78 RPM - Robert Johnson - Milkcow's Calf Blues / Malted Milk - Vocalion - USA

78 RPM Record

Artist:	Robert Johnson
Label:	Vocalion
Country:	USA
Catalogue:	03665
Date:	15 Sep 1937
Format:	10"
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	1 Owns, 2 Want
Price Guide:	$5397
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PRICE GUIDE

$5397

Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A	Robert Johnson	Milkcow's Calf Blues	Robert Johnson	Rate
B	Robert Johnson	Malted Milk	Robert Johnson	Rate

Notes

Blues Singing with Guitar Accompaniment.
Recorded on June 20, 1937 in Dallas, Texas.
Also issued on Perfect 7-10-65 (400 copies) and Romeo 7-10-65 (50 copies) in October 1937, and on Conqueror 8944 in November 1937.

Images

Comments and Reviews


fixbutte 6th Aug 2014		This was Robert Johnson's eighth original single issued by Vocalion, and the second from his Dallas session. "Milkcow's Calf Blues" was the last song that Johnson ever recorded, on an extensive session on Sunday, June 20, 1937 at the Vitagraph (Warner Brothers) Building, 508 Park Avenue, of which ten songs plus seven alternate takes have survived. "Milkcow's Calf Blues" was an elaborate reworking of Kokomo Arnold's popular song of 1934, "Milkcow Blues", with updated lyrics, all about a milk cow (in contrast to Arnold's song) and her calf that "needs a suck". (Though it often gets confused, e.g. on Wikipedia, it has nothing to do with another "Milk Cow Blues", sung by Sleepy John Estes in 1930, which mentions the milk cow only in the title.) Bob Dylan, by the way, recorded Johnson's "Milkcow's Calf Blues" on April 25, 1962 on the Freewheelin' sessions, but elsewhere he also used the lines of Kokomo Arnold's "Milkcow Blues", "You're gonna need my help someday" and "Quit your low down ways" (yes, in the song of that name). On "Malted Milk", about an undefined alcoholic drink, Robert Johnson adopts the urban blues style of Lonnie Johnson, who was actually his primary model as a guitarist. The arrangement and the vocal delivery of "Malted Milk" are very similar to Lonnie Johnson's "Life Saver Blues", and Robert also takes off two lines from Lonnie's "Blue Ghost Blues". (Another song of Robert Johnson from the session with the same melody and arrangement, "Drunken Hearted Man", stayed unissued until 1970.)