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]

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]

The song was covered by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and featured on the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, 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.

References

↑ 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
↑ 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
↑ Wald, Elijah (2004). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. p 139. Amistad. ISBN 0-06-052423-5

Robert Johnson

Albums	King of the Delta Blues Singers King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. II The Complete Recordings

Songs	"Kind Hearted Woman Blues" "Dust My Broom" "Sweet Home Chicago" "Come On in My Kitchen" "Terraplane Blues" "Stones in My Passway" "32-20 Blues" "They're Red Hot" "Dead Shrimp Blues" "Cross Road Blues" "From Four Until Late" "Hellhound on My Trail" "Travelling Riverside Blues" "Love in Vain" "Ramblin' on My Mind" "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" "Walkin' Blues" "Me and the Devil Blues" "Stop Breaking Down" "If I Had Possession over Judgment Day" "When You Got a Good Friend"

Related	Discography The Search for Robert Johnson Me and the Devil Blues Me and Mr. Johnson / Sessions for Robert J The Robert Johnson Songbook Johnson's guitars 27 Club Crossroads (1986 film)

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