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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Until My Love Come Down
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Lemons on your shelf
Now, you know lovin' mama
That you can't squeeze them all yourself
Now, I said please let me be your lemon squeezer
Now, whilst I'm in your lonesome town
Now, if you let me be your lemon squeezer
Now, it makes no difference, baby
Um, what yo' mama don't 'llow
An come on an let me squeeze your lemons, baby
I mean, anyhow
Now, I said, please let me be your lemon squeezer
Now, whilst I'm in your lonesome town
Now, if you let me be your lemon squeezer
Lord, until my love come down
I like yo' apple in your tree
I'm crazy 'bout yo' peaches, too
I'm crazy about your fruit, baby
'Cause you know just how to do
Now, please let me be your lemon squeezer
'Yes, my Lord!'
Now, whilst I'm in your lonesome town
Now, if you let me be your lemon squeezer
Lord, until my love come down
Now, an it ain't but the one thing, baby
Now, that'll really make me cry
'What man?'
I ask you 'bout your lemons, baby
An you ups an tell me a lie
Now, please let me be your lemon squeezer?
Now, whilst I'm in your lonesome town
Now, won't you let me be your lemon squeezer?
Lord, until my love come down
The introductory verse of this song sets the scene of a situation where the beloved has a lot of options for love interests. The repetition of "fruit" in "you got fruit on your tree" and "lemons on your shelf" creates an analogy for the many potential lovers that surround the unnamed female protagonist. The lines "you know lovin' mama, that you can't squeeze them all yourself" suggests that there are too many suitors for her to handle, and she needs some kind of help with the overwhelming attention that she is receiving.
The main protagonist suggests himself as the solution to her problem by offering his services as a "lemon squeezer", which is used metaphorically to indicate that he is ready to be her lover. The request to "let me be your lemon squeezer" is repeated multiple times throughout the song, creating the impression of an insistent and stubborn person who won't take "no" for an answer. The line "now, it makes no difference, baby, what yo' mama don't 'llow" signifies that he is willing to do anything to win her affection, even if it means going against the wishes of her family or other suitors.
The final verse has a humorous undertone to it as the singer questions his lover's honesty by stating, "an you ups an tell me a lie". This creates an impression of a teasing and playful relationship between the two, where the singer enjoys the chase and the playful banter that comes with it.
Line by Line Meaning
Now, you gotten fruit on your tree
You have plenty of options or opportunities available to you.
Lemons on your shelf
There are potential benefits that you are not taking advantage of.
Now, you know lovin' mama
You understand the value of having someone to love and care for you.
That you can't squeeze them all yourself
You can't fully take advantage of all the opportunities available to you without help.
Now, I said please let me be your lemon squeezer
I am requesting the opportunity to help you take advantage of your opportunities.
Now, whilst I'm in your lonesome town
I am available and willing to provide this help while I am here.
Now, if you let me be your lemon squeezer
If you allow me to help you, even temporarily,
Lord, until my love come down
I will continue to provide this help until I am no longer able to, or until love enters your life.
Now, it makes no difference, baby
It doesn't matter to me,
Um, what yo' mama don't 'llow
Even if there are obstacles in our way.
An come on an let me squeeze your lemons, baby
I still want to help you take advantage of your opportunities.
I mean, anyhow
No matter what the circumstances are.
I like yo' apple in your tree
I appreciate and enjoy the things that you have to offer.
I'm crazy 'bout yo' peaches, too
I am excited and interested in all aspects of you and what you have to offer.
I'm crazy about your fruit, baby
I am deeply attracted to you and everything you have.
'Cause you know just how to do
You have a special talent for making the most of what you have, and I appreciate that in you.
'Yes, my Lord!'
Agreeing to allow me to help you.
Now, an it ain't but the one thing, baby
There is only one thing that can make me upset or disappointed,
Now, that'll really make me cry
That one thing would hurt me deeply.
'What man?'
Asking for more information about what could possibly make me cry.
I ask you 'bout your lemons, baby
If you were to lie to me or withhold your opportunities from me,
An you ups an tell me a lie
That would be the one thing that would hurt me deeply.
Now, won't you let me be your lemon squeezer?
Again asking for the opportunity to help you take advantage of what you have.
Lord, until my love come down
I will continue to provide this help until I am no longer able to, or until love enters your life.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind