I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM

Created on 02/10/2002
Latest update on 29/01/2024

Artist: Robert Johnson
Author: Robert Johnson
Label: Vocalion
Year: 1936

Title was a line in Kokomo Arnold's Sagefield Woman Blues; melody hails from that same composition and also from his Sissy Man Blues, both early '30s. Lyrically based on Mr. Carl's Blues by Roosevelt Sykes ('33) with Carl Rafferty. Ed Komara from the Blues Archive in Oxford, MS mentions a few more melodic antecedents: I Believe I'll Make A Change (Pinetop & Lindberg, alias The Sparks Brothers - '32, Leroy Carr - '34, Josh White - '34) and Believe I'll Go Back Home (Jack Kelly - '33). A Vocalion 78 in very good condition easily values $4.000.

Covers:

1949:

Arthur Crudup [as Dust My Broom]

1951:

Robert Jr. Lockwood [Robert Johnson's stepson as Dust My Broom on Mercury]

1951:

Elmore James [idem on Trumpet, in '52 as I Believe on Meteor, reissued on Ace in '55 (as I Believe My Time Ain't Long and as Dust My Blues) and in '52 as She Just Won't Do Right on Checker; on the Trumpet version Elmore introduced the famous slide lick with a life of its own: B.B. King used it in Please Love Me, n°1 R&B in '53; Big Joe Turner used it in TV Mama, The Clovers in Down In The Alley ('57) and so on]

1962:

B.B. King

1963:

Howlin' Wolf

1963:

Koerner, Ray & Glover

1964:

Otis Spann

1964:

Chuck Berry

1966:

Spencer Davis Group [as Dust My Blues]

1966:

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers [as Dust My Blues]

1966:

J.B. Hutto

1966:

Yardbirds [as Dust My Broom and using the same riff in The Nazz Are Blue]

1966:

Rising Sons [with Taj Mahal]

1967:

Earl Hooker

1967:

Eddie Boyd

1967:

Canned Heat

1967:

Fleetwood Mac [debut single as I Believe My Time Ain't Long]

1967:

Juke Boy Bonner

1968:

Taj Mahal

1968:

Cuby & The Blizzards [as Dust My Blues]

1969:

Ike & Tina Turner

1969:

Otis Rush & Johnny Shines

1969:

Luther Allison

1971:

Freddie King

1971:

Aces

1973:

Ruben & The Jets [as Dust My Blue]

1974:

Hound Dog Taylor

1976:

Muddy Waters

1979:

ZZ Top

1980:

Flavium

1984:

Albert King

1984:

Johnny Winter [and in 2011 with Derek Trucks]

1984:

R.L. Burnside [as I Believe My Time Ain't Long]

1985:

Peter Green

1985:

Dr. Feelgood

1988:

James Cotton

1992:

Walter Trout

1992:

John Hammond

1993:

Mick Jagger & The Red Devils [produced by Rick Rubin]

1995:

Guy Davis

1996:

Bluebirds

1998:

Big Dave McLean

2000:

Eddie Kirkland

2001:

Terry Garland

2008:

Cassandra Wilson

2009:

Melinda Doolittle [American Idol; also covers Johnson's Walkin Blues]

2015:

Sonny Landreth

2020:

Bobby Rush

Oldest Elmore James version as Elmo James on Trumpet, Lillian McMurry's label in Jackson, MS, where she ran a radio repair shop with recording facilities. Everyone who recorded there was accompanied by Elmore on guitar, until he got his own chance. Unprepared he played this Robert Johnson composition, just that song, without even a B-side. And so it came out on Trumpet coupled with Bobo Thomas' Catfish Blues. Later Elmore recorded Dust My Broom again for Meteor (I Believe), Flair, Chief, Chess ('59) and finally for Bobby Robinson on Fire.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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