Blues music often tells us much more about the attitude of a singer - it can tell us the attitude of the place where the song is set as well. Blues often captures the feel of the American locales that inspire their artists, or helps to solidify the problems that these people have with where they are. Blues singers use setting to infuse that blues identity into their songs, and likewise infuse those places with the blues identity by singing about them. Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago", The Paul Butterfield Blues Band's "Born in Chicago," Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" and Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Texas Flood" all evoke this sense of place - in particular, of not belonging to that place. They also demonstrate the bad luck and poor circumstances these blues narrators have, which stems from these places and overall situations.
Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" infuses the original Chicago sound with a desire to go back there. The lyrics evoke a homesick man who attempts to get a friend (or a lover) to come back with him to "my sweet home Chicago," constantly refraining "Honey don't you want to go?" as he persistently asks to go back to this wonderful place. The man is anxious, constantly counting and impatient - "I'm heavy loaded baby, I'm booked I've got to go" (Johnson). One thing that is to be kept in mind, however, is that the lyrics also imply he simply wishes to travel - to California, Des Moines, etc. Johnson's lyrics imply that staying wherever they are is no good; in one verse, he says that you will "get your business all in a trick" if you "keep on monkeying around here." In another verse, he warns the friend about staying put with his wife, who is sure to "trick youagain" (Johnson). All of these things are reasons to get the person to leave, and to come to "sweet home Chicago" with him once more. The blues here is used to show this man's yearning for this home, and the unhappiness he feels at staying in one place too long.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band echoes these sentiments toward the city of Chicago in "Born in Chicago," but places a bigger focus on the violence and the darkness of the city. Providing a much more sprightly, high-energy tempo than Johnson's offering, Butterfield ironically uses this faster jam to note the friends he's lost due to gun violence, and the uncertain social contract that one engages in because of Chicago violence - "Rules are alright / If there's someone left to play the game" (Butterfield). Having a gun is cited as part of being a citizen of the city; as soon as he was "born in Chicago at 1941," his father tells him "Son you had better get a gun" (Butterfield). Here, Chicago is depicted as a dangerous place to be, the unfortunate end result of staying in that "sweet home" Johnson depicts.
Moving on to a different city, Stevie Ray Vaughan discusses Texas in his song "Texas Flood." Like Butterfield, the location in the title is not depicted as a nice place to be; this time, the city is wrapped up in a flood. The situation is dire: "All of the telephone lines are down," "Dark clouds are rollin' in," and ""flood water keep a rollin," making for an overall desolate place (Vaughan). Vaughan describes these circumstances as desperate, as he can't call his "baby," which combines with his isolation and "standin' out in the rain" to lose what little patience he had left for the city. In the final verse, he gets fed up with Texas, stating that he's leaving his baby and "goin' back home to stay" where there "are no floods or tornadosand the sun shines every day." (Vaughan) Here, the blues is used to express his utter sadness and desperation in this flooded, destroyed state, and his lamentable desire to go back home, where things are better - much like in "Sweet Home Chicago."
While not tethered to a specific location, Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" shows the same kind of bad luck the previous narrators of their respective songs have, and exemplifies the kind of disappointment with the status quo that defines blues. The "bad sign" that King was "born under" could be a place, or more likely a state of luck - he says he has "been down since I began to crawl," showing that his luck has never been good. Like the previous narrators, he cites women as one of his biggest problems: "A big bad woman's gonna carry me to my grave." This leads to yet another instance where the blues is able to portray someone's dissatisfaction with the way things are, whether that be place or luck - a hallmark of quality blues.
Works Cited
Johnson, R. (1961). "Sweet Home Chicago." King of the Delta Blues Singers Vol. 1.
King, A. (1967). "Born Under a Bad Sign." Born Under a Bad Sign.
Butterfield, P. (1965). "Born in Chicago." The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Vaughan, Stevie Ray. (1983). "Texas Flood." Texas Flood.
