''Sonny Boy Williamson & the Yardbirds'' is a live album by
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 ...
veteran
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp st ...
backed by English rock band
the Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell ...
. It was recorded at the
Crawdaddy Club
The Crawdaddy Club was a music venue in Richmond, Surrey, England, which opened in 1963. The Rolling Stones were its house band in its first year and were followed by The Yardbirds. Several other notable British blues and rhythm and blues acts a ...
in
Richmond, Surrey on December 8, 1963. However, the performances were not released until early 1966, after a string of Top 40 hits by the Yardbirds.
Williamson sings and/or plays the harmonica on all of the songs. Although they are in a supporting role, the album also presents some of the earliest recordings by the Yardbirds, whose members included
Eric Clapton on lead guitar. Numerous reissues have appeared over the years, sometimes with additional tracks recorded around the same time.
Background
German music impresarios
Horst Lippmann and
Fritz Rau organized the first annual
American Folk Blues Festival
The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe as an annual event for several years beginning in 1962. It introduced audiences in Europe, including the UK, to leading blues performers of the day such as Muddy Waters, Howl ...
in 1962. They arranged for several well-known American blues artists to perform in concert in several European cities. Sonny Boy Williamson participated during the second festival tour in 1963 and his performances are identified as some of the most memorable of the festival. At the conclusion of the festival, he returned to England for a more extensive club tour.
The Yardbirds' manager,
Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Sergio Alessando Gomelsky (28 February 1934 – 13 January 2016) was a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter (as Oscar Rasputin) and record producer. He was born in Georgia, grew up in Switzerland, and later lived in the Unit ...
, who promoted some of the early American Folk Blues Festivals in England, persuaded Lippmann to attend one of the group's shows (by another account, Williamson also saw one of their performances). A deal was struck and the Yardbirds backed Williamson for several English dates between December 1963 and February 1964. Part of the arrangement included that Lippmann and Rau record some live performances (as they had done for the festival tour) and finance a solo studio demo by the group.
At their first meeting, Clapton wanted to impress Williamson with his familiarity with American blues and asked "Isn't your real name Rice Miller?" The Yardbirds had been performing "
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", which is often attributed to
John Lee Williamson, also known as "Sonny Boy Williamson I"; "Rice Miller" is one of several names associated with "Sonny Boy Williamson II"). According to Clapton, Williamson "slowly pulled out a small penknife and glared at me. It went downhill from there".
Williamson and the group rehearsed for their upcoming club performances and prepared a set list. Yardbirds' rhythm guitarist
Chris Dreja
Christopher Walenty Dreja (born 11 November 1945 in Surbiton, Surrey) is an English musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist and bassist for rock band the Yardbirds for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
E ...
recalled:
Recording
December 7, 1963 at the Star Hotel, Croydon
Gomelsky indicates that two songs were recorded; however, Yardbirds' chronicler Gregg Russo notes that this was a rehearsal and that attendees have stated that the only recordings took place the following night.
:Sonny Boy Williamson backed by the Yardbirds:
:*"Take It Easy Baby" (version 1)
:*"Do the Weston" (version 1)
December 8, 1963 at the Crawdaddy Club, Richmond
:The Yardbirds (without Williamson):
:*"
Smokestack Lightning
"Smokestack Lightning" (also "Smoke Stack Lightning" or "Smokestack Lightnin'") is a blues song recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1956. It became one of his most popular and influential songs. It is based on earlier blues songs, and numerous artists ...
"
:*"
Let It Rock"
:*"Honey in Your Hips"
:*"
I Wish You Would"
:*"
You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover"
:*"
Who Do You Love?"
:Williamson (solo):
:*"Baby Don't Worry"
:*"I Don't Care No More"
:Williamson backed by the Yardbirds:
:*"
Bye Bye Bird"
:*"Mister Downchild"
:*"The River Rhine"
:*"23 Hours Too Long"
:*"A Lost Care"
:*"Pontiac Blues"
:*"Take It Easy Baby" (version 2)
:*"Out on the Water Coast"
:*"Western Arizona" "Do the Weston" (version 2)
February 28, 1964 at the Birmingham Town Hall
:Williamson backed by the Yardbirds:
:*"Slow Walk" (only the last minute of the performance survivesit has the same instrumental backing as "The River Rhine")
:*"Highway 49" "Pontiac Blues"
:*"My Little Cabin"
:Williamson (solo):
:*"Bye Bye Bird"
Releases
Over two years after it was recorded, ''Sonny Boy Williamson & the Yardbirds'' was first released in the UK by
Fontana Records on January 7, 1966. With a somewhat different running order, it was released in the US a month later by
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...
on February 7, 1966. The album coincided with a string of successful singles by the Yardbirds, that led music critic
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.
Life and writing
Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...
to label it "an exploitative album".
Although Williamson's photo and name were prominently displayed on the album cover, a more recent photo of the Yardbirds with
Jeff Beck (who replaced Clapton in March 1965) in the foreground was used. In Germany, the album was released by Star-Club Records, that had a connection to Lippmann and Rau.
Critical reception
In a retrospective review for
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 ...
, Unterberger gave the album three out of five stars. He notes that Sonny Boy Williamson sings well and that the album should be seen as a Williamson release "in the manner of the sides the Beatles cut in Hamburg supporting Tony Sheridan."
He describes the Yardbirds' and Clapton's playing as "extremely green" and "tentative".
The album did not appear on the record charts in the UK or US.
David French, in his biography of Yardbirds' singer
Keith Relf
William Keith Relf (22 March 194312 May 1976) was an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist and harmonica player for rock band the Yardbirds. He then formed the band Renaissance with his sister Jane Relf, The Yardbirds ex-drummer J ...
, had a more negative view of the Yardbirds' performance:
Track listing
Original Fontana album
The songwriter credits are taken from the 1966 Fontana release, which indicates that all songs are written by Sonny Boy Williamson II, except as noted. The album does not include running times.
:Side 1
#"Bye Bye Bird" (
Willie Dixon, Williamson)
#"Mister Downchild"
#"23 Hours Too Long"
#"Out on the Water Coast"
#"Baby Don't Worry"
:Side 2
#"Pontiac Blues"
#"Take It Easy Baby"
#"I Don't Care No More"
#"Do the Weston"
Original Mercury album
The running times are taken from the 1966 Mercury release. The liner notes include "All selection composed by Sonny Boy Williamson II and published by BMI".
:Side 1
#"Bye Bye Bird"2:23
#"Pontiac Blues"3:45
#"Take It Easy Baby"4:09
#"I Don't Care No More"3:18
#"Do the Weston"4:00
:Side 2
#"Mister Downchild"3:56
#"23 Hours Too Long"5:04
#"Out on the Water Coast"3:00
#"Baby Don't Worry"4:28
Reissues
''Sonny Boy Williamson & the Yardbirds'' has been reissued numerous times. Sometimes the tracks were resequenced and the cover art was updated with photos of the later period Yardbirds. Questions over the ownership of the master tapes and the rights to authorize their release has led to many competing and overlapping albums. Beginning in 1981, Lippmann and Rau began releasing other material recorded around the same time. These albums sometimes included various combinations of additional recordings with Williamson, the Yardbirds' December 8, 1963, solo set, and early group demos. In 1984, Gomelsky released the first of several box sets by the group, ''Shapes of Things'', which also combined these tracks. New albums continue to appear, sometimes packaged with recordings of Williamson backed by
the Animals
The Animals (also billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals) are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and ...
on December 30, 1963,
and with
Jimmy Page and
Brian Auger
Brian Albert Gordon Auger (born 18 July 1939) is an English jazz rock and rock music keyboardist who specialises in the Hammond organ.
Auger has worked with Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy Williamson, a ...
in January 1965.
[
]
Personnel
*
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp st ...
vocal, harmonica
The Yardbirds
*
Eric Claptonguitar
*
Chris Dreja
Christopher Walenty Dreja (born 11 November 1945 in Surbiton, Surrey) is an English musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist and bassist for rock band the Yardbirds for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
E ...
guitar
*
Jim McCarty
James Stanley McCarty (born 25 July 1943) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. Following Chris Dreja's departure from the Yardbirds in 2013, McCarty became the only member of the band to featu ...
drums
*
Paul Samwell-Smithbass
*
Keith Relf
William Keith Relf (22 March 194312 May 1976) was an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist and harmonica player for rock band the Yardbirds. He then formed the band Renaissance with his sister Jane Relf, The Yardbirds ex-drummer J ...
handclapping, shouting, foot-tapping
Footnotes
References
Sources
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{{The Yardbirds
Sonny Boy Williamson II albums
The Yardbirds live albums
Albums produced by Giorgio Gomelsky
1966 live albums
Mercury Records live albums
Fontana Records live albums
Collaborative albums