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)
--------------------------------------------
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.
more on wikipedia
--------------------------------------------
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.
more on wikipedia
Check up on My Baby Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've got to see how my baby been gettin along
But I've got to go an check up on my baby
I've got to see how my baby been gettin 'long
Now an I'm goin an fightin' now for our country
We gotta keep Mussolini from treatin' my baby wrong
'Mussolini got scared an cut out, didn't he?'
Now, don't ya know what Hitler told President Roosevelt?
Said we made the bad design plan, worry on
Oh President Roosevelt, I think they're tellin' a lie
Brother, so we gotta have a plan that's built up like a squirrel
An I'll send my boys to check up on their baby, yeah
A-my boys must see how there baby doin', gettin' along
He said, 'You help me win this war
Gotta keep Hitler from treatin' yo' baby wrong
Now don't you know my baby, she can't even write
No, my baby can't even a-send no telegram
I've got to check up on my baby
I know my baby wanna, a-know just where I am
Now I've got to go check up on my baby, now
I've got to see how my baby been gettin' along
Well now, we've just got to win this war
I swear because they don't mean my baby, no harm
'Oh yeah!'
Well now, an I've got som'thin to tell you, baby
That I know that you really, really can't do
I know you can't love me
An you wanna a-love some other man, too
But I've got to go an check up on you, baby
I've got to see baby, how you been gettin 'long
Well now, an if you help me, baby
I swear I will never do you no harm
The lyrics of Sonny Boy Williamson I's song "Check Up On My Baby Blues" tell a story of a man who is going to check up on his baby and make sure she is doing alright. However, there are additional layers of meaning to the lyrics beyond just checking up on his lover. For example, the line "We gotta keep Mussolini from treatin' my baby wrong" references the Italian fascist dictator, and suggests that the man is going to war to protect his lover and other loved ones. Similarly, the lyrics "an I'll send my boys to check up on their baby" suggest that the man is not alone in his efforts to protect his loved ones, and that there are others fighting alongside him.
Another interpretation of the lyrics is that they speak to the larger theme of the impact of war on personal relationships. The line "don't you know my baby, she can't even write" implies that the man's lover is struggling to communicate with him while he is away at war, but that he is determined to find out what is going on with her regardless. The song also touches on themes of trust and loyalty, with the singer insisting that he will never harm his lover and asking for her help in return.
Overall, "Check Up On My Baby Blues" is a song that addresses the complex emotional landscape of wartime and the impact it has on personal relationships, all while offering a catchy rhythm and memorable lyrics.
Line by Line Meaning
I've got to check up on my baby, yeah
I need to make sure my lover is doing well
I've got to see how my baby been gettin along
I need to assess my lover's well-being
But I've got to go an check up on my baby
I have to go to see my lover
I've got to see how my baby been gettin 'long
I need to assess my lover's well-being
Now an I'm goin an fightin' now for our country
I am fighting for my country
We gotta keep Mussolini from treatin' my baby wrong
We need to protect my lover from Mussolini
'Mussolini got scared an cut out, didn't he?'
Mussolini fled the country because he was afraid
Now, don't ya know what Hitler told President Roosevelt?
Do you know what Hitler said to President Roosevelt?
Said we made the bad design plan, worry on
He claimed that our country made a bad plan
Oh President Roosevelt, I think they're tellin' a lie
I think they are lying to President Roosevelt
Brother, so we gotta have a plan that's built up like a squirrel
We need a strong plan to protect ourselves and our loved ones
An I'll send my boys to check up on their baby, yeah
I will send my people to check on their loved ones
A-my boys must see how there baby doin', gettin' along
My people need to assess the well-being of their loved ones
He said, 'You help me win this war
He requested my help in this war
Gotta keep Hitler from treatin' yo' baby wrong
We need to protect our loved ones from Hitler
Now don't you know my baby, she can't even write
My lover cannot write
No, my baby can't even a-send no telegram
My lover cannot even send a telegram
I've got to check up on my baby
I need to check on my lover
I know my baby wanna, a-know just where I am
My lover wants to know where I am
Now I've got to go check up on my baby, now
I need to go see my lover
I've got to see how my baby been gettin' along
I need to assess my lover's well-being
Well now, we've just got to win this war
We need to win the war
I swear because they don't mean my baby, no harm
I promise that my lover will not be harmed
'Oh yeah!'
Expressing approval or excitement
Well now, an I've got som'thin to tell you, baby
I have something to tell you, my lover
That I know that you really, really can't do
I know what you are unable to do
I know you can't love me
I know you cannot love me
An you wanna a-love some other man, too
You want to love another person
But I've got to go an check up on you, baby
I need to check on you, my lover
I've got to see baby, how you been gettin 'long
I need to assess my lover's well-being
Well now, an if you help me, baby
If you help me, my lover
I swear I will never do you no harm.
I promise I will never harm you
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: S. B. WILLIAMSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind