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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Southern dream
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee)
(John Lee Williamson)
Chicago, November 12, 1947
With Blind John Davis - piano, Big Bill Broonzy - guitar
Ransom Knowling - sbass, Judge Riley - drums
Album Complete Recorded Works Vol 5
October 19, 1945 - November 12, 1947
Transcriber: Awcantor@aol.com
Well now, I've gotta girl
A-sweet sixteen
Her mother wouldn't listen
To her dreams
I know she was a-dreamin'
She dreamed them old southern dreams
She was the dreamest girl
The dreamest girl I most ever seen
Now, she dreamed I was kissin' her
A-down by the mill
She'd dream that she'd taken me from
The girl on the hill
I know she was a dreamer, now
She dreamed them old southern dreams
She was the dreamest girl
The dreamest girl I most ever seen, yeah
(harmonica & instrumental)
Now she dreamin' I was kissin' her
Hold her close to my breast
She told that much a-dream, but
She wouldn't tell the rest
I know she was a dreamer, now
She dreamed them old southern dreams
She was the dreamest girl
The dreamest girl I most ever seen
Well, she know'd about lovin'
From huggin' on down
She was the dreamest girl
From miles around
I know she was a dreamer
She dreamed them old southern dreams, yeah
She was a dreamest girl
The dreamest girl I most ever seen
Well, she tried to tell her mother
A-what she did
She talked so much
She couldn't hardly l keep it hid
An I know she was a dearmer
She dreamed them old southern dreams
She was the dreamest girl
The dreamest girl I most ever seen.
(harmonica & instrumental to end)
~
In Sonny Boy Williamson's song "Southern Dream," the lyrics tell the story of a girl who has dreams that her mother refuses to acknowledge. The girl is described as sweet sixteen and seemingly innocent. It is suggested that she dreams of a kiss with Sonny Boy Williamson, but does not reveal the entirety of her dreams, keeping some secrets to herself. The song emphasizes the girl's dreaminess, claiming that she is the "dreamest girl" that the singer has ever seen.
At its core, "Southern Dream" seems to be about youth and the secrets and yearnings that come with it. The girl in the song is not able to fully voice her dreams, perhaps because she is too young and inexperienced to know how to articulate them. The song's emphasis on Southern dreams ties this theme to a specific location and culture, nodding to the particular hopes and desires of those raised in the south.
Overall, "Southern Dream" is a tender and nostalgic look at youthful longing and the sense of uncertainty that comes with both dreams and adolescence.
Line by Line Meaning
Well now, I've gotta girl
I have a girl
A-sweet sixteen
She is 16 years old and sweet
Her mother wouldn't listen
Her mother wouldn't hear her
To her dreams
To what she wanted in life
I know she was a-dreamin'
I know she was dreaming
She dreamed them old southern dreams
She was dreaming about Southern experiences
She was the dreamest girl
She was the most dreamy girl
The dreamest girl I most ever seen
The dreamiest girl I've ever seen
Now, she dreamed I was kissin' her
She dreamed that I was kissing her
A-down by the mill
By the mill
She'd dream that she'd taken me from
She dreamed that she had taken me away from
The girl on the hill
A girl who lived on a hill
Now she dreamin' I was kissin' her
She continued to dream about me kissing her
Hold her close to my breast
Holding her close to my chest
She told that much a-dream, but
She told that much of her dream, but
She wouldn't tell the rest
She kept the rest to herself
Well, she know'd about lovin'
She knew about love
From huggin' on down
From hugging on down
She was the dreamest girl
She was the most dreamy girl
From miles around
From far away
Well, she tried to tell her mother
She attempted to tell her mother
A-what she did
What she did
She talked so much
She talked a lot
She couldn't hardly l keep it hid
She couldn't keep it hidden
An I know she was a dearmer
And I know she was a dreamer
The dreamest girl I most ever seen.
The most dreamy girl I've ever seen
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: WILLIE WILLIAMSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind