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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You got to step back
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson)
John Lee Williamson - vocal and harmonica
Chicago July 2, 1941
With Blind John Davis - piano, Ransom Knowling - bass
Album: 'Sugar Mama'
The Essential Recordings of Sonny Boy Williamson
Indigo Recording Ltd IGOCD 2014
Well, I asks you, woman
Where did you stay last night?
You said, it was none a-my business
Just isn't treatin' me right'
You got to step back
Back a little too, fast
You got to get back
I know you can't last
You got to step back, baby
So I can get a long wit' you, now
(harmonica)
Now, an tell me, baby
What do you tryin' to do?
You tryin' to love me
Some other man, too
You got to step back, woman
A little too, fast
I know you can't last
You got to step back, woman
So I can get along wit' you, now
(harmonica)
Well, now look-a-here woman
I got somethin' that you can't do
You can't love me
An some other man, too
You got to step back, woman
A little too, fast
You got to get back
I know you can't last
You got to tell me, baby
So I can get along wit' you, now
(harmonica)
Well now, look-a-here, baby
Ain't gonna be your dog, no mo'
You try to fool me, baby
Like you did a long time ago
You got to step back, woman
A little too, fast
You got to get back
I know you can't last
You got to step back, woman
So I can get along wit' you
(harmonica)
Now baby, ain't but the one thing
Really give me the blues
When I ain't got no bottom
On my last pair-a-shoes
You got to step back, woman
A little too, fast
You got to get back
I know you can't last
Now you got to tell me, baby
So I can get along wit' you
~
The lyrics of Sonny Boy Williamson's song "You Got to Step Back" tell a story of a frustrated lover addressing their partner's infidelity. The song is an example of a classic blues trope of addressing the issues that arise in romantic relationships. The lover demands answers to their questions about where their partner spent the previous night and accuses them of trying to love somebody else. The repeated chorus of "you got to step back" emphasizes the lover's desire for distance in their relationship with their partner. The lyrics suggest that the lover is exhausted from trying to trust their partner and demands that they take a step back for the sake of the relationship.
The song's instrumentation contributes to the overall message of the lyrics. The harmonica, played by Sonny Boy Williamson himself, creates an emotional, mournful tone that complements the lyrics' theme of heartbreak. The piano and bass create a sense of rhythm that evokes the tension in the relationship. The overall effect of the song is a plea for understanding and space from a partner who is not treating their lover right.
Overall, the song "You Got to Step Back" is a classic example of the blues genre, using simple instrumentation and lyrics to convey a message of heartbreak and frustration. It is a timeless expression of the pain that can arise in romantic relationships and the need for space and understanding between partners.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I asks you, woman
The singer is asking the woman a question.
Where did you stay last night?
The singer is asking where the woman was last night.
You said, it was none a-my business
The woman responds that it's none of his business.
Just isn't treatin' me right'
The singer is expressing that the woman is not treating him well.
You got to step back
The singer is telling the woman to step back from him.
Back a little too, fast
The singer wants the woman to step back quickly.
You got to get back
The singer is telling the woman to go away.
I know you can't last
The singer knows that the woman won't be able to keep treating him this way.
You got to step back, baby
The singer is repeating his earlier statement for emphasis.
So I can get a long wit' you, now
The singer wants to have a peaceful relationship with the woman.
(harmonica)
The vocalist is playing the harmonica.
Now, an tell me, baby
The singer is asking the woman another question.
What do you tryin' to do?
The singer is trying to find out what the woman is trying to do.
You tryin' to love me
The singer thinks the woman is trying to have a relationship with him.
Some other man, too
The singer believes the woman is also seeing other men.
You got to step back, woman
The singer is repeating his earlier request.
So I can get along wit' you, now
The singer wants to have a harmonious relationship with the woman.
(harmonica)
The vocalist is playing the harmonica.
Well, now look-a-here woman
The singer is addressing the woman again.
I got somethin' that you can't do
The singer believes the woman cannot fully love him while seeing other men.
You can't love me
The singer believes the woman can't love him.
An some other man, too
The singer is reiterating the belief that the woman is seeing other men.
So I can get along wit' you, now
The singer wants to have a harmonious relationship with the woman.
(harmonica)
The vocalist is playing the harmonica.
Well now, look-a-here, baby
The singer is addressing the woman again.
Ain't gonna be your dog, no mo'
The singer will not let the woman manipulate him anymore.
You try to fool me, baby
The singer believes the woman is trying to deceive him.
Like you did a long time ago
The singer is referencing a previous deceitful act by the woman.
You got to step back, woman
The singer is again requesting the woman to step back.
Now you got to tell me, baby
The singer is asking the woman to be honest with him.
Ain't but the one thing
The singer is expressing his dissatisfaction.
Really give me the blues
The singer is deeply upset about something.
When I ain't got no bottom
The singer is disappointed when he doesn't have something.
On my last pair-a-shoes
The singer is specifically referencing the lack of the soles of his shoes.
Now you got to tell me, baby
The singer is asking the woman to be honest with him.
So I can get along wit' you
The singer wants to establish a harmonious relationship with the woman.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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