Ramblin' on My Mind

"Ramblin' on My Mind" is a blues song recorded on November 23, 1936, by Delta blues musician Robert Johnson. He recorded two takes of the song, which were used for different pressings of the 78 rpm records issued by both the Vocalion and ARC record companies.[1]

This article is about the song by Robert Johnson. For the album by Lucinda Williams, see Ramblin' on My Mind (Lucinda Williams album).
"Ramblin' on My Mind"
Single by Robert Johnson
ReleasedMay 1937 (1937-05)
RecordedNovember 23, 1936
StudioGunter Hotel, San Antonio, Texas
GenreBlues
Length2:51
LabelVocalion, ARC
Songwriter(s)Robert Johnson
Producer(s)Don Law

The song used the melody made popular by Walter Davis in his hit record "M & O Blues". Johnson composed two songs to this melody, "Ramblin' on My Mind" and "When You Got a Good Friend", with different musical approaches and different guitar tunings. For "Ramblin' on My Mind" he used an open tuning that allowed him to combine a boogie shuffle on the bass strings with bottleneck triplets on the treble strings.[2] These slide triplets were the model for Elmore James's guitar accompaniment to "Dust My Broom".[3]

Members of the family of Ike Zimmerman, who taught Johnson improve his guitar technique, have claimed that "Ramblin' on My Mind", was in fact written by him. They argue they had heard the song from Ike before he met Johnson.[4]

Eric Clapton recordings

The song was recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton for Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966). It was Clapton's first solo vocal recording and in his autobiography he explained:

John [Mayall] insisted that I do vocals. This was much against my better judgment, since most of the guys I longed to emulate were older and had deep voices, and I felt extremely uncomfortable singing in my high-pitched whine.[5]

Clapton later recorded versions that appear on Just One Night (1980), Crossroads 2: Live in the Seventies (1996), Sessions for Robert J (2004), and Live from Madison Square Garden (2009).

References
  1. Dixon, Robert M. W., John Godrich, & Howard Rye (1997) Blues and Gospel Records 1890-1943 Fourth edition, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-816239-1
  2. Komara, Edward (2007). The Road to Robert Johnson, The genesis and evolution of blues in the Delta from the late 1800s through 1938. pp. 47-48. Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-634-00907-9
  3. Wald, Elijah (2004). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. p 139. Amistad. ISBN 0-06-052423-5
  4. Paul Merry, "Meet Robert Johnson's Guitar Teacher", Paul Merry Blues, May 11, 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2019
  5. Clapton, Eric (2007). Clapton: The Autobiography. New York City: Broadway Books. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-7679-2536-5.
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