The Blues a brief History of the Blues by Robert M. Baker
Seduction and Sincerity in "Come On In My Kitchen"
Download 449.68 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Leaving in "Love in Vain"
Seduction and Sincerity in"Come On In My Kitchen"by: Nikki BarnettRobert Johnson's practice of recording two takes of his songs seems to reflect a change in attitude and/or temperament with regards to his feelings associated with the original version. This seems particularly true of Come on in My Kitchen. Johnson not only changed various musical elements of the song, but he made major lyrical changes as well. The subtle change of pronouns, the rearranging of verses, as well as the complete omission of verses, changes the implied meaning of the song from one of a possible seduction to one that seems to be a sincere representation of his feelings. In the first take of Come on in My Kitchen, Johnson begins by telling how he stole his woman from his best friend, only to have her stolen from him. This immediately sets a disparaging, whiny tone to the song. Seems to be about how now he has no one to care for him (i.e. give him lovin'). The song's intention is to find someone to take the place of the woman who has gone. In the second take, however, Johnson waits several stanzas before divulging how he happened upon his woman. Instead, he begins with "When a woman gets in trouble everybody throws her down." It seems to be more important to him that the listener know that she is gone and that he is actually worried about what might happen to her. The line "I've taken the last nickel out of her nation sack," has been omitted from take 2 of Come on in my Kitchen. It's omission serves to support the sincerity of the second take. The line seems to imply not that he has emptied her sack of nickels, but that he has gotten the last nickel from her that he ever will because she is gone and won't give him any more money -- that she will no longer care for him. In the second take, Johnson sings instead, of going to the mountain to look for her. He doesn't want just anyone to care for him, he wants her. When he sees that she is with another man, he sings, Lonesome blues got me." He apparently has feelings for her. In the first take, Johnson sings the refrain, "You better come on in my kitchen." The use of the word "you" implies that he is speaking to someone. This is not the woman who has left him because he know[s] she won't come back." He is attempting to seduce a new woman to come into his kitchen, to care for him. But in the second take to Come on in My Kitchen, Johnson seems to be singing in vain about the woman who has left him. Here, he changes the wording from "you better" to "she better." This change in turn, changes the entire context of the song. In the first version, Johnson wants this new woman to take pity on him, sympathize with his plight, come on in to the kitchen, fix him some food, maybe give him some lovin'. He uses the woman in trouble line to coax her into believing that no one will help her should she get in trouble and therefore she is better off with Johnson. Johnson's intention seems clear at the end of each version. Take 1 ends with Johnson still giving reasons why she (the new woman he is trying to coax into his kitchen) should come in. He mentions the harsh winter as a reason for seeking solace with Johnson. However, in take 2, Johnson ends speaking of his deceased mother and absent father in He to having someone to love him. By ending the song this way, he lends credibility to his plea for her to come back to him, not because of sex or support, but because of love. The two versions of the song seem to be in incorrect order. Take 1 seems to have been the actual sincere feelings Johnson had after his woman left him. While take 2 is the less sincere story used as a pick-up line to get a woman well after the original scar has healed. Leaving in "Love in Vain"by: Courtney DanforthIn "Love in Vain" Johnson reacts uncommonly to the end of his affair with Willie Mae. The difference in Johnson's response to Willie Mae's leaving, in contrast to women such as the one in "Rambling on my Mind," and the one in "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day" indicates a difference, some better quality, in his total relationship with her. He makes no action to move on, he is nonviolent, he expresses hopelessness and lack of control, and he lays no blame. At the end of this song, there is no vow to move on, to ramble, to get on with it, which is uncharacteristic for Johnson's pursued nature. When things have gone sour in his other relationships, Johnson has been "runnin' down to the station" ("Rambling On My Mind"), "feelin' 'round for my shoes" ("Walking Blues"), "slowly walked away" ("If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day"), and "I'm 'on' bid you fare...farewell" ("From Four 'till Late"), but in "Love in Vain" there is no mention whatsoever of him going away. Yes, it may not be really necessary, seeing as how she is leaving town, but even when he starts to leave in other songs, sometimes his woman has left first, such as in "Walking Blues." His instinct to leave is tied not to his desire to get away from a woman, but rather from a pressing inner pursuit, arising in part in response to disappointment at the end of the relationship. The last verse of this song leaves Johnson, not leaving, but dwelling on the name of his lost love-a backward glance and not forward progression. In other songs Johnson has had a threatening reaction to his woman's betrayal such as, "I got mean things all on my mind" in "Rambling on my Mind', "Take my 32-30, now, and out her half in two" in "32-30 Blues", and "I said in my mind, 'Yo trouble gon' come some day'" in "If I had Possession Over Judgment Day" (leaving him is one kind of betrayal), but there is no single violent element in "Love in Vain." There is an element in the second verse which could potentially be violent, but which, either was never meant to be violent, or is restrained: Johnson looks Willie Mae in the eye, which can be a gesture of confrontation, and sometimes an indication of true passion ("looking deep into her eyes..."). In this case, it is some of each scenario. Johnson seeks to confirm something he already knows very well, she is really leaving, and is intimate enough with her to seek this information within her eyes, windows to the soul. Their intimacy greatly reduces the impact of the confrontation. Johnson cries when Willie Mae goes away. This also happens in "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day" and "Rambling On My Mind," but in that last instance he is crying and leaving. On a more comparable note, he cries and wrings his hands in "When You Got A Good Friend." The oft used, ornamental phrase is significantly less moving than the innocence of uncomplicated crying in "Love In Vain." His reaction in this piece is childlike in its purity and its strength beyond his control. He cannot tell himself what to do; he cries and cannot help it. Johnson assigns at least part of the blame for breaking up on the woman in many, if not most, of his songs. In "Kindhearted Woman Blues" he is "worried 'bout how you treat me;" In "Rambling On My Mind" he says she "treats me so unkind;" in "Phonograph Blues" Beatrice has "taken my lovin' and given it to your other man;" and in "From Four 'till Late" "she get with a no-good bunch and clown." "Love in Vain" presents no such situation. Johnson does not even blame himself. Willie Mae's leaving seems to be more something that just happens, which they both accept, rather than a failure on anyone's part, thus the reaction Johnson has can be pure grief at the turn of events; he needn't strike out or register his discontent with the source of the trouble. If the cause of this situation is not the human components, then it should be something like fate or God, but that is not entirely accurate either. Johnson has no qualms about letting people know when he doesn't like what God, or whomever (or whatever) is doing to him. There is none of that here. He does not blame himself, Willie Mae, or other powers that be. The entire circumstance is "in vain," beyond him, branded by futility or ineffectualness of wish. From Johnson's reaction to the departure of Willie Mae, expressed in negatives: he makes no move to move on, he is nonviolent, hopelessness, lack of control, laying no blame, may seem to indicate his detachment from the situation. Rather, it registers a pain beyond human cause and strength. His atypical reaction draws attention to the catalyst, also atypical. Johnson's relationship with Willie Mae is something apart from the others, and apart from himself.
Directory: file -> fetch fetch -> 11 th Lit Semester 1 Final Study Guide!!! fetch -> Industrial Revolution Inventors fetch -> Analysis for Galveston Hurricane of 1900 fetch -> The Illuminators (Team 2) 1900 Galveston Hurricane Cycle a team Assignment fetch -> Team csi-utb ruth Reyes Jose Ferrer fetch -> Galveston Hurricane of 1900 Cycle a-teacher as a Problem Solver fetch -> Is Climate Change Starting a New Dust Bowl? Cycle A fetch -> What makes a storm a hurricane fetch -> The 1950s were the "Happy Days" because it was a time of economic prosperity, technology development, new entertainment, new fashion and family growth. The 1950s was a great time fetch -> Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age Download 449.68 Kb. Share with your friends:
|