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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Down Child
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Please take a fool's advice
Listen downchild
Please take a fool's advice
Don't newer let no one woman,
Man misuse you twice time she smiles
Says she don't love no one but you
Says, she don't love no one but you
Everytime she smiles
Says, she don't love no one but you
You better watch out buddy boy, little girl
Love to drop a chunk on you
I tried so hard to not even think about my past life
I tried so hard even think about my past life
Because I don't want to ever ever make a mistake in life
Baby, I and you could be so happy
We can be so lovin' tonight
From now on darling
Yeah, We can be so happy be so lovey from now on
from now on
Because if I ever make a mistake in life
I know I'd ruin my happy home
Whoa
In Sonny Boy Williamson II's song "Down Child," the lyrics depict a warning to a man who is vulnerable and naive when it comes to a woman's affection. The singer advises the man to take his advice and not let a woman misuse him twice after she has smiled and said she loves him. The repetition of "Says she don't love no one but you/ Every time she smiles" highlights the deceptive and manipulative nature of the woman being described. The singer urges the man to be cautious and watch out, as he is in danger of being misled and hurt by this woman who loves to play with his emotions.
The second half of the lyrics reveal a more personal aspect of the singer's own experiences, as he confesses to trying so hard not to think about his past life and to avoid making mistakes in life. The shift in tone suggests that the singer has also been a victim of emotional manipulation and possibly suffered the consequences of his own mistakes. However, he sees hope for himself and his partner, as they can be happy and loving together as long as he does not make the same mistakes again.
Overall, the song is a cautionary tale about the dangers of giving into a woman's charm and the importance of being aware of one's own past experiences.
Line by Line Meaning
Listen downchild
Pay attention, young child
Please take a fool's advice
Take heed of the advice of someone who has made mistakes before
Don't newer let no one woman,
Do not allow any one woman
Man misuse you twice time she smiles
Manipulate you twice by smiling
Says she don't love no one but you
Claims to only love you
Everytime she smiles
Each time she smiles
You better watch out buddy boy, little girl
Be careful, young man
Love to drop a chunk on you
Likes to hurt you emotionally or financially
I tried so hard to not even think about my past life
I've made an effort to avoid thinking of my prior experiences
Because I don't want to ever ever make a mistake in life
To avoid making a mistake
Baby, I and you could be so happy
We could improve our happiness together
We can be so lovin' tonight
We can express our love for each other tonight
From now on darling
In the future, my love
Yeah, We can be so happy be so lovey from now on
We can be very happy and affectionate from this point forward
Because if I ever make a mistake in life
If I make an error in judgement
I know I'd ruin my happy home
I could lose my happiness and stability
Whoa
Expression of emphasis or surprise
Contributed by Jacob G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Mico Veliki
i remember being rejected by my sweetheart back in the day so every time i hear this song the fist verse always hits me mannn always..rest in peace great man
Aecio Cardoso
Nice music !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eugene Debs
Holy shit
Willie Lee
That it...