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In 1941, Aleck "Rice" Miller, teamed up with the trusty guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr. (also featured on this album), began broadcasting a short blues musical interlude (sponsored by a flour company) called "King Biscuit Time" from a radio station in Helena, Arkansas. The program's sponsor started calling Miller by the name of the then much more famous Sonny Boy Williamson, also an extraordinary harmonica player. From then on, under the name Sonny Boy Williamson (II), he became very popular (the Roman numeral was added much later to distinguish him from the first Sonny Boy).
However, not much is known about Williamson, except that he taught Howlin' Wolf to play the harmonica during the brief period he stayed at Howlin' Wolf's sister's house. But there aren't the "classic" anecdotes between legend and truth that permeate the history of the blues, so much so that even his closest friends knew little about his personal life.
So let's let the music speak and turn to "Down and Out Blues", Williamson's first album, which, as often happened then, is just a collection of recordings made between 1955 and '58. It must be said that this is one of the seminal albums of electric blues.
Sonny Boy claimed: "Everybody talks, but few people know." Hence, "Don't Start Me Talkin" (recorded in '55) opens the album. It's a track with a rock-like style and sarcastic singing (quite typical of Williamson) with a final reserved for a thrilling harmonica solo; the piece would become a blues classic.
Intense is "All My Love In Vain" (again from '55), the song is interspersed with brief harmonica bits alternating with the singing. The sound is expressive, rich in reverberation and powerful. Miller himself claimed he sold his soul to the devil so he wouldn't have to breathe during his harmonica runs. Another delight is the wavy and sinuous slow song "Cross My Heart" from '57, contrasted by Sonny Boy's voice that powerfully enunciates the words and is direct and no-frills, far from mellifluous. Yet again, needless to say, all is enhanced by an ecstatic harmonica solo.
Besides the described tracks, the album is full of what will become blues classics. I will limit myself to mentioning my favorites: "The Key (To Your Door)", "Your Funeral And My Trial", "Fattening Frogs And Snakes", and "Let Me Explain".
Two mentions, one for the various sidemen who, besides the already mentioned Robert Lockwood Jr., include: bassist and blues gray eminence Willie Dixon, guitarists Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, and Luther Tucker, pianist Otis Spann, and on drums the indomitable Fred Below.
The other mention (purely aesthetic) goes to one of the most intense blues album covers of all time.
I close by paraphrasing Williamson: many people hear, few listen, and if you really want to listen to great blues, this album is for you.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Don't Start Me to Talkin' (02:37)
Well, I'm goin down to Rosie's,
Stop at Fannie Mae's.
Gonna tell Fannie what I heard,
Her boyfriend say.
Don't start me to talkin,
I'll tell her everything I know.
I'm gonna break up this signifyin,
Cause somebody's got to go.
Jack give his wife two dollars,
Go downtown and get some mutton.
Gets out on the streets,
Ole George stopped her.
He knocked her down,
And blackened her eye,
She gets back home,
Tell her husband a lie.
Don't start me to talkin,
I'll tell everything I know.
I'm gonna break up this signifyin,
Somebody's got to go.
She borrowed some money,
To go to the beauty shop.
Jim honked his horn,
She begin to stop,
She said, "Take me, baby,"
"Around the block,"
"I'm goin to the beauty shop,"
"Where I can get my hair aside."
Don't start me to talkin,
I'll tell everything I know.
Well, to break up this signifyin,
Somebody's got to go.
07 Fattening Frogs for Snakes (02:23)
It took me a long time, to find out my mistakes
Took me a long time, to find out my mistakes
(it sho' did man)
But I bet you my bottom dollar, I'm not fattenin' no more frogs for snakes
I found out my downfall, back in nineteen and thirty
(I started checkin')
I found out my downfall, from nineteen and thirty
I'm tellin' all of my friends, I'm not fattenin' no more frogs for snakes
All right now... (solo)
Yeh it is nineteen and fifty-seven, I've got to correct all of my mistakes
Whoa man, nineteen and fifty-seven, I've got to correct all of my mistakes
I'm tellin' my friends includin' my wife and everybody else,
not fattenin' no more frogs for snakes
09 Your Funeral and My Trial (02:32)
Please come home to your daddy, and explain yourself to me
Because I and you are man and wife, tryin' to start a family
I'm beggin' you baby, cut out that off the wall jive
If you can't treat me no better, it gotta be your funeral and my trial
When I and you first got together, 't was on one Friday night
We spent two lovely hours together, and the world knows allright
I'm just beggin' you baby, please cut out that off the wall jive
You know you gotta treat me better, if you don't it gotta be your funeral and my trial
Alright...
(solo)
The good Lord made the world and everything was in it
The way my baby love is some solid sentiment
She can love to heal the sick and she can love to raise the dead
You think I'm jokin' but you better believe what I say
I'm beggin' you baby, cut out that off the wall jive
Yeh you gotta treat me better, or it gotta be your funeral and my trial
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