Milk Cow Blues’ (Decca 7026), a solo performance by slide guitarist James ‘Kokomo’ Arnold, was one of the biggest blues hits to come out of Chicago in the 1930s. Decca kept it in print with a popular reissue in 1946 and in the meantime it was adapted not only by other bluesmen, but by Western swing bands, including Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys and Johnnie Lee Wills. Elvis Presley recorded a Wills-influenced version on Sun in 1954 and it has been covered many times since by artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Aerosmith. Arnold’s song, recorded on September 10, 1934, is not the same as earlier ‘Milk Cow Blues’ by Sleepy John Estes and Freddie Spruell, and is recognizable both for its ‘If you see my milk cow, please drive her home’ lyrics and Arnold’s influential phrasing of ‘You gonna need my help some day.’ Robert Johnson answered it in 1937 with ‘Milkcow Calf’s Blues,’ the last song he ever recorded.
