Conversation with Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim, and Sonny Boy Williamson about levee camps and Southern prisons; Levee camp song fragments
Other Form of Name
Lomax, Alan, 1915-2002; Williamson, Sonny Boy, 1914-1948; Broonzy, Big Bill, 1893-1958
Identifier
TD93AR02; FRID (Lomax Number) 11936
Creation Date
3-2-1947
City
New York (N.Y.)
Disclaimer
Some of the images and language that appear in the digital collections depict prejudices that are not condoned by the University of Mississippi. This content is being presented as historical documentation to aid in the understanding of both American history and the history of the University of Mississippi. The University Creed speaks to our current deeply held values, and the availability of this content should not be taken as an endorsement of previous attitudes or behavior.
Description
In 1947, using his own Presto disc recording machine, Alan Lomax recorded bluesmen Big Bill Broonzy (1893-1958), Memphis Slim (1915-1988), and Sonny Boy Williamson (1914-1948) at Decca Studios in New York City, after they had given a concert at Town Hall. In a session of candid oral history and song, the three artists explain the origin and nature of the blues. 'They began with blues as a record of the problems of love and women in the Delta world,' Lomax wrote. 'They explored the cause of this in the stringent poverty of black rural life. They recalled life in the Mississippi work camps, where the penitentiary stood at the end of the road, waiting to receive the rebellious. Finally, they came to the enormities of the lynch system that threatened anyone who defied its rules.' The interviews were issued in a fictionalized form in Common Ground (1948) under the title 'I Got the Blues,' but they were deemed so controversial that their album release was delayed for ten years. When United Artists finally issued them on LP as Blues in the Mississippi Night in 1959, Alan used pseudonyms to protect the artists and their families. (See the Blues in the Mississippi night CD [Rounder 1860])
Subject Headings (Library of Congress)
Levee districts; Work camps;Blues (Music); Blues musicians
Relational Format
audio recording
Extent
05:02
Original Collection
Alan Lomax Recordings
Rights
Media files in this collection are owned by the Association for Cultural Equity and made available solely for personal use. Copy or capture of media files is prohibited. Due to copyright concerns, the recordings in this collection can only be accessed by arrangement with the Department of Archives and Special Collections.
Comments
Blues In the Mississippi Night interviews 3/47. Lomax Classification: holler; prison song; proto-blues; spoken; levee camp song. Lomax Collection Title: New York Blues Interviews 1947;. Recording Note: Discussion of the differences between prisons and levee camps. Talk about jail time for shooting craps. They each sing fragments of levee camp hollers. Session Note: