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
Early in the Morning
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Beginin' to think she grown
Well, you can never catch that kinda
Little girl at home
But you have to go there early in the mornin'
Baby, 'bout the break of day
Now, you oughta see me grab the pillow
Now, that I've got a little woman
Her name is, Miss Kate
She told me to come to the house this mo'nin'
I got there about half past eight
She ask, 'I told you, come early in the mo'nin'
Baby, 'bout the break of day'
Now, ya oughta see me grab the pillow
Where my baby used to lay
I said, 'Look-a-here, woman
You fool with too many men
I can't never come to see you in the evenin
I have to come 'n see you when I can'
You tell me, 'Come early in the mo'nin'
Baby, 'bout the break of day'
Now, you oughta see me grab the pillow
Where my baby used to lay
(harmonica & guitar)
Well now, I said, 'Look-a-here, woman (good!)
I ain't gonna fool 'round wit' you, no mo'
I know you don't love me
You out, 'round with Mr. So 'n So
You tell me, 'Come early in the mo'nin'
Baby, 'bout the break of day'
Now, ya oughta see me grab the pillow
Where my baby used to lay.
The lyrics of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Early in the Morning" depict the relationships and struggles between men and women. The song is about a man who has been left by his lover, who has moved on to other men. The man now has a new woman, Miss Kate, who asks him to come to her house early in the morning. The singer grabs his pillow in the morning and heads over to Miss Kate's house, remembering the times he used to share his pillow with his previous lover.
The lyrics reveal the irrationalities in romantic relationships, the possessiveness and the clinginess that lovers feel. The sense of loss and betrayal that the singer feels is evident from the lyrics, as he talks about his previous lover being with other men. The bitterness that comes with such a loss is conveyed through the lyrics when the singer tells Miss Kate that he won't be coming around anymore since he knows she's with other men. The song's simple yet forceful lyrics are accompanied by the harmonica and guitar, which make it even more engaging and relatable.
Line by Line Meaning
Now, when a little girl becomin' twelve years old
At the age of twelve, a girl starts to feel grown up and independent
Beginin' to think she grown
She starts to believe that she is mature enough to make her own decisions
Well, you can never catch that kinda Little girl at home
Such girls are difficult to keep at home as they consider themselves all grown up
But you have to go there early in the mornin'
To catch such girls, one has to go to their place in the morning
Baby, 'bout the break of day
That's when one can get an opportunity to see them before they leave home for the day
Now, you oughta see me grab the pillow Where my baby used to lay
The singer reminisces about the times he used to spend with his lover who has moved on
Now, that I've got a little womanHer name is, Miss Kate
The singer has a new lover named Miss Kate
She ask, 'I told you, come early in the mo'nin'
Miss Kate expects the artist to visit her early in the morning
I said, 'Look-a-here, womanYou fool with too many men
The artist is suspicious of Miss Kate's intentions and accuses her of seeing other men
I can't never come to see you in the evenin
The artist can't come to see Miss Kate in the evening due to other commitments
You tell me, 'Come early in the mo'nin'
Despite the singer's concern, Miss Kate insists on early morning visits
Now, ya oughta see me grab the pillowWhere my baby used to lay
The artist is still missing his former lover and yearns for the times they spent together
(harmonica & guitar)
Well now, I said, 'Look-a-here, woman (good!)
The singer is frustrated with Miss Kate and confronts her
I ain't gonna fool 'round wit' you, no mo'
The singer is tired of being used and decides to end the relationship
I know you don't love me
The artist realizes that Miss Kate doesn't really love him
You out, 'round with Mr. So 'n So
The artist is convinced that Miss Kate is seeing someone else
Now, ya oughta see me grab the pillowWhere my baby used to lay.
The singer thinks back to his former lover and how he misses her.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: GARY STEFAN HARRISON, LONNIE MICHAEL WILSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@theripestmango
Love this song ❤️
@GregParker
Sonny Boy,(the first ); one of his best...
@smorgasbordtv4092
I heard Buddy Holly's version & thought it didn't sound like something he would write so I began to search and it brought me here.
@micoveliki8729
Well this is not the original if you wanna be precise
@ultravenia
Buddy Holly's is not the same song.
@nevillegriffiths4395
So Good
@whmon
I have the original, unadulterated (excuse the pun) track
@panosagiakatsikas9743
Its Tampa Red
@Bluefinger
This is John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson (the first Sonny Boy) ... not Tampa
@Bluefinger
Tamps plays guitar on the track tho ... but he's not singing