Once more for the broken hearted – All My Love In Vain

In recent days, I have been preparing for a radio interview. The host asked me to nominate some disks to play and my mind went immediately to Sonny Boy Williamson’s All My Love in Vain.

The unitiated can hear the track here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMs2qbPYITI

Sonny Boy’s Love .. bears no relation to the similarly titled Robert Johnson song (although the two men reputedly travelled together in the 1930s). No. It’s a prime piece of Rice Miller*, which exemplifies both his skill as a harmonica player and as a poet.

The harp is extraordinary. This blues is played in crossed G on a regular 10 hole Marine Band, but sometimes you feel like checking your ears. To this day (and this song has been around me now for over 30 years) I have no idea how Sonny Boy achieves those low bends in the solo.

But it’s the words that I really love. Essentially, All My Love in Vain was the tenth millionth song about heartbreak, but the imagery is wonderful. Repeatedly, Sonny Boy appeals to a forlorn sense of natural law, an ideal which declaims that ‘a woman is a glory for man’. This reaches its zenith in the second verse:

If this home wasn’t what you’re needing, the judge will not let you explain.  Because he believes in justice, and a woman is a glory for man.

Now, we can argue about the sexual politics, but this would be missing the point. This is a song about one man’s heartbreak and its attendant confusion. Here, Sonny Boy plays the part of someone who is bewildered by a sudden separation. I know how he feels and I bless him for it.

All My Love in Vain formed part of Sonny Boy’s first session for Chess, in 1955. With Don’t Start Me Talking, it set the mould for this great bluesman’s future work. Up to his death, Sonny Boy 2 presented snapshots of the modern world, as it appeared to him. These were stories of life: sometimes cynical, often funny, but always original and pertinent.

* Blues savants will know that Sonny Boy Williamson 2 was not born a ‘Williamson’. Various suggestions have been made concerning his birth name and ‘Rice Miller’ is quoted most often.