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.
more on wikipedia
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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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Sonny boy's cold chills
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson)
(John Lee Williamson)
Chicago, August 6, 1946
With Blind John Davis - piano, Willie Lacey - guitar
Ransom Knowling - s bass
Album Complete Recorded Works Vol 5
October 19, 1945 - November 12, 1947
Cold chills, now
My baby made cold chills run all over me
Cold Chills
Oh, my baby made cold chills run all over me
I get to thinkin' about her comin' back home, to me
That I get just as gla-aad as I can be
Now, an she went out the other night
And got drunk
Man, an there's one thing, that I can't stand
A cheat Sonny, came home kickin' on my do'
She said, 'Sonny Boy, I found me a brand new man'
An she made cold chills
She made cold chills run all over me
I get to thinkin' about her comin' back home, to me
An I get just as gla-aad as I can be
'Well, alright, John'
(harmonica & instrumental)
I gave her all my love but still she just
A-wouldn't be satisfied
And so now, the love that I had for you, woman
Have all, all gone away an died
'Cause you made cold chills, um-yeah
A-you made cold chills run all over me
I get to thinkin' about her comin' back home, to me
An I get just as gla-aad as I can be
Now, my babe been gone 'bout four or five months
But she said, I'll be back Monday evenin' soon
If I don't come in Monday evenin'
You can look for me or Sunday, in the afternoon'
'Cause you made cold chills
My baby made cold chills run all over me
I get to thinkin' about her comin' back home, to me
An I get just as gla-aad as I can be.
~
In this bluesy tune, Sonny Boy Williamson sings about the cold chills his woman gives him. The cold chills could be interpreted as both the physical chills and the emotional ones felt in his heart. Sonny feels these cold chills whenever he thinks about his woman, who left him for another man. He sings about how even after she has gone, he still longs for her and hopes that she will come back to him. Sonny Boy is hurt by her leaving and is unable to let go of his feelings for her. He gave her all his love, but she was not satisfied and left, leaving him heartbroken.
The song showcases the blues genre's ability to paint vivid emotions with few words, and Sonny Boy does that beautifully here. Despite the hurt, he still wishes for his woman to come back to him, and that thought brings happiness and warm feelings to his heart.
Line by Line Meaning
Cold chills, now
The singer is experiencing a feeling of cold chills.
My baby made cold chills run all over me
The singer's lover has caused him to feel a sensation of cold chills throughout his body.
Oh, my baby made cold chills run all over me
The singer's lover has caused him to feel a sensation of cold chills throughout his body.
I get to thinkin' about her comin' back home, to me
When the singer thinks about his lover returning to him, he feels happy and joyous.
That I get just as gla-aad as I can be
When the singer thinks about his lover returning to him, he becomes very happy and his emotions are overwhelming.
Now, an she went out the other night
The singer's lover went out on a night in the past.
And got drunk
The singer's lover consumed alcohol.
Man, an there's one thing, that I can't stand
The singer expresses his dislike for a certain situation.
A cheat Sonny, came home kickin' on my do'
Someone named Sonny who is a cheater came to the singer's home and began kicking on the door.
She said, 'Sonny Boy, I found me a brand new man'
The singer's lover tells him that she has found a new romantic partner.
An she made cold chills
The singer's lover caused him to feel cold chills throughout his body.
She made cold chills run all over me
The singer's lover caused him to feel cold chills throughout his body.
I gave her all my love but still she just
The singer gave his lover all of his love, but she was still not satisfied.
A-wouldn't be satisfied
The singer's lover was not satisfied despite his efforts.
And so now, the love that I had for you, woman
The singer has lost the love that he had for his lover.
Have all, all gone away an died
The love that the singer had for his lover has disappeared and died.
Now, my babe been gone 'bout four or five months
The singer's lover has been gone for about four or five months.
But she said, I'll be back Monday evenin' soon
The singer's lover told him that she will return home soon, specifically on Monday evening.
If I don't come in Monday evenin'
If the singer's lover does not return on Monday evening, she tells him to look for her on Sunday afternoon.
You can look for me or Sunday, in the afternoon'
The singer's lover tells him to look for her on Sunday afternoon if she does not return on Monday evening.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: WILLIE WILLIAMSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
1fastsuperclown
Fantastic Song. Incredible Artist. I've never heard of this before. Absolutely kicks @ss. Please keep posting terrific music like this.
ssurfcity
Blues Royalty! Thanks for the upload.