Born in Leona, Texas, Collins was a distant relative of Lightnin' Hopkins and grew up learning about music and playing guitar. His family moved to Houston, Texas when he was seven. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he absorbed the blues sounds and styles from Texas, Mississippi and Chicago. His style would soon envelop these sounds.
He formed his first band in 1952 and two years later was the headliner at several blues clubs in Houston. By the late 1950s Collins began using Fender Telecasters. He later chose a "maple-cap" 1966 Custom Fender Telecaster with a Gibson PAF humbucker in the neck position and a 100 watt RMS silverfaced 1970s Fender Quad Reverb combo as his main equipment, and developed a unique sound featuring minor tunings, sustained notes and an "attack" fingerstyle. He also frequently used a capo on his guitar, particularly on the 5th, 7th, and 9th frets. He primarily favored an "open F-minor" tuning (low to high: F-C-F-Ab-C-F).
Collins began recording in 1960 and released singles, including many instrumentals such as the million selling "Frosty". In the spring of 1965 he moved to Kansas City, Missouri and made a name for himself.
Many of Kansas City's recording studios had closed by the mid 1960s. Unable to record, Collins moved to California in 1967. He settled in San Francisco and played many of the venues popular with the counter-culture. In early 1969 after playing a concert with Canned Heat, members of this band introduced him to Liberty Records. In appreciation, part of the title of Collins’ first record for United Artists - "Love Can Be Found Anywhere (Even In A Guitar)/Trash Talkin'" - was taken from the lyrics of "Refried Hockey Boogie". Collins signed and released his first album on Imperial Records, a sister label, in 1968.
Collins remained in California for another five years, and was popular on double-billed shows at The Fillmore and the Winterland. Collins moved back to Texas in 1973 and formed a new band. He was signed to Alligator Records in 1978 and recorded and released Ice Pickin'. He would record seven more albums with the label, before being signed to Point Blank Records in 1990.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Collins toured the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. He was becoming a popular blues musician and was an influence for Coco Montoya, Robert Cray, Gary Moore, Debbie Davies, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jonny Lang, Susan Tedeschi, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, John Mayer and Frank Zappa.
In 1983, when he won the W. C. Handy Award for his album Don't Lose Your Cool, which won the award for best blues album of the year. In 1985, he shared a Grammy for the album Showdown!, which he recorded with Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland. The following year his solo release Cold Snap was also nominated for a Grammy. In 1987, John Zorn enlisted him to play lead guitar in a suite he had composed especially for him, entitled "Two-Lane Highway," on Zorn's album Spillane.
Alongside George Thorogood and the Destroyers and Bo Diddley, Collins performed at Live Aid in 1985, playing "Who Do You Love?", "The Sky Is Crying" and "Madison Blues", at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium. He was the only black blues artist to appear.
Collins was invited to play at the 'Legends Of Guitar Festival' concerts in Seville, Spain at the Expo in 1992, where amongst others, he played "Iceman", the title track from his final studio album.
He made his last visit to London, England in March 1993.
After falling ill at a show in Switzerland in late July 1993, he was diagnosed in mid August with lung cancer which had metastasized to his liver, with an expected survival time of four months. Parts of his last album, Live '92/'93, were recorded at shows that September; he died shortly afterwards, in November at the age of 61. He was survived by his wife, Gwendolyn and father, Andy Thomas. He is interred at the Davis Memorial Park, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Collins will be remembered not only for the quantity of quality blues music that he put out throughout his career that has inspired so many other blues musicians, but also for his legendary live performances, where he would frequently come down from the stage and mingle with the audience whilst still playing. This practice was illustrated in Collins' uncredited cameo appearance in the film Adventures in Babysitting. He insisted to Elisabeth Shue that "nobody leaves here without singin' the blues", forcing the children to improvise a song before escaping.
Another instance of Collins' humorous stage presence was recounted in the film documentary, Antones: Austin's Home of the Blues. Collins left the building, still plugged in and playing. Several minutes after Collins returned to the stage, a pizza delivery man came in and gave Collins the pizza he had just ordered when he left the building. Collins had gone to Milto's Pizza & Pasta through an adjoining alley and ordered while he was still playing.
When the Welfare Turns Its Back On You
Albert Collins Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Now what you gonna do-hoo-hoo-hoo, when the welfare turn it's back on you
Now, you be standin' there stranded, there's ain't a thing that you can do
Now you look all through your house, yes, you can't, find a piece of bread
Now you look all through your hou-hou-house, yeah, you can't find a piece of bread
Sometime you begin to wonder, if you be better off, better off, dead
Give 'em one, two report
Something they sellin' you
Will surely get your goat
If you tell 'em you sick
You better have a bad cough
'Cause if you don't
They be ready to throw you off
What you gonna do, when the welfare turns it's back on you?
You be standin' there stranded,
There ain't a thing, there ain't a thing you
There ain't a thing-hing-hing-hing-hing,
That you can do
The lyrics of Albert Collins's song "When the Welfare Turns Its Back On You" explore the desperation and hopelessness that one might feel when they are in a situation where they are in need of assistance, and that help is not forthcoming. The song specifically speaks to the experience of relying on welfare as a means of survival, and what happens when that assistance is no longer available. Collins asks a series of rhetorical questions to the listener, highlighting their powerlessness in the face of the welfare system.
The lines "Now what you gonna do, when the welfare turn it's back on you? Now, you be standin' there stranded, there's ain't a thing that you can do" show the fear that someone might feel when they are faced with losing their only means of support. The image of being stranded is a powerful one, evoking a feeling of being abandoned and helpless. Similarly, when Collins sings "Sometime you begin to wonder, if you be better off, better off, dead" he is expressing the idea that without the support provided by welfare, life might seem unbearable.
The final lines of the song offer a bleak conclusion: "There ain't a thing-hing-hing-hing-hing, that you can do." Collins is suggesting that those who rely on welfare are in a situation where they have no control over their own lives. The system has failed them, and they are powerless to change their circumstances. The song is a poignant commentary on the shortcomings of the welfare system, and the toll that it can take on those who need it most.
Line by Line Meaning
Now what you gonna do, when the welfare turn it's back on you?
What actions will you take when the governmental aid program refuses to support you?
Now you be standin' there stranded, there's ain't a thing that you can do
You will be left helpless and unable to resolve your situation.
Now you look all through your house, yes, you can't, find a piece of bread
You have searched everywhere in your house but cannot find any food to eat.
Sometime you begin to wonder, if you be better off, better off, dead
You start to question if it would be more beneficial for you to be dead rather than alive in this helpless state.
You go down to the welfare
You visit the welfare office seeking help.
Give 'em one, two report
Provide the welfare office the necessary information about your situation.
Something they sellin' you, will surely get your goat
The welfare office is selling you false hope, which will likely upset you.
If you tell 'em you sick, you better have a bad cough
You need to have a severe illness if you expect the welfare office to provide you assistance.
'Cause if you don't, they be ready to throw you off
If your illness isn't severe enough, the welfare office will refuse to help and potentially remove you from the program.
There ain't a thing-hing-hing-hing-hing, that you can do
There is nothing you can do to change the fact that the welfare office has abandoned you.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LUCIOUS PORTER WEAVER, SONNY THOMPSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@ricardomarcokrzetowski6822
One of my favorite blues man ever..
@stevenalbertbartlett2688
so glad I finally discovered Albert Collins...hooked...4ever...
@anthonysutherland8601
My favorite artist/story teller
@735vinnie
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Great sound, sad lyrics with soulful vocals that only the Iceman can sing, big bold guitar and killer piano and horns as well.... true down home blues.
@victorngoato3895
Albert is GOAT
@movsesparseghian7418
Albert Collins quando veio ao Brasil , tive a honra e alegria de assistir a esse "monstro" da Telecaster. Fantástico.
@kordbrazil
That's great!
@prunelogic
there are no words to describe how good this is - thanks for putting it up - harris county line up good
@halfogre6373
Harris county blues lol
@loskivious
Baaadassss! Love it!