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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Nelson Street Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Now to buy some alcohol
I went down on Shannon Street
Now to buy some alcohol
I told him to put it half-full a-water
But they didn't put it in any drop at all
So, I drunk my straight whiskey
So, I drink my straight whiskey
Now an I staggered on in the street
Now but my head got so heavy
That my eyes couldn't even give a peep
Lacey tells me, 'Papa, papa'
Well, you ain't no good at all'
Lacey tells me, 'Papa, papa'
Well, you ain't no good at all'
Now she say, 'You don't make me happy
So long as you fool with this alcohol'
Sometimes I tell her, 'Oooh
Lacey, this alcohol is killin' me'
Sometimes I tell her, 'Oooh
Lacey, this alcohol is killin' me'
Well, now they told me if I didn't quit drinkin'
In some lonesome cemetery I would be
I say, 'Lacey baby, won't you go ridin'
Can an take you ridin' wit' me in my car?'
I say, 'Lacey, baby won't you go ridin'
Can an take you ridin' wit' me in my car?'
She says, 'Sonny Boy, I'm scared you'll get a drink a-whiskey
An I'm scared that we won't ride very fer
The lyrics to Sonny Boy Williamson's song Shannon Street Blues tell the story of a man who goes to buy alcohol on Shannon Street, but is disappointed by the quality of the drink he receives. He drinks the straight whiskey anyway and becomes so incapacitated that his daughter, Lacey, chastises him for his drinking. He acknowledges the negative effects that alcohol is having on his life and relationship with his daughter, but can't seem to stop himself from drinking. He tries to persuade Lacey to ride with him in his car, but she is hesitant because she fears he will drink whiskey and put them in danger.
The lyrics paint a picture of a man who is struggling with alcohol addiction and the emotional toll it takes on his relationships. The repetition of the line "Now but my head got so heavy" emphasizes the physical and emotional weight that the singer feels when he drinks. The use of Lacey's dialogue highlights the effect that his drinking has on his daughter, who is disappointed in him and worried for his safety.
Overall, Shannon Street Blues is a poignant exploration of addiction and the harm it can cause to oneself and one's loved ones. The lyrics are straightforward yet effective in conveying the singer's struggle with alcoholism.
Line by Line Meaning
I went down on Shannon Street
Now to buy some alcohol
I went to Shannon Street to buy alcohol.
I told him to put it half-full a-water
But they didn't put it in any drop at all
I asked them to add some water to my whiskey, but they didn't add any.
So, I drunk my straight whiskey
Now an I staggered on in the street
I drank my whiskey straight and walked down the street while stumbling.
Now but my head got so heavy
That my eyes couldn't even give a peep
My head felt heavy and I couldn't keep my eyes open.
Lacey tells me, 'Papa, papa'
Well, you ain't no good at all'
Lacey tells me that I am not good at all.
Now she say, 'You don't make me happy
So long as you fool with this alcohol'
Lacey says that I do not make her happy as long as I continue to drink alcohol.
Sometimes I tell her, 'Oooh
Lacey, this alcohol is killin' me'
Sometimes I tell Lacey that alcohol is killing me.
Well, now they told me if I didn't quit drinkin'
In some lonesome cemetery I would be
Someone warned me that if I didn't stop drinking, I would end up in a lonely cemetery.
I say, 'Lacey baby, won't you go ridin'
Can an take you ridin' wit' me in my car?'
I ask Lacey if she wants to go for a ride in my car.
She says, 'Sonny Boy, I'm scared you'll get a drink a-whiskey
An I'm scared that we won't ride very far'
Lacey is scared that I will drink whiskey and that we won't go far on the ride.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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