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.
more on wikipedia
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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.
more on wikipedia
Checkin' Up On My Baby
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm checking on my baby
Find out what she's puttin' down
I'm checking on my baby
Find out what she's puttin' down
So many nights and days
Well, I've been out of town
I won't even call
I won't even call
I won't even write
Well, I caught me a plane
Flew back that same night
Aah
Checking on my baby
Find out what she's puttin' down
Checking on my baby
Find out what she's puttin' down
So many nights and days
Well, I've been out of town
I won't even call
I won't even write
I won't even call
I won't even write
Well, I caught me a plane
Flew back that same night
In Sonny Boy Williamson's Checkin' Up On My Baby, the singer expresses a sense of suspicion and jealousy towards his lover, now that he has been out of town for an extended period of time. He feels that something might be going on behind his back, and so he decides to check on her and "find out what she's puttin' down." This phrase means to investigate and discover what the woman has been up to in his absence. He is so mistrustful of her that he doesn't even bother to communicate with her through letters or phone calls- he caught the next plane back to make sure everything was in order.
These lyrics reveal a complex mix of emotions, including jealousy, insecurity, and possessiveness. The singer's choice of words and tone of voice suggest that he is not entirely confident in his relationship and feels the need to constantly monitor his partner's behavior. He is unwilling to take her word for it and needs to see for himself what she has been doing. The phrase "puttin' down" also implies that he is worried about some kind of deception or betrayal on her part. Overall, this song portrays the dark side of love, where suspicion and doubt can poison even the strongest relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
Yeah
An expression of affirmation and agreement
I'm checking on my baby
I am investigating my significant other's current behavior and actions
Find out what she's puttin' down
Determine the true nature of her activities and motivations
So many nights and days
A significant length of time has passed
Well, I've been out of town
I have been away from home for an extended period
I won't even call
I have not attempted to communicate via phone
I won't even write
I have not attempted to communicate via written correspondence
Well, I caught me a plane
I took flight transportation to return home
Flew back that same night
I returned home on the same day I left
Aah
An expression of satisfaction, relief or pleasure
Checking on my baby
Continuation of investigation into my significant other's current behavior and actions
Find out what she's puttin' down
Further determination of the true nature of her activities and motivations
So many nights and days
A continuation of the length of time that has passed
Well, I've been out of town
A continuation of being away from home for an extended period
I won't even call
Continuation of not attempting to communicate via phone
I won't even write
Continuation of not attempting to communicate via written correspondence
Well, I caught me a plane
Continuation of using flight transportation to return home
Flew back that same night
Continuation of returning home on the same day I left
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: WILLIE WILLIAMSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@user-zd6sw6dy9v
Mr. Williamson never wasted no time at gettin down to the bidness at hand, no sir! Dr. Creo
@liam-wm4dd
Im only 20 years old but saw this song in a tv show called timeless and have learned a lot about how this song has shaped the music we listen to today. Growing up I mainly listened to 90’s and 2000’s country as thats what my family listened to. The older I get the more I appreciate different types/genres of music. Ive always been fascinated with time travel (hence why the show got me interested in the song) and every time I put this song on I get in deep thought about the old days and what it would be like to experience it through your own eyes. Anyways ive gone off on a tangent here but if there is anyone reading this, especially younger than me, please follow your dreams. You can do something amazing that can shape the entire worlds future. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Every single human being no matter the age, race, career, or whatever the fuck people try to divide each other by, can and will do something that changes history. Dont let anyone tell you different. Sincerely some random canadian kid
@anandapandya1
Great! I also liked Junior Wells’ cover.
@michaelaitchison
Thankyou Sonny Boy…for an amazing great ..great.. Blues song…Sir Mick Jagger thanks you too with a fine cover…of your song..Transcendent !,🎸🎼
@larryduvall9475
oh man i somtimes for get how much i love this stuff, i been a sonny boy fan 50 out of my 60 years alive
@davidmaclachlan6733
Dr Feelgood also did a great version on their live 'Stupidity' album.
@emilieguerette9166
I can't get enough of that song.just a masterpiece... Too short though.
@Sandy24417
No question one of the finest blues 'harp' blowers of all time.
@BenitoSevillano-jp3xq
Para mi, el mejor armonica que ha existido. Llarga vida al blues
@derbydrifter
The blues at their blisterin' best!