Her introduction to music, as with most fellow blues legends, started in the Baptist church. The daughter of a minister, she and her six siblings began to sing at a very early age. While still a child, Willie Mae taught herself to play the drums and harmonica, and by the age of 14, she had run away from home to make her career in secular music.
She joined Sammy Green's "Hot Harlem Revue" and toured throughout the South in the 1940's, first beginning her musical career in 1947. While touring Texas in 1948, Thornton left the Revue in favor of the state's growing club scene, which she immersed herself in. It was during this time that she was discovered by Don Robey, a black entrepreneur who owned several clubs and record stores in the Houston, TX area. Impressed by her massive size (6 ft, 350+ lb),formidable multi-instrument abilities, and fiery stage presence, Robey signed her to his Peacock Records label, where he began the task of translating the forceful belter's energy onto record.
Her big hit came, not from Robey's capable pen, but from the young songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was "Hound Dog," which she recorded in 1952 with the Johnny Otis band and released in February 1953. Big Mama Thornton always claimed to have written the song herself (a claim which may actually hold some validity), and her ferocious rendition of it ( complete with Big Mama's growl and a nasty guitar line by Pete Lewis) held the #1 spot in the Billboard rhythm and blues charts for nine weeks. Unfortunately for Thornton, Elvis Presley's smoother and bowdlerized version was a major pop hit in 1956 and successfully eclipsed her biggest claim to fame.
Thornton continued to tour the "chitlin' circuit" as fans began to favour newer R&B sounds over blues. For some years, Big Mama suffered in obscurity like most of her fellow bluesmen. Her name gained wider prominence and her career enjoyed a significant resurgence as her song "Ball and Chain" was covered by Janis Joplin, making it a regular number in her repertoire. From that point onward, Thornton would remain a headliner at blues festivals, colleges, and clubs throughout the country and even in Europe. She began recording again, and released albums for the Arhoolie, Mercury, and Vanguard labels. Years of hard drinking and living began to take their toll, however, and by the late 1970s her health (and her trademark girth) had declined greatly. She nevertheless performed until her death at the age of 57 on July 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, where she was found dead from natural causes in the boarding house room in which she had been living. Johnny Otis conducted her funeral services, and she was laid to rest in Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Since I Fell For You
Big Mama Thornton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You took my love and now you're gone
Since I fell for you
Love brings such misery and pain
I guess I'll never be the same
Since I fell for you
I'm in love with you
You love me, then you snub me
But what can I do
I'm still in love with you
I guess I'll never see the light
I get the blues bout every night
Since I fell for you
Since I fell for you
The lyrics to Big Mama Thornton's "Since I Fell for You" tell the story of a person who has fallen in love with someone who has caused them to leave their happy life but has now left them alone. The song highlights the misery and pain that love can bring, and the singer expresses their inability to move on from the love they once had. Despite being snubbed by the one they love, they cannot help but still love them. The chorus of the song emphasizes the sadness and hopelessness the singer is experiencing since they fell for this person.
The lyrics are a testament to the raw emotion that love can stir up in us. The pain and longing expressed in the song taps into the universal experience of heartbreak and the human desire to be loved deeply.
Line by Line Meaning
You made me leave my happy home
You were the reason I left the comfort of my pleasant abode
You took my love and now you're gone
You took away my affection, and now you're nowhere to be found
Since I fell for you
Ever since I fell in love with you, my life has been far from joyful
Love brings such misery and pain
Being infatuated with someone can make you so miserable and pained
I guess I'll never be the same
It seems as though I'll never revert to my former self
It's so bad, it's so sad
The situation is terrible, and it's causing me immense sorrow
I'm in love with you
Despite everything, I'm still stuck in affection with you
You love me, then you snub me
One minute you give me love, and the next, you act cold towards me
But what can I do
I'm helpless and can't do anything about the way you treat me
I guess I'll never see the light
It feels like I'll never escape this gloomy situation
I get the blues bout every night
Every night, I experience sadness and melancholy thoughts
Since I fell for you
My misery began when I fell in love with you
Contributed by Aiden S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@beatriz4998
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