Dust My Broom

DESCRIPTION: Singer will leave ("dust my broom") in the morning; a friend can have his room. He won't have a woman who "wants every downtown man she meets." He'll write a letter, telephone every town, to find his "good girl."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Robert Johnson)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity parting rejection nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Elmo (Elmore) James, "Dust My Broom" (Trumpet 146, 1952)
Robert Johnson, I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" (Vocalion 03475, 1936)
James "Son Ford" Thomas, "Dust My Broom" (on USMississippi01)
Howlin' Wolf, "Dust My Broom" (2008, on "Rockin' the Blues - Live in Germany 1964," Acrobat AC-5122-2)(1991, on "The Chess Box," MCA CHD3-9332)
NOTES [192 words]: The description covers commonly sung verses. One additional verse begins "I believe, I believe": Johnson sings "... I'll go back home, You can mistreat me here but you can't when I go home"; James and Howlin' Wolf sing ... my time ain't long, I got a letter ... they're breaking up my happy home."
From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01: "Son Thomas's 'Dust My Broom' stems from a version by Elmore James first recorded in 1951, but James himself got the song from a recording by Robert Johnson made in 1936." The trail leading to Thomas's version is not clear. The accompaniment, like most covers of the song I have heard, follows the Elmore James arrangement (Of the recordings I've heard, only Howlin' Wolf's follow Robert Johnson's arrangement; listen to the slide or piano under the first line of each verse). On the other hand, of the four verses Thomas sings, one is sung by Johnson and not by James: "I'm going to call China see if my baby is over there ..." Another feature of Thomas's version is that it softens an insult that both Johnson and James sing: instead of "she's a no good dooney," Thomas sings "she's a no good woman." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcDuMyBr

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