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Fattening Frogs For Snakes
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Wednesday, 28 December 2005 10:53 |
Johnson Machine Gun
for Bob Palmer & Jack Vaughan
1
"Sunnyland [Slim] met Muddy Waters
at the Flame Club on Chicago's South Side
sometime in the mid-'40s,"
Bob Palmer relates. "They were both
from the Delta, both old enough
to be serious & professional
about their music (Muddy
was in his early 30s, Sunnyland
almost 40), both proud, dignified men
who showed up for work
well-dressed & sober- even if they didn't always
stay that way all night."
2
"I knowed of Muddy Waters' people,"
Sunnyland told Sam Charters,
"but I didn't know Muddy
until I come to Chicago
in 1943. He was stayin' at 1851
West 13th. I think he worked more
in Mississippi
than he was doin' in Chicago--
he was just workin' on that truck.
But guitar players was scarce. Me & him
met up on account of
he come to the Flame
& he come over to where
me & Little Walter was at,
& he was playin' that bass style guitar,
& finally we got together
for a job. Sammy Goldberg said
'Can you get a guitar player
for the session
& I thought about Muddy.
I went [on his job]
& told them
that his mother was dead
& I got him off the truck
& I got him
to come down to Aristocrat"
to make some records
for Leonard Chess & Sammy Goldberg
3
Here's their first release,
Aristocrat 1301, in the fall
of 1947, Sunnyland on piano & vocal,
Muddy Waters on guitar,
& while Sunnyland
may have confused his johnson
for the Thompson sub-machine gun
of gangster movie fame,
there is no mistaking
the depth nor the complexity
of his intent in the song he called
"Johnson Machine Gun":
Yes, I feel mistreated
Boys, seems like my time ain't long
Yes, I feel mistreated
Boys, seems like my time ain't long
Because the best friend I had
Done stole my lover & gone
I'm gonna buy me a Johnson 'sheen gun
& a carload of explosion balls
I'm gonna buy me a Johnson 'sheen gun
& a carload of explosion balls
Yes, I'm gonna be a walkin' cycloon
from Saginaw to the Niagara Falls
Go & bring me my typewriter
& a whole-round belt of bombs
Go & bring me my typewriter
& a whole-round belt of bombs
I'm gonna free my no-good woman
Boys, she down in the state penitentiary walls
Hey little girl, the undertaker's been here
Girl, I gave him your heighth & size
Yes, the undertaker's been here
Darlin', an' I gave him your heighth & size
Now if you don't be makin' whoopee with the devil tomorrow this time,
Baby, God knows you'll be surprised.
Detroit
March 12, 1982/
New Orleans
December 10, 1995
3.1.661 |
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