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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Project Highway
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've got to get some money
I wants to buy a V8 Ford
Hee-yeah, got to get some money
I wants to buy a V8 Ford
Well, well, well
I want to ride this new highway
Ooo-ooo, that the project just completed
Well now, as I ride this new highway
Lord, n' I'm 'onna cross the Gulf of Mexico
Eee-yeah, ride this new highway
I'm gon' cross the Gulf of Mexico
Well, well, well, said, I ain't gonna stop ridin'
Well, until I park in front of my baby's door
Well, when my baby come out an see me
I know she's gonna jump an shout
Eee-yeah, baby run out an see me
I know she's gonna jump an' shout
Well, well, well
Says that's gonna draw a crowd
Wee-hoo, people going to know
What's all this rackets all about
Now, when people gather 'round
Now in front of my baby's do'
Wee-yeah, crowd a people
Standin' in front of my baby's door
Well, well, well
Then I'm gonna tell 'em, 'Don't get excited
Hee-ooo, same Lacey Belle
I was singin' about, before
The lyrics to Sonny Boy Williamson's "Project Highway" are about the desire for material possessions and the freedom that comes from being able to travel on a new, completed highway. The song begins with Williamson expressing his need for money in order to buy a V8 Ford, which he wants to use to ride on the newly completed highway. The highway represents new and untapped opportunities, and the V8 Ford symbolizes the means to access them. The desire to travel and explore is a recurring theme in blues music, and Williamson's lyrics are no exception.
As he rides on the new highway, Williamson expresses his excitement about crossing the Gulf of Mexico and reaching his destination. He feels a sense of freedom and joy in being able to explore new places and experiences. When he finally reaches his destination, his baby's door, he knows that she will be excited to see him and that it will draw a crowd. However, he tells the onlookers not to get too excited, as he is simply the same person and musician that he always was.
"Project Highway" is a great example of how the blues often expresses the struggles and desires of everyday life, including the desire for material possessions and the thrill of exploration. It also showcases Williamson's unique voice and style of blues music.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, well, well, well
The singer is enthusiastic and excited
I've got to get some money
The singer needs money to achieve his goal
I wants to buy a V8 Ford
The singer desires to own a V8 Ford
Hee-yeah, got to get some money
The artist continues to emphasize his need for money
Well, well, well
The artist is still excited about his dream
I want to ride this new highway
The singer is eager to experience the new highway
Ooo-ooo, that the project just completed
The highway is recent and has just been completed
And we can go on
The artist is inviting someone to join him on the journey
Well now, as I ride this new highway
The artist is now on the new highway
Lord, n' I'm 'onna cross the Gulf of Mexico
The artist intends to travel across the Gulf of Mexico
Eee-yeah, ride this new highway
The singer still expresses his excitement for the new highway
I'm gon' cross the Gulf of Mexico
The artist repeats his intention to cross the Gulf of Mexico
Well, well, well, said, I ain't gonna stop ridin'
The singer is determined to keep going
Well, until I park in front of my baby's door
The singer will keep going until he reaches his destination
Eee-yeah, baby run out an see me
The singer's girlfriend will be happy to see him
I know she's gonna jump an' shout
The artist expects his girlfriend to be very happy to see him
Says that's gonna draw a crowd
The artist expects that people will gather to see the joyous reunion
Wee-hoo, people going to know
The singer is suggesting that the crowd will become loud and noticeable
What's all this rackets all about
The singer expects that the disruptive excitement will cause people to inquire
Now, when people gather 'round
The event has drawn a crowd
Now in front of my baby's do'
The artist's girlfriend is nearby
Wee-yeah, crowd a people
The crowd is significant in size
Standin' in front of my baby's door
The crowd is blocking the singer's path to his girlfriend's door
Then I'm gonna tell 'em, 'Don't get excited
The artist is calming down the crowd
Hee-ooo, same Lacey Belle
The singer is reiterating that the situation is the same as the song title's reference to Lacey Belle
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Fred Kaplan
If you listen very carefully, there are 2 guitars, not one. Anybody know who they are?