There are two harmonica playing bluesmen known as Sonny Boy Williamson. The… Read Full Bio ↴There are two harmonica playing bluesmen known as Sonny Boy Williamson. They are colloquially referred to as Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II respectively, but are of no relation.
The two are easy to distinguish. Williamson I played the harmonica acoustically and was essentially a pre-War artist. Williamson II was entirely an electrified harpist, in the style of Little Walter, reflecting the advent of the jukebox and electrified instruments following World War II.
(Compare the albums Sonny Boy Williamson I ~~ Sonny Boy Williamson II)
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Sonny Boy Williamson I (30 March 1914 - 1 June 1948)
also known as John Lee Curtis Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, born in Jackson, Tennessee, whose first record Good Morning little School Girl was a hit in 1937. He was widely popular throughout the whole southeast of the U.S., and was practically synonymous with the blues harmonica for the next decade, making his a commonly used stage name by the time he was murdered in 1948. He is buried at the Old Blairs Chapel Church, south west of Jackson, Tennessee.
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Sonny Boy Williamson II (11 March 1908 - 25 May 1965) also known as Willie Williamson, Willie Miller, Little Boy Blue, The Goat and Footsie.
Aleck "Rice" Miller was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.

Born as Aleck Ford to Millie Ford on the Sara Jones Plantation in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, his date and year of birth are a matter of uncertainty. He claimed to have been born on December 5, 1899, but one researcher, David Evans, claims to have found census record evidence that he was born around 1912. His gravestone lists his date of birth as March 11, 1908.

He lived and worked with his sharecropper stepfather, Jim Miller, whose last name he soon adopted, and mother, Millie Ford, until the early 1930s. Beginning in the 1930s, he traveled around Mississippi and Arkansas and encountered Big Joe Williams, Elmore James and Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, who would play guitar on his later Checker Records sides. He was also associated with Robert Johnson during this period. Miller developed his style and raffish stage persona during these years. Willie Dixon recalled seeing Lockwood and Miller playing for tips in Greenville, Mississippi in the 1930s. He entertained audiences with novelties such inserting one end of the harmonica into his mouth and playing with no hands.

In 1941 Miller was hired to play the King Biscuit Time show, advertising the King Biscuit brand of baking flour on radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas with Lockwood. It was at this point that the radio program's sponsor, Max Moore, began billing Miller as Sonny Boy Williamson, apparently in an attempt to capitalize on the fame of the well known Chicago-based harmonica player and singer John Lee Williamson (Sonny Boy Williamson I). Although John Lee Williamson was a major blues star who had already released dozens of successful and widely influential records under the name "Sonny Boy Williamson" from 1937 onward, Aleck Miller would later claim to have been the first to use the name, and some blues scholars believe that Miller's assertion he was born in 1899 was a ruse to convince audiences he was old enough to have used the name before John Lee Williamson, who was born in 1914 (this is made somewhat less likely, however, by the fact that Miller was certainly older than Williamson even if one does not accept the 1899 birthdate.) Whatever the methodology, Miller became commonly known as "Sonny Boy Williamson", and Lockwood and the rest of his band were billed as the King Biscuit Boys.

In 1949 he relocated to West Memphis, Arkansas and lived with his sister and her husband, Howlin' Wolf (later, for Checker Records, he did a parody of Howlin' Wolf entitled "Like Wolf"). Sonny Boy started his own KWEM radio show from 1948 to 1950 selling the elixir Hadacol.

Sonny Boy also brought his King Biscuit musician friends to West Memphis: Elmore James, Houston Stackhouse, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Robert Nighthawk and others, to perform on KWEM Radio.

In the 1940s Williamson married Mattie Gordon, who remained his wife until his death.

Williamson's first recording session took place in 1951 for Lillian McMurry of Jackson, Mississippi's Trumpet Records (three years after the death of John Lee Williamson, which for the first time allowed some legitimacy to Miller's carefully worded claim to being "the one and only Sonny Boy Williamson"). McMurry later erected Williamson's headstone, near Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1977.

When Trumpet went bankrupt in 1955, Sonny Boy's recording contract was yielded to its creditors, who sold it to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. Sonny Boy had begun developing a following in Chicago beginning in 1953, when he appeared there as a member of Elmore James's band. It was during his Chess years that he enjoyed his greatest success and acclaim, recording about 70 songs for Chess subsidiary Checker Records from 1955 to 1964.

In the early 1960s he toured Europe several times during the height of the British blues craze, recording with The Yardbirds and The Animals, and appearing on several TV broadcasts throughout Europe. According to the Led Zeppelin biography 'Hammer of the Gods', while in England Sonny Boy set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues" mentions that during this tour he allegedly stabbed a man during a street fight and left the country abruptly.

Sonny Boy took a liking to the European fans, and while there had a custom-made, two-tone suit tailored personally for him, along with a bowler hat, matching umbrella, and an attaché case for his harmonicas. He appears credited as "Big Skol" on Roland Kirk's live album 'Kirk in Copenhagen' (1963). One of his final recordings from England, in 1964, featured him singing "I'm Trying To Make London My Home" with Hubert Sumlin providing the guitar. Due to his many years of relating convoluted, highly fictionalized accounts of his life to friends and family, upon his return to the Delta, some expressed disbelief upon hearing of Sonny Boy's touring across the Atlantic, visiting Europe, seeing the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and other landmarks, and recording there.

Upon his return to the U.S., he resumed playing the King Biscuit Time show on KFFA, and performed around Helena, Arkansas. As fellow musicians Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis waited at the KFFA studios for Williamson on May 25, 1965, the 12:15 broadcast time was closing in and Sonny Boy was nowhere in sight. Peck left the radio station and headed out to locate Williamson, and discovered his body in bed at the rooming house where he'd been staying, dead of an apparent heart attack suffered in his sleep the night before.

Williamson is buried on New Africa Rd. just outside Tutwiler, Mississippi at the site of the former Whitman Chapel cemetery.
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Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Darling you know exactly what happened, last year just about this time
Yes you know exactly what happened, last year just about this time
You asked me for one hundred dollars, and I didn't have but ninety nine

Yes I'm in love with the little girl, just because she's so nice and kind
I'm in love, I'm in love with the little girl, just because she's so nice and kind
I was so sorry when she asked me for one hundred dollars,
I couldn't give her but ninety nine

Yes my baby taken sick on July twenty-nine
Yes the one I love she taken sick on July twenty-nine

Her doctor billed her four hundred dollars,
And I didn't have but three hundred and ninety nine

Overall Meaning

These lyrics from Sonny Boy Williamson's song "Ninety Nine" illustrate the struggle of not being able to provide what someone needs, despite your desire to do so. The lyrics speak of a past event wherein the singer's loved one, possibly his partner or spouse, had asked for a hundred dollars, but he was only able to give her ninety-nine. This inability to provide for his loved one weighs heavily on him, and he feels inadequate as a result.

The second verse adds more depth to the situation by revealing that the singer is in love with this person because she is kind and nice. This love is not financially motivated, as is evident from the fact that he couldn't fully provide for her when she needed it. The final verse further puts the singer in a difficult position, as his love falls ill on July 29th and is presented with a large medical bill. Despite his best efforts, the singer is still unable to provide the full amount needed for her care.

Overall, the song's message is one of love and struggle, wherein the singer is doing his best to care for his loved one but is hindered by his financial situation. The lyrics are simple yet poignant, painting a picture of a person whose love knows no bounds but is held back by the harsh realities of life.

Line by Line Meaning

Darling you know exactly what happened, last year just about this time
Addressing someone who is aware of the past incident that occurred around this time last year

Yes you know exactly what happened, last year just about this time
Reiterating that the person being spoken to is aware of the past incident that occurred around this time last year

You asked me for one hundred dollars, and I didn't have but ninety nine
Recalling how the person being addressed requested a hundred dollars and the singer could only provide ninety nine

Yes I'm in love with the little girl, just because she's so nice and kind
Admitting feelings for an individual who is kind-hearted and good-natured

I'm in love, I'm in love with the little girl, just because she's so nice and kind
Emphasizing the strong feelings the artist has for someone who embodies kindness and good-naturedness

I was so sorry when she asked me for one hundred dollars, I couldn't give her but ninety nine
Recalling a time when the singer was unable to provide a requested amount of money due to financial limitations

Yes my baby taken sick on July twenty-nine
Stating that a loved one fell ill on July 29th

Yes the one I love she taken sick on July twenty-nine
Referring to the individual the artist loves and how they became sick on July 29th

Her doctor billed her four hundred dollars, And I didn't have but three hundred and ninety nine
Explaining how the doctor billed the sick individual four hundred dollars, while the artist could only provide three hundred and ninety nine

Contributed by Nathan J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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