This is an old Robert Johnson song that I’ve always liked. I learned about this song from a bootleg of Leon Russell, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton many years ago. Eric wasn’t in the best of shape when this was recorded during the Bangladesh rehearsals. George takes the solo in this blues song and makes it fit really well. I added this version along with Johnson at the bottom of the post.
Robert Johnson recorded it on November 23, 1936, at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas and it was produced by Don Law. Johnson only recorded 29 songs in total with 13 surviving outtakes. In one hotel room, Johnson performed and in a second adjoining room, the recording equipment was housed.
In 1990 the compilation album The Complete Recordings was released and peaked at #80 in the Billboard Album Charts. It also won a Grammy Award in 1991 for “Best Historical Album. This song has had over 100 known cover versions by other artists.
Robert Johnson was a huge influence on guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Page, Peter Green, Brian Jones, and many more. He sounded different than his peers at the time which could have contributed to him not being better known in the 1930s. His style was ahead of his time and it took til the 1960s for him to catch on. In 1961, King of the Delta Blues Singers was released with 16 of his songs on the album…a generation of musicians was influenced.
Johnson died in 1938 at the age of 27. Some say Johnson had been flirting with a married woman at a dance, and she gave him a bottle of whiskey poisoned by her husband…he died two days after drinking it. That is not known for sure but we will probably never know.
Eric Clapton – His music is like my oldest friend, always in the back of my head and on the horizon. It’s the finest music I’ve ever heard. I’ve always trusted its purity. And I always will.’ I don’t know what more you could say….”
Bob Dylan: If I hadn’t heard the Robert Johnson record when I did, there probably would have been hundreds of lines of mine that would have been shut down—that I wouldn’t have felt free enough or upraised enough to write.
Come On In My Kitchen
You better come on in my kitchenWell, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoorsAh, the woman I love, took from my best friendSome joker got lucky, stole her back againYou better come on in my kitchenIt’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors
Oh, she’s gone, I know she won’t come backI’ve taken the last nickel out of her nation sackYou better come on in my kitchenIt’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoorsOh, can’t you hear that wind howl?Oh, can’t you hear that wind would howl?You better come on in my kitchenWell, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors
When a woman gets in trouble, everybody throws her down
Lookin’ for her good friend, none can be foundYou better come on in my kitchen
Babe, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoorsWintertime’s comin’, it’s gon’ be slowYou can’t make the winter, babe, that’s dry, long, soYou better come on in my kitchen, ’cause it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors
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George sounds great in that one! Leon too!
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I can instantly hear his influence Clapton and the others.
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Robert Johnson really is pure blues. If you think about it, only 29 songs were recorded over a 7-month span, yet this delta blues man became a larger than life influence to so many guitarists like Clapton, Page and let’s not forget Keith Richards. Without Robert Johnson, we wouldn’t have had Cream’s “Crossroads” or the blues classic “Sweet Home Chicago”, which has been performed by countless other artists.
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I know….it’s too bad we dont’ know more about him and that he didn’t live a long time. He had a legend built around him.
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This is my first time hearing this tune and although I do like the Harrison and Russel cover, there is something about Johnson’s voice and that humming which makes his song better.
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Yea he had his own unique sound…he probably influenced more young British guitarists of the early sixties more than anyone but Chuck Berry.
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Both good tunes. Listening to Johnson’s guitar is like sipping good whisky.
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It is and George…I’m both surprised and proud of George…the blues were not his influence at all yet he jumped right in and did a great job.
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One one of the Duane Allman anthologies, Delaney & Bonnie did this with Duane on slide.
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That makes sense since Leon Russell played with them also.
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Max, as I’ve noted about Robert before I do hope more and more folks find his work, and learn about his brief but very impressive musical life.
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I do hope so…the covers are always more popular becuase of the style but it does send people looking when someone covers one of his songs.
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This is the best of the best. The original sound of Johnson is unreplaceable.
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I wouldn’t even dare cover it
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Yea I know what you mean but…the covers have drawn people to him which is cool. Crossroads I first heard from Cream.
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You make a great point about its access and popularity. I would just leave that stuff be. I’m not going to watch someone rip his stuff off. I don’t care who it is. This is folklore. I’m being an ass haha
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And speaking of what a hypocrite I am, I just wrote an article of Dylan doing an Australian folkloric song. Dylan made front page today on BBC for forging signatures. But that’s another story.
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Yea I never heard of a “signing machine” before.
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Not as bad as a “singing machine”, or autotune.
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LOL…. Covers can be tricky…It’s tricky because if you change them too much it doesn’t sound right and if you don’t change them…what’s the point?
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First I heard this cut was by Steve Miller back in the Joker days.
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I could see him doing this…especially early on.
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