melody is based on the song cycle by the string band the Mississippi Sheiks
, "Sitting on Top of the World
" (1930)/Things About Coming My Way (1931)/I'll Be Gone, Long Gone (1932)/Hitting The Numbers (1934). Johnson's arrangement on slide guitar (in open tuning, commonly thought to be open G) is based on Tampa Red
's recording of the same tune with the title "Things 'Bout Coming My Way". Tampa Red had recorded an instrumental version in 1936, and the song had been recorded earlier by him in 1931, and by Kokomo Arnold
in 1935 (Tampa Red may in fact have been the first to use the melody with his song song You Got To Reap What You Sow (1929)).
Johnson's recording was released on the Vocalion label (no. 03563) as a "race record
" - cheap records for the black consumer market. The song was among those compiled on the King of the Delta Blues Singers
LP in the 1960s. (A slower alternate take was also later found and released on CD collections; this version also has ten extra lines of lyrics.)
s of the song recorded, but unlike some of Johnson's other songs - such as "Dust My Broom
" and "Sweet Home Chicago
" - the song never entered the standard repertoire of black blues singers after his death. This is perhaps because the song did not fit the common 12 bar blues structure of most popular blues, and also possibly because it was not a big seller when originally released on 78
. But upon its re-release in the 1960s it became a favorite cover for white (and often British
) blues and rock musicians who were influenced by the Johnson LP collection – notably Johnny Winter
, Eric Clapton
, Peter Green
, Patti Smith
and Rory Block
; ex-Beatle
George Harrison
performed a version at The Concert for Bangladesh
. On the Crosby, Stills & Nash album Crosby, Stills & Nash, the title riff can be heard faintly in the background just before the song "49 Reasons". Delaney and Bonnie recorded an acoustic live version of it (feat. Duane Allman
on slide guitar) in 1971. In more recent years black blues players including Keb' Mo'
and Chris Thomas King
have performed and recorded versions. Crooked Still
, an alternative bluegrass band recorded it in 2006 for their album Shaken By a Low Sound.
The song features several usages of slang
that have inspired scholarly analysis.
A nation sack is an occult "hoodoo" object. Robert Johnson would have likely learned of the nation sack during his youth, much of which was spent in the Memphis area. In his later years he made his home base (between his frequent road trips) in nearby Helena, Arkansas, a town that was a center for blues musicians.
When Johnson has "taken the last nickel out of her nation sack" he has "violated two (or even three) taboos ... he touched her nation sack, he stole her money...". He has broken the power of the love spell. Further, the folklorist H.M. Hyatt documents that in one nation sack spell "(nine silver dimes in a nation sack with lodestone for protection and trade) -- the money itself was part of the magical charm, which he thereby destroyed."
So Johnson's trespass into the nation sack, whose magical power was believed to bind him to his woman friend, has ironically broken the spell and sent away the woman he is yearning for.
In another verse Johnson also expresses appreciation for the troubles women can face -- amongst others, in terms of loss of reputation. He tells how a woman "in trouble" is outcast and deserted, friendless. And it seems he is offering shelter and comfort from these hardships.
Dry long so is slang
for dullness or fate. Johnson is telling the woman to just accept winter will be too hard to get through alone, so she'd be wiser to see it through in the warmth of his kitchen.
The difficulties of love are referred to throughout the story; infidelity, loss, betrayal. Overall the lyrics conjure up a vision of painful conflict in a relationship. The woman has gone off with another man; but maybe things didn't work out and Johnson is saying "don't spend the winter alone, come back with me." Or perhaps this is wishful pleading on Johnson's part. Another interpretation is that he has lost one woman, and now he is offering love and shelter to another woman who has got "in trouble" and is an outcast, possibly pregnant. As in many of Johnson's songs, the lyrics tend to evoke an intense emotional experience rather than simply convey precise facts. The explicit relations of the song's characters are never quite defined, nor is it explained how the situation came to be. Typical of the Delta blues in particular, it is the intense immediacy of feeling that is primarily expressed by the singer/narrator.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
by Robert Johnson. Johnson recorded the song on Monday, November 23rd, 1936 at the Gunter Hotel
Gunter Hotel
The Gunter Hotel is a historic hotel in downtown San Antonio, Texas built in 1909 and designed by St. Louis architect John Mauran.Now the Sheraton Gunter, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.-In popular culture:...
in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
- his first recording session. The melody is based on the song cycle by the string band the Mississippi Sheiks
Mississippi Sheiks
The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues, but were adept at many styles of United States popular music of the time, and their records were bought by both black and white audiences.In 2004, they...
, "Sitting on Top of the World
Sitting on Top of the World
"Sitting on Top of the World" is a folk-blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon, core members of the Mississippi Sheiks, a popular country blues band of the 1930s...
" (1930)/Things About Coming My Way (1931)/I'll Be Gone, Long Gone (1932)/Hitting The Numbers (1934). Johnson's arrangement on slide guitar (in open tuning, commonly thought to be open G) is based on Tampa Red
Tampa Red
Tampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician....
's recording of the same tune with the title "Things 'Bout Coming My Way". Tampa Red had recorded an instrumental version in 1936, and the song had been recorded earlier by him in 1931, and by 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...
in 1935 (Tampa Red may in fact have been the first to use the melody with his song song You Got To Reap What You Sow (1929)).
Johnson's recording was released on the Vocalion label (no. 03563) as a "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...
" - cheap records for the black consumer market. The song was among those compiled on the King of the Delta Blues Singers
King of the Delta Blues Singers
King of the Delta Blues Singers is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 on Columbia Records. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential blues releases ever...
LP in the 1960s. (A slower alternate take was also later found and released on CD collections; this version also has ten extra lines of lyrics.)
Song
There have been many cover versionCover 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 of the song recorded, but unlike some of Johnson's other songs - such as "Dust My Broom
Dust My Broom
"Dust My Broom" is a blues standard originally recorded as "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"by Robert Johnson, the Mississippi Delta blues singer and guitarist, on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas. The song was originally released on 78 rpm format as Vocalion 03475, ARC 7-04-81 and Conqueror 8871...
" and "Sweet Home Chicago
Sweet Home Chicago
"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...
" - the song never entered the standard repertoire of black blues singers after his death. This is perhaps because the song did not fit the common 12 bar blues structure of most popular blues, and also possibly because it was not a big seller when originally released on 78
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
. But upon its re-release in the 1960s it became a favorite cover for white (and often British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
) blues and rock musicians who were influenced by the Johnson LP collection – notably Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
, 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...
, Peter Green
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
and Rory Block
Rory Block
-Festival appearances:*Long Beach Blues Festival - 1993*San Francisco Blues Festival - 1999*Notodden Blues Festival - 2006-See also:*List of blues musicians*List of contemporary blues musicians*List of Austin City Limits performers-External links:****...
; ex-Beatle
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
performed a version at The Concert for Bangladesh
The Concert for Bangladesh
The Concert for Bangladesh was the name for two benefit concerts organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7 PM on August 1, 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City...
. On the Crosby, Stills & Nash album Crosby, Stills & Nash, the title riff can be heard faintly in the background just before the song "49 Reasons". Delaney and Bonnie recorded an acoustic live version of it (feat. Duane Allman
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...
on slide guitar) in 1971. In more recent years black blues players including 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...
and Chris Thomas King
Chris Thomas King
Chris Thomas King is an American New Orleans, Louisiana-based blues musician and actor.-History:King was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. He is the son of blues musician Tabby Thomas. He has won awards including "Album of the Year" for both Grammy Award and Country Music Awards. King...
have performed and recorded versions. Crooked Still
Crooked Still
Crooked Still is an alternative bluegrass band consisting of vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, banjo player Dr. Gregory Liszt, bassist Corey DiMario, cellist Tristan Clarridge and fiddler Brittany Haas...
, an alternative bluegrass band recorded it in 2006 for their album Shaken By a Low Sound.
The song features several usages of slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
that have inspired scholarly analysis.
Oh-ah, she's gone
I know she won't come back
I've taken the last nickel
out of her nation sack
A nation sack is an occult "hoodoo" object. Robert Johnson would have likely learned of the nation sack during his youth, much of which was spent in the Memphis area. In his later years he made his home base (between his frequent road trips) in nearby Helena, Arkansas, a town that was a center for blues musicians.
When Johnson has "taken the last nickel out of her nation sack" he has "violated two (or even three) taboos ... he touched her nation sack, he stole her money...". He has broken the power of the love spell. Further, the folklorist H.M. Hyatt documents that in one nation sack spell "(nine silver dimes in a nation sack with lodestone for protection and trade) -- the money itself was part of the magical charm, which he thereby destroyed."
So Johnson's trespass into the nation sack, whose magical power was believed to bind him to his woman friend, has ironically broken the spell and sent away the woman he is yearning for.
In another verse Johnson also expresses appreciation for the troubles women can face -- amongst others, in terms of loss of reputation. He tells how a woman "in trouble" is outcast and deserted, friendless. And it seems he is offering shelter and comfort from these hardships.
You better come on
in my kitchen
baby, it's goin' to be rainin'
outdoors
Winter time's comin'
hit's gon' be slow
You can't make the winter, babe
that's dry long so
Dry long so is slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
for dullness or fate. Johnson is telling the woman to just accept winter will be too hard to get through alone, so she'd be wiser to see it through in the warmth of his kitchen.
The difficulties of love are referred to throughout the story; infidelity, loss, betrayal. Overall the lyrics conjure up a vision of painful conflict in a relationship. The woman has gone off with another man; but maybe things didn't work out and Johnson is saying "don't spend the winter alone, come back with me." Or perhaps this is wishful pleading on Johnson's part. Another interpretation is that he has lost one woman, and now he is offering love and shelter to another woman who has got "in trouble" and is an outcast, possibly pregnant. As in many of Johnson's songs, the lyrics tend to evoke an intense emotional experience rather than simply convey precise facts. The explicit relations of the song's characters are never quite defined, nor is it explained how the situation came to be. Typical of the Delta blues in particular, it is the intense immediacy of feeling that is primarily expressed by the singer/narrator.