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
Good Moring Little Schoolgirl
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
can I go home, can I go home with you?
Tell your mother and your father,
I'm a little school boy too
Woke up this mornin',
woke up this mornin',
I didn't know what to,
I didn't know what to do
I didn't have no blues,
baby, bit I couldn't be satisfied
I'm gettin' me an airplane,
I'm gettin' me an airplane,
get in my airplane
Gon' fly all oh-oh, gon' fly all over this land
I'm gonna find my little school girl,
find her in the world somewhere
Good mornin' 'lil school girl,
good mornin' 'lil school girl
Can I go home with, can I go home with,
can I go home with you?
Tell your mother and your father,
Johnny little school boy too
Come be my baby, come be my baby,
I buy you a diamond, I buy you a diamond ring
You don't be my little baby,
I ain't gonna buy you a doggone ring
The song "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" by Sonny Boy Williamson is a blues classic that captures the feelings of a young man who is deeply in love with a schoolgirl. The lyrics express his desire to be with her and his frustrations with the way she is treating him. The song is presented in a call-and-response style with alternating instruments, which brings a lively rhythm to the lyrics.
The opening verse illustrates the singer's intentions to pursue the schoolgirl. He asks her if he can go home with her, showing a boldness in his desire. He also tells her to inform her parents that he is a schoolboy too, suggesting that he is a suitable match for her. The chorus repeats this sentiment, emphasizing his longing to be with her. However, the second verse conveys a different message as he decides he will leave her at the break of day due to her treatment towards him.
The third verse takes a unique turn as the singer declares his love for her while acknowledging her infidelity. He expresses a desire to buy an airplane and fly all over her town to tell everyone how she has been treating him; she is putting him down. The final verse conveys the heartache he feels as he cannot help himself from loving her, despite her being with someone else.
Overall, this blues classic explores the complexities of love, touching on themes of desire, frustration, and heartache.
Line by Line Meaning
A good morning little schoolgirl,
Addressing the young girl in a respectful and charming manner.
Can I go home with you?
Requesting permission to accompany her to her home.
Tell your mama and your daddy,
Asking her to inform her parents of his presence.
That I'm a little schoolboy too
Revealing that he is of a similar age group as the girl.
Baby I love you,
Expressing his love for the girl.
I just can't help help myself
Admitting his inability to control his feelings for her.
You're so good looking pretty babe,
Complimenting the girl's physical appearance.
I don't need nobody else.
Declaring that the girl is the only one he desires.
Uh, Uh, Uh
Repeating a sound indicating great excitement or arousal.
I'm gonna leave you baby,
Announcing his intent to depart.
About the break of day
Referring to the time he plans to leave.
On account of the way you treat me,
Attributed the reason for leaving to how he's been treated by the girl.
I've got to stay away
Stating his resolution to avoid any future interaction with the girl.
Come on pretty baby,
Coaxing the girl to return his affection.
Oh you know I can't help myself
Repeating his inability to resist her charms.
I'm gonna buy me an aeroplane,
Detailing his future plans to impress the girl.
To fly all over your town.
Revealing his desire to travel just to be close to her.
And tell everybody baby,
Proposing to broadcast his feelings to everyone.
Lord knows you've been putting me down.
Accusing the girl of treating him badly, maybe paying him little attention.
I can't stand it babe,
Expressing his frustration and dissatisfaction with the situation.
Just cannot help myself
Reiterating his irresistible attraction to this girl.
You're so young and pretty,
Referring again to her outward beauty.
But you're lovin' somebody else
Indicating she is romantically involved with another person.
Oh babe what you do to me,
Conveying how much he is affected by her actions and emotions.
I can't help myself
Reiterating his inability to stay away from the girl, despite her situation.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Sonny Boy Williamson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@carlossousa200
WIKIPEDIA:
DEATH AND LEGACY
Williamson's final recording session took place in Chicago in December 1947, in which he accompanied Big Joe Williams. On June 1, 1948, Williamson was killed in a robbery on Chicago's South Side as he walked home from a performance at the Plantation Club, at 31st St. and Giles Avenue, a tavern just a block and a half from his home, at 3226 S. Giles. Williamson's final words are reported to have been "Lord have mercy".
Williamson is buried at the former site of the Blairs Chapel Church, southwest of Jackson, Tennessee. In 1991, a red granite marker was purchased by fans and family to mark the site of his burial. A Tennessee historical marker, also placed in 1991, indicates the place of his birth and describes his influence on blues music. The historical marker is located south of Jackson on Tennessee State Highway 18, at the corner of Caldwell Road.
NAME ISSUES
His legacy has been somewhat overshadowed in the postwar blues era by the popularity of the musician who appropriated his name, Rice Miller, who after Williamson's death went on to record many popular blues songs for Chicago's Checker Records and others and toured Europe several times during the blues revival in the 1960s. The recordings made by Williamson between 1937 and his death in 1948 and those made later by Rice Miller were all originally issued under the name Sonny Boy Williamson. It is believed that Miller adopted the name to deceive audiences (and his first record label) into thinking that he was the "original" Sonny Boy.[3] In order to differentiate between the two musicians, many later scholars and biographers have referred to John Lee Williamson (1914–1948) as Sonny Boy Williamson I and Miller (c. 1912–1965) as Sonny Boy Williamson II.
To add to the confusion, around 1940 the jazz pianist and singer Enoch Williams recorded for Decca under the name Sonny Boy Williams and in 1947 as Sunny Boy in the Sunny Boy Trio.
@Sabbatius527
Rice Miller aka Sonny Boy Williamson II must be laughing in his grave watching this dedication video to John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson with his picture first appearing in the video! Great song! Big Joe Williams & Robert Nighthawk on guitars in this recording which appeared in 1937.
@ladyleesutter
Sure didn't help me in my search for the original Sonny Boy Williamson, since all I had to go by were their faces (and the fact the First died young.) The First very handsome, the 2nd gnarly nose and no front teef., uh, teeth. Ok on with the search.
@toxicmabletree
love this song more than anything else in this world.... I sure hope that i can listen to this when i die.... Fantastik
@chucky1316
love your style man , I am from the south and your blues song's move's the soul keep on playing man. GOD bless, SEE YOU AT THE CABIN
@MrCocaboy1
ALWAYS LOVED THIS LEGEND!
@WinIronRose
Wonderful recording...took me back. Thank you for posting this. Cheers
@lheuredeschiens9842
Super musique, avec trois fois rien ! Guitare, harmo, voix... rien à ajouter !
@jamesmcallister5494
,,Ten years after,, covered this song too,, amazing version.
@patsaklaras
in deed
@FririkurEllefsen
Fantastic blues. Never was much into sony boy williamson, but I love this. Is he the one playing guitar too? The guitar part is very ragtime inspiring.