sweet home Chicago

[Gerald Cohen]

   Last week there was speculation about the meaning of Robert Johnson's
lyrics that  he is "going back to California, to my sweet home Chicago."

    Here is one more guess :  Maybe Johnson was singing to Chicago that he
was leaving that city and heading for the place he really loved, namely
California, which was (in the lyrics, at least) his real home.   Cf. the
lyrics of another song:  "Good-bye Picadilly, farewell Leicester Square,
It's a long, long way to Tipperary, and my heart is there."

    Of course, if Johnson never lived in California, this interpretation
would probably be wrong.  In that case, California might be a sort of
mythical paradise, and Johnson would be finding heaven in his home-town
Chicago.

   ----Gerald Cohen
 >
>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?
>
>Patrick L. Courts
>Professor of English
>State University of New York at Fredonia
>Fredonia, NY 14063
>e-mail:  courts at fredonia.edu
>




gcohen at umr.edu