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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Love Me Baby
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A-take me home with you
Love me, love me, baby just
Like you used to do
An I want your love rollin'
My love, roll me ov'are slow an easy
I want you love me, baby
I want you to take me in yo' car, baby
An ride me right o'vr town
Love me, love me, baby
Till my love come down
I want you to roll me ov'are, baby
My love, roll me ov'are slow an easy
But I want you, love me baby
An I won't wanna love no more, now
'You got it Big Bill, take it an keep it there'
'Yes, honey honey!'
'Yes, yo' honey is good isn't it?'
I want you to roll me, roll me, baby
Like yo' grandfather used to roll his wagon wheel
Roll me, roll me, baby
You don't know how good that make me feel
I want you to roll me ov'are, baby
Then I gonna have to roll me ov'are slow an easy
I want you to roll me, baby
An I won't want no love no mo'
Well, I'm goin' way back down in Jackson
Way back where I belong
Because this weekly lie about deliverin' job
God, knows I can't last long
'Cause this woman don't love me, no baby
She won't love Sonny Boy, real slow an easy
Now an she won't say I even talk with ya
That I won't even wanna love no mo'
The lyrics of Love Me Baby by Sonny Boy Williamson express a yearning for a lover's attention and affection. The singer pleads with their lover to take them home, hold them in their arms, and love them like they used to do. They desire their lover's love and want it to roll over them slowly and easily. The repetition of "roll me ov'are" reflects this desire for a slow, sensual experience.
The singer's desire for their lover is further expressed as they ask to be taken in their car and ridden over town. They want their love to come down and for their lover to roll them over like their grandfather used to roll a wagon wheel. The lyrics signify the innocence of love and the importance of affection in a relationship. The underlying meaning behind the lyrics involves a desire for a deeper connection and a willingness to surrender oneself to the power of love.
Overall, the song's lyrics capture the essence of a longing for intimacy and the tremendous role affection plays in a relationship. The repetition of the phrases and the emphasis on slow, easy love, make it clear that the singer is ready to give their all to their lover.
Line by Line Meaning
I want you to hold me in yo' arms, baby
I desire for you to embrace me in your arms to experience your warmth and comfort.
A-take me home with you
Escort me to your abode, where we can have our personal intimate time.
Love me, love me, baby just
Like you used to do
Please show me affection and fondness, darling, as you had done in the past.
An I want your love rollin'
And I yearn for the continuation of your passionate love.
My love, roll me ov'are slow an easy
Be gentle and unhurried in expressing your love towards me.
I want you love me, baby
An I won't want to love no mo'
All I ask for is your love, and I don't need anything or anyone else after that.
I want you to take me in yo' car, baby
An ride me right o'vr town
Please transport me in your vehicle through the city, baby.
Till my love come down
Until I feel the delivery of your love smoothly and affectionately.
You got it Big Bill, take it an keep it there'
Great job, Big Bill, continue with that rhythm and melody.
Yes, honey honey!'
Yes indeed, darling!
Yes, yo' honey is good isn't it?'
You know that your love and affection are highly desirable, right?
I want you to roll me, roll me, baby
Please move me smoothly, like how your grandfather moved his wagon's wheel.
You don't know how good that make me feel
You cannot even imagine the joy and pleasure I feel when you do this.
Well, I'm goin' way back down in Jackson
Way back where I belong
I am traveling back to Jackson, where I feel that I truly belong.
Because this weekly lie about deliverin' job
God, knows I can't last long
I cannot continue to pretend like I have a job of delivering things for another week.
This woman don't love me, no baby
This woman does not love me, darling.
She won't love Sonny Boy, real slow an easy
She doesn't provide love the way I need it, unhurried and tender.
Now an she won't say I even talk with ya
That I won't even wanna love no mo'
She doesn't acknowledge me talking to you, which only makes me wanna stop seeking love.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: WILLIE WILLIAMSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind