Covered #6: Robert Johnson/The Blues Brothers: Sweet Home Chicago

One of the most famous blues standards. A song that is a must-play for all musicians who want to call themselves blues musicians, because it always comes up at any jam session. And the unwritten anthem of the city that gave the world and culture the music that was the cradle of rock'n'roll and all subsequent styles, namely electric blues.

It may seem like a paradox, but in the blues world it's quite common for the most famous versions of songs not to match the original versions, and in this case, that's 100% true. In fact, without question, the most famous version of "Sweet Home Chicago" is the one performed by The Blues Brothers in the 1980 film of the same name, that is, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, accompanied by the elite (another paradox) of musicians mostly associated with Memphis soul, such as guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn.

In the film's opening scene, you may notice that The Blues Brothers frontman John Belushi dedicates the song to "Big Magic Sam". This is no coincidence at all. Indeed, it is his version that the film's cover is clearly based on, and it must be said that it was Magic Sam (1937-1969), the Chicago guitarist who, also due to his untimely death at thirty-two, is surrounded by a nimbus of almost mysterious legend, who created a kind of exemplary rendition of "Sweet Home Chicago" for the electrified blues band. He recorded it for his most famous album, West Side Soul, in 1967.

But let's go straight to the source. To be more precise: musicologists have been arguing about the true origins of "Sweet Home Chicago" for decades, as is the case with a lot of famous blues songs, because the old bluesmen didn't worry too much about copyright. They took parts of the lyrics, melodies and riffs and added their creations, causing a bit of a mess in their legacy. So let's not explore the earliest roots of the song at this point, we are primarily interested in the cover versions in this series. However, those interested can find lots and lots of information on the subject on the internet "in two clicks".

We will settle for the fact that the song's authorship is traditionally attributed to the "king of delta blues" Robert Johnson. He recorded it in 1936 during his legendary recording session at a hotel in San Antonio, Texas. The meaning of the song corresponds to what was happening and gaining momentum at the time: African-Americans from the southern states were fleeing poverty and racial segregation to the north, and Chicago was a kind of dream paradise for them – where, as they later discovered, they also encountered racial and social oppression at every turn, but were certainly a notch better off than in the Mississippi river basin.

So these are the three most important versions of the song. What to pick next from the deluge, when virtually every bluesman has it in their repertoire? As another sample, we might choose the one performed by Roosevelt Sykes, the famous blues and boogie-woogie pianist, to show that such a song is not necessarily the domain of guitarists.

That Magic Sam's version doesn't have to be "binding" at all costs even for standard bands playing in the Chicago blues style was shown, among others, by another famous guitarist Lonnie Brooks (by the way, the father of two great figures of the contemporary Chicago scene, Ronnie and Wayne Baker Brooks, who also have the song "Sweet Home Chicago" in their natural repertoire).

But, as has already been said, at the moment "Sweet Home Chicago" is above all welcome "jam material". And that's in small clubs as much as it is on the biggest music stages, as long as blues musicians are there. It's played almost regularly, for example, at Clapton's occasional Crossroads guitar summits. This is what it was like under the baton of the phenomenal Buddy Guy in 2011:

And let's not forget another famous jam, namely in 2012 at the White House, where the then president invited a veritable "Blues Hall of Fame" to perform, and it was the song "Sweet Home Chicago" that he was persuaded to sing a few lines of lyrics to. He had lived in the city most of his life.

As usual, we will finish with the most bizarre version. Perhaps, in a way, the preceding example would have sufficed, but there is a much cooler tidbit that, from a certain point of view, actually kind of takes us back to the beginning. Like The Blues Brothers, Finland's Leningrad Cowboys are a de facto movie band. And surprise surprise, they had "Sweet Home Chicago" in their repertoire, too. We can think what we want about it, but the fact is that their crazy version resembles no other – and that should be the basic point of any "cover".