Alfonzo "Lonnie" Johnson (February 8, 1894 – June 6, 1970) was a pioneering… Read Full Bio ↴Alfonzo "Lonnie" Johnson (February 8, 1894 – June 6, 1970) was a pioneering blues and jazz singer/guitarist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. There is some dispute over the year of his birth, but 1894 is what appears on his passport.
Lonnie Johnson's early recordings are the first guitar recordings that display a single-note soloing style with use of string bending and vibrato. While it cannot be proven that this contains the influence of earlier players who did not record, it is the origin of Blues and Rock solo guitar. Johnson's influence is obvious in Django Reinhardt, T-Bone Walker and virtually all electric blues guitar players.
[citation needed] Raised in a family of musicians, Johnson studied violin and guitar as a child, but concentrated on the latter throughout his professional career. A 1917 tour to England with a revue may have saved his life, for he returned to New Orleans in 1919 to find that most of his family had died in the 1918 influenza epidemic.

In the early 1920s, Johnson worked with the orchestras of Charlie Creath and Fate Marable on riverboats, but he made St. Louis his home in 1925. There he entered and won an Okeh Records blues contest that resulted in his making a series of memorable recordings for the label between 1925 and 1932, including guitar duets with Eddie Lang and vocal duets with Victoria Spivey. In the 1920s, Johnson also made guest appearances on records by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, the Duke Ellington orchestra, and The Chocolate Dandies, playing 12-string guitar solos in an extraordinary, pioneering single-string style that greatly influenced such future jazz guitarists as Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, and gave the instrument new meaning as a jazz voice.

Lonnie Johnson's career was a rollercoaster ride that sometimes took him away from music. In between great musical accomplishments, he found it necessary to take menial jobs that ranged from working in a steel foundry to mopping floors as a janitor. He was working at Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Hotel in 1959 when WHAT-FM disc jockey Chris Albertson happened upon him. Albertson succeeded in securing for Johnson a Chicago engagement at the Playboy Club, which launched yet another comeback. Johnson subsequently performed with Duke Ellington and his orchestra and with an all-star folk concert, both at Town Hall, New York City.

He also toured Europe and recorded several albums for the Prestige Bluesville label, some with Elmer Snowden, and one with his Okeh vocal partner, Victoria Spivey. To his great regret, Johnson was always tagged as a blues artist, and he found it difficult to be regarded as anything else. "I had done some singing by then," he explained when asked why he entered the Okeh contest, "but I still didn't take it as seriously as my guitar playing, and I guess I would have done anything to get recorded--it just happened to be a blues contest, so I sang the blues."

Johnson died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 16, 1970 of complications resulting from a 1969 auto accident. He was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame in 1997.

One of Elvis Presley's earliest recordings was Johnson's blues ballad, "Tomorrow Night", which was also recorded by LaVern Baker

Bob Dylan wrote about the performing method he learned from Johnson in Chronicles, Vol. 1. Dylan thinks Robert Johnson had learned a lot from Lonnie.

Careless Love
Lonnie Johnson Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Love oh love oh careless love
Love, love oh careless love
You have caused me to weep
You have caused me to moan
You have caused me to lose my happy home

Don't never drive a stranger from your door
Don't never drive a stranger from your door

It may be your best friend knockin' on your door
Then it may be your brother, you will never now

Careless love, look how you carry me down
Careless love, look how you carry me down
You caused me to lose my mother and she's layin' in six feet of ground
Careless love I can't let you carry me down

Careless love, you drove me through the rain and snow
Careless love,you drove me through the rain and snow
You have robbed me out of my silver and out of all my gold
I'll be damned if you rob me out of my soul

You've worried my mother until she died
You've caused my father to lose his mind

Now damn you, I'm goin' to shoot you and shoot you four five times
And stand over you until you finish dyin'

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Lonnie Johnson's song "Careless Love" express the painful and devastating effects of a reckless love that has caused the singer to experience immense grief and loss. The repetition of the phrase "love oh love oh careless love" highlights the central theme of the song: the destructive power of love that is not taken seriously or treated with care. The singer addresses this love directly, blaming it for making them weep, moan, and lose their happy home.

In the second verse, the singer warns against turning away strangers or loved ones who may be seeking help, because it is impossible to know who may be knocking on your door. The third verse continues to describe the destruction that careless love brings, with references to death and loss. The singer vows to resist letting themselves be brought down by this destructive force.

The fourth verse directly addresses careless love as a driving force that has caused the singer to suffer, taking away their possessions and even their family members. In the final lines of the song, the singer's frustration and anger become clear as they proclaim their intentions to shoot careless love multiple times and stand over it until it dies.

Overall, "Careless Love" is a poignant and emotional expression of the devastating effects of a love that is not treated with respect and care.

Line by Line Meaning

Love oh love oh careless love
The singer is addressing love, but not in a positive way, as it has caused him a lot of pain and sorrow.

You have caused me to weep
The singer has been brought to tears because of the careless love he has experienced.

You have caused me to moan
The singer is expressing that the careless love he has experienced has caused him physical and emotional pain.

You have caused me to lose my happy home
The singer has lost his home, likely due to the careless actions of his lover.

Don't never drive a stranger from your door
The singer is warning against shutting out strangers, as they could turn out to be a friend or family member in need.

It may be your best friend knockin' on your door
The singer uses an example to illustrate the potential regret of turning away strangers, as it could be someone you know and care for.

Then it may be your brother, you will never now
Continuing his warning, the singer emphasizes that you may never know who is on the other side of the door, and it could even be family.

Careless love, look how you carry me down
The singer addresses careless love again, this time noting how destructive it is and how it has brought him down.

You caused me to lose my mother and she's layin' in six feet of ground
The singer accuses careless love of causing the death of his mother, who is now buried in a grave.

Careless love I can't let you carry me down
The singer expresses his determination not to let careless love continue to consume him and bring him down further.

Careless love, you drove me through the rain and snow
The singer continues to blame careless love for the hardships he has endured, suggesting it has been an ongoing struggle.

You have robbed me out of my silver and out of all my gold
The singer accuses careless love of taking away his material possessions, which likely add to his troubles and heartbreak.

I'll be damned if you rob me out of my soul
Despite losing many things to careless love, the singer declares that he will not let it take his soul or his spirit.

You've worried my mother until she died
The singer repeats his accusation that careless love caused the death of his mother, and notes that it even weighed on her until the end.

You've caused my father to lose his mind
The singer expands on how careless love has affected his family, stating that it has even caused his father to become mentally unwell.

Now damn you, I'm goin' to shoot you and shoot you four five times
The singer's frustration and anger with careless love reaches its peak, as he declares that he is going to shoot it multiple times.

And stand over you until you finish dyin'
The singer's violent outburst reaches its climax as he declares he will stand over careless love until it is completely destroyed.

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: ANGELO BADALAMENTI, JOHN MAYBURY

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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