Land of California?: The ambiguities of sweet home Chicago.
This essay examines some historical questions and cultural constructions surrounding the song Sweet Home Chicago and its composer Robert Johnson. Noting that while the song has enjoyed long life, Johnson's lyric (describing Chicago as a land of California) has not, the essay critiques primitivist readings of Johnson while posing an African American cultural myth-Chicago as promised land of the Great Migration-as the subtext of his puzzling line. Finally, it considers whether mundane-sounding revisions of Johnson's lyric indicate a reduction in Chicago's mythic status, from safe haven to same old place.
School for New Learning, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, 60604, USA. jkimsey@depaul.edu
John
J
Kimsey
D001741:Black or African American / Q000266:history*; D002140:California; D002641:Chicago; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009146:Music / Q000266:history*