sweet home Chicago

[Patrick L. Courts]

thanks to those of you who tried to help me out with Robert Johnson's
reference to California.  Having grown up in Chicago--I lived only about
four blocks from California Avenue--I had given this possibility some
thought, but it really doesn't make much sense to me because Robert Johnson
would have been pretty much confined to the east or near-west side of
Chicago. I had also made a guess that might possibly refer to the good
life. the only other thing I can figure is that he might have been going
back to Chicago via California (in the song he mentions Des Moines, Iowa)
but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me either.
At 11:59 AM 5/11/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>California does run north-south, and is on the west side of Chicago,
>which is largely African-American today.  I don't know about this
>area's demographic makeup at the time "Sweet Home Chicago" was
>written, though.
>--
>-
>Greg
>
>greg at pulliam.org
>http://www.pulliam.org
>


Best,
Pat

Patrick L. Courts
English Department
State University of New York
Fredonia, NY  14063
courts at ait.fredonia.edu
716-673-3450


http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/courts/