Wheatstraw was born William Bunch in Ripley, Tennessee but grew up in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, where his family relocated soon after his birth. Little is known of his early life, other than that he took up playing both the piano and guitar at a young age.
Bunch left Cotton Plant in 1927 and began living the life of an itinerant musician traveling throughout the Deep South. Like many African Americans of this time period, the great migration eventually drew his attention to the cities of the North. Places such as Chicago, Indianapolis and Detroit were favoured destinations, due to the wealth of employment in the factories located in these cities. St. Louis was another city that drew its share of uprooted individuals who sought a better life than that offered by the toil of sharecropping. It was in St. Louis that Bunch landed in 1929.
Having honed his musical talents while travelling, and influenced by the popularity of the Blues duet of pianist Leroy Carr and guitar player Scrapper Blackwell, Bunch found easy work in the clubs of both St. Louis and East St. Louis on the other side of the Mississippi River.
It was around this time Bunch decided to change his name to Peetie Wheatstraw. He also called himself "The Devil's Son-in-Law" and this title is under his name starting with his earliest recordings.
Wheatstraw's self-promotion swiftly paid off as he became a popular performer in East St. Louis, to the extent that he was asked to Chicago in 1930 to partake in recording sessions. He first entered the Vocalion Studios on August 13, 1930, and recorded a handful of numbers which included "Four O'Clock In The Morning" and "Tennessee Peaches Blues". Over the following decade, he would make several such treks, recording over 160 sides for the Vocalion, Decca and Bluebird labels.
Wheatstraw was known for his laid-back approach and adept singing and songwriting, though his instrumental talents were average at best. His songwriting appealed to working class minorities, due to their nature of the content—he often wrote about social issues such as unemployment and public assistance. There were also pieces about the immoral ways of loose women, and true to his own self-publicity, death and the supernatural. Almost all of his songs included his trademark "Ooh, well well", usually accentuated in the third verse, and this has been carried on by many subsequent Bluesmen, most noteworthy today being R.L. Burnside.
On his records Wheatstraw is occasionally heard playing guitar, but he usually took to the piano and required a guitarist to play with him—among his collaborators were Kokomo Arnold, Lonnie Johnson, Charlie Jordan, Charlie McCoy and Teddy Bunn, in addition to pianist Champion Jack Dupree. On some of his last dates, Peetie Wheatstraw recorded within a jazz inspired framework, collaborating with Lil Armstrong and trumpeter Jonah Jones.
Wheatstraw's influence was enormous during the 1930s. Perhaps the most obvious example of Wheatstraw's impact can be seen in the writings of Robert Johnson, often considered the most important Blues figure of the era. Many of Johnson's own recordings were actually re-workings of other popular artists of the time, and he drew heavily from Wheatstraw's repertoire.
Crapshooter's Blues
Peetie Wheatstraw Lyrics
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Peetie Wheatstraw (William Bunch)
(Bunch)
Chicago, Mar 26, 1937
Decca 7292
Peetie Wheatstraw - vocal, unk acc.
Album: Peetie Wheatstraw Essentials Album
Allego Classic Blues cbl 200037
My baby's a crap shooter
And she shoots 'em like a man
My babe, she's a crapshooter
And she shoots em' like a man
And ev' since she been shooting craps
Woo-well-well, she been going from hand to hand
Sometime she wins
But the most time she lose
Sometime she win
But now the most time she lose
But now when she lose
Woo-well-well, then I have the crap shooting blues
She told me to always
Bet that the dice won't pass
She told to always
Bet that the dice won't pass
But ev'rytime since I been bettin' that way
Woo-well-well, I been had a raggedy yas, yas, yas.
Since I have been shooting craps
I can't win a cent
Since I have been shooting craps
I can't win a cent
Well, I can't win enough dough
Woo-hoo-well-well, now to even pay my rent
I'm tellin' all you crapshooters
Now to let crapshooting go
I am telling all you crapshooters
Woo-well, to let crapshooting go
'Cause now you will be stone barefooted
Woo-well-well, then again and outta dough.
~
In Peetie Wheatstraw's song Crapshooter's Blues, he sings about his lover, who is a skilled crap shooter, or dice game player. He describes how she shoots the dice with the skill of a man, and how since she began playing, she has been going from hand to hand or from person to person. Although she sometimes wins at the game, she usually loses, causing Wheatstraw to feel the blues. She advises him to always bet that the dice won't pass, but whenever he does so, he loses badly, causing him to end up with almost nothing left. As a result of his crapshooting, Wheatstraw cannot even afford to pay his rent.
Line by Line Meaning
My baby's a crap shooter
My significant other is a gambler
And she shoots 'em like a man
She gambles like a man (skillfully)
My babe, she's a crapshooter
My significant other is a gambler
And she shoots em' like a man
She gambles like a man (skillfully)
And ev' since she been shooting craps
Since she started gambling
Woo-well-well, she been going from hand to hand
She's been changing partners frequently
Sometime she wins
Occasionally she wins
But the most time she lose
Most of the time she loses
Sometime she win
Occasionally she wins
But now the most time she lose
But most of the time she loses now
But now when she lose
But now when she loses
Woo-well-well, then I have the crap shooting blues
I feel down when she loses
She told me to always
She advised me to
Bet that the dice won't pass
Bet that the dice won't show winning numbers
She told to always
She advised me to
Bet that the dice won't pass
Bet that the dice won't show winning numbers
But ev'rytime since I been bettin' that way
But since I started betting that way
Woo-well-well, I been had a raggedy yas, yas, yas.
I've been having a rough time
Since I have been shooting craps
Since I started gambling
I can't win a cent
I haven't won any money
Since I have been shooting craps
Since I started gambling
I can't win a cent
I haven't won any money
Well, I can't win enough dough
I can't win a sufficient amount of money
Woo-hoo-well-well, now to even pay my rent
I can't even pay my rent now
I'm tellin' all you crapshooters
I'm advising all gamblers
Now to let crapshooting go
To abandon gambling
I am telling all you crapshooters
I'm advising all gamblers
Woo-well, to let crapshooting go
To abandon gambling
'Cause now you will be stone barefooted
Because now you'll be broke
Woo-well-well, then again and outta dough.
You'll be broke again
Contributed by Colton M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.