Ramblin' on My Mind

"Ramblin' on My Mind" is a blues song recorded on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas by blues musician Robert Johnson. The song was originally released on 78 rpm format as Vocalion 03519 and ARC 7-05-81. Johnson performed the song in the key of E, and recorded two takes. Both takes were used for different pressings of both the Vocalion issue and the ARC issue.[1]

"Ramblin' on My Mind"
Single by Robert Johnson
ReleasedMay 1937 (1937-05)
RecordedNovember 23, 1936
StudioGunter Hotel, San Antonio, Texas
GenreBlues
Length2:51
LabelVocalion, ARC
Songwriter(s)Robert Johnson
Producer(s)Don Law

The song used the melody made popular by the hit record "M & O Blues" by Walter Davis. Johnson composed two songs to this melody, "Ramblin' on My Mind" and "When You Got a Good Friend", with different musical approaches and different guitar tunings, although both were in the key of E. For "Ramblin' on My Mind" he used an open tuning that allowed him to combine a boogie shuffle on the bass strings with bottleneck triplets on the treble strings.[2] These slide triplets were the model for Elmore James's guitar accompaniment to "Dust My Broom".[3]

Members of the family of Ike Zimmerman, who taught Johnson improve his guitar technique, have claimed that "Ramblin' on My Mind", were in fact written by him. They argue they had heared the song from Ike before he meet Johnson.[4]

The song was recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton on lead vocals and featured on the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966), and by Clapton on the albums Just One Night, Crossroads 2: Live in the Seventies, Sessions for Robert J, and on Live from Madison Square Garden. Lucinda Williams also recorded it for her first professional release, Ramblin' (1979).

References
  1. Dixon, Robert M. W., John Godrich, & Howard Rye (1997) Blues and Gospel Records 1890-1943 Fourth edition, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-816239-1
  2. Komara, Edward (2007). The Road to Robert Johnson, The genesis and evolution of blues in the Delta from the late 1800s through 1938. pp. 47-48. Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-634-00907-9
  3. Wald, Elijah (2004). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. p 139. Amistad. ISBN 0-06-052423-5
  4. Paul Merry, "Meet Robert Johnson's Guitar Teacher", Paul Merry Blues, May 11, 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2019
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