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)
--------------------------------------------
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
--------------------------------------------
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
Insurance Man Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
People, the insurance man knockin' on my do'
Ev'ry Monday mo'nin
People, that insurance man knockin' on my do'
Well now, tell him to come back on a Tuesday
Because Sonny Boy hasn't made no money, you know
He said, 'Yeah, but you haven't paid yo' insurance
Said, 'Sonny Boy, an your insurance have gon' down'
He said, 'But you haven't paid yo' insurance
In two or three week'
He said, 'And your insurance have gone down'
He said, If you don't pays by next Wednesday
I reckon I'll have to let your insurance drop, now'
I said, 'Insurance man please don't turn me out'
Lord, an I ain't got nobody to bury me
'Now insurance man, please don't turn me out'
I haven't got nobody to bury me'
Well now an I say, 'If you won't bury me
They'll throw my body in the deep blue sea'
I'll tell you, you know how times is now-a-day
Can't no one man find no job
I'll say, 'You know how times is now-a-day
Can't no one man find no job'
I'll say 'I can't even take care of my wife an baby
An I might have to let my family starve
I said, 'Please give me two mo' weeks
Insurance man please do that for me'
I said, 'Now please give me two mo' weeks
Insurance man please do that for me'
Well I say, 'I don't live up north
My home is back down in Tennessee
The lyrics of Sonny Boy Williamson's song "Insurance Man Blues" describe the financial struggles faced by many during the Great Depression. The singer talks about the insurance man knocking on his door every Monday morning, trying to collect money for his insurance policy. The singer tells the insurance man to come back on Tuesday because he has not made any money yet. The insurance man then tells the singer that he has not paid his insurance in two or three weeks, and if he doesn't pay by next Wednesday, his policy will be dropped.
The singer begs the insurance man not to turn him out because he has no one to bury him if he dies. He is unable to find a job and cannot take care of his wife and baby. He pleads for two more weeks to pay his insurance. The song demonstrates the financial desperation and hardship faced by many during the Depression and the importance of having insurance. The singer's fear of being exposed to the possibility of being buried in the deep blue sea reinforces this.
Overall, the song is a poignant representation of the financial struggles and fears of the working-class people during the Depression era. It is a reminder of how far we have come in the world of insurance and finance, but still, there are people facing similar financial struggles.
Line by Line Meaning
Ev'ry Monday mo'nin
People, the insurance man knockin' on my do'
Every Monday morning, the insurance man comes knocking on Sonny Boy Williamson's door.
Well now, tell him to come back on a Tuesday
Because Sonny Boy hasn't made no money, you know
Sonny Boy tells the insurance man to come back on Tuesday as he hasn't made any money yet and has not paid his insurance.
Said, 'Sonny Boy, an your insurance have gon' down'
He said, 'But you haven't paid yo' insurance
In two or three week'
The insurance man informs Sonny Boy that his insurance has gone down as he hasn't paid his insurance in two or three weeks.
He said, If you don't pays by next Wednesday
I reckon I'll have to let your insurance drop, now'
The insurance man warns Sonny Boy that if he doesn't pay by next Wednesday, his insurance will be canceled.
Lord, an I ain't got nobody to bury me
'Now insurance man, please don't turn me out'
I haven't got nobody to bury me'
Sonny Boy pleads with the insurance man not to turn him out as he has nobody to bury him if he dies.
Well now an I say, 'If you won't bury me
They'll throw my body in the deep blue sea'
Sonny Boy tells the insurance man that if he doesn't bury him, his body will be thrown into the sea.
I'll say, 'You know how times is now-a-day
Can't no one man find no job'
Sonny Boy emphasizes that in today's times, it's hard to find a job, and nobody can find a job.
I'll say 'I can't even take care of my wife an baby
An I might have to let my family starve
Sonny Boy tells the insurance man that he can't even take care of his wife and baby, and he might have to let his family starve.
I said, 'Now please give me two mo' weeks
Insurance man please do that for me'
Sonny Boy requests the insurance man to give him two more weeks to pay his insurance.
Well I say, 'I don't live up north
My home is back down in Tennessee
Sonny Boy tells the insurance man that he doesn't live up north and his home is back in Tennessee.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: RACHELL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind