Fenton Lee Robinson (September 23, 1935 – November 25, 1997) was an American blues singer and exponent of the

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

guitar.

Biography

Robinson was born near

Greenwood, Mississippi Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta region, approximately 96 miles north of the state capital, Jackson, and 130 miles south of the riverp ...

. He left home at the age of 18 and moved to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, where he recorded his first single "Tennessee Woman" in 1957. In 1959, he made his first recording of " As the Years Go Passing By", later recorded by several other blues artists. He settled in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1962. He recorded his signature song, "Somebody Loan Me a Dime", in 1967 for the Palos label, the nationwide distribution of which was aborted by a freak snowstorm that hit Chicago. A

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

was recorded by Boz Scaggs in 1969, but the song was misattributed, and legal battles ensued. It has since become a blues standard, being "part of the repertoire of one out of every two blues artists", according to the ''Encyclopedia of Blues'' (1997). Robinson re-recorded the song for the critically acclaimed album '' Somebody Loan Me a Dime'' in 1974, the first of three he recorded for

Alligator Records Alligator Records is an American, Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the '' Living Blues'' magazine in Chicago in 1970. History Iglauer started the label using ...

. Robinson was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for the second, 1977's ''I Hear Some Blues Downstairs'', which contained a rerecording of "As the Years Go Passing By". Robinson's third album for Alligator, ''Nightflight'', was released in 1984. Robinson played guitar on Larry Davis's original recording of "Texas Flood". Davis later became a guitar player, but for "Texas Flood" Robinson provided the distinctive guitar parts, with Davis on vocals and bass, flamboyant keyboardist

James Booker James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Booker's unique style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. Musician Dr. J ...

on piano, David Dean on tenor saxophone, Booker Crutchfield on baritone saxophone and an unknown drummer. In the 1970s Robinson was arrested and imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter in connection with a car accident. Paroled after nine months, he continued playing in Chicago clubs and later taught guitar. Robinson died of complications from brain cancer, in Rockford, Illinois. His signature song, "Somebody Loan Me a Dime", was used in the film ''

The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respecti ...

''; the song is playing on the radio when Jake (

John Belushi John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known for being one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Throughout his c ...

) is being transported and paroled.

References

External links

Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Fenton 1935 births 1997 deaths People from Greenwood, Mississippi American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers Blues musicians from Mississippi Electric blues musicians Duke Records artists Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Deaths from cancer in Illinois Texas blues musicians Chicago blues musicians 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Illinois Guitarists from Mississippi Guitarists from Texas Alligator Records artists USA Records artists Meteor Records artists 20th-century American male musicians

Biography

See also

References

External links