“Dust My Broom”: The Story of a Song

The Prewar Variations by Robert Johnson and Others

The passionate blues song “Dust My Broom” has been filling dance floors and exhilarating listeners for more than 70 years. The song’s been covered by countless performers – a quick search on YouTube turns up versions by Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, The Yardbirds, Hound Dog Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Winter, Canned Heat, Cassandra Wilson, Ike and Tina Turner, Taj Mahal, Freddie King, Junior Brown and Warren Haynes, R.L. Burnside, Duwayne Burnside, ZZ Top, Todd Rundgren, and the list goes on. Along the way, the song’s been adapted to piano, accordion, acoustic guitar, and, most of all, electric guitar.

The best-known version, by Elmore James, begins with the world’s most recognizable slide guitar riff. Performed in open D or open E, this riff delivers propulsive full-octave glides played with the passion of the procreant urge. Since the 1960s, mastering this lick and the song’s subsequent solo as played by Elmore James has been a right-of-passage for up-and-coming blues guitarists. Sonically, it’s the perfect accompaniment for the song’s lyrical message, which in its later incarnations concerns a man’s dissatisfaction with – and profound desire for – a woman. Perfect fodder for the blues.

What exactly does “dust my broom” mean? In the 1800s, the expression “get up and dust” meant to leave in a hurry. Long before that, “dust” was commonly used as a synonym for “depart.” Perhaps it’s biblical in origin. In the Gospel of Matthew, 10:14, Jesus Christ says: “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.” In other words, complete dissociation. One thing is certain: In the Depression-era South, where the song likely originated, “dust my broom” meant to get out of town in a hurry. Big Joe Williams, who grew up in the Mississippi Delta, explained it as “leaving for good,” as in “I’m putting you down. I won’t be back no more.”

The Earliest Versions

Pinetop and Lindberg, "I Believe I'll Make a Change"

In 1927, William and Versey Smith recorded a gospel song for Paramount Records called “I Believe I’ll Go Back Home,” but this tune is unrelated to any blues songs bearing this title or phrase. The earliest direct predecessor of “Dust My Broom” is on an old Bluebird 78 credited to “Pinetop and Lindberg.” Pinetop and Lindberg were, in fact, pianist Aaron “Pinetop” Sparks and his twin brother Milton “Lindberg” Sparks, who sang with a strong, high-pitched voice. They hailed from Tupelo, Mississippi, and according to their weighty police files, were quite the rowdy pair. At their very first session, held in Atlanta on February 25, 1932, the Sparks brothers recorded “I Believe I’ll Make a Change.” To this day, the melody from this version survives intact, and the opening lines, “I believe, I’ll believe I’ll go back home,” would resound in other early versions.

Milton Sparks, 1934.

The next “Dust My Broom” predecessor was a raucous affair indeed. At their first session, held by ARC in New York City on August 1, 1933, Jack Kelly and His South Memphis Jug Band recorded the plaintive “Believe I’ll Go Back Home,” with Jack Kelly and Dan Sane on guitars, D.M. “Doctor” Higgs on jug, and Will Batts sawing away on violin. Sung by Kelly, the song began:

I believe, I believe, I believe I’ll go back home,

I believe, I believe, I believe that I’ll go back home,

I’m going to acknowledge to my baby that I have done her wrong

(Hear it here: Jack Kelly, "Believe I'll Go Back Home")

In this early version, the singer accepts blame for being unfaithful and longs for home, a lyrical sentiment that would continue for a few years, and then disappear in the Robert Johnson and Elmore James recordings. (In 1960, John Lee Hooker would quote Kelly’s opening verse in his mournful but melodically unrelated “I Believe I’ll Go Back Home.”)