The two are easy to distinguish. Williamson I played the harmonica acoustically and was essentially a pre-War artist. Williamson II was entirely an electrified harpist, in the style of Little Walter, reflecting the advent of the jukebox and electrified instruments following World War II.
(Compare the albums Sonny Boy Williamson I ~~ Sonny Boy Williamson II)
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Sonny Boy Williamson I (30 March 1914 - 1 June 1948)
also known as John Lee Curtis Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, born in Jackson, Tennessee, whose first record Good Morning little School Girl was a hit in 1937. He was widely popular throughout the whole southeast of the U.S., and was practically synonymous with the blues harmonica for the next decade, making his a commonly used stage name by the time he was murdered in 1948. He is buried at the Old Blairs Chapel Church, south west of Jackson, Tennessee.
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Sonny Boy Williamson II (11 March 1908 - 25 May 1965) also known as Willie Williamson, Willie Miller, Little Boy Blue, The Goat and Footsie.
Aleck "Rice" Miller was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.
Born as Aleck Ford to Millie Ford on the Sara Jones Plantation in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, his date and year of birth are a matter of uncertainty. He claimed to have been born on December 5, 1899, but one researcher, David Evans, claims to have found census record evidence that he was born around 1912. His gravestone lists his date of birth as March 11, 1908.
He lived and worked with his sharecropper stepfather, Jim Miller, whose last name he soon adopted, and mother, Millie Ford, until the early 1930s. Beginning in the 1930s, he traveled around Mississippi and Arkansas and encountered Big Joe Williams, Elmore James and Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, who would play guitar on his later Checker Records sides. He was also associated with Robert Johnson during this period. Miller developed his style and raffish stage persona during these years. Willie Dixon recalled seeing Lockwood and Miller playing for tips in Greenville, Mississippi in the 1930s. He entertained audiences with novelties such inserting one end of the harmonica into his mouth and playing with no hands.
In 1941 Miller was hired to play the King Biscuit Time show, advertising the King Biscuit brand of baking flour on radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas with Lockwood. It was at this point that the radio program's sponsor, Max Moore, began billing Miller as Sonny Boy Williamson, apparently in an attempt to capitalize on the fame of the well known Chicago-based harmonica player and singer John Lee Williamson (Sonny Boy Williamson I). Although John Lee Williamson was a major blues star who had already released dozens of successful and widely influential records under the name "Sonny Boy Williamson" from 1937 onward, Aleck Miller would later claim to have been the first to use the name, and some blues scholars believe that Miller's assertion he was born in 1899 was a ruse to convince audiences he was old enough to have used the name before John Lee Williamson, who was born in 1914 (this is made somewhat less likely, however, by the fact that Miller was certainly older than Williamson even if one does not accept the 1899 birthdate.) Whatever the methodology, Miller became commonly known as "Sonny Boy Williamson", and Lockwood and the rest of his band were billed as the King Biscuit Boys.
In 1949 he relocated to West Memphis, Arkansas and lived with his sister and her husband, Howlin' Wolf (later, for Checker Records, he did a parody of Howlin' Wolf entitled "Like Wolf"). Sonny Boy started his own KWEM radio show from 1948 to 1950 selling the elixir Hadacol.
Sonny Boy also brought his King Biscuit musician friends to West Memphis: Elmore James, Houston Stackhouse, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Robert Nighthawk and others, to perform on KWEM Radio.
In the 1940s Williamson married Mattie Gordon, who remained his wife until his death.
Williamson's first recording session took place in 1951 for Lillian McMurry of Jackson, Mississippi's Trumpet Records (three years after the death of John Lee Williamson, which for the first time allowed some legitimacy to Miller's carefully worded claim to being "the one and only Sonny Boy Williamson"). McMurry later erected Williamson's headstone, near Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1977.
When Trumpet went bankrupt in 1955, Sonny Boy's recording contract was yielded to its creditors, who sold it to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. Sonny Boy had begun developing a following in Chicago beginning in 1953, when he appeared there as a member of Elmore James's band. It was during his Chess years that he enjoyed his greatest success and acclaim, recording about 70 songs for Chess subsidiary Checker Records from 1955 to 1964.
In the early 1960s he toured Europe several times during the height of the British blues craze, recording with The Yardbirds and The Animals, and appearing on several TV broadcasts throughout Europe. According to the Led Zeppelin biography 'Hammer of the Gods', while in England Sonny Boy set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues" mentions that during this tour he allegedly stabbed a man during a street fight and left the country abruptly.
Sonny Boy took a liking to the European fans, and while there had a custom-made, two-tone suit tailored personally for him, along with a bowler hat, matching umbrella, and an attaché case for his harmonicas. He appears credited as "Big Skol" on Roland Kirk's live album 'Kirk in Copenhagen' (1963). One of his final recordings from England, in 1964, featured him singing "I'm Trying To Make London My Home" with Hubert Sumlin providing the guitar. Due to his many years of relating convoluted, highly fictionalized accounts of his life to friends and family, upon his return to the Delta, some expressed disbelief upon hearing of Sonny Boy's touring across the Atlantic, visiting Europe, seeing the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and other landmarks, and recording there.
Upon his return to the U.S., he resumed playing the King Biscuit Time show on KFFA, and performed around Helena, Arkansas. As fellow musicians Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis waited at the KFFA studios for Williamson on May 25, 1965, the 12:15 broadcast time was closing in and Sonny Boy was nowhere in sight. Peck left the radio station and headed out to locate Williamson, and discovered his body in bed at the rooming house where he'd been staying, dead of an apparent heart attack suffered in his sleep the night before.
Williamson is buried on New Africa Rd. just outside Tutwiler, Mississippi at the site of the former Whitman Chapel cemetery.
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Don't Start Me To Talkin'
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Gonna tell Fannie what I heard her boyfriend say
Don't start me talkin', I'll tell her everything I know
I'm gonna break up this signifyin', 'cause somebody's got to go
Jack give his wife two dollars, go downtown and get some margarine
Gets out on the streets, ol' George stopped her
He knocked her down and blackened her eye
She gets back home, tell her husband a lie
Don't start me talkin, I'll tell everything I know
I'm gonna break up this signifyin', somebody's got to go
She borrowed some money, go to the beauty shop
Jim honked his horn, she begin to stop
Said, take me, baby, around the block
I'm goin to the beauty shop, where I can get my hair sot
Don't start me talkin', I'll tell everything I know
Well, to break up this signifyin', oh, somebody's got to go
The song "Don't Start Me to Talkin'" by Sonny Boy Williamson is a classic blues tune that explores the themes of gossip, infidelity, and deceit. The song begins with the singer heading to a local bar to tell Fanny Mae what he heard her boyfriend say. He warns her not to start him talking, as he will reveal everything he knows and break up the false rumor spreading. The next verse tells of a woman who lies to her husband after being beaten by another man on the street. Finally, the last verse tells of a woman who borrows money to go to the beauty shop but ends up going for a ride with another man. The singer warns that he will reveal all, and someone will have to go.
The lyrics are filled with innuendos and implications of the seedy underground world of the blues clubs. The imagery is vivid, and the storytelling is masterful. The song portrays a world that is harsh and unforgiving, a place where people are not to be trusted, and betrayal is the norm. The singer's harsh warning serves as a reminder that actions have consequences and that secrets must be kept secret.
Overall, "Don't Start Me to Talkin'" is a poignant and powerful song that captures the spirit of the blues. Its themes of infidelity, deceit, and gossip resonate with audiences of all ages and cultures. The song is a testament to the enduring power of the blues and remains a beloved classic to this day.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I'm goin' down to Rosie's, stop at Fannie Mae's
I am going to visit Rosie's and then stop at Fannie Mae's place.
Gonna tell Fannie what I heard her boyfriend say
I am going to tell Fannie what her boyfriend said.
Don't start me talkin', I'll tell her everything I know
Don't make me start talking, or else I will tell her everything I know.
I'm gonna break up this signifyin', 'cause somebody's got to go
I am going to end this gossiping, because someone has to leave.
Jack give his wife two dollars, go downtown and get some margarine
Jack gave his wife two dollars to buy margarine from downtown.
Gets out on the streets, ol' George stopped her
When she was on the streets, George stopped her.
He knocked her down and blackened her eye
George hit her and gave her a black eye.
She gets back home, tell her husband a lie
She returned home and lied to her husband.
Don't start me talkin, I'll tell everything I know
Don't urge me to talk, or else I will tell everything I know.
I'm gonna break up this signifyin', somebody's got to go
I'm going to put an end to this gossiping; someone must leave.
She borrowed some money, go to the beauty shop
She borrowed some money and went to the beauty shop.
Jim honked his horn, she begin to stop
Jim honked his car's horn, and she began to stop.
Said, take me, baby, around the block
She said to Jim to take her around the block.
I'm goin to the beauty shop, where I can get my hair sot
She is going to the beauty shop to get her hair done.
Don't start me talkin', I'll tell everything I know
Don't provoke me to talk; otherwise, I will reveal everything I know.
Well, to break up this signifyin', oh, somebody's got to go
To stop this gossiping, someone must leave.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Sonny Boy Williamson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind