Army Man Blues
1962 · Prestige Bluesville BVLP-1056 · USA
- Artist
- Big Joe Williams
- Title
- Army Man Blues
- Release
- Blues For 9 Strings
- Year
- 1962
- Label
- Prestige Bluesville # BVLP-1056
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Blues · Delta Blues · Acoustic Blues
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation — Blues songs
Big Joe Williams (1903-1982), delta blues guitar player, born Joseph Lee Williams, in Crawford Mississippi, used a nine-string acoustic guitar, giving his delta style an interesting, unique sound. He released the song "Army Man Blues" (Bluesville Records # BV 1056) in the early 60s, pre-Gulf of Tonkin period, about receiving the draft call, noting "when you get twenty-one boy you know you're in the government's hands". The song actually references Europe, "I got a big gun way in the European country". This is particularly interesting, because 8 years later he re-recorded the song, updating the lyrics for the Vietnam conflict: "If we don't stop the war in Vietnam I believe we'll drop that old atom bomb" - on the 1970 album Thinking of What They Did to Me (Arhoolie Records # 1053), discussed below.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Notes
Track B4 'Army Man Blues'. Personnel: Big Joe Williams (guitar, vocals), Willie Dixon (bass), Larry Johnson (harmonica). Producer Kenneth S. Goldstein; recorded by Mel Kaiser; liner notes Martin Williams. Blue and silver Prestige Bluesville deep-groove label, 203 S. Washington Ave., Bergenfield, N.J. Matrix BVLP 1056 A / B, etched RVG.
About the artist
Big Joe Williams (Joseph Lee Williams) was born on 16 October 1903 in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, near Crawford, and died on 17 December 1982 in Macon, Mississippi; a Delta blues guitarist known for his nine-string guitar. [Source: Wikipedia]