Sonny Boy Williamson: An Appreciation

[Adam Blake]

Prompted by Alan Balfour, here is a piece I wrote in 1990. Never published (for perhaps all too obvious reasons!) I post it here in the hope that it might provide some enjoyment for the secret cabal of SBW devotees lurking deep in the heart of SOTW:

SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON: An Appreciation

(Written 1990)

That he was not a good man I have little doubt. Even now, over 25 years after he first came to these shores it takes little to get those who had business with Sonny Boy (Aleck “Riceâ€

[garth cartwright]

Brilliant! And you are being too humble Adam, that piece is far better than most of what is published in this country as "music writing" - Uncut has never run anything near the worth of that (passion, joy, knowledge, insight etc) while Mojo very rarely offers up much better.

I too love SBW2 - I would include him as one of the 20th C's greatest songwriters (both lyrics and music), the wit and economy of his songs never fails to dazzle me. I first came across him when as a kid I bought the New York Dolls' second album and liked it very much; one song that struck me was Don't Start Me Talking which sounded like a Dolls original but was credited to SBW.

Things you didn't mention - he was playing with Robert Johnson on the night he was poisoned and apparently warned RJ against taking a drink from a pint of whiskey with its seal broken. The younger man paying no attention. Also, labels were after SBW to record from the early 1930s but he was so suspicious of white people he refused until the 1950s. Imagine him as a country bluesman! I'd love to hear that Chess box - i have the Arhoolie CD and a couple of Chess comp's but not 5 CDs worth!

[Adam Blake]

Things you didn't mention - he was playing with Robert Johnson on the night he was poisoned and apparently warned RJ against taking a drink from a pint of whiskey with its seal broken.

Thank you, Garth, you're very kind. I must admit I tidied it up a little before subjecting it to the kind of scrutiny it might encounter here.

As for that Robert Johnson story, I never knew that! Wow...

If SBW was suspicious of white folks he was sufficiently impressed with Lillian McMurray to publish her home telephone number (in order for her to act as his booking agent) on one of his Trumpet recordings. Apparently she sold his contract to the Chess brothers for a pittance not because she didn't think it was worth something but because she couldn't wait to get shot of the old buzzard.

There are longstanding rumours that SBW made some test recordings in the late 20s but they've never surfaced. (Have they, Alan?) Howlin' Wolf was well into his 30s before he recorded but SBW was probably over 50! It's hard to imagine him as anything other than an old man...

[NormanD]

Thank you, too, Adam. A fine piece of writing. If I'd never heard of SBW, I certainly would want to now.

A couple of older friends were recently telling me of their time at Leeds University in the 60s, the visiting jazz players they'd seen.

"There was one old blues singer I saw", Ray told me. "What was his name? Something Williams?"

"Big Joe?"

"No. He played a mouth organ and wore this odd suit - half was black, half was white....."

"And a bowler hat?"

"That's right - who was he?"

"You saw Sonny Boy Wiliamson?!?!"

[Charlie]

Things you didn't mention - he was playing with Robert Johnson on the night he was poisoned and apparently warned RJ against taking a drink from a pint of whiskey with its seal broken. The younger man paying no attention.!

I am so suspicious of any and all stories told by Sonny Boy and, before him, Big Bill Broonzy, who both learned to mythologise their lives as they realised that this is what their interlocutors wanted to ear.

A similar moment came up in the second Folk America programme where it was made clear that the legend of Leadbelly singing his way out of Angola Prison to get a pardon was a story concocted by Leadbelly and his white patron, publisher and champion John Lomax to get the New York intellectuals onside.

I'm a bit surprised that it was Garth who repeated the Sonny Boy story, knowing him to be a man of caution who will usually check his sources.

[garth cartwright]

It's in Robert Palmer's great Deep Blues - if RP believed it then I do too. Honeyboy Edwards has also confirmed it. Good to be suspicious, CG, wrong to disbelieve anything that seems beyond the conventional.

[Alan Balfour]

Thank you, too, Adam. A fine piece of writing. If I'd never heard of SBW, I certainly would want to now.

I'll second that. Why didn't you try to get it published? Around that time there was a small London-based music magazine called "Highly Strung" which was crying out for blues features, shame you never came across it.

[Adam Blake]

Why didn't you try to get it published?

I thought it was too much of a gush, too personal. But thanks, Alan.

[Alan Balfour]

I am so suspicious of any and all stories told by Sonny Boy and, before him, Big Bill Broonzy, who both learned to mythologise their lives as they realised that this is what their interlocutors wanted to ear.

In respect of SBW's tales, I've kept a cutting from the Guardian, Tuesday January 19,1965 which might make you laugh.

The Original Sonny
By Chris Morphet

THE hands are bony, gnarled and beautiful. He wears a comic bowler hat and a bizarre dark gold and black suit. When he walks he shambles along with his wiry stooping body. His lips are strong yet supple—this is one of the original blues harmonica players, Sonny Boy Williamson, who was recently on tour in this country.

At 68 he is a little doddery and sounds his years, with perpetual recollections of past experiences. But everyone falls silent when he stares and speaks. Most of the time, though, he is patronised or barely appreciated by both his audience and so-called admirers. A typical dialogue would be:

"Who's the greatest, Sonny?"

"Everybody's great, there ain’t nobody's the greatest."

"Do you know Elvis Presley?"

"Elvis who?"

"Elvis Presley."

"I slept in the same bed as him . . . I know 'em all . . . I bin in this business 48 years an' there ain't nobody I don't know . . . Anybody's good so long as they try and play what they know—don't matter who they are or where they come from."

"When did you first take up the harmonica, Sonny?"

"I was born with it in ma mouth."

Although you can't dance easily to what Sonny plays you don't really want to. He is a gripping entertainer —swaying, leaning over backwards, tapping out the best and blowing fantastic shrill notes, wails, moans and deep growling "harp" sounds. He sometimes plays through one nostril contorting his face into a camel-like image: or he may play his "Echo Vamper" half-way in his mouth, like a child with a stick of rock.

Because they do not understand either the Blues or Sonny himself, many go away puzzled, thinking him a phoney or conceited. Before and after performing he drinks whisky non-stop and talks patiently like some sort of seer. You get involved with his "presence" and then you are won over.

[kas]

A captivating piece of writing, Adam!
That personal approach works very well. It really does convince the reader to seek out the records him/herself.

Obviously it made me put on SBW (Chess model) immediately. I recall it was Help Me that stopped me on my tracks when I was listening to a cheapish Chess compilation one time in my late teens.

You've propably seen this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2jOaYkPvug[/youtube]

[Hugh Weldon]

Fine piece Adam.

[quote]it is to Granada Television’s eternal credit that they managed to film some of these visiting blues statesmen for a modest documentary titled “I Hear The Bluesâ€

[Adam Blake]

Fine piece Adam.

This looks like it:

Yes, Hugh, that's the one. The miracles of the internet, eh? The "long high flat 7th" is at 4:27

[Alan Balfour]

Just to show folk how nerdy I am in the mid-1990s I transcribed all the available songs SBW recorded for Trumpet and Chess, alternative takes too... including takes 1-11 of Little Village.

[garth cartwright]

Charlie stung me with his accusation that I'd not checked my sources so I went through some of my library and, yup, it was Sonny Boy who was playing with Robert that fateful night at Three Forks. The most detailed entry on the evening comes with THE COMPLETE ROBERT JOHNSON box, notes written by Stephen LaVere - the RJ expert who was mentioned last year when the Vanity Fair photo was discussed (he holds the copyright on the 2 known photos of RJ). He claims that the musician Houston Stackhouse, who was close to both musicians, was not there that night but being close to SBW and curious about what happened to Robert he managed to gather a complete picture of what happened that night - Honeyboy would verify this story. La Vere tells the events of the night well - pg 18 which includes SBW telling RJ "man, don't never take a drink from a open bottle. You don't know what could be in it." You're welcome to prove me wrong Charlie but 'til you do I'm sticking with that story!

[Adam Blake]

You've propably seen this:

No, you know? I don't think I have. I lose track. When I wrote that piece that take of "Keep It To Yourself" that Hugh posted was the only clip I'd seen. Now there's so much stuff surfaced, so much footage. It's great but I've never seen one where SBW is anything other than a complete enigma. Like a strange old man who's just passing through and as he goes he's humming to himself a music that only he can hear, and all we can ever hope to do is eavesdrop on his private musical imaginings.