"Kind Hearted Woman Blues" is a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

song recorded on November 23, 1936, in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, by the American

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

man

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...

. The song was originally released on

78 rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

format as

Vocalion Vocalion Records is an American record label, originally founded by the Aeolian Company, a piano and organ manufacturer before being bought out by Brunswick in 1924. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pian ...

03416 and ARC 7-03-56. Johnson performed the song in the key of A, and recorded two takes, the first of which contains his only recorded

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

. Both takes were used for different pressings of both the Vocalion issue and the ARC issue. The first take (SA-2580-1) can be found on many

compilation albums A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from one artist, then generally the tracks we ...

, including the first one, ''

King of the Delta Blues Singers ''King of the Delta Blues Singers'' is a compilation album by American Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 by Columbia Records. It is considered one of the most influential blues releases. In 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it nu ...

'' (1961). Take 2 (SA-2580-2) can be heard on the later compilation '' Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings'' (1990).

Influences

This was the first song that Johnson recorded, and it was carefully crafted in imitation of recent

hit record A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

s. It was composed in a similar style to "Cruel Hearted Woman Blues" by

Bumble Bee Slim Admirl Amos Easton (May 7, 1905 – June 8, 1968), better known by the stage name Bumble Bee Slim, was an American Piedmont blues singer and guitarist. Biography Easton was born in Brunswick, Georgia, United States. Several original sources c ...

(Amos Easton), which in turn was based on "Mean Mistreater Mama" by

Leroy Carr Leroy Carr (March 27, 1904 or 1905 – April 29, 1935) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. Mu ...

accompanied by

Scrapper Blackwell Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell (February 21, 1903 – October 7, 1962) was an American blues guitarist and singer, best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was a 2024 indu ...

. Johnson uses the Carr melody and conveys something of Carr's style in his relaxed singing. His guitar accompaniment echoes Carr's piano phrases in the first verse, then copies Blackwell's guitar phrases in the second verse. He then adds a musical

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

in the style of another hit record, "

Milk Cow Blues "Milk Cow Blues" is a blues song written and originally recorded by Kokomo Arnold in September 1934. In 1935 and 1936, he recorded four sequels designated "Milk Cow Blues No. 2" through No. 5. The song made Arnold a star, and was widely adapted ...

" by

Kokomo Arnold James "Kokomo" Arnold (February 15, 1896 or 1901 – November 8, 1968) was an American blues musician. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense style of playing and rapid-fire vocal delivery set him apart from his contemporaries. He got his ni ...

. At the end of the bridge, he jumps into a higher register as Arnold does, but then maintains a controlled

falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...

, which may have been based on the singing of Joe Pullum. Johnson combined these elements of the styles of others into an individual style of his own. Like

, Johnson wrote

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, ...

consisting mostly of conventional twelve-bar three-line verses, but varied with an eight-bar

. Slim's bridge merely repeated the words, but Johnson wrote a more complex sequence: Johnson also makes a marked change in tone.

's original "Mean Mistreating Mama" was resigned, even understanding:

You're a mean mistreating mama, and you don't mean me no good
And I don't blame you baby, I'd be the same way if I could

removed that hint of sympathy when he covered the song as "Mean Mistreatin' Woman":

You's a mean mistreatin' woman, but I love you just the same
I know you didn't want me, the day I changed your name

When he wrote new words to the tune, his mood was still resigned:

You's a cruel heated woman, swear, and you just can't realise
That's all right baby, I'll be the same when I rise

Johnson decides that his "kind-hearted woman" is, after all, hostile. But there is no resignation, only anguish:

I love my baby, my baby don't love me
And I really love that woman, can't stand to leave her be

She's a kind-hearted woman, she studies evil all the time
You wells to kill me, as to have it on your mind

Other versions

Like many of Johnson's songs, "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" is a staple in the repertoires of many blues musicians and has been recorded by dozens of traditional and contemporary blues figures, including

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

, Robert Lockwood, Jr.,

Johnny Winter John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums, live performances, and slide guitar playing from the late 1 ...

David Bromberg David Bromberg (born September 19, 1945) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. David Bromberg biographyat Billboard.com An eclectic artist, Bromberg plays bluegrass rock, blues rock, folk rock, jazz rock, country rock, ...

George Thorogood George Lawrence Thorogood (born February 24, 1950) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s US rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Al ...

, and

Keb' Mo' Kevin Roosevelt Moore (born October 3, 1951), known as Keb' Mo', is an American blues musician. He is a singer, guitarist and songwriter, living in Nashville, Tennessee. He has been described as "a living link to the seminal Delta blues that tra ...

. It was included on

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

's 2004 album, '' Me and Mr. Johnson'', along with many other Johnson classics.

The Youngbloods The Youngbloods was an American rock band consisting of Jesse Colin Young (vocals, bass, guitar), Jerry Corbitt (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica), Lowell "Banana" Levinger (guitar and electric piano), and Joe Bauer (drums). Despite receiv ...

recorded a version of the song and it was released as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

on two singles: "Dreamboat" in 1972 and "

Running Bear "Running Bear" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jiles Perry Richardson (a.k.a. The Big Bopper) and sung most famously by Johnny Preston in 1959. The 1959 recording featured background vocals by George Jones and the session's producer Bill ...

" in 1972. On

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

's cover of Johnson's " Traveling Riverside Blues", singer

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin from its founding in 1968 until their breakup in 1980. Since then, he has had a successful solo ca ...

quotes this song with the line: "Got a kind-hearted woman/she studies evil all the time".

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May; 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (1969), which ...

recorded the song for his second LP ''

Spiral Staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical direction, vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps wh ...

'' (1969) According to Stephen Calt, the phrase ''kind-hearted woman'' was slang for a woman who "catered to a gigolo in return for sexual fidelity".kind-hearted woman
''Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary'', Stephen Calt.

References

{{authority control 1937 songs Songs written by Robert Johnson Robert Johnson songs Muddy Waters songs George Thorogood songs Eric Clapton songs The Youngbloods songs Blues songs Song recordings produced by Don Law