Wilbur "Kansas Joe" McCoy
(May 11, 1905 – January 28, 1950)
was an American
Delta blues singer, musician and songwriter.
Career
McCoy performed under various stage names but is best known as Kansas Joe McCoy.
Born in
Raymond, Mississippi
Raymond is a city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,933; in 2020, its population was 1,960. Raymond is one of two county seats of Hinds County (along with Jackson) and is the home of the ...
,
he was the older brother of the blues accompanist
Papa Charlie McCoy
Charles "Papa Charlie" McCoy (May 26, 1909 or 1911 – July 26, 1950) was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter.
Career
McCoy was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He was best known by his nickname, Papa Charlie. As a guitarist and mando ...
. As a young man, McCoy was drawn to the music scene in
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 played guitar and sang during the 1920s. He teamed up his with future wife, Lizzie Douglas, a guitarist better known as
Memphis Minnie
Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), better known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being "Wh ...
,
and their 1930 recording of the song "Bumble Bee" for
Columbia Records was a
hit
Hit means to strike someone or something.
Hit or HIT may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities
* Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super''
* Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
.
In 1930, the couple moved to Chicago, where they were an important part of the burgeoning blues scene there.
After they were divorced, McCoy teamed up with his brother to form the
Harlem Hamfats, a band that performed and recorded during the second half of the 1930s.
In 1936, the Harlem Hamfats released their recording of the song "The Weed Smoker's Dream". McCoy later refined the tune, changed the lyrics and retitled the song "
Why Don't You Do Right?
"Why Don't You Do Right?" (originally recorded as "Weed Smoker's Dream" in 1936) is an American blues and jazz-influenced pop song usually credited to Kansas Joe McCoy. A minor key twelve-bar blues with a few chord substitutions, it is considered ...
" for
Lil Green
Lil Green (December 22, 1919 (some sources give 1901 or 1910) – April 14, 1954) was an American blues singer and songwriter. She was among the leading female rhythm and blues singers of the 1940s, with a sensual soprano voice. Gospel singer R ...
, who recorded it in 1941. It was
covered
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
a year later by both
Benny Goodman and
Peggy Lee, becoming Lee's first
hit single. "Why Don't You Do Right?" remains a
jazz standard and is McCoy's most enduring composition.
At the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
Charlie McCoy entered the military, but a heart condition kept Joe McCoy from service. He formed a band, Big Joe and his Rhythm, which performed during most of the 1940s. The band featured
Robert Nighthawk
Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. He was the father of the blues musician Sam Carr. Nighthawk was i ...
on harmonica and Charlie McCoy on
mandolin.
Death and legacy
McCoy died of
heart disease in Chicago in 1950, at the age of 44, only a few months before Charlie died. They are both buried in
Restvale Cemetery
Restvale Cemetery open 1927 is located at 11700 S. Laramie Ave. in Alsip, Illinois, United States, a suburb southwest of the city of Chicago. A number of Chicago blues musicians, educators, and notable people are buried here.
Restvale and Burr ...
, in
Alsip, Illinois
Alsip is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,063 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
Alsip was settled in the 1830s by German and Dutch farmers. The village is named after Frank ...
.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
vocalist
Robert Plant took a recording of "
When the Levee Breaks
"When the Levee Breaks" is a country blues song written and first recorded by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929. The lyrics reflect experiences during the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
"When the Levee Bre ...
," by McCoy and Memphis Minnie, which was in his personal collection, to guitarist
Jimmy Page, who revamped the music, and the band recorded it, with most of the original lyrics (Minnie was credited on the record), for Led Zeppelin's 1971 album, ''
Led Zeppelin IV''.
McCoy's songs have also been covered by
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
John Mellencamp
John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrument ...
, the
Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style presaged the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely ac ...
,
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
,
Jo Ann Kelly
Jo Ann Kelly (5 January 1944 – 21 October 1990) was an English blues singer and guitarist. She is respected for her strong blues vocal style and for playing country blues guitar.
Early life
Kelly was born in Streatham, South London, England ...
,
Cleo Laine and
A Perfect Circle
A Perfect Circle is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. A Perfect Circle has released four studio albums, the first three during the early 2000s: ...
.
Pseudonyms
McCoy also performed and recorded under the names Bill Wither, Georgia Pine Boy, Hallelujah Joe, Big Joe McCoy and His Washboard Band, and the Mississippi Mudder.
He also used the names Hamfoot Ham, Hillbilly Plowboy, and Mud Dauber Joe.
Posthumous recognition
Like many blues musicians of his era, Joe McCoy's grave site was originally unmarked. A tribute concert
was held in October 2010 to celebrate the music of Joe and Charlie McCoy and to buy gravestones for each of them; they were installed on May 31, 2011.
See also
*
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 ...
*
List of blues musicians
Blues musicians are musical artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording blues music. They come from different eras and include styles such as ragtime-vaudeville, Delta and country blues, and urban styles from Chic ...
*
List of Chicago blues musicians
Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1950s, in which the basic instrumentation of Delta blues—acoustic guitar and harmonica—is augmented with electric guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums, piano, harmo ...
*
List of people from Mississippi
This list contains people who were born or lived in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Activists and advocates
* Ruby Bridges (born 1954), first African-American child to attend an all-white school in the South ( Tylertown)
* Will D. Campbell ...
References
External links
"Weed Smoker's Dream" by McCoy, performed by Chappelle and Winters (video)
McCoy Brothers Tribute websiteKansas Joe recordingsat the
Discography of American Historical Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCoy, Kansas Joe
American blues singers
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
Delta blues musicians
Columbia Records artists
People from Raymond, Mississippi
Blues musicians from Mississippi
20th-century American guitarists
Guitarists from Mississippi
1905 births
1950 deaths
Harlem Hamfats members
African-American guitarists
20th-century African-American male singers