Johnson sings, "Back to the land of California, To my sweet home Chicago." Now, I ask you: Why does Robert Johnson sing the line about California?
I did some research and found that the song is an adaptation of an old blues number by a blues man named Kokomo in the 1930's. But in adapting this song and writing his own lyrics Robert Johnson clearly used the phrase of his own I quoted above with the reference to California. Chicago is not in California! What did he mean?
There are two options: First, California represents the "land of milk and honey", or the promised land if you will. Second, it could be that Johnson's geography training just left him lacking on his knowledge of the location of California and he associated it with Illinois in some way. This is also a reasonable assumption, because with Johnson's tremendous talent, he was also a very young man at this point.
Reference: http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/lyrics/robert_johnson/sweet_home_chicago.htm
Give the song a listen again as played by Clapton. Awesome version! -- Guitar Man
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