Robert Johnson / 4:27
Musicians
Mick Jagger: vocals
Keith Richards: acoustic guitar and slide guitar
Bill Wyman: bass
Charlie Watts: drums
Ry Cooder: mandolin
Recorded
Olympic Sound Studios, London: February–March 1969
Technical Team
Producer: Jimmy Miller
Sound engineer: Glyn Johns
Assistant sound engineers: George Chkiantz, Bruce Botnick, Jerry Hansen, Vic Smith, Alan O’Duffy
Due to the numerous myths that enshroud his life, for example the story that he signed a pact with the devil in exchange for instant virtuosity on the guitar, Robert Johnson is one of the most legendary of all blues singer-guitarists. The twenty-nine songs he recorded in just two sessions (November 1936 and June 1937) have exerted a phenomenal influence, not only on blues musicians as such, but on every pioneer of rock music from Bob Dylan, to the Rolling Stones, to Jimmy Page.
“Love in Vain Blues” dates from June 20, 1937. For this number, in which the narrator sings of the sadness of losing the love of the woman he describes following to the station with a suitcase in his hand (most likely the bluesman’s lover Willie Mae Powell), the songwriter from Mississippi took his inspiration from “In the Evenin’ When the Sun Goes Down” by the pianist Leroy Carr. More than thirty years after Robert Johnson wrote this song, the Rolling Stones in turn take up this tale of a breakup. The sadness felt by the narrator endures but is expressed differently. Keith Richards, who heard the song for the first time in 1968, when the second box set dedicated to Robert Johnson was released, recalls: “Mick and I both loved it [the song], and at the time Gram [Parsons] and I started searching around for a different way to present it, because if we were going to record it there was no point in trying to copy the Robert Johnson style or version. So I sat around playing it in all kinds of different ways and styles. We took a little bit more country, a little bit more formalized, and Mick felt comfortable with that.” This is confirmed by Mick Jagger: “We changed the arrangement quite a lot from Robert Johnson’s. We put in extra chords that aren’t there on the Robert Johnson version. Made it more country.”
The Stones certainly made “Love in Vain” their own. Their version differs considerably from Robert Johnson’s. They have made it more accessible and given it a far wider appeal, but without in any way caricaturing it or doing it a disservice. The great respect they feel for the legendary bluesman is obvious, and, as we have seen, Keith would later acknowledge that the aim was not to try to imitate him. It is a shame that Brian Jones, who so wanted to record the blues, is not present on the track, but unfortunately he lacked the desire, the strength, or the opportunity to attend the session. As a result, Keith Richards takes care of all the guitar playing, starting with some superb acoustic, probably his Gibson Hummingbird. His performance is influenced to some degree by country music, a style he was listening to intently around this time. Gram Parsons had something to do with this. Keith’s intro is superb and enables Mick to give a nuanced, sincere performance. Then the second guitar, a slide (the Maton? The Les Paul?), makes its entry. Keith plays a very good bottleneck, despite having barely used the technique, which he had always left to Brian. Ry Cooder plays an excellent—credited—bluegrass mandolin part on this track, in contrast with Beggars Banquet, where his contribution was never really acknowledged. However, he would later complain of having been misled by the Stones, who, he claims, had got him to come over and then unscrupulously left the tape recorder running in order to exploit the tapes at a later date. Keith would explain: “… he was never brought over for the album, which is the main thing. He came over with Jack Nitzsche to get the music for some movie. He came by and we played together a lot, sure. I mean, he’s a gas to play with. He’s amazing.” The matter at issue was a jam that took place on April 23, 1969, involving Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Nicky Hopkins, and Ry Cooder. Keith Richards was absent but the tape recorder was running all the same… On January 7, 1972, a disc of these recordings was issued with the title Jamming with Edward!
As for the rhythm section, Charlie uses brushes on his snare drum, and his hi-hat can hardly be heard. On bass, Bill seems to be playing his Dallas Tuxedo but is pretty recessed in the mix. It would be impossible to discuss “Love in Vain” without mentioning the future live versions with Mick Taylor on slide. Taylor’s outstanding playing gives the number an extra dimension (see Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! from 1970). It would seem that his time spent with John Mayall was not in vain…