Motherless Children

This article is about the blues song. For the Negro spiritual, see Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.

This article is about the blues song. For another blues song, see Motherless Child Blues.

"Mother's Children Have a Hard Time"

Single by Blind Willie Johnson

B-side

"If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down"

Format

10" 78prm single

Recorded

December 3, 1927 in Dallas, TX

Genre

Gospel blues

Label

Columbia 14343-D ^[1]

Blind Willie Johnson singles chronology

"It's Nobody's Fault but Mine"
(1927)

" Mother's Children Have a Hard Time"
(1927)

"Jesus Is Coming Soon"
(1928)

"Motherless Children" is a blues standard first recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927,^[2] and later popularised (inter alia) by such names as Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Steve Miller, Eric Clapton, and Lucinda Williams.^[3]

The song^[4] has an autobiographical theme, as Johnson's mother died when he was young. His father remarried soon after her death, and later the stepmother allegedly blinded the boy with lye after the father found her in flagrante delicto.

Bibliography

Evans, David. Ramblin' on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues. University of Illinois Press, 2008. ISBN 0-252-07448-3
Sackheim, Eric. The Blues Line: Blues Lyrics from Leadbelly to Muddy Waters. Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 1-56025-567-6

References

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