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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Liquor store blues
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Now me an my baby we talked late last night
An we talked for another hour
She wanted me to go down to the welfare sto'
And get a sack a-that welfare flour
But I told her, 'No'
I said, 'I'll do anything in the world for you
I don't wanna go down to that welfare sto'
Now, you need to go get you some real, white man
You know, to sign yo' little note
They give ya a pair of them king-toed shoes
I want no a-them pleat-back, soldier coat
But I told 'er, 'No'
'Baby an I sho' don't wanna go
I say, 'I'll do anything in the world for ya
'But I don't wanna go down to that welfare sto'
(harmonica, drums, guitar)
President Roosevelt said, on welfare people
They gonna treat ev'ryone right
Said, they give ya a can of them beans
An a can or two of them old tripe
But I told 'er, 'No'
'Baby, an I sho' don't wanna go
I say, 'I'll do anything in the world for ya
'But I don't wanna go down to that welfare sto', now
Well now, me an my baby we talked yesterday
An we talked in my backyard
She said, 'I'll take care-a you, Sonny Boy
Just as long as these times stay hard'
An I told her, 'Yeah, baby an I sho' won't have to go'
I said, 'If you do that for me
I won't have to go down to that welfare sto'.
In "Liquor Store Blues," Sonny Boy Williamson sings about a conversation he had with his partner. She wanted him to go to the welfare store and get some welfare flour, but Sonny Boy refused. He tells her that he would do anything for her, but he doesn't want to go to the welfare store. He suggests that she find a white man to sign her note and get her some king-toe shoes instead of the pleat-back, soldier coat that the welfare store offers. He says that President Roosevelt promised to treat the welfare people right and give them can of beans and old tripe, but Sonny Boy still refuses to go to the store.
The song reflects the pride and independence of African Americans during the Great Depression. Many Black people had to rely on government assistance during this time, but they did not want to be seen as helpless or dependent. The welfare store provided basic necessities, but it also symbolized poverty and shame. Sonny Boy Williamson's refusal to go to the welfare store shows his determination to survive and provide for his partner without relying on government assistance.
Line by Line Meaning
Now me an my baby we talked late last night
My girlfriend and I talked until the wee hours of the morning
An we talked for another hour
Our conversation lasted for an additional hour
She wanted me to go down to the welfare sto'
My girlfriend requested that I take a trip to the welfare store
And get a sack a-that welfare flour
She specifically asked me to bring back welfare flour
But I told her, 'No'
I declined her request
'Baby an I sho' don't wanna go'
I explained that I really don't want to go
I said, 'I'll do anything in the world for you
I reassured my girlfriend that I am willing to do anything for her
I don't wanna go down to that welfare sto'
However, I am really not interested in visiting the welfare store
Now, you need to go get you some real, white man
I suggested that my girlfriend should ask a white man for assistance
You know, to sign yo' little note
She needs a white man to sign a document for her
They give ya a pair of them king-toed shoes
The welfare store will provide a pair of shoes with a particular style of toe
I want no a-them pleat-back, soldier coat
I don't want a jacket with pleats on the back like a soldier's uniform
President Roosevelt said, on welfare people
I mentioned a quote from President Roosevelt about people on welfare
They gonna treat ev'ryone right
He promised that the government will treat everyone fairly
Said, they give ya a can of them beans
According to him, welfare recipients receive a can of beans
An a can or two of them old tripe
They also receive a can or two of tripe
Well now, me an my baby we talked yesterday
My girlfriend and I spoke yesterday as well
An we talked in my backyard
We talked in my backyard this time
She said, 'I'll take care-a you, Sonny Boy
My girlfriend offered to take care of me
Just as long as these times stay hard'
Her offer is only valid if the hard times continue
And I told her, 'Yeah, baby an I sho' won't have to go'
I accepted her offer and reiterated that we won't have to visit the welfare store
I said, 'If you do that for me
I expressed my gratitude to my girlfriend
I won't have to go down to that welfare sto'.
Thanks to her, I won't have to visit the welfare store
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management
Written by: WILLIE WILLIAMSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind