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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Alcohol Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee)
(John Lee Williamson)
Chicago, September 19, 1947
With Eddie Boyd - piano, Willie Lacey - guitar
Ransom Knowling - sb, Judge Riley - drums
Album Complete Recorded Works Vol 5
October 19, 1945 - November 12, 1947
I went down 31st Street, now
Just to buy me a drink of alcohol, honey
I went down 31st Street, now
Just to buy me a drink of alcohol, now
I told the old man to cut it half full a-water
But that old man, why'know, didn't-a put any drop at all in
So, I'm drinkin' mine straight alley can
See, an I went jus' staggerin' on down the street, now
I drinkin' my straight alley can, now
So I went jus' staggerin' down the street, now
Now but my head got so heavy
My eyes couldn't even give a-peepin', now
Alright, Lacey
(guitar & instrumental) ee!
My baby tells me, 'Papa, Papa'
She says, 'Sonny Boy, you know you ain't no good at all now'
My baby tell me, 'Papa, Papa' now
She says 'Sonny Boy, you know you ain't no good at all'
She says, 'The reason you don't make me happy
Because you drink too much of this old alcohol now'
I said, 'But baby won't you go ridin' now
Oh, can I take you ridin' in my car now?'
I said, 'But baby won't you go ridin' now
Can I take you ridin' wit me in my car now?'
She said, 'But I'm scared you gonna drink alcohol
Says, Sonny Boy, then we wouldn't ride very far.
~
The lyrics of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Alcohol Blues" describe the negative effects of alcohol on the singer's life. He starts out by saying that he went to 31st Street to buy a drink of alcohol, but that the old man at the store didn't give him any. So instead, he ends up drinking his alcohol "straight" and "(staggering) down the street." He mentions that his head became heavy and his eyes couldn't stay open.
Later on, Sonny's wife tells him that he's not "no good at all" and that he drinks too much alcohol, which is why he doesn't make her happy. Despite this, he asks if he can take her for a ride in his car, but she is hesitant because she is scared that he will drink alcohol and they won't be able to go very far. These lyrics highlight the destructive nature of alcohol and its impact not only on the person drinking but on their relationships and lifestyle as well.
Overall, "Alcohol Blues" is a cautionary tale about the dangers of excessive drinking and the negative consequences that can result from it.
Line by Line Meaning
I went down 31st Street, now
I went down to 31st Street with the sole aim of getting a drink of alcohol.
Just to buy me a drink of alcohol, honey
I went to buy a drink of alcohol with a strong craving for the intoxicating effects.
I told the old man to cut it half full a-water
I instructed the bartender to put half alcohol and half water in my drink to dilute it.
But that old man, why'know, didn't-a put any drop at all in
The bartender did not add any water to dilute the alcohol as I had requested.
So, I'm drinkin' mine straight alley can
I drank my drink straight out of the can as it was not diluted as requested.
See, an I went jus' staggerin' on down the street, now
As a result of drinking undiluted alcohol, I began to stagger down the street.
Now but my head got so heavy
The effects of the alcohol made me lose control of my body and made my head feel very heavy.
My eyes couldn't even give a-peepin', now
The intoxicating effects of the alcohol made my eyes heavy and unable to stay open.
My baby tells me, 'Papa, Papa'
My partner addressed me by saying 'Papa, Papa'.
She says, 'Sonny Boy, you know you ain't no good at all now'
My partner tells me that I am not a good person because of my excessive drinking of alcohol.
She says, 'The reason you don't make me happy
My partner believes that my excessive drinking is the cause of her unhappiness.
Because you drink too much of this old alcohol now'
My partner believes that my excessive drinking of alcohol is the cause of my poor behavior.
I said, 'But baby won't you go ridin' now
I tried to convince my partner to join me on a ride in my car.
Can I take you ridin' wit me in my car now?'
I extended an invitation to my partner to take a ride with me in my car.
She said, 'But I'm scared you gonna drink alcohol
My partner indicates that she is afraid to go anywhere with me because of my excessive drinking.
Says, Sonny Boy, then we wouldn't ride very far.
My partner implies that if we were to ride together, my excessive drinking of alcohol would prevent us from going a long way.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: WILLIE WILLIAMSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind