One commentator noted that Burnside, along with Big Jack Johnson, Paul "Wine" Jones, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes and James "Super Chikan" Johnson, were "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound."
Early life and career
Burnside was born in Harmontown, Mississippi, in Lafayette County. He spent most of his life in North Mississippi, working as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman, as well as playing guitar at weekend house parties. He was first inspired to pick up the guitar in his early twenties, after hearing the 1948 John Lee Hooker single, "Boogie Chillen" (which inspired numerous other rural bluesmen, among them Buddy Guy, to start playing). He learned music largely from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who lived nearby in an adjoining county. He also cited his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters, as an influence.
During the 1950s, Burnside grew tired of sharecropping and moved to Chicago in the hope of finding better economic opportunities. But things did not turn out as he had hoped. Within the span of one year his father, brother, and uncle were all murdered in the city, a tragedy that Burnside would later draw upon in his work, particularly in his interpretation of Skip James's "Hard Time Killing Floor" and the talking blues "R.L.'s Story", the opening and closing tracks on Burnside's 2000 album, Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down.
Around 1959, he left Chicago and went back to Mississippi to work the farms and raise a family. Burnside was convicted for murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration (in Parchman Prison) for the crime. Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of Burnside's skills as a tractor driver. Burnside later said "I didn't mean to kill nobody ... I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord."
His earliest recordings were made in the late 1960s by George Mitchell and released on Arhoolie Records. Another album of acoustic material was recorded that year and little else was released before Hill Country Blues, in the early 1980s. An album's worth of singles followed, released on ethnomusicology professor Dr. David Evans' Highwater Records record label in Memphis, Tennessee.
Later life and career
In the 1990s, he began recording for the Oxford, Mississippi, label Fat Possum Records. Founded by Living Blues magazine editor Peter Redvers-Lee and Matthew Johnson, the label was dedicated to recording ageing North Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Burnside remained with Fat Possum from that time until his death, and he usually performed with his friend and understudy, the slide guitarist Kenny Brown, with whom he began playing in 1971 and claimed as his "adopted son."
Burnside attracted the attention of Jon Spencer, the leader of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, touring and recording with this group and gaining a new audience in the process.
After the death of Kimbrough and the burning of Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, Mississippi, Burnside quit recording studio material for Fat Possum, though he did continue to tour. After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.
Members of his large extended family continue to play blues in the Holly Springs area: grandson Cedric Burnside tours with Kenny Brown and most recently with Steve 'Lightnin' Malcolm as part of the 'Juke Joint Duo', while his son Duwayne Burnside has played guitar with the North Mississippi Allstars (Polaris; Hill Country Revue with R. L. Burnside). Duwayne's solo career began when "Duwayne Burnside and the Mississippi Mafia" recorded "Live At the Mint" in October 1997. Members included Cedric Burnside, Eddie Batos, Joe Hill from Alien Ant Farm, and David Kimbrough, Jr. (Junior Kimbrough's son) with Duwayne's father sitting in on a few tracks. Duwayne and the Mississippi Mafia released "Under Pressure" in March 2005, which was recorded at Delta Studios in Clarksdale, Mississippi featuring Jimbo Mathus, rhythm guitar (Squirrel Nut Zippers), Roy Cunningham on drums (Stax Sessions), and Burnside's son Garry Burnside on bass guitar. In 2004, the Burnside sons opened Burnside Blues Cafe, located 30 miles southeast of Memphis at the intersection of U.S. Highway 78 and Mississippi Highway 7 in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
In January 2006, Garry and Cedric released The Record under the moniker "Burnside Exploration".
Death
Burnside had been in declining health since heart surgery in 1999. He died at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on September 1, 2005 at the age of 78.[4] Services were held at Rust College in Holly Springs [which is also where services were held for his friend, Junior Kimbrough, who died in 1998], with burial in the Free Springs Cemetery in Harmontown. Around the time of his passing, he resided in Byhalia, Mississippi and his immediate survivors included:
His wife: Alice Mae Taylor Burnside (married 1951); died November 16, 2008
Daughters: Mildred Jean Burnside, Linda Jackson, Brenda Kay Brooks, and Pamela Denise Burnside;
Sons: Melvin Burnside, R.L. Burnside Jr., Calvin Burnside, Joseph Burnside, Daniel Burnside, Duwayne Burnside, Dexter Burnside, Garry Burnside, and Rodger Harmon
Sisters: Lucille Burnside, Verelan Burnside, and Mat Burnside
Brother: Jesse Monia
35 Grandchildren
32 Great-Grandchildren
Style
Burnside had a powerful, expressive voice and played both electric and acoustic guitars (both with a slide and without). His drone-based style was a characteristic of North Mississippi hill country blues rather than Mississippi Delta blues. Like other country blues musicians, he did not always adhere to 12- or 16-bar blues patterns, often adding extra beats according to his preference. He called this "Burnside style" and often commented that his backing musicians needed to be familiar with his style in order to be able to play along with him.
His earliest recordings, like those of John Lee Hooker, sound very similar in their vocal and instrumental style. Many of his songs do not have chord changes, but use the same chord or repeating bass line throughout, giving his music a hypnotic feel. His vocal style is characterized by a tendency to "break" into falsetto briefly (usually at the ends of long notes).
Like the bluesman T-Model Ford, Burnside utilized the stripped-down element of his music, playing up the rawness, emphasizing his image as a lifelong hard-drinking man, and singing songs of swagger and rebellion. Burnside collaborated in the late 1990s with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on the album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey. Consequently, he gained the attention of many within this underground music scene, cited as an influence by Hillstomp[9] and covered on record by The Immortal Lee County Killers. Burnside's "Skinny Woman" was also interpolated into the song "Busted" by fellow Fat Possum musicians The Black Keys, a band associated with the punk blues scene in their early years.
He also knew many toasts (African American narrative folk poems such as "Signifying monkey" and "Tojo Told Hitler") and frequently recited them between songs at his live concerts and on his recordings.
Selected albums
First Recordings (recorded in the late 1960s by George Mitchell; re-released by Fat Possum Records in 2003)
Too Bad Jim (produced in 1992 by Robert Palmer)
Well, Well, Well (songs and interviews from 1986-1993, released in 2001 on MC Records)
A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (1996, featuring the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion)
Mr. Wizard (1997)
Acoustic Stories (1997)
My Black Name A-Ringin' (1999)
Burnside on Burnside (a critically acclaimed 2001 live album recorded in the Crystal Ballroom on Portland, Oregon's Burnside Street)
Come On In, Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down, and A Bothered Mind (three albums of remixed material, often featuring guest artists, released in 1998, 2000 and 2004, respectively)
Films
Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads (1991). Directed by Robert Mugge
American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America, part 3: "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1990). Written, directed, and produced by Alan Lomax; developed by the Association for Cultural Equity at Columbia University and Hunter College. North Carolina Public TV; A Dibb Direction production for Channel Four. This is a lightly re-edited version of "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1978) made by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long in Association with Mississippi Authority for Educational Television
You See Me Laughin': The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen (2003; released by Fat Possum Records in 2005). Produced and directed by Mandy Stein. Oxford, Mississippi: Plain Jane Productions, Inc; Fat Possum Records.
In popular culture
The 2007 Samuel L. Jackson / Christina Ricci film, Black Snake Moan is infused with countless Burnside nods, including: the Reverend R. L. character and when Jackson plays the blues toward the end of the film, he thanks "Ced" and "Kenny" - Cedric Burnside (Burnside's grandson) and Kenny Brown (Burnside's "adopted son"), who were primary sidemen through the 1990s and early 2000s. Cedric and Kenny are also part of Jackson's band in the juke joint scene.
"It's Bad You Know," and "Shuck Dub" were featured in the HBO series The Sopranos.
"Got Messed Up" was featured in the FX series Rescue Me during an opening montage on Season 5 Episode 18, "Carrot".
A Burnside poster can be seen on a wall in brothers Drake and Josh's room in the Nickelodeon sitcom, Drake & Josh.
How Many More Years
R.L. Burnside Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How Many More Times, treat me the way you want to do?
When I give you all my love, please, please be true.
I'll give you all I've got to give, rings, pearls, and all.
I'll give you all I've got to give, rings, pearls, and all.
I've got to get you together baby, I'm sure, sure you're gonna crawl.
(spoken)
I was a young man, I couldn't resist
Got me a girl and I kissed her and then and then...
Whoops, oh Lordy, well I did it again.
Now I got ten children of my own
I got another child on the way that makes eleven.
But I'm in constant heaven.
I know it's all right in my mind
'Cause I got a little schoolgirl and she's all mine
I can't get through to her 'cause it doesn't permit
But I'm gonna give her everything I've got to give.
Oh, Rosie, oh, girl.
Oh, Rosie, oh, girl.
Steal away now, steal away.
Steal away now, steal away.
Little Robert Anthony wants to come and play.
Well they call me the hunter, that's my name.
They call me the hunter, that's how I got my fame.
Ain't no need to hide, Ain't no need to run.
'Cause I've got you in the sights of my..........gun!
How Many More Times, barrelhouse all night long.
How Many More Times, barrelhouse all night long.
I've got to get to you, baby, baby, please come home.
The song "How Many More Years" by R.L. Burnside & the Sound Machine is a blues song that speaks about a man's yearning for his lover's loyalty. The singer starts by asking his lover, "How many more times, treat me the way you want to do?" He is pleading with her to be true to him, as he has given her all his love. Throughout the song, he reaffirms his love by saying he will give her all he's got to give, including rings, pearls, and everything he owns. He wants to get her together and make her crawl, perhaps referring to him wooing her and making her submit to his love.
The singer then reminisces about his wild youth, where he couldn't resist his impulses and missed out on things. He now has ten children of his own and another one on the way, still, he's in constant heaven. He talks about a little schoolgirl who is all his, but he can't get through to her because it's not permitted. He then calls out to Rosie, asking her to steal away with him and bring Little Robert Anthony along to play.
In the end, the singer introduces himself as the hunter, alluding to him being on the hunt for his lover. He tells his lover that there's no need to hide or run because she's in the sights of his gun, metaphorically referring to his love. He then concludes the song by saying he wants to barrelhouse all night long and begs his lover to come home to him.
Line by Line Meaning
How Many More Times, treat me the way you want to do?
How many more times will you treat me as you please?
When I give you all my love, please, please be true.
If I give you my whole heart, please reciprocate genuine affection.
I'll give you all I've got to give, rings, pearls, and all.
I'm willing to give everything I have, including valuables, to show my love.
I've got to get you together baby, I'm sure, sure you're gonna crawl.
I have to get us on the same page, and I am certain you will come around.
I was a young man, I couldn't resist
I was once impulsive as a youth.
Started thinkin' it all over, just what I had missed.
I then pondered the things I had overlooked.
Got me a girl and I kissed her and then and then...
I got myself a lady and then after some time...
Whoops, oh Lordy, well I did it again.
Oops! I repeated the same mistake.
Now I got ten children of my own
I now have ten kids of my own.
I got another child on the way that makes eleven.
Another baby on the way will bring the total to eleven.
But I'm in constant heaven.
Despite the big family, I'm happy.
I know it's all right in my mind
I'm okay with everything in my thoughts.
'Cause I got a little schoolgirl and she's all mine
Because I have a young lover, and she's only mine.
I can't get through to her 'cause it doesn't permit
I can't communicate with her because of the age difference.
But I'm gonna give her everything I've got to give.
Nonetheless, I'm willing to give her everything.
Oh, Rosie, oh, girl.
Oh, Rosie, my dear girl.
Steal away now, steal away.
Slip away silently, babe.
Little Robert Anthony wants to come and play.
My son, Robert Anthony, wants to play with you.
Well they call me the hunter, that's my name.
My name is 'the hunter.'
Ain't no need to hide, Ain't no need to run.
No need for you to hide or run away.
'Cause I've got you in the sights of my..........gun!
I've got you in my sights, beware!
How Many More Times, barrelhouse all night long.
How many more times can we have a wild night at the barrelhouse?
I've got to get to you, baby, baby, please come home.
I need to be with you, please come home, baby.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Chas Menear
R.L. Burnside is an American treasure, and should be forever remembered and listened to! He also serves as a fine example to this- and future generations of being at work doing what you love- playing!
ramiro fauno martinez
Great little video ! When i first listened to the music of RL Burnside, it changed everything i thought i knew about the blues and also it changed the way i played the guitar, so at the end it was a life changing thing when i first listened to his music. I remember i saw an album review on the Guitar World mag, and it was about the soundtrack of the movie Deep Blues, where RL and Junior Kimbrough appeared. Then I saw the movie You See Me Laughin and that movie just blew my mind !! Cheers from South América - Bolivia !!
Col Ray Price
Love his music, love his style. He has been a big influence on me and my music. Glad to see his band living on with Kenny Brown still recording and Cedric getting bigger every day. Thanks RL and thanks Fat Possum
Thaxton Waters
Hill Country Blues has a special sauce in the rhythm and pace.
Burnside is my FAVORITE Bluesman🎸💪🏾
Joe Sirianni
Absolute Legend
1apeture
Thank you R.L for kicking it up a notch and having a great time when you came to Dallas. Never be forgoten.
Peter Fritzler
My favorite blues artist, and one of my favorite artists, regardless.
durwin pocha
"My own family, couldn't have kids. So the neighbor had me." R.L. Burnside.
Tomaso Torinesi
A real giant.
TRISTRAM
Coolest MoFo ever. Thanks RL. R.I.P Mate