sweet home Chicago

[Frank Abate]

I think Johnson actually says:

Back to the land of (the?) California,
Sweet home Chicago

. . . at least in the lyrics he uses on the recording, as opposed to what is printed on the CD insert in the 2-CD set of Johnson's songs.

I once asked Fred Cassidy about this very usage, and he speculated (completely off the top of his head) that California might be being used allusively for a land of fun, promise, etc.

There are a number of interesting things in the lyrics of Johnson, which are from the early/mid 1930s (for the songs that he wrote).  In this case, the printed lyrics are not always reliable, as a close listen will show.

Frank Abate

American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
>
> although this is not directly related to this listserv, some of you may
> either know the answer to my question or know where I might find it.  In
> the song Sweet Home Chicago is, Robert Johnson sings that he is "going back
> to California, to my sweet home Chicago." does anyone know how California
> fits in to the sense of the song?
>
>
> Pat
>
>
> Patrick L. Courts
> Professor of English
> State University of New York at Fredonia
> Fredonia, NY 14063
> e-mail:  courts at fredonia.edu
>
>
>
>
> http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/courts/
>