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.
more on wikipedia
good mornin' little school girl
Sonny Boy Williamson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Good mo'nin, little school girl
Can I go home with you?
Can I go home, later wit' you?
Now, you can tell yo' mother an' yo' father, um
That Sonny Boy's a little school boy, too
I woke up-a this mo'nin'
Lord, n' I couldn't make me no
Lord, I couldn't make me, no town
Well, but I didn't have no blues, woman
But I was all messed up 'n down
Now, you be my baby, mm
Come on an' be my baby, mm
I'll buy you a diamond
I'll buy you a diamond ring
Well, if you don't be my little woman
Then I won't buy you a doggone thing
I'm 'on buy me a airplane
I'm 'on buy me a airplane
I'm 'on fly all over this land
I'm 'on fly all over this land's town
Don't find the woman that I'm lovin'
Then I ain't goin' to let my airplane down
I do no hollerin'
I do no hollerin'
Baby, what in this world, I'm gon' do
Baby, what in this world, I'm gon' do
Well, said I don't wan' never hurt yo' feelin'
Or either get mad what you'll do
The lyrics of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little School Girl" is a traditional blues song that describes the yearning of the singer towards the titular "little school girl." The singer attempts to appeal to her with the offer to go home with her, and tells her to inform her parents that he is also a schoolboy. The singer wakes up in the morning and is unable to leave town, but he is not feeling blue. He asks the girl to be his, and offers to buy her a diamond ring. He also proclaims his intention to travel all over the land on his airplane, but only if he finds the woman he loves. He concludes by saying he does not want to hurt her feelings.
The song is replete with sexual innuendos and can be interpreted as the singer's attempt to lure a young, innocent girl into sexual activity. The "school girl" is a symbol of youth and purity, and the singer's proposition can be seen as an attempt to corrupt her. She is being asked to be his "baby" and offered a diamond ring, which is often regarded as a symbol of marriage. The singer's intention to travel all over the land to find the woman he loves is also suggestive of his insatiable sexual desire.
Line by Line Meaning
Hello, little school girl
Greeting to the young, inexperienced girl
Good mo'nin, little school girl
Good morning to the young, inexperienced girl
Can I go home with you?
May I accompany you to your residence?
Can I go home, later wit' you?
May I go to your place at a later time?
Now, you can tell yo' mother an' yo' father, um
That Sonny Boy's a little school boy, too
Let your parents know that I am also young and inexperienced like you.
I woke up-a this mo'nin'
I woke up this morning
Lord, n' I couldn't make me no
I had trouble making my way
Lord, I couldn't make me, no town
I was unable to go into town
Well, but I didn't have no blues, woman
Despite the difficulties, I was not sad, woman
But I was all messed up 'n down
However, I was feeling discombobulated and frazzled
Now, you be my baby, mm
You can be my lover, mm
Come on an' be my baby, mm
Please become my lover, mm
I'll buy you a diamond
I will purchase a diamond for you
I'll buy you a diamond ring
I will acquire a diamond ring for you
Well, if you don't be my little woman
However, if you choose not to be my lover
Then I won't buy you a doggone thing
I will not bestow any gifts upon you.
I'm 'on buy me a airplane
I intend to purchase an airplane
I'm 'on buy me a airplane
I plan to buy an airplane
I'm 'on fly all over this land
I'm going to fly all over this area
I'm 'on fly all over this land's town
I'm planning on traveling all over this region
Don't find the woman that I'm lovin'
If I do not find my beloved
Then I ain't goin' to let my airplane down
I will not be disappointed and will continue with my plans.
I do no hollerin'
I do not yell or shout
Baby, what in this world, I'm gon' do
Darling, what am I going to do in this world?
Well, said I don't wan' never hurt yo' feelin'
I do not want to do anything to upset you
Or either get mad what you'll do
Nor become angry at you for anything.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Sonny Boy Williamson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@carlossousa200
WIKIPEDIA:
DEATH AND LEGACY
Williamson's final recording session took place in Chicago in December 1947, in which he accompanied Big Joe Williams. On June 1, 1948, Williamson was killed in a robbery on Chicago's South Side as he walked home from a performance at the Plantation Club, at 31st St. and Giles Avenue, a tavern just a block and a half from his home, at 3226 S. Giles. Williamson's final words are reported to have been "Lord have mercy".
Williamson is buried at the former site of the Blairs Chapel Church, southwest of Jackson, Tennessee. In 1991, a red granite marker was purchased by fans and family to mark the site of his burial. A Tennessee historical marker, also placed in 1991, indicates the place of his birth and describes his influence on blues music. The historical marker is located south of Jackson on Tennessee State Highway 18, at the corner of Caldwell Road.
NAME ISSUES
His legacy has been somewhat overshadowed in the postwar blues era by the popularity of the musician who appropriated his name, Rice Miller, who after Williamson's death went on to record many popular blues songs for Chicago's Checker Records and others and toured Europe several times during the blues revival in the 1960s. The recordings made by Williamson between 1937 and his death in 1948 and those made later by Rice Miller were all originally issued under the name Sonny Boy Williamson. It is believed that Miller adopted the name to deceive audiences (and his first record label) into thinking that he was the "original" Sonny Boy.[3] In order to differentiate between the two musicians, many later scholars and biographers have referred to John Lee Williamson (1914–1948) as Sonny Boy Williamson I and Miller (c. 1912–1965) as Sonny Boy Williamson II.
To add to the confusion, around 1940 the jazz pianist and singer Enoch Williams recorded for Decca under the name Sonny Boy Williams and in 1947 as Sunny Boy in the Sunny Boy Trio.
@Sabbatius527
Rice Miller aka Sonny Boy Williamson II must be laughing in his grave watching this dedication video to John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson with his picture first appearing in the video! Great song! Big Joe Williams & Robert Nighthawk on guitars in this recording which appeared in 1937.
@ladyleesutter
Sure didn't help me in my search for the original Sonny Boy Williamson, since all I had to go by were their faces (and the fact the First died young.) The First very handsome, the 2nd gnarly nose and no front teef., uh, teeth. Ok on with the search.
@toxicmabletree
love this song more than anything else in this world.... I sure hope that i can listen to this when i die.... Fantastik
@chucky1316
love your style man , I am from the south and your blues song's move's the soul keep on playing man. GOD bless, SEE YOU AT THE CABIN
@MrCocaboy1
ALWAYS LOVED THIS LEGEND!
@WinIronRose
Wonderful recording...took me back. Thank you for posting this. Cheers
@lheuredeschiens9842
Super musique, avec trois fois rien ! Guitare, harmo, voix... rien à ajouter !
@jamesmcallister5494
,,Ten years after,, covered this song too,, amazing version.
@patsaklaras
in deed
@FririkurEllefsen
Fantastic blues. Never was much into sony boy williamson, but I love this. Is he the one playing guitar too? The guitar part is very ragtime inspiring.