Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi Delta town of Inverness and raised in Greenville by a farmer and local blues musician.[2] By age twelve he had learned the guitar and was a street musician, chiefly influenced by T-Bone Walker and his blues and rock and roll contemporaries.[2] In 1952, while still a teenager playing in local bars, he caught the attention of Ike Turner, who was at that time a talent scout for Sam Phillips' Sun Records. He signed a contract with the label and recorded a number of singles. None of them broke through onto radio or sold well at record stores, however, and Milton left the Sun label by 1955.[2]
After trying several labels without notable success, including Trumpet Records,[3] Milton set up the St. Louis based Bobbin Records label, which ultimately scored a distribution deal with Leonard Chess' Chess Records.[2] As a record producer, Milton helped bring artists such as Albert King and Fontella Bass to fame, while experiencing his own success for the first time.[2] After a number of small format and regional hits, his 1962 single, "So Mean to Me," broke onto the Billboard R&B chart, eventually peaking at #14.
Following a short break to tour, managing other acts, and spending time recording new material, he returned to music in 1965 with a more polished sound, similar to that of B.B. King. After the ill-received "Blind Man" (R&B: #86), he released back-to-back hit singles. The first, "We're Gonna Make It," a blues-infused soul song, topped the R&B chart and broke through onto Top 40 radio, a format then dominated largely by white artists. He followed the song with #4 R&B hit "Who's Cheating Who?" All three songs were featured on his album, We're Gonna Make It, released that summer.
Throughout the late 1960s Milton released a number of moderately successful singles, but did not issue a further album until 1969, with Grits Ain't Groceries featuring his hit of the same name, as well as "Just a Little Bit" and "Baby, I Love You". With the death of Leonard Chess the same year, Milton's distributor, Checker Records fell into disarray, and Milton joined the Stax label two years later.[2] Adding complex orchestration to his works, Milton scored hits with "That's What Love Will Make You Do" and "What It Is" from his live album, What It Is: Live at Montreux. He appeared in the documentary film, Wattstax, which was released in 1973.[4] Stax, however, had been losing money since late in the previous decade and was forced into bankruptcy in 1975.[2]
After leaving Stax, Milton struggled to maintain a career, moving first to Evidence, then the MCA imprint Mobile Fidelity Records, before finding a home at the independent record label, Malaco Records, where he remained for much of the remainder of his career.[2] His last hit single, "Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number," was released in 1983 from the album of the same name.[2] In 1988, Little Milton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and won a W.C. Handy Award.[2] His most final album, Think of Me, was released in May 2005 on the Telarc imprint, and included writing and guitar on three songs by Peter Shoulder of the UK-based blues-rock trio Winterville.
The name 'Little Milton' was reused for Gerald Bostock, the fictional boy poet central to Jethro Tull's 1972 record Thick as a Brick.
Milton died on August 4, 2005 from complications following a stroke.
So Mean To Me
Little Milton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All over town,
When my money run out,
You gonna put me down;
She's a mean mistreaster
A heartbreaker too
Lightning ought to strike that woman
For treating me the way she dooo
Walk the streets at midnight
Heart full of pain
Why i love the woman
I can't explain
She treats me like the dirt
Down on the ground
I still away to cry sometime,but the tears they won't come down
In the song "So Mean To Me" by Little Milton, the singer talks about his significant other who mistreats and breaks his heart. He describes how he tells everyone about her behavior and how she puts him down when his money runs out. He even wishes for lightning to strike her for how she treats him. The pain is so intense that he wanders the streets at midnight with his heart full of pain. He loves her but cannot explain why despite how poorly she treats him. He feels like he is treated like dirt down on the ground and sometimes cries away but the tears do not come down.
The song provides a story of a man who is trapped in an abusive relationship with someone who belittles him and makes him feel like trash. He appears to be stuck in this relationship, unable to leave or find any comfort. The lyrics showcase the struggles of toxic relationships that can be hard to break away from and how love can become an obsession that leaves one vulnerable and hurt.
Line by Line Meaning
TELLIN' EVERYBODY
I'm sharing my story with anyone who will listen
All over town,
Everywhere I go, everyone knows
When my money run out,
As soon as I'm broke
You gonna put me down;
She'll start criticizing me
She's a mean mistreaster
She's cruel and heartless
A heartbreaker too
And she always breaks my heart
Lightning ought to strike that woman
I wish karma would catch up to her
For treating me the way she dooo
Because of how badly she treats me
Walk the streets at midnight
I wander around in desperation
Heart full of pain
My heart is aching constantly
Why I love the woman
I'm not sure why I'm still attached to her
I can't explain
I really don't have an answer
She treats me like the dirt
She treats me very poorly
Down on the ground
As if I'm nothing
I still away to cry sometime,
Sometimes I need to cry alone
but the tears they won't come down
But I'm so emotionally drained that I can't even cry anymore
Contributed by Skyler O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.