#Lyric August 25
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Last week on a Tuesday afternoon I went searching on WordPress Reader for a new idea for my 30 Day “Do Something New Daily” Challenge. I found it by seeing writers constantly referring to Song LYRIC Sunday prompted by Jim Adams. I wanted to learn something new about people writing about song LYRICS.
I will be honest I struggled to find the site that Jim Adams was associated with. Finally after a few Google searches I found his page. It is called A Unique Title For Me.
I love the concept I discovered. Jim Adams provides a prompt to serve as a theme for song LYRICS every Sunday. Hence the name Song LYRIC SUNDAY and you can play along following some simple rules.
Last Sunday August 16th it was theme of words like “clear,” “dark,” and “light.” The idea was to write about those words that show up in the title, LYRICS, or message of a song you like. I entered a Tab Benoit song called Darkness into the comments.
To be honest I really did not adhere to the expectations of Song Lyric Sunday last week. I made a rookie mistake by just posting links. I am attempting to do better this week. I am glad Jim set me straight with some constructive criticism on what I shared last week.
For Sunday August 23rd the theme Jim offered up was Preposition of Place
In essence he is looking for a song with a theme of Above, Below, or Between.
The Blues is my favorite musical genre so I picked a song performed and written by Sonny Boy Williamson II called Nine Below Zero. The song has the prompt below in the title so I get to hit the mark on this week’s theme.
The History of the Blues can be confusing at times because much of it is oral history. That is the case with Sonny Boy Williamson. The confusion lies in the fact there are actually two artists that go by that name. Sonny Boy Williamson and Sonny Boy Williamson II.
John Lee Curtis Williamson (Sonny Boy Williamson) was born in 1914 in Tennessee. He is considered a blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of recordings by many pre–World War II blues artists. He original or adapted songs included “Good Morning School Girl”. He was killed in Chicago in a robbery on June 1, 1948. He was just 34 years old.
Then there is Sonny Boy Williamson II who there is much debate on what was his real name and along with his date of birth. Many speculate he was born Aleck or Alex Miller. There are others that say his last name was Ford. There are even those that claim his name was Rice Miller. There is a great biography written on Sonny Boy II by Cub Koda
Sonny Boy II was actually going by the name Little Boy Blue until he became a star on KFFA King Biscuit Time. The sponsor of that show wanted Little Boy Blue to pretend he was the original Sonny Boy and he did. When John Williamson (Sonny Boy) was murdered in Chicago in 1948 that let Sonny Boy II go off and running to stardom. He in fact became a bigger star than the man he was imitating. Sonny Boy II first wife was the sister of another one of my favorite artists Howlin Wolf.
Sonny Boy Williamson and Sonny Boy Williamson II are both members of the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
Here are the lyrics to Nine Below Zero.
Other artists covered this song including Muddy Waters who was born McKinley Morganfield in 1915. He was 3 when his mother died and he moved to the Stovall Plantation just outside of Rolling Fork, MS.
Here is a YouTube Video of Sonny Boy II singing “Nine Below Zero”
Here are the Jim’s rules for Song Lyric Sunday. If you are not a blogger you can still play along.
Here are the Song LYRIC Sunday “rules”:
• Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it contains the prompt words or not. If it does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.
• Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
• Link to the YouTube video, or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.
The upcoming prompts will be:
August 30, 2020 – Cruel/Evil/Horrible/Monster/Wicked
September 6, 2020 – Musical/Opera
September 13, 2020 – Contrasts
September 20, 2020 – Canadian music
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