Born in the town of Thomson, Georgia, McTell learned how to play guitar in his early teens. He soon became a street performer around several Georgia cities including Atlanta and Augusta, and first recorded in 1927 for Victor Records. Although he never produced a major hit record, McTell's recording career was prolific, recording for different labels under different names throughout the 1920s and 30s. In 1940, he was recorded by folklorist John A. Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax for the Library of Congress's folk song archive. He would remain active throughout the 1940s and 50s, playing on the streets of Atlanta, often with his longtime associate, Curley Weaver. Twice more he recorded professionally. McTell's last recordings originated during an impromptu session recorded by an Atlanta record store owner in 1956. McTell would die three years later after suffering for years from diabetes and alcoholism. Despite his mainly failed releases, McTell was one of the few archaic blues musicians that would actively play and record during the 1940s and 50s. However, McTell never lived to be "rediscovered" during the imminent American folk music revival, as many other bluesmen would.
McTell's influence extended over a wide variety of artists, including The Allman Brothers Band, who famously covered McTell's "Statesboro Blues", and Bob Dylan, who paid tribute to McTell in his 1983 song "Blind Willie McTell"; the refrain of which is, "And I know no one can sing the blues, like Blind Willie McTell". Other artists influenced by McTell include Taj Mahal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Ralph McTell, Chris Smither and The White Stripes.
Born William Samuel McTier in Thomson, Georgia, blind in one eye, McTell had lost his remaining vision by late childhood. He attended schools for the blind in the states of Georgia, New York and Michigan and showed proficiency in music from an early age, first playing harmonica and accordion, learning to read and write music in Braille, and turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens. His family background was rich in music, both of his parents and an uncle played guitar; he is also a relation of bluesman and gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey. His father left the family when McTell was still young, and, when his mother died in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became a wandering musician, or "songster". He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta.
McTell married Ruth Kate Williams, now better known as Kate McTell, in 1934. She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. Most of their marriage from 1942 until his death was spent apart, with her living in Fort Gordon near Augusta and him working around Atlanta.
In the years before World War II, McTell traveled and performed widely, recording for a number of labels under many different names, including Blind Willie McTell (Victor and Decca), Blind Sammie (Columbia), Georgia Bill (Okeh), Hot Shot Willie (Victor), Blind Willie (Vocalion and Bluebird), Barrelhouse Sammie (Atlantic), and Pig & Whistle Red (Regal). The "Pig 'n Whistle" appellation was a reference to a chain of Atlanta barbecue restaurants, one of which was located on the south side of East Ponce de Leon between Boulevard and Moreland Avenue, which later became a Krispy Kreme. McTell would frequently played for tips in the parking lot of this location. He was also known to play behind the nearby building that later became Ray Lee's Blue Lantern Lounge. Like his fellow songster Lead Belly, who began his career as a street artist, McTell favored the somewhat unwieldy and unusual twelve-string guitar, whose greater volume made it suitable for outdoor playing.
In 1940 John A. Lomax and his wife, Ruby Terrill Lomax, Classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, interviewed and recorded McTell for the Library of Congress's Folk Song Archive in a two-hour session held in their hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia. These recordings document McTell's distinctive musical style, which bridges the gap between the raw country blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more conventionally melodious, Ragtime-influenced East-Coast Piedmont blues sound. Mr. and Mrs. Lomax also elicited from the singer a number of traditional songs (such as "The Boll Weevil" and "John Henry") as well as spirituals (such as "Amazing Grace"), which were not part of his usual commercial repertoire. In the interview, John A. Lomax is heard asking if McTell knows any "complaining" songs (an earlier term for protest songs), to which the singer replies somewhat uncomfortably and evasively that he does not. The Library of Congress paid McTell $10, the equivalent of $154.56 in 2011, for this two-hour session. The material from this 1940 session was issued in 1960 in LP and later in CD form, under the somewhat misleading title of "The Complete Library of Congress Recordings", notwithstanding the fact that it was in fact truncated, in that it omitted some of John A. Lomax's interactions with the singer and cut out entirely the contributions of Ruby Terrill Lomax.
Postwar, McTell recorded for Atlantic Records and Regal Records in 1949, but these recordings met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta, but his career was cut short by ill health, predominantly diabetes and alcoholism. In 1956, an Atlanta record store manager, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and enticed him with a bottle of corn liquor into his store, where he captured a few final performances on a tape recorder. These were released posthumously on Prestige/Bluesville Records as Last Session. Beginning in 1957, McTell occupied himself as a preacher at Atlanta's Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
McTell died in Milledgeville, Georgia, of a stroke in 1959. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia, his birthplace. A fan paid to have a gravestone erected on his resting place. The name given on his gravestone is Eddie McTier. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1981, and into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1990.
One of McTell's most famous songs, "Statesboro Blues," was frequently covered by The Allman Brothers Band and is considered one of their earliest signature songs. A short list of some of the artists who also perform it includes Taj Mahal, David Bromberg, The Devil Makes Three and Ralph McTell, who changed his name on account of liking the song. Ry Cooder covered McTell's "Married Man's a Fool" on his 1973 album, Paradise and Lunch.
Jack White of The White Stripes considers McTell an influence, as their 2000 album De Stijl was dedicated to him and featured a cover of his song "Southern Can Is Mine". The White Stripes also covered McTell's "Lord, Send Me an Angel", releasing it as a single in 2000.
In 2013 Jack White's Third Man Records teamed up with Document Records to reissue The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order of Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and The Mississippi Sheiks.
Bob Dylan has paid tribute to McTell on at least four occasions: Firstly, in his 1965 song "Highway 61 Revisited", the second verse begins with "Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose", referring to one of Blind Willie McTell's many recording names; later in his song "Blind Willie McTell", recorded in 1983 but released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3; then with covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, World Gone Wrong; also, in his song "Po' Boy", on 2001's "Love & Theft", which contains the lyric, "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".
Also, Bath-based band "Kill It Kid" is named after that song.
A blues bar in Atlanta is named after McTell and regularly features blues musicians and bands. The Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival is held annually in Thomson, Georgia.
Kill-It-Kid Rag
Blind Willie McTell Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Whatever the men she went with, they can do
Women and men showin' what they can do
About kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
Out in the alley and in the streets
All the gals and boys you meet
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
Yeah, kill it
Sister Kate grabbed Brother Moore
Shoved her shimmy across the floor
They want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
Put out the light 'bout half past one
We gonna dance from now till sun
We gonna dance till another sun
Kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
Ain't got no ma and ain't got no pa
Put out the lights and call the law
Want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid. Yes, yes, yes
spoken:
Bring me another half pint of gin
Then we'll go back honey we'll dance again
Throw your hands way up high
Grab me, honey, and make me cry
We're gonna kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
People come from miles around
Come in money, want to break 'em down
Come in Miami to break 'em down
I want to kill it, kid
Oh, baby, let's kill it, kid
Yellow gal from East and Main
I know she'd kill that thing
Here's a gal from eastern Maine
Why don't she kill that thing?
She want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
Devil that's trouble...
Tell these Florida women how to Eagle Rock
Take a little trip on the mountain top
Show these Florida women how to eagle rock
You want to kill it, kid
Oh, baby, let's kill it, kid
All you gals on Sixth Avenue
Show these Georgia women what they can do
About kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
spoken:
Come on gal you can't be my boss broad
Just got back from way up north
I want to kill it kid
Throw your hands and hold me tight
We gonna kill it the rest o' the night
I want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
You can kill it with a Cadillac, kill it with a Ford
I believe she can kill it on a runnin' board
She want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
"Kill it Kid" is a 12-bar blues song by Blind Willie McTell that speaks about the energy of dancing in Miami's Sixth Avenue's clubs. The lyrics are about the desire to dance, and it accentuates that both men and women have a passion for dancing under the moonlight. Blind Willie McTell voices his opinion by stating that the best way to celebrate is by dancing, and it does not matter your age or social status. The song heavily features the phrase "kill it," which refers to the act of dancing with enthusiasm and passion.
The lyrics also showcase the spontaneity of the dancers as Sister Kate grabs Brother Moore and shoves her shimmy across the floor. There is no formal structure. People can come from miles around and dance till the sun comes up. The song attributes the energy of the dance to the alcohol people consume. He asks for another half pint of gin, which he believes will extend the dancing a bit more. It mentions people from different parts of the United States that come to Sixth Avenue clubs to showcase what they can do on the dance floor. The song closes with the emphasis on the phrase, "kill it kid" by adding the lines; "you can kill it with a Cadillac, kill it with a Ford. I believe she can kill it on a running board."
Line by Line Meaning
In Miami on old Sixth Avenue
Blind Willie McTell sets the scene for the song in Miami on Sixth Avenue.
Whatever the men she went with, they can do
The women in the song are empowered and can do anything that men can.
Women and men showin' what they can do
The song is about women and men showing off their skills.
About kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
The repeated phrase 'Kill it, kid' serves as a call to action to get up and dance and have a good time.
Out in the alley and in the streets
All the gals and boys you meet
They want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
Yeah, kill it
The excitement of the dance is palpable as both women and men want to join in and kill it.
Sister Kate grabbed Brother Moore
Shoved her shimmy across the floor
They want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
Even family members are excited to join in the dance and show off their moves.
Put out the light 'bout half past one
We gonna dance from now till sun
We gonna dance till another sun
Kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
The party is just getting started and they plan on dancing until the sun comes up.
Ain't got no ma and ain't got no pa
Put out the lights and call the law
Want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid. Yes, yes, yes
The artist is free from the constraints of parental supervision and plans on partying all night.
Bring me another half pint of gin
Then we'll go back honey we'll dance again
The artist wants to keep the party going and is ready to return to the dance floor after grabbing another drink.
Throw your hands way up high
Grab me, honey, and make me cry
We're gonna kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
The dance itself is sensual and intimate, with partners holding each other tightly.
People come from miles around
Come in money, want to break 'em down
Come in Miami to break 'em down
I want to kill it, kid
Oh, baby, let's kill it, kid
The party attracts people from all over who come to join in the fun and show off their skills.
Yellow gal from East and Main
I know she'd kill that thing
Here's a gal from eastern Maine
Why don't she kill that thing?
She want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
The artist is impressed by the skills of the dancers, even if they come from far away places.
Devil that's trouble...
Tell these Florida women how to Eagle Rock
Take a little trip on the mountain top
Show these Florida women how to eagle rock
You want to kill it, kid
Oh, baby, let's kill it, kid
The singer is confident in their own dance skills and is willing to show off and teach others.
All you gals on Sixth Avenue
Show these Georgia women what they can do
About kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
The singer is proud of the dancers on Sixth Avenue and wants them to show off their skills to the women from Georgia.
Come on gal you can't be my boss broad
Just got back from way up north
I want to kill it kid
The singer is carefree and unburdened by responsibilities, just having returned from a trip and eager to dance.
Throw your hands and hold me tight
We gonna kill it the rest o' the night
I want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
The night is not over and there is still more dancing and fun to be had.
You can kill it with a Cadillac, kill it with a Ford
I believe she can kill it on a runnin' board
She want to kill it, kid
Hot mama, let's kill it, kid
The dancers are shown to be so skilled that they can even dance on a moving car, and the artist loves it.
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: WILLIE MCTELL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Lembit Punapart
what the hell is wrong with this Willie?all his songs are awesome.god bless him soul.thx for sharing.
Joachim יויכין Herda הרדה
A great piece of music history!! Thank U 4 sharing!!
Slickdapj
He wrote it. He sings it. He plays the melody on the high strings. At the same time he plays the walkin' bass on the same guitar! All done in one take. Think about that. Incredible.
UncleErnie71
The version from Atlanta Twelve String is absolutely stellar.
Tim Sullivan
So lovely! thank ye much.
wisesatyr72
I like his voice ..its soothing not like moonshine liquor blues scroll
I A Pashby
Seems to me a take on "Georgia Rag" originally by Blind Blake, none the worse for that!
hanopyunder
Do you mean Georgia bound or southern rag?
Mostly Unbothered
kill it kid named there band after this song :) wicked song
Burh4n
YES!