1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:04,600 # When did you leave Heaven 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:10,480 # How did they let you go... # 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:14,360 Broonzy was the first guy I saw visually. 4 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,160 I saw him on BBC TV. 5 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:20,080 I was probably about seven or eight years old, 6 00:00:20,080 --> 00:00:23,040 where he was singing When Did You Leave Heaven. 7 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,760 # But you are so divine 8 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:35,320 # When did you leave Heaven... # 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,360 It encapsulated everything I wanted to be, you know. 10 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,440 The first time I ever wanted to play a guitar and sing 11 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:44,120 and actually I wanted to be black at the time. 12 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:48,320 # It was a dream 13 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:55,360 # Lord, what a dream I had on my mind... # 14 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:01,520 Here was something that we could really identify with. 15 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,520 It was stark and simple. Very, very exciting, really. 16 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:09,840 We swallowed this kind of lone folk singer persona, you know. 17 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:14,320 We didn't find out till afterwards that he had a whole secret backlog. 18 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,440 I'd hear Big Bill Broonzy and my head would always turn 19 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:26,240 and I'd say, "Shut up, I'm listening to this now!" 20 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:28,280 Because he was my number one. 21 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:39,840 What the film clip did to me, it created a mythical world. 22 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:42,960 I was 12, 13 years old when I saw it. 23 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:48,960 And my ideal world is a club that's like that club. 24 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:57,320 Whenever I want to write something that has a certain mood, 25 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,360 I think of that image of that club. 26 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:03,400 I call it the Riff Club. 27 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:07,000 So the Big Riff starts there. 28 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:16,440 # I'm feelin' so good 29 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,280 # Just feelin' so good, baby... # 30 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:24,440 These first moving images of Big Bill Broonzy were filmed in 1951, 31 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:26,600 the year he brought the blues to Britain. 32 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,480 Though he would inspire a generation of musicians, 33 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:34,560 his earlier life was cloaked in mystery. 34 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,320 His fans believed he was an old-style Mississippi bluesman. 35 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:45,440 The image that was presented of him was like Sharecropper Bill. 36 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:47,800 And one character after a gig went up to him 37 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,360 and said, how could he possibly have come on tour, 38 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,320 shouldn't he be working on the plantation? 39 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,360 And apparently Bill said he was lucky because he had a very 40 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,960 sympathetic massa who had let him go away and play his guitar. 41 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,120 I mean, what complete bullshit. But there you go. 42 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:09,680 What I learned as a would-be biographer 43 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:14,640 when I started looking for the fact-based documentation 44 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:19,720 for Big Bill Broonzy's life was, in the words of Winnie the Pooh, 45 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:24,480 the more I looked for them, the more they weren't there. 46 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:27,400 Bill was always telling the truth, his truth. 47 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:35,040 # Cos I'm trouble in mind 48 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:39,280 # Babe, I'm so blue... # 49 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,680 Most British fans had never seen a live blues musician 50 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,040 from America's deep south. 51 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:47,520 They were entranced by Bill's charisma 52 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,160 and by the evocative lyrics of his songs. 53 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,720 # You know the sun 54 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:56,680 # Sun gonna shine 55 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:01,000 # In my back door someday. # 56 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:10,800 I think there was a pretty precise mind at work behind those words 57 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:15,160 and it was almost like Hank Williams or some of those people that 58 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,560 wrote songs that seemed really simple, 59 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,320 and underneath it there's a real truth, you know, 60 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:24,200 and the words are kind of hitting on something that's a lot, lot deeper. 61 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:30,840 # Goin' down this road now feeling bad, baby 62 00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:35,840 # Goin' down this road feeling so low and bad 63 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:40,080 # I ain't goin' to be treated this way. # 64 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,720 Broonzy's music was a kind of road map of his life. 65 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:46,360 He was able to navigate his way across Britain 66 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:50,040 and then Europe by creating a network of useful contacts 67 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:52,840 who believed he was exactly what he appeared to be. 68 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,680 Bill was always very knowing. He was savvy. 69 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:01,960 He could come in and read a situation 70 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:05,280 and identify what course of action 71 00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:09,320 he needed to take with the best chance of success for himself. 72 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,200 Among Bill's many admirers was a Belgian couple, 73 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:19,800 Margo and Yannick Bruynoghe. 74 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:22,720 They helped write his autobiography, 75 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:26,360 without realising how much of it was fiction, 76 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:30,560 though Big Bill Blues did hold many clues to where he came from. 77 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,200 Yannick asked Bill to put down 78 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:41,080 whatever he wanted to put down 79 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:42,720 about blues, about him, 80 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,840 about the blues, about the other blues singers. 81 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:50,280 He said, "You take a pen and you write down everything. 82 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:53,880 "The thing is to write down what he's told." 83 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:57,800 If it's true or not, that wasn't our problem. 84 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,880 'If anybody asks me if I'm from Mississippi, I'll say yes, 85 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:07,480 'but I don't like to talk about it. 86 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:11,640 'Because I was born poor, had to work and do what the white man told me. 87 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,400 'So I've been playin' for those white people for a long time.' 88 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,760 The place and date of Broonzy's birth have been 89 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:28,120 the subject of conjecture. 90 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:33,960 The family register says his name was Lee Conley Bradley, born 1903. 91 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:36,640 But Broonzy himself gave a different date. 92 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,280 'I was born in the year 1893. 93 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:45,800 'My mother was a Christian and my dad was a Christian. 94 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:47,800 'I joined the church and was baptised. 95 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,640 'But Christian is one thing and money is another. 96 00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:59,120 'We had to keep our instruments hid under the house 97 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,600 'because our mother wanted us to be preachers. 98 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:09,880 'I made a fiddle out of a cigar box, 99 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:12,560 'and we'd play for white people's picnics. 100 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:15,080 'One steps, two steps and square dances. 101 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,800 'Negroes on one side, and whites on the other. 102 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:27,480 'A white man told me, "You're too good for playin' to Negroes." 103 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:30,920 'So that's the way I started playing for whites. 104 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:33,840 'White folks want all the good things for themselves.' 105 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:38,600 Broonzy as a boy learned to navigate what was 106 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:40,800 a minefield of racism as a performer. 107 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,880 Anything that's good for white audiences could not be used 108 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,400 by black audiences as well, because it would symbolise 109 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:52,880 a level of social equality, all right, in entertainment. 110 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:59,960 My aunt Mary used to sing, 111 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:02,480 and she couldn't carry a note, 112 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:06,440 but she would be up singing and dancing. 113 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:10,880 It was just, we had a really happy family. 114 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:16,200 Broonzy's stories from that time 115 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:20,240 were often metaphors about his everyday life in Arkansas. 116 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:24,640 'I knew a man near my home, and they called him Mr White. 117 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:30,280 'All his fences were white, the trees, he painted them white. 118 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:34,200 'All the sheep, the goats, even down to the chickens, was white. 119 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:36,680 'Everything on his place was white. 120 00:08:36,680 --> 00:08:39,320 'He didn't want nothin' black on his plantation.' 121 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:43,200 Any time there was a chicken, 122 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:46,560 a goat, a sheep, a mule or anything like that 123 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:49,080 that was brown or black, he said, 124 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,480 "I don't want no nigger chickens on my farm." 125 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:55,440 And he'd make somebody take them off 126 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:58,840 and give them to one of the black families. 127 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:00,560 There were many stories. 128 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:06,040 I mean, fantastic, fantastical stories actually. 129 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:11,360 Made-up stuff about birds and crows and bloody necks... 130 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:17,920 People getting up from the dead. 131 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:19,760 I didn't know whether it was true or not. 132 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:22,480 I mean, I was a child, I believed it. That was Uncle Bill. 133 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:26,600 # Lord, I did all I could 134 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:30,840 # Ooh, Lord, trying to please my soul and so... # 135 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:34,240 I think to understand Big Bill you have to understand that he 136 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:35,920 was a young man with ambition. 137 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:40,080 # I ain't gonna raise no more cotton 138 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:45,000 # I declare, I ain't gonna try to raise no corn... # 139 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:48,320 He wanted to make something of his life. 140 00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:51,040 He wanted to make a statement. 141 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:54,120 He wanted to earn a living in a way 142 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,200 that wasn't dead-ended and gruelling. 143 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:06,000 To express his feelings, Bill often adapted other people's songs, 144 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,080 painting himself as a lone figure in a hostile world. 145 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:18,720 'Backwater Blues is about one of the truest things that ever happened. 146 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:21,480 'That was the way the flood water hit us. 147 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:28,040 'I was down there at the time and it was a terrible flood. 148 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:31,080 'The water was over the entire neighbourhood.' 149 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:39,360 # Lord, that was really enough trouble 150 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:43,560 # To make a poor man wonder where in the world to go 151 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:51,880 # They rowed a little boat 152 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:55,920 # Just about five miles across the farm... # 153 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:05,560 The floods of 1917 provoked the building of levee camps 154 00:11:05,560 --> 00:11:08,320 all around the Mississippi river. 155 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:11,960 Broonzy worked there to supplement his modest wages as a fiddler. 156 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:25,200 'I worked in levee camps, and every place I'd hear guys singin'. 157 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:27,240 'And when you hear a fellow sing the blues, 158 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:29,520 'it's really a heart thing, from the heart. 159 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:33,200 'That's the only way to say those things. 160 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:41,000 'You know, the way we lived in those tents, the food 161 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,960 'we had to eat was really just scraps from what other people had refused. 162 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:51,280 'You could kill anyone down there so long as he's coloured. 163 00:11:51,280 --> 00:11:54,120 'They said, "If you kill one nigger, we'll hire another." 164 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:55,680 'You know what I mean? 165 00:11:55,680 --> 00:11:59,360 'In those days, a Negro didn't mean no more to a white man than a mule.' 166 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:06,960 The worst things they said within our hearing range, 167 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:10,400 because they didn't want the kids to know about stuff like that, 168 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:14,320 but they tarred and feathered a black man down on Ninth Street 169 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:18,000 in Little Rock and hung him up and set him on fire. 170 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,560 I don't know what he supposedly had done, 171 00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:25,640 but it was bad, it was really bad. 172 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:29,680 I'm thinking that Uncle Bill probably thought that it can't 173 00:12:29,680 --> 00:12:33,680 be any worse if I take off and try to do something better. 174 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:42,720 'If I hadn't been a damned good fighter and a big son of a gun, 175 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:47,200 'I would have been in the graveyard a long time ago.' 176 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,800 It seems as though my grandmother mentioned one time 177 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:52,880 that he had to leave Arkansas. 178 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:54,440 He had to leave. 179 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,640 Because we always wanted to know why he didn't stay here with us 180 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:02,240 and she said, "Well, he had to leave, he couldn't stay here with us." 181 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:06,640 You know, she never went into any details or anything like that. 182 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:12,720 And I don't really know exactly what he did, but during that time 183 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:18,200 a black man could just show up in the wrong place, you know, 184 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:25,240 or say the wrong thing to somebody, so I just don't know for sure. 185 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,080 # I believe, I believe 186 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,960 # Uncle Sam can use me... # 187 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:39,160 Broonzy told how he was drafted for the First World War. 188 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:42,800 Perhaps he wanted to disguise or lose his identity there. 189 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:50,960 # Now, I do believe, baby 190 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:53,760 # Lord, I be anything you want me to be... # 191 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:58,040 'In 1917, I was called into the army. 192 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:02,120 'Camp Robinson in Little Rock shipped us to Brest in France. 193 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:04,800 'I didn't know where I was goin' any more than a goat. 194 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,720 'I was in one of those labour battalions, building barracks, 195 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:12,320 'putting in a good road. 196 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:14,040 'We did all the dirty work. 197 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:15,080 'The officer would say, 198 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:18,240 "You have to do that because you don't know nothin' else." 199 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:26,040 'I couldn't read or write, 200 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:29,360 'and I had to keep worryin' the fellers to help me write home. 201 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,520 'So every day I tried to read or write somethin'. 202 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:37,080 'Looking at labels in the stockroom, at different cans and boxes, 203 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:43,520 'I learned to spell out C-A-N-D-Y and T-O-M-A-T-O, 204 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,880 'and on like that, till I could write home to my mother. 205 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,240 'I didn't know the war was over till I was on the way back home. 206 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:55,320 'I came out of the army in 1919. 207 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,360 'And I couldn't stand bein' bossed around by nobody. 208 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:00,360 'Bein' in the army had opened my eyes.' 209 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:06,920 Bill would recount the humiliations of his homecoming in the song, 210 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:09,800 When Will I Get To Be Called A Man. 211 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,960 # That night we had a ball 212 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,440 # Next day I met the old boss 213 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:18,680 # He said, "Boy, get you some overalls" 214 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:24,160 # I wonder when 215 00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:27,040 # I wonder when will I get to be called a man 216 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,800 # Do I have to wait till I get 93? # 217 00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:35,480 'He said, "You can take off them clothes and get some overalls. 218 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:39,200 '"There ain't no nigger goin' to walk around here with Uncle Sam's uniform on."' 219 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:44,360 When Will I Be Called A Man is a song where Broonzy pulls 220 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:49,600 together a narrative that speaks in a universal way for his people, 221 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:54,880 about the need for change to happen 222 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:58,080 and to raise the question, when will it happen? 223 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:04,160 Just before going to war, Bill had found himself a wife. 224 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:07,240 But his marriage now hit the rocks. 225 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,120 'I got married. Her name was Gertrude. 226 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:16,280 'She was 17 and I was 21. 227 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,640 'We had chicken and cake and ice cream at our wedding. 228 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,200 'But there were differences between me and Gertrude now. 229 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:35,280 'She didn't sympathise with me no more. 230 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:39,360 'Before I went in the army, whatever my wife said, went. 231 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:41,760 'I shouldn't do this and I shouldn't do that. 232 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:55,000 'Now, I wouldn't stand that with her, or the white man. 233 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:59,040 'I couldn't stand eatin' out of the back trough all the time. 234 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:01,280 'I didn't want nobody tellin' me what to do. 235 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:04,280 '"What the heck," I said. 236 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:06,760 '"Down here a man ain't nothin', no how."' 237 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:15,880 Broonzy's choice of where to go was influenced by the Chicago Defender. 238 00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:20,760 This black-owned newspaper denounced the racism of the South 239 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:24,240 with an honesty no other paper dared. 240 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:28,160 It also listed the many attractions of the northern city of Chicago. 241 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:34,680 The paper's greatest crusade was the encouragement of an exodus 242 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:40,120 of black farm workers from the South to the cities of the North. 243 00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:43,080 The Defender really helped to influence 244 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:46,640 quite a number of people to make that move. 245 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:47,960 One of them was Big Bill. 246 00:17:49,360 --> 00:17:52,880 He decided to take a chance to go to the city. 247 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:57,320 As a young man, he knew that it was a risk, and it was a risk, 248 00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:59,760 because you're leaving a way of life 249 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:02,360 that people had lived for generations. 250 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:05,080 # I got my ticket 251 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:08,880 # I'm holdin' right here in my hand... # 252 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:12,400 'So I left home in January 1920. 253 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,880 'I caught the freight and rode on North, just singin' the blues. 254 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:18,840 # I'm holdin' right here in my hand 255 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,960 # Lord, I've got a real good woman 256 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:31,040 # But the poor gal just don't understand... # 257 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:40,600 'I arrived in Chicago on February 2nd, 1920. 258 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:43,560 'I got a job and started playin' music all around, 259 00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:45,240 'and makin' money out of that.' 260 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:52,560 The South Side that Big Bill stepped into would have been amazing to him. 261 00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:59,680 This was heaven for someone like Broonzy and other migrants. 262 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:04,920 It represented progress. It represented modernity. 263 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,720 And for a young man with ambition like Broonzy, it was... 264 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:10,600 It represented opportunity. 265 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:15,040 Culture, freedom, jobs. 266 00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:20,040 You lived in your own neighbourhood, 267 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,840 you didn't run into, directly into, Jim Crow, 268 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,080 you know, like you did in the South. 269 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:27,920 So you had a sense of freedom. 270 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,960 You was walking down the street, you didn't come into contact with 271 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:33,360 somebody who's going to tell you to get off the sidewalk. 272 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:43,360 The Chicago Bill encountered wasn't as racially divided as the South, 273 00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:46,200 but it was equally class ridden. 274 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,640 There were the expensive clubs with top-line jazz performers 275 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,000 like Duke Ellington. 276 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:53,920 These were often run by gangsters who were 277 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:56,120 making their fortune from prohibition. 278 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:06,920 Further down the South Side, poorer black immigrants were 279 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:10,560 dancing at house parties, which helped them pay their rent. 280 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,240 'We used to have a bunch of fun round there. 281 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:16,440 'Musicians didn't have to pay for nothin' 282 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,280 'and we'd get a chance to meet some nice lookin' women.' 283 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,200 And on a weekend, on the South Side, 284 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,200 there'd be any number of house rent parties. 285 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,720 And for someone who was new to the city like Big Bill, 286 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:35,280 it gave him a chance to develop a reputation, to learn the city, 287 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:41,040 to eat, to drink, and to join a fraternity of young musicians 288 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,920 who were similarly attempting to make their name. 289 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,080 'I bought me a guitar for a dollar and a half. 290 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,880 'I'd met some big shot and I was ready to make a record. 291 00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:58,320 'I wrote a guitar solo called House Rent Stomp 292 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:00,720 'about those rent parties. 293 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,880 'No words, just pickin' the old guitar strings. 294 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:08,960 'Makin' the first two, E and B, cry, makin' the G and D talk, 295 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:11,400 'and the A and E moan. 296 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,040 Lee Conley Bradley soon went about inventing a new persona 297 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:30,600 for the challenges ahead. 298 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:36,120 He changed his name to Big Bill Broonzy. 299 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:38,960 But, at first, that didn't help him fill his pockets. 300 00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:44,480 'I got nothin' for my first songs. No royalties. 301 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:47,400 'Until I started in this music business, I didn't know 302 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:50,960 'about people who'd rob their own brother for a lousy dollar. 303 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,400 I'd always been around people that if they made a little somethin', 304 00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:58,440 'they'd give you a little somethin' too. 305 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,480 'So I went down to Maxwell Street, 306 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:03,960 'and that's how I know they sold good, 307 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:05,880 'because I bought 50 of them myself!' 308 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:13,200 He composed many songs and never made a dime out of them 309 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,440 because they were totally cheated, 310 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:21,320 and the music business did not care about the real blues. 311 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:23,240 They could have cared less, or anything. 312 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:27,280 They just wanted to make a buck. But he rose above that. 313 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:29,280 He was just a prince of a guy. 314 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,520 He said, I'm not going to spend my time fighting with people. 315 00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:38,960 'I didn't know nothin' about trying to demand my money. 316 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:43,360 'What I'd do was get me some job in a foundry or other work. 317 00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:45,520 'Steam all around me, hot iron fallin'. 318 00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:50,680 'I worked every day and played music at night because I didn't 319 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:55,040 'make enough money just playin' music to take care of my family. 320 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:56,680 'It didn't bother me to work. 321 00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:00,200 'That way I could always send my mother $2 a week.' 322 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:07,920 But finding a day job in Chicago was getting harder as the economy went 323 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,840 into free-fall and the prospects for the music business looked bleak. 324 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,200 When the Great Depression hit, it affected every 325 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:20,080 industry in America and the recording industry was no exception. 326 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:25,560 There was a period where virtually no blues recordings were 327 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,600 made in the early 1930s. 328 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:32,440 The Depression, of course, was a time of tremendous economic crisis. 329 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,360 But for Big Bill as a recording artist, 330 00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:38,560 it was a time of tremendous opportunity. 331 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,480 Because of his creativity, he was able to craft 332 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,920 a broad range of songs that spoke to the issues of the time, 333 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,480 in a way that really allowed him 334 00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:55,040 to penetrate the African American record-buying market. 335 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,680 # I'm feelin' sick and bad 336 00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,920 # My head is hurting too 337 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:04,760 # Go get the doctor so he can tell me just what to do 338 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,400 # Because I keep on aching... # 339 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,480 Who would want to buy a song about starvation? 340 00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:16,120 Who would want to buy a song about pneumonia? 341 00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:19,640 Right? Unless they were faced with those problems. 342 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:22,960 So in that way you might say he was a blues preacher. 343 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:26,520 # I've got holes in my pockets 344 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,560 # There be patches on my pants 345 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,640 # Yeah, I got holes in my pockets, mama 346 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,800 # With big patches on my pants... # 347 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,760 They're powerful. 348 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:45,200 They talk about the scourge of alcoholism, the bottle, 349 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,120 in a song like Good Liquor Going To Carry Me Down. 350 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:52,240 No matter what the incentives are, that are presented 351 00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:55,520 to the protagonist to put down that bottle, 352 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:57,320 he's unwilling to do it. 353 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:04,080 So this is a way of speaking out about the realities of life. 354 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,800 # When I lay down in the evening 355 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:08,840 # I hold my woman tight 356 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:12,600 # When I wake up in the morning keep that bottle out of sight 357 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:15,360 # I just keep on drinking 358 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:18,080 # Yeah, man, keep on drinking 359 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,840 # I just keep on drinking 360 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:28,840 # Till good liquor carry me down 361 00:25:30,360 --> 00:25:34,080 # I went to the doctor with my head in my hands 362 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:35,760 # The doctor said, "Big Bill, 363 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,400 # "I'm going to have to give you monkey gland" 364 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,960 # You just keep on drinking 365 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,160 # Yeah, man, you keep on drinking 366 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,000 # You just keep on drinking 367 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,560 # Till that liquor carry you down. # 368 00:25:56,680 --> 00:26:00,000 Broonzy was no lightweight. 369 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,080 There was great substance to his music 370 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,560 and he could make it playful. 371 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:10,320 It didn't have to be a man's soul, each and every time you heard it. 372 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,240 It could be something light that you could dance to, could take 373 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:16,920 a breath to, you could have a drink to, you could laugh with. 374 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,240 Or you could cry with. 375 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,760 Bill was not a salesman of the blues. 376 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:24,200 But I don't think he had to be. 377 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:31,440 Broonzy didn't need to sell the blues 378 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,600 because, unlike many of his colleagues, 379 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:37,920 he boasted a vast repertoire - ragtime, spirituals, boogie. 380 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,760 He could adapt to fit every taste and occasion. 381 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,200 They were making these songs from personal experiences, to the people. 382 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,880 And the black people were sitting down and drinkin' 383 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,000 and they related to it. 384 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:58,560 "Man, that's it! You're right on time!" You know. Stuff like that. 385 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,960 Bill Broonzy was a frontrunner. Sort of like a leader. 386 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:09,240 He was inspirational and he would give advice. 387 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:14,600 He was a tall figure and he was the king of the South Side of Chicago. 388 00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:18,800 And he was highly respected by all the musicians, and the people. 389 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:28,440 Broonzy had become a star attraction who could fill the South Side 390 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:30,960 clubs with a hard-edged music that embodied 391 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,840 the migrant experience of the 1930s. 392 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:38,480 But Bill was due for a radical make over 393 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:43,280 when he was suddenly invited to New York, to appear at the city's 394 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,600 temple of high culture, Carnegie Hall. 395 00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,920 From Spirituals to Swing introduced the cream of black performers 396 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,960 to a white concert audience for the first time. 397 00:27:55,960 --> 00:28:01,400 Broonzy knew, from his early years playing segregated picnics 398 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:05,680 in the South, how to impress a gathering of whites. 399 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:09,680 He chose to perform a song he'd written especially for this occasion. 400 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:19,120 Broonzy performed the song Just A Dream. 401 00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:23,880 Now he politicises the song by adding a line that refers to 402 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,440 dreaming that he was at the White House. 403 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:29,680 He dreams that he was at the White House, that he 404 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,160 was welcomed by the President, that he was welcomed 405 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,520 by the highest political authority of the land. 406 00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:40,520 So Broonzy injects this line in the version of Just A Dream 407 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,120 that he sings to white audiences. 408 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:47,320 The desire for political equality. 409 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:53,040 But he ends the song with a refrain that it was just a dream. 410 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:55,120 Couldn't happen. 411 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,040 # I dreamed I was in the White House 412 00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,200 # Sittin' in the President's chair 413 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,600 # I dreamed he shook my hand 414 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:10,880 # And he said, "Bill, I'm so glad you're here" 415 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:12,960 # But that was just a dream 416 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:19,960 # Lord, what a dream I had on my mind 417 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,760 # And when I woke up, baby 418 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:32,600 # Not a chair there could I find... # 419 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:41,000 This was the turning point in Big Bill Broonzy's career. 420 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:46,760 He could see that, armed with only his guitar, his voice, 421 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:51,920 his songwriting and his charisma, he could capture an audience 422 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,120 and he could capture an audience in the most prestigious 423 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:56,600 concert venue in America. 424 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:00,840 So when he would play for white audiences 425 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:03,320 he would play folk songs, you know. 426 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:05,840 But when he played for black people, he'd sing blues, 427 00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:09,000 the blues records that he'd made for last 14 years. 428 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,960 He didn't play folk songs for black people. 429 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:15,560 That wouldn't have worked, and he knew that. 430 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,320 # See that woman Her hands up over her head? 431 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,040 # Did you hear me, what I said? 432 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,760 # She's a truckin' little woman, don't you know 433 00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,920 # She's a truckin' little woman, don't you know... # 434 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:31,400 Bill was starting to play two styles of blues for two different worlds. 435 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,280 And he enjoyed the success. 436 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,320 Big Bill was a heavy drinker and he was a womanizer, yeah. 437 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:42,080 They said Big Bill's whisky bill used to be at Ruby Gatewood's lounge, 438 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:43,800 used to be more than he made. 439 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:48,320 Said he'd have a $200 whisky bill over the weekend. 440 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,000 Cos he'd party and buy his friends drinks. 441 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,160 It was while partying down South that Bill met his second wife, 442 00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:57,520 known as Texas Rose. 443 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,360 She often stayed home in Chicago while Bill, 444 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:03,880 enjoying the trappings of his success, 445 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,680 would proudly drive his Cadillac down to North Little Rock. 446 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:09,720 # Goin' back 447 00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,400 # I'm goin' back to Arkansas... # 448 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,320 He had bought his mother a house there, 449 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,960 to get her off the old plantation. 450 00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:18,520 But he didn't travel alone. 451 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,120 # I know I will be happy 452 00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:23,520 # Me and my wife and mother-in-law 453 00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:25,120 # That's why I'm goin' back 454 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,800 # I'm goin' back to Arkansas... # 455 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,640 When he came home, he always had some woman with him. 456 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:32,480 I mean, he would hang out with them 457 00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,920 but he'd always get the ladies' attention. 458 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:37,720 I don't know if it was his guitar or his good looks. 459 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:38,640 But... 460 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,160 Yeah, he was a ladies' man. 461 00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:45,240 From what I understand, I can remember my mother saying, 462 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,720 "Uncle Bill brings a different lady home." 463 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,240 And I couldn't tell you what none of them looked like, 464 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:52,280 can't remember that. 465 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:54,120 Cos our focus was on him. 466 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,240 He always looked good. 467 00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:58,640 And that could have just been me, you know. 468 00:31:58,640 --> 00:31:59,880 But to me, he did. 469 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:02,360 Dapper! 470 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:08,040 Everybody would come over. 471 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:11,240 And my grandmother would cook and my auntie would cook 472 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:13,080 and we'd just have a good time. 473 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:16,920 He'd be playing and we'd be dancing and just having a good time. 474 00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:19,960 It was just, I guess, like one big party. 475 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,400 All of the older ones, my mother, 476 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,320 they would all, you know, get dressed up 477 00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:47,200 and make up and stuff. 478 00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:50,080 He'd take a lot of pictures. The family would come over. 479 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:52,600 Everybody would try to see Uncle Bill. 480 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,080 And they'd want to be in a picture with him. 481 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,600 But things were so hard back then. 482 00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:06,520 Where my grandma Mitty Bradley lived, 483 00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:09,240 up behind her house, 484 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:13,320 they burnt this big huge cross behind her house. 485 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,280 And see, just over the hill from her house 486 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,960 were the white neighbourhoods, the... 487 00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,320 what they call the working class, I guess. 488 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:24,640 But they would burn those crosses on that hill and you could... 489 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,000 the whole neighbourhood could see 'em because of 490 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,920 the way that, you know, it was built. 491 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,160 # This little song that I'm singin' about 492 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,400 # People, you know it's true... # 493 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:39,000 Stung by the racial provocation he'd experienced all his life, 494 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,880 Broonzy wrote a song that would have a major impact 495 00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:44,120 on his career. 496 00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:47,960 Black, Brown and White Blues is as much of an anthem 497 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,600 as Bill ever wrote. 498 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,200 What he does in a set of verses 499 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:57,400 is present a vignette of racial prejudice. 500 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:06,320 And that gives his voice plenty of time to, kind of, tell the story. 501 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,080 # Well, listen to me, brothers 502 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:13,160 # You know it's true 503 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:18,440 # If you're black and gotta work for a living 504 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,240 # This is what they will say to you 505 00:34:21,240 --> 00:34:23,360 # If you're white 506 00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:25,080 # You're right 507 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:26,840 # If you're brown 508 00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:28,960 # Stick around 509 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:30,400 # But if you're black 510 00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,040 # Oh, brother 511 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:33,880 # You got to git back 512 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:35,640 # Git back, git back. # 513 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:44,120 'I tried RCA Victor, Columbia, Decca, 514 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,520 'but none of them would record that song. 515 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,200 "We like the music," they said, "but not the words." 516 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,360 # They called everybody's number 517 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,960 # But they never did call mine... # 518 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:56,520 'I said, "What's wrong with it? 519 00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:57,680 "Y'all know it's true." 520 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,520 'Me, I tried everything not to be made to "git back." 521 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:04,320 'I changed everything. 522 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:06,400 'I even learned to play my guitar differently 523 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:07,880 'and sing different songs.' 524 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:14,080 'So I found out that fine clothes, a big cigar, a change of talking 525 00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:16,280 'don't hide what's on your face.' 526 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:20,560 'If you're black in the USA, you got to "git back." 527 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:22,680 # They was payin' me 50 cent They said 528 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:24,240 # If you was white 529 00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:25,920 # You'd be all right 530 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:27,160 # If you was brown... # 531 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:28,400 While Bill was struggling 532 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,360 with the commercial pressures of the record business, 533 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,800 Black, Brown and White Blues was adopted as something of an anthem 534 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:38,200 by his new white fans in local radio. 535 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:42,720 Well, there's a lot of people in the world have never had to "git back." 536 00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:44,960 But I wrote it because I had to "git back." 537 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:50,960 These radio shows were ushering in the folk revival movement 538 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,560 where Bill would be cast as the down-home country blues man. 539 00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:58,200 # Git back, git back, git back. # 540 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,480 He joined folk musicians like Pete Seeger 541 00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,400 who were discovering what they called the soul of the nation. 542 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,480 I met Bill in Chicago. 543 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,560 I remember singing with him... 544 00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:17,120 ..at the University of Chicago. 545 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:20,240 And I think he was amused 546 00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:23,760 to see a white man try and learn to sing the blues. 547 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:31,720 Although we only saw each other occasionally, 548 00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:34,520 I tried to learn from him as much as I could. 549 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:40,280 Pete Seeger later accompanied Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee 550 00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,320 in one of Broonzy's biggest hits 551 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:43,640 about the freedom of the road. 552 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:47,560 # I got the key 553 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,560 # To the highway All right! 554 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:54,400 # Billed out, I'm bound to go 555 00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:59,720 # I'm gonna leave here running because 556 00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:02,560 # Walking is most too slow 557 00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:10,600 # Now give me one, one more kiss, darling 558 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,120 # Just before I go 559 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,960 # If I leave this time 560 00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,960 # I may not come back no more... # 561 00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:31,000 Bill wanted people to understand that the blues was not simply music. 562 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,160 That it came from a life experience. 563 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,680 That it was shaped by the culture of the South. 564 00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:38,800 That it was shaped by 565 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,360 his relationships with his family and friends 566 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:44,760 and that it was shaped through a fraternity of musicians. 567 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:49,640 And he wanted people to understand that the blue note, 568 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:51,320 the sound of the blues, 569 00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:55,440 that sound that can make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, 570 00:37:55,440 --> 00:38:01,120 that it came from a space of black tragedy and resilience. 571 00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:09,280 Broonzy spoke frankly about that in the 1947 recording 572 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,280 Blues In The Mississippi Night. 573 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,360 This testimony was the brainchild of Alan Lomax. 574 00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:20,920 Like Pete Seeger, he was a member of the crusading People's Songs. 575 00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,000 Lomax wanted to paint Broonzy and his companions 576 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,080 as Delta bluesmen from, in his words, 577 00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:29,520 "the dangerous jungles of the South". 578 00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:34,120 Bill Broonzy started this conversation. 579 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:35,360 You know, he said, 580 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,560 "Well, we're going to get to the heart of the matter, right now. 581 00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,120 "We're going to define what really the blues is." 582 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,840 'I always believed that it was really a heart thing, 583 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:46,400 'from his heart, you know? 584 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,720 'And expressin' his feelin' about how he felt... 585 00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:51,040 'to the people. 586 00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:52,720 'Blues is kind of a revenge, you know? 587 00:38:52,720 --> 00:38:55,520 'You want to say something, signifying-like. 588 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:56,960 'That's the blues.' 589 00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:00,320 They described a set of circumstances that in many cases 590 00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:02,000 are chilling to listen to. 591 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,080 Involving lynchings, murder, 592 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:07,440 racial intimidation. 593 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:09,960 'They say, "If you kill a nigger, I'll hire another nigger. 594 00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:13,640 "If you kill a mule, I'll buy another." 'Yeah, yeah.' 'One of those things.' 595 00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:17,560 They were talking very, very frankly. It was amazing. 596 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:19,480 Because something would remind them 597 00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:22,000 and they would just start singing a fragment of a song like 598 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:27,320 # I'm going to Memphis when I make parole... # 599 00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:32,480 # I'm goin' to Memphis when I make parole 600 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:34,440 # Stand on the levee 601 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:37,480 # And watch the big boat blow. # 602 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,880 'You know what I mean?' 'Yeah, they used to sing...' 603 00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:43,440 Among the people who were captivated by 604 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,280 the Blues In The Mississippi Night record 605 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,120 was Johnny Cash. 606 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:50,040 He referred to it as one of his favourite records 607 00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:53,120 and he recorded a song called Going To Memphis. 608 00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:54,520 # ...past Tennessee 609 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:56,920 # With Mississippi all over my face 610 00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,280 # I'm goin' to Memphis, yeah 611 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:02,120 # Well, the freezin' ground at night 612 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,280 # Is my own foldin' bed 613 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:07,880 # Pork salad is my bread and meat 614 00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:10,560 # And it will be till I'm dead 615 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:12,920 # I'm goin' to Memphis 616 00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:15,640 # Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed 617 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:17,000 # But when that levee's through 618 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:18,360 # And I am too 619 00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,920 # Let the honky-tonk roll on 620 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,320 # Come mornin' I'll be gone 621 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:25,360 # I'm goin' to Memphis 622 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:27,480 # Yeah, I'm goin' to Memphis... # 623 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:31,160 Major TV networks would carry Bill's Broonzy's life story 624 00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:34,000 to audiences who'd never even heard the bluesman's name. 625 00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:38,480 Bill did have an impact on popular music 626 00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:40,560 in a variety of areas. 627 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:44,000 Elvis Presley noted Bill as an influence, 628 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,560 Elvis said, "I loved the low-down Mississippi blues singers, 629 00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:52,480 "especially Big Bill Broonzy and Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup." 630 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,400 But he also noted that he'd get scolded at home 631 00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:56,960 for listening to them. 632 00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:05,760 By the 1950s, Broonzy's music had begun to influence the mainstream. 633 00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:07,760 At the same time, however, 634 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,040 it was being increasingly ignored by the black community. 635 00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:14,440 An influx of younger musicians had arrived 636 00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:17,080 to enjoy the post-war economic boom. 637 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,360 # Ever since you've come to Chicago 638 00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:21,520 # I declare you've changed your name 639 00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:25,800 # Little girl, you changed your way of walking 640 00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:27,920 # Ain't nothin' about you the same... # 641 00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:31,920 What he began to detect 642 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:36,600 was that the style he was playing in was not what was happening. 643 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,160 At that time, there were several styles emerging 644 00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:42,480 that African American audiences were excited about. 645 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:45,200 There were jump blues, there were crooners, 646 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:49,360 and Bill didn't really fit neatly into those categories. 647 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:51,880 He was older. 648 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:54,040 He did not speak to the young generation. 649 00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:57,080 He spoke to the first generation of migrants. 650 00:41:57,080 --> 00:42:00,200 And that generation, in the eyes of the industry, 651 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:01,640 was shrinking. 652 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:06,080 But his day as a recording star, as a blues star, 653 00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:09,200 for the black market, was in decline. 654 00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,800 And so for him, he was clear-sighted 655 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:18,840 in identifying that the style he was playing in 656 00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:20,840 was losing momentum. 657 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,760 And he set about identifying a course for himself 658 00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,960 which would allow him to continue to perform 659 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:33,120 for white audiences in the United States and in Europe. 660 00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:37,520 # Yeah, my luck'll be changed 661 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:39,960 # Ooh, Lord, and I'll be on my way. # 662 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:46,120 Bill had made half a dozen trips to Europe, during the 1950s. 663 00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:48,720 Knowing how the image of the country bluesman 664 00:42:48,720 --> 00:42:50,520 had appealed to white Americans, 665 00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:52,600 he decided to try his act in Europe. 666 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,960 Broonzy was seeking new and fertile pastures. 667 00:42:57,960 --> 00:42:59,560 In his private life, too. 668 00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:07,600 He divorced Texas Rose and married a third wife, 669 00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:08,960 Chicago Rose. 670 00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:13,560 But, to Bill, out of sight meant out of mind. 671 00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:18,160 It was, for him, impossible in Chicago 672 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:22,720 to have a white woman as a companion or his wife. 673 00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:29,320 This is why he wanted to marry every girl he met. 674 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,800 And, of course, 675 00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:37,640 he had made a big lie, as usual. 676 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:39,320 He said always, 677 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:42,160 "You know, I'm a divorced man 678 00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:45,240 "and I'll show you my divorce paper." 679 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:48,640 The document was genuine enough 680 00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:52,880 but the Rose it referred to was the divorced Texas Rose 681 00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:55,600 rather than his current wife, Chicago Rose. 682 00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:58,760 The deceit worked rather well for him. 683 00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:02,360 He was a ladies' man. 684 00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:05,560 He was a handsome, charismatic gentleman. 685 00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:09,520 And the opportunity to spend time with women 686 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:12,360 was something that he certainly enjoyed. 687 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:15,240 There were two noteworthy relationships he had 688 00:44:15,240 --> 00:44:18,480 with European women, when he was overseas. 689 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:22,760 One of them with a French social worker, Jacqueline. 690 00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:28,400 # Lord, I've got a beautiful baby 691 00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:34,920 # Jacqueline is her name... # 692 00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,080 When the affair with Jacqueline broke up, 693 00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:43,360 Bill wasn't slow to find himself a new love, 694 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:44,400 in Amsterdam. 695 00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:48,640 Bill's relationship with Pim van Isveldt 696 00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:51,920 was truly a whirlwind romance. 697 00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,200 As their relationship developed, 698 00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:56,760 as he had suggested with Jacqueline, 699 00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:00,720 he spoke very explicitly about getting married. 700 00:45:00,720 --> 00:45:05,200 He sent cards to her talking about "To my wife" 701 00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:09,280 and suggesting names, once he knew she was pregnant. 702 00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:13,040 So he was clearly invested in this relationship, 703 00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:17,800 and a relationship from which their son, Michael Van Isveldt, 704 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:20,600 was born, in December of 1956. 705 00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:29,000 Loads of letters and postcards 706 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:33,440 that he used to send my mother from all over Europe, mainly. 707 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:35,640 My mother always cherished them. 708 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,280 But they're very romantic 709 00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,480 and kind and sweet. 710 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:44,800 Also because the fact that he could hardly write. 711 00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:49,080 So he wrote everything in a phonetic way. 712 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:53,000 I was one and a half when he died. 713 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:54,640 Yeah. So what's there to tell? 714 00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:56,360 I have no recollection of him. 715 00:45:57,560 --> 00:45:59,680 It wasn't until I was eight or so, 716 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:03,720 I started to realise that my father was, or had been, 717 00:46:03,720 --> 00:46:06,760 a world-famous American blues player. 718 00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:11,880 And then slowly, slowly I got aware of that fact and... 719 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:16,360 I slowly got proud of it, even. 720 00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:20,640 And I changed...that was the time I changed my name 721 00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:24,400 from Michiel, which is my original name, 722 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:28,480 into Michael, because that was English. 723 00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:33,080 And that gave me the feeling I was closer to him then. 724 00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:36,720 I couldn't hide from the identity of my father 725 00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:38,760 just because of the fact I was black. 726 00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:43,200 Who did know the real Bill Broonzy? 727 00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:46,960 Not his son, not his lovers, nor his listeners. 728 00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:51,040 Broadcasters across Europe were portraying him in his chosen role 729 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:54,200 as the last of the Mississippi bluesmen. 730 00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,360 # Got some trouble in mind 731 00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:04,400 # Babe, I'm so blue 732 00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:09,000 # Yes 733 00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:10,920 # But I won't 734 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,320 # Won't be blue always 735 00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:20,480 # You know the sun, sun gonna shine 736 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:27,040 # In my back door someday. # 737 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:33,880 We swallowed this, kind of, lone folk singer persona, you know, 738 00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:35,080 and it wasn't till later, 739 00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:38,160 when on the radio you'd start hearing or getting hold of records 740 00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:40,400 with his band in Chicago where he's playing 741 00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:43,520 really good plectrum lead guitar and everything, you know. 742 00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:48,960 And we just saw him as the, sort of, troubadour solo folk singer. 743 00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:53,000 I guess the first Broonzy song I heard, The Glory of Love, 744 00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,160 was one of the first pieces I tried to learn. 745 00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:57,120 And I've been playing it ever since. 746 00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:05,760 # You've got to give a little 747 00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:07,400 # Take a little 748 00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:10,640 # Let your poor heart break a little 749 00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:12,280 # That's the story of 750 00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:14,520 # That's the glory of love 751 00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:18,000 # Sigh a little and cry a little 752 00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:22,640 # Let the clouds roll by a little 753 00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,400 # Oh, baby 754 00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:26,360 # That's the glory of love 755 00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:32,000 # Long as there's the two of us 756 00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:35,280 # We have the world and its charm 757 00:48:38,240 --> 00:48:41,520 # When the world is through with us 758 00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:43,600 # We'll have each other's arms 759 00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:47,000 # Sigh a little and cry a little 760 00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:51,480 # Let the clouds roll by a little 761 00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:53,280 # Oh, that's the story of 762 00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:55,120 # That's the glory of love. # 763 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,800 When I first heard Big Bill play, I was 16. 764 00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:05,680 I was just potty about him. 765 00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:07,360 But you were in a little bubble 766 00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,160 and occasionally you would meet someone else 767 00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:12,720 and you'd think you had something really special 768 00:49:12,720 --> 00:49:16,240 and they'd suddenly mention the name Big Bill Broonzy 769 00:49:16,240 --> 00:49:18,920 and suddenly there you were, even more people in the bubble! 770 00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:22,760 There was nothing like that in the early '50s, nothing at all. 771 00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:24,200 It was just, 772 00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:27,160 "This is music, listen to this!" 773 00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:29,880 It was very exciting, 774 00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:32,280 finding this music 775 00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:35,760 that inevitably you thought of it as yours. 776 00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:40,240 And it was a question of getting every single recording you could 777 00:49:40,240 --> 00:49:43,760 and just listening and listening and slowing it down. 778 00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:45,320 It was a bit like a secret society. 779 00:49:45,320 --> 00:49:47,120 It was happening all over the country. 780 00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:48,960 I can only really speak for London. 781 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:50,360 But I guess all over the country 782 00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:55,240 there were these little places of concentration of fanatics 783 00:49:55,240 --> 00:49:57,880 discovering acoustic blues guitar, you know?! 784 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:03,680 It was quite underground. 785 00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:05,560 I mean, it sounds stupid, 786 00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:10,960 us little white kids identifying with the real thing, but we did. 787 00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:13,160 You know, we thought, "Let's get on the road, man." 788 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:16,000 "Jack Kerouac." You know? "Let's get out there and hitch hike." 789 00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:17,920 And we did and it was great, you know. 790 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:23,920 You did actually change your life. 791 00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:27,360 But what made the biggest impact 792 00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:30,000 on the lives of a generation of British musicians 793 00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,920 was a moody Belgian film they saw on television. 794 00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:43,200 # How is everything up in Heaven? 795 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:52,360 # I would love to know... # 796 00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:57,000 'It turned out that the impact of that 17 minute documentary 797 00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:58,760 'was enormous.' 798 00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:04,720 # Just for these Earthly things 799 00:51:07,560 --> 00:51:14,480 # Why did you lose your little halo? 800 00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:18,640 # Baby, why'd you drop your wings? # 801 00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:22,320 Well, some of these British teenagers grew up to be 802 00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:26,480 Eric Clapton, Ray Davies, Keith Richards. 803 00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:29,920 And this was their first visual exposure 804 00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:31,760 to a blues musician. 805 00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:35,200 # Heaven... # 806 00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:36,400 It was always one man... 807 00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:39,800 ..with his guitar, versus the world. 808 00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:42,880 You know, it wasn't a company. 809 00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:45,400 It wasn't a band or a group or anything. 810 00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:47,680 When it came down to it, it was one guy 811 00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:50,240 who was completely alone 812 00:51:50,240 --> 00:51:53,280 and had no options, no alternatives whatsoever 813 00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:57,720 other than just sing and play to ease his pain. 814 00:51:57,720 --> 00:52:01,960 And that echoed what I felt in many aspects of my life. 815 00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:08,120 Broonzy gave the impression he was very centred in his own world, 816 00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:10,960 self-invented world. 817 00:52:10,960 --> 00:52:12,840 And he's a performer, as well. 818 00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:15,720 It's not just his music, it's the totality. 819 00:52:15,720 --> 00:52:19,560 It's like a great actor goes on and assumes a role. 820 00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:22,320 Or he knows his role and he knows his character really well 821 00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:23,560 and performs it. 822 00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:25,640 So it's the whole presence, to me, 823 00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:27,320 not just the playing. 824 00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:29,600 And also he was versatile. 825 00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:31,840 I mean, he wasn't just your gut blues. 826 00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:33,920 He'd play beautiful melodies 827 00:52:33,920 --> 00:52:36,240 and it kind of led you to think 828 00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:39,160 that there are different kinds of blues. 829 00:52:39,160 --> 00:52:40,560 You know? 830 00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:43,480 And not everything is set as 12 bars 831 00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:47,920 and set in just that one style. 832 00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:51,120 It's very simple in concept 833 00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:53,640 but to deliver it is another thing. 834 00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:03,200 Bill didn't just deliver his music to Europe. 835 00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:05,000 He went as far as North Africa 836 00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:08,120 and even describes travelling down to Senegal, 837 00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:12,040 becoming the first performer to take the blues "back to Africa". 838 00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:16,120 'I played in Morocco and Algiers 839 00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:18,720 'and then they sent me to a place called Senegal.' 840 00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:23,000 'Back during the time of trading black people, 841 00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:24,600 'which white people did, 842 00:53:24,600 --> 00:53:27,880 'I really think that my foreparents came from there. 843 00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:29,360 'From Senegal. 844 00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:32,000 'A lot of those people was traded to the Americans.' 845 00:53:34,240 --> 00:53:37,880 Bill reckoned he'd discovered the Broonzy family roots, 846 00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:39,560 their African identity. 847 00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:48,240 But every time he travelled home across the ocean, 848 00:53:48,240 --> 00:53:50,760 he'd find the Chicago music scene moving ever further 849 00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:52,360 from his down-home blues. 850 00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:01,200 The audiences for blues in Chicago in the '50s 851 00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:03,360 were embracing a set of artists 852 00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,560 who were really reaching their first flowering - 853 00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:09,760 Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Junior Wells. 854 00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:12,000 And they were the headliners. 855 00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:17,200 'Now these young boys tell me my blues is old-fogeyism.' 856 00:54:18,920 --> 00:54:22,320 'That I don't rate no more in these modernist times. 857 00:54:22,320 --> 00:54:23,960 'And they mean it! 858 00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:26,720 'Don't try coming into these joints on the South Side 859 00:54:26,720 --> 00:54:29,320 and singing one of those down-home Arkansas blues. 860 00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:31,360 'Man, they'll beat you to death!' 861 00:54:33,800 --> 00:54:37,800 Black folks are progressive people. 862 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:39,840 And we're looking forward. 863 00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:41,600 When we look to the past, 864 00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:45,640 we're looking in the direction of hurt, of slavery, 865 00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:48,760 of vicious racism and night riders, 866 00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:52,640 and minstrelsy with the blackface and the banjo. 867 00:54:52,640 --> 00:54:55,000 The image of things past 868 00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:58,720 is not something that black folks like to hold so closely. 869 00:54:58,720 --> 00:55:00,360 For a lot of years we haven't. 870 00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:07,440 Bill was now burdened with that image of things past 871 00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:09,160 and his health was failing. 872 00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:13,800 He'd become his own invention - 873 00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:16,160 the country blues journey-man, 874 00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:18,520 playing white holiday camps and colleges. 875 00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:24,960 'I've travelled all over, tryin' to keep the old-time blues alive. 876 00:55:24,960 --> 00:55:28,560 'And I'm going to keep on, as long as Big Bill is still living.' 877 00:55:33,960 --> 00:55:36,320 Bill was the artist in residence 878 00:55:36,320 --> 00:55:39,160 at this extraordinary little summer camp. 879 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:46,120 And I happened to be dropping in one day 880 00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:49,600 to sing the campers some songs. 881 00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:52,080 When I'd met Bill before, 882 00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:56,240 he'd noticed that I'd bought a 16mm movie camera. 883 00:55:57,760 --> 00:56:00,080 Bill said, "Do you have that camera with you?" 884 00:56:00,080 --> 00:56:01,760 And I said, "Yes." 885 00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:06,760 He said, "I think you should film me singing." 886 00:56:06,760 --> 00:56:10,520 # Lord, I'm sittin' on this stump, baby... # 887 00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:12,360 One day later, 888 00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:17,080 he went under the knife for cancer of the throat. 889 00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:24,240 But even though he knew this grim future awaiting him, 890 00:56:24,240 --> 00:56:26,440 he was full of smiles. 891 00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:33,920 # Lord, I'm sittin' on this stump, baby 892 00:56:33,920 --> 00:56:38,040 # I declare I've got a worried mind 893 00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:49,960 # Lord, I left my baby 894 00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:53,920 # Oh, she was standin' in that back door, cryin'. # 895 00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:03,680 The only time we realised the change was when he got sick. 896 00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:05,240 And that was, you know, 897 00:57:05,240 --> 00:57:07,360 he just wasn't able to keep up that... 898 00:57:09,720 --> 00:57:11,160 ..face any more. 899 00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:14,760 You know, that happy-go-lucky thing. 900 00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:18,280 I mean, he wasn't grouchy but he just wasn't able to... 901 00:57:18,280 --> 00:57:20,760 You know, he had a hard time talking. 902 00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:22,520 His voice... 903 00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:24,960 it was like a whisper. 904 00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:29,040 You know, you had to get really close to him. 905 00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:35,800 The blues singer with no voice 906 00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:38,760 had spent his last dollars on a cancer operation. 907 00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:44,360 He died in August 1958, 908 00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:46,720 leaving many friends and admirers. 909 00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,040 For some years, Bill's seemingly urbane style of blues 910 00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:55,840 fell out of favour in the States 911 00:57:55,840 --> 00:57:57,480 and was all but forgotten. 912 00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:00,360 But in Britain and Europe, 913 00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:04,080 his reputation as the ambassador of the blues grew, 914 00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:08,320 not least because of his unique mix of charm, modesty 915 00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:09,760 and self-invention. 916 00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:13,920 'When you write about me, 917 00:58:13,920 --> 00:58:17,800 'don't say I'm a musician or a guitar player. 918 00:58:17,800 --> 00:58:19,320 'Just write, 919 00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:22,880 "Big Bill recorded 250 blues songs. 920 00:58:22,880 --> 00:58:26,840 "He was a happy man when he was drunk and playin' with women 921 00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:29,800 "and he was liked by all the blues singers. 922 00:58:29,800 --> 00:58:32,200 "Some would get a little jealous 923 00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:36,280 "but Bill would just buy a bottle of whisky and slip off from the party 924 00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:38,120 "and he'd go home to sleep." 925 00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:47,360 # Last night I were layin' sleepin', darling 926 00:58:47,360 --> 00:58:51,920 # And I declare, Bill was all by his self 927 00:58:56,920 --> 00:59:03,280 # Yes but the one that I really loved 928 00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:07,440 # I declare, she was sleepin' someplace else... #