Love in Vain

Love in Vain was written by blues legend Robert Johnson in 1937. Since then it has been covered multiple times by other music’s great entertainers—The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. The original composition recorded by Johnson and released as a race record plays along in with the Mississippi Delta blues style with an added juxtaposition of the iconic “piano-like” approach to guitar Johnson had. His somber tone and guitar plays along as he describes his love for Willie Mae Powell turning to love in vain. Johnson’s true love for Willie Mae used to be something beautiful but now he realizes that his love is superficial and void of faith and truthfulness. And indeed all true love is this way. The idea of love is in vain (“Well, it’s hard to tell, it’s hard to tell, but all true love’s in vain”). In the end, all he is left with is despair and a coarse heart. The Rolling Stones made a cover of “Love in Vain” for their 1969 album Let It Bleed and Eric Clapton more recently recorded “Love in Vain” for his solo album Me and Mr. Johnson. An interesting difference between the records is where the credit for the original lyrics is given. Eric Clapton obviously gave Robert Johnson credit for the song as he did with the rest of the songs in his album. When a lawsuit came up against The Rolling Stones who did not give Johnson credit, they claimed that the song was part of a public domain and no one held rights to the lyrics. Although copy right laws were not as prominent and they were not forced to pay any entitlements on the song, it seems appropriate that they should have credited Johnson for this melancholy poem.