There are two harmonica playing bluesmen known as Sonny Boy Williamson. The… Read Full Bio ↴There are two harmonica playing bluesmen known as Sonny Boy Williamson. They are colloquially referred to as Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II respectively, but are of no relation.
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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Sloppy Drunk Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Now I would rather be sloppy drunk
A-than anything I know
You know I'd rather be sloppy drunk
A-than anything I know
You know in another half-a-pint
Woman, an you will see me go

Now, my gal she done quit me

For somebody else
Now, my little gal she done quit me
For somebody else
Now, an' I'm sloppy drunk again, woman
Sleepin' all by myself

Now, I would rather be sloppy drunk
*Sip-tin, in the can
You know I would rather be sloppy drunk, woman
Sip-tin, in the can
Now, then be out in the street, mm
Runnin' from the man

Because, a-oh-oh, mm
A-bring another half-a-pit
Because, mm-mm-mm
Bring another half-a-pint
Now, an' I believe I'll get n' drunk
Baby, I'm gonna wreck this joint

Now, an' I love my moonshine whiskey
I tell thee world I do
Now, an' I love my moonshine whiskey
Tell thee the world I do
Now, but I drink some more whiskey
To get a-long with you

Now, an' I'm 'onna drink whiles I'm up, baby
Drink until I fall
Now, an' I'm gonna drink whiles I'm up, woman
Drink until I fall

Now, an if ya want me to stop drinkin' whiskey
You ain't talkin' bout nothin' at all!

Overall Meaning

In Sonny Boy Williamson's "Sloppy Drunk Blues," the singer expresses his preference for being intoxicated over his current emotional state. He would "rather be sloppy drunk than anything [he] knows" because it allows him to escape his problems momentarily. The second verse mentions his lover leaving him for someone else, which contributed to his heavy drinking. He states that he is "sleeping all by [himself]" because of her departure. The third and fourth verses emphasize how alcohol is his escape and how he would rather drink it than be outside running from the police. The lyrics from the fifth verse to the end explain that he loves drinking his whiskey and how he will continue doing it until he falls down. He concludes by saying that if someone asks him to stop drinking, it would be pointless since he does not have anything else to live for.

The song's lyrics address a common blues theme of drinking as a coping mechanism for emotional and social issues. The song is notable for its directness in revealing the singer's motivation for drinking- namely, his lover leaving him for someone else. Another interesting aspect of the song is its portrayal of alcohol consumption as a social activity. Sonny Boy Williamson's singing style and delivery, along with the harmonica accompaniment, effectively communicates the song's message to its listeners.

Line by Line Meaning

Now I would rather be sloppy drunk A-than anything I know
I prefer being intoxicated over anything else at the moment

You know I'd rather be sloppy drunk A-than anything I know
There's nothing else I would rather do other than drink to excess

You know in another half-a-pint Woman, an you will see me go
I only need a little more liquor before I become uncontrollable and reckless

Now, my gal she done quit me For somebody else
My girlfriend left me for someone else

Now, my little gal she done quit me For somebody else
My lover abandoned me and moved on to a new partner

Now, an' I'm sloppy drunk again, woman Sleepin' all by myself
Since my partner left, I have been drinking heavily and spending nights alone

You know I would rather be sloppy drunk, woman Sip-tin, in the can
I love drinking canned liquor and would rather be drunk right now

Now, then be out in the street, mm Runnin' from the man
I would rather be intoxicated and out on the street evading the authorities

Because, a-oh-oh, mm A-bring another half-a-pit
I need you to bring me a half-pint of alcohol immediately

Because, mm-mm-mm Bring another half-a-pint
I need a refill of my alcohol to continue drinking

Now, an' I believe I'll get n' drunk Baby, I'm gonna wreck this joint
I'm planning on getting extremely inebriated and causing destruction wherever I am

Now, an' I love my moonshine whiskey I tell thee world I do
I have a strong affection for my homemade whiskey

Now, an' I love my moonshine whiskey Tell thee the world I do
There is no denying my love for my illegally made whiskey

Now, but I drink some more whiskey To get a-long with you
I'm drinking more whiskey in order to better tolerate your company

Now, an' I'm 'onna drink whiles I'm up, baby Drink until I fall
I plan to continue drinking as long as I am able, possibly until I pass out

Now, an' I'm gonna drink whiles I'm up, woman Drink until I fall
I will not stop drinking until I cannot physically consume any more alcohol

Now, an if ya want me to stop drinkin' whiskey You ain't talkin' bout nothin' at all!
If you suggest that I stop drinking whiskey, your words mean nothing to me

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: WILLIE WILLIAMSON

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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