Search - Sonny Boy Williamson :: Bummer Road

Not a bummer...

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 12/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Originally an eleven-track LP, Rice Miller's "Bummer Road" has been remastered and bolstered by four bonus tracks, "Unseeing Eye", a gritty "Key To Your Door" and two little-known songs, "Your Imagination" and "I Can't Be Alone".



This album was originally issued with a warning sticker which said something like "Not suitable for airplay". That was because of one particular song, "Little Village", which is actually twelve minutes of takes and re-takes, complete with a heated discussion between producer Leonard Chess and Sonny Boy Williamson. Lots of cursing going on, and not just "well, gosh darn it!" Great song, by the way, and an enjoyable glimpse into what recording at the Chess studios around 1960 must have been like ;-)



Rice Miller is backed by superstar sidemen like Otis Spann, Luther Tucker, Fred Below, Robert "Jr." Lockwood, and Willie Dixon, and "Bummer Road" includes one of his least recognized, yet very best songs, the magnificent "Santa Claus" (raspiest vocal delivery ever). But virtually every track is a burner, really, from the classic, swinging "Your Funeral And My Trial", to the sizzling "Temperature 110".

If you aren't satisfied with just "The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson" or the 20-track "His Best" (and there's no reason why you should be), go pick up this magnificent blues record right away."

Must be heard to be believed! marycpa

ida mae poopsnatch | CA, USA | 09/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have this album but have been dragged, kicking & screaming, into the digital age. All my records are now enclosed in drywall cuz I was too lazy to move them (400+) during a remodel. Anyway, I LOVE the 12 minute version of "Little Village." The piano player is clearly Sonny Boy's smacked-out brother-in-law who keeps falling face-first into the keyboard about 10 seconds into each take. Sonny Boy yells at an exasperated engineer: "He'll git it, he'll git it!!" The tinny voice of the engineer replies: "OK. Take 92--Little Village." Sonny Boy hits it & blammo--the piano player falls off his bench. The engineer gets so dingy he finally can't recall the name of the song. Sonny Boy shouts: "Little Village! Little Village, M*therf*cker!!

Tempers flare, songs never get sung, and we get to laugh our fool heads off. This cut will always get a dullish party group loosened up. Or it will get everyone to leave--if they don't laugh, you don't need to know them. Either way, it ought to be played, always and often."