"Come On in My Kitchen" is a blues song by Robert Johnson. Drawing on popular recordings of a traditional tune, Johnson creates a picture of himself alone in his kitchen. As the wind howls outside, he urges his lover to join him before the rain starts.

A critic has described it as "a hypnotic lament" and "his first unquestionable masterpiece". A sometime traveling companion and fellow musician, Johnny Shines, recalled that Johnson's performance of the song could be overpowering.

"One time in St, Louis we were playing one of the songs that Robert would like to play with someone once in a great while, "Come On In My Kitchen". He was playing very slow and passionately, and when we had quit, I noticed no one was saying anything. Then I realised they were crying — both women and men."

Johnson recorded the song on November 23, 1936 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas - his first recording session. Two takes were preserved. Take 2 was issued in 1937 on Vocalion 03563. Take 1 was chosen for issue by Columbia Records on King of the Delta Blues Singers in 1961.

Blues scholars have identified a body of previously recorded songs with direct and indirect melodic similarities. Edward Komara suggests a line of recordings with notably high degree of sales and of imitation by other artists: 1925 "How Long Daddy How Long" (Ida Cox with Papa Charlie Jackson); 1928 "How Long How Long Blues" (Leroy Carr with Scrapper Blackwell); 1930 "Sitting On Top Of The World: (Mississippi Sheiks); 1934 "Six Feet In The Ground" (St. Louis Jimmy Oden). Former neighbours report that Johnson learned "How Long" from Carr's record in the year following its release. Komara suggests that Johnson's thumbed bass lines in "Come On In My Kitchen" were directly inspired by Carr's piano in "How Long" and that part of humming and slide guitar playing copied the violin of Lonnie Chatman of the Sheiks on "Sitting On Top of The World".Elijah Wald suggests that Johnson's main inspiration was Tampa Red's 1934 "Things 'Bout Coming My Way".

...
Wikipedia