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
I Don't Care No More
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A stranger told me not to, trust your love
I was so carried away, I payed no mind
But I thank God, I saw the light in time
Little girl now, I don't care no more
I don't care what you do, I don't care no more
You had your way from time the time
Women, you spoke your piece, now I'm going to speek mine
I picked up a loosing battle like all fouls do
But now, I don't care no more
I don't care what you do, I don't care no more
I finally found out just what it was
The women wanted convenience, but I want love
Ain't but one drink that I did wrong
Take the bottle of life and not my own
But now, I don't care no more
I don't care what you do, I don't care no more
In Sonny Boy Williamson’s song “I Don’t Care No More”, the singer is reflecting on his past relationship with a woman, recounting how he was warned not to trust her from the beginning but didn’t listen. The singer admits to being “carried away” by his feelings for her and for a time ignored the warning signs, but eventually he “saw the light” and realized that she wasn’t being truthful with him. The singer expresses a sense of detachment in the chorus, repeating “I don’t care no more” and asserting that he doesn’t care what the woman does now that they’re no longer together.
The singer’s attitude towards the woman seems to stem from a feeling of betrayal – he believed that she was not truthful with him and that she was more interested in convenience than love. Additionally, he alludes to a struggle with alcohol (“Ain’t but one drink that I did wrong / Take the bottle of life and not my own”), which may have contributed to the breakdown of their relationship. Ultimately, the singer has found closure and moved on, no longer invested in the woman’s actions or feelings.
Line by Line Meaning
When we first met, I know what it was
I knew from the start what kind of relationship we were heading towards
A stranger told me not to, trust your love
Someone warned me not to trust you and our love
I was so carried away, I payed no mind
I was so caught up in the moment and my feelings that I ignored the warning signs
But I thank God, I saw the light in time
I am thankful that I eventually realized the truth and saved myself from further hurt
Little girl now, I don't care no more
I have moved on and I don't care about you anymore
I don't care what you do, I don't care no more
I am indifferent towards your actions and choices
You had your way from time the time
You had control over our relationship for a while
Women, you spoke your piece, now I'm going to speek mine
You had your say, now it's my turn to speak up for myself
The words you would send, they were not true
The messages you sent me were dishonest and insincere
I picked up a loosing battle like all fouls do
I foolishly fought for something that was already doomed to fail
But now, I don't care no more
I have moved on and I am indifferent towards you and our past
I finally found out just what it was
I have discovered the true nature of our relationship
The women wanted convenience, but I want love
You were only interested in a convenient relationship, but I wanted a genuine love
Ain't but one drink that I did wrong
I have only made one mistake
Take the bottle of life and not my own
I have learned to take control of my own life and not rely on substance abuse
But now, I don't care no more
I have moved on and I am indifferent towards you and our past
Contributed by Charlie O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.