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.
When You Fall for Someone That's Not Your Own
Lonnie Johnson Lyrics
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They tell me blues and trouble, they walks hands in hand.
But you ain't had no trouble, till your woman falls for some no good man.
A married woman will swear, she love you all of her life.
A married woman will swear, she love you all of her life.
And meet her other man ‘round the corner, and tell that same lie twice.
You tell me you have had trouble, and worry all of your life.
Man, but you ain't had no trouble, till you fall for a married man's wife.
Then if you get a woman of your own, and make her happy night and day.
If you get a woman of your own, and make her happy night and day.
There will be some no good man still fall for her, pretty soon she will go away.
When it begin rainin', and you lookin' through your window pane.
When it begin rainin', you lookin' through your window pane.
And crazy about another man's wife, it's enough to drive you insane.
But a married woman, is the sweetest woman ever was born.
A married woman, the sweetest woman ever was born.
The only thing that hurts you, she has to go home some time.
Lonnie Johnson's song "When You Fall for Someone That's Not Your Own" is a poignant commentary about the struggles of forbidden love. The lyrics speak of the common belief that blues and trouble go hand in hand, but the real trouble comes when a person falls in love with someone who is already taken. The song paints a picture of the emotional turmoil experienced by the hapless pursuer who loves a married woman. The lines "But you ain't had no trouble, till your woman falls for some no good man" convey the depth of despair that comes from falling for someone who is not available.
The song also speaks about the hypocrisy of married women who swear their undying love to their husbands, but secretly chase after other men. The lines "And meet her other man 'round the corner, and tell that same lie twice" are a scathing indictment of such behavior. The song also touches upon the fragility of relationships, as even if a man finds a woman of his own who makes him happy, there is always the possibility of a no-good man coming along and stealing her away.
In conclusion, Lonnie Johnson's song "When You Fall for Someone That's Not Your Own" is a melancholic and insightful account of the pain and heartbreak that accompany forbidden love.
Line by Line Meaning
They tell me blues and trouble, they walks hands in hand.
Blues and trouble go together.
But you ain't had no trouble, till your woman falls for some no good man.
Nothing could be worse than if your woman fell for a no good man.
A married woman will swear, she love you all of her life.
Even though a married woman may tell you she loves you, she might be lying.
And meet her other man ‘round the corner, and tell that same lie twice.
She might be repeating that same lie to another man in secret.
You tell me you have had trouble, and worry all of your life.
You might think you have had tough times until this situation.
Man, but you ain't had no trouble, till you fall for a married man's wife.
This situation is the worst you can experience.
If you get a woman of your own, and make her happy night and day.
Getting your own woman and keeping her happy is a good thing.
There will be some no good man still fall for her, pretty soon she will go away.
But that won't prevent another no good man from trying to take her from you soon enough.
When it begin rainin', you lookin' through your window pane.
When it rains and you're inside, you might start to think about your problems.
And crazy about another man's wife, it's enough to drive you insane.
Being obsessed with someone else's wife can drive a person insane.
A married woman, the sweetest woman ever was born.
Despite everything, a married woman can still be the sweetest person you've ever met.
The only thing that hurts you, she has to go home some time.
The only thing that truly hurts is knowing that she has to go back to her husband eventually.
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