Music Quiz Number 5

Who was Sonny Boy? Find out in our latest Quiz, where even the wrong answers are all right!

Click on the Great – You Got It.. sign to reveal the answer.

Which label put out Albert King’s ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’?

1. Chess.
   No. None of the ‘Three Kings’, ( Albert, BB & Freddie) recorded for the Chess label, although Freddie used Chess Studios to record his ‘Getting Ready’ album for the Shelteer label.
2. King/Federal.
   No. But King/Federal released Albert’s first hit ‘Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong’ in 1961.
3. Bobbin.
   No. Bobbin was the St.Louis label whose A&R man Little Milton signed a contract with Albert in 1959.
4. Stax.
   Correct. This brilliant album, and it’s title track, featured Albert’s sparkling guitar with Booker T & the MGs and The Memphis Horns.
5. Tomato.
   No. But Albert did record a later version of ‘BUaBS’ for them with producer Allen Toussaint.

Whose signature tune was ‘You’ve Gotta Move’.

1. Mississippi Fred McDowell.
   Correct. Fred first recorded this deeply religious song with his wife Annie Mae and The Hunters Chapel Singers on a Gospel album in 1966.
2. Elmore James.
   No. Elmore’s loud, distorted slide-guitar playing was the opposite of Fred’s lyrical style.
3. Bonnie Raitt.
   No. Bonnie was a fan and student of Fred’s work, but never recorded this tune.
4. Homesick James.
   No. Another loud South-side Chicago slide-guitar wizard, Homesick’s style was much more brash, like his cousin Elmore James.
5. The Rolling Stones.
   No. But The Stones recorded a version of the song on their ‘Sticky Fingers’ album, and Fred finally got a big royalty check!

Which instrument did Sister Rosetta Tharpe play.

1. None, except handclaps!
   No. She would rouse her Gospel audiences with her voice alone, but away from Church, she could rip out a Blues riff.
2. Piano.
   No. But on her first hit, ‘Strange Things Happening Every Day’ in 1944 her regular pianist, the versatile Texan Sammy Price, was tinkling the ivories.
3. Organ.
   No. Rosetta often sang and played with organ accompaniment, but never played keyboards herself.
4. Harp.
   No. But her contemporary, Big Mama Thornton played a mean Blues harp.
5. Guitar.
   Correct. Rosetta matched big white dresses to her big white Gibson ES, as she spattered Blues riffs all over the room.

Which R&B star was discovered by Johnny Otis in 1954.

1. Ray Charles.
   No. Ray was already an established recording artist with Atlantic records by then.
2. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
   No. Jay was the unknown frontman for Tiny Grimes Band, before he stunned the world with his only hit ‘I Put a Spell on You’ in 1956.
3. Bo Diddley.
   No. Bo was in Chicago trying to impress Leonard Chess and Willie Dixon, and fixing to record his classic debut disc ‘I’m a Man’ a few months later.
4. Etta James.
   Correct. Johnny heard Etta singing with her group The Peaches in San Francisco, and soon she had a hit with ‘The Wallflower’, a response to Hank Ballard’s raunchy hit ‘Work With Me Annie’.
5. Little Richard.
   No. Richard was an unknown but exciting singer on the chittlin’ circuit back then, but when Don Robey called him to Houston to record for Duke Records, Johnny Otis was hired as producer. The results were awful and were never released.

What was Sonny Boy Williamson II’s real name?

1. Aleck Ford.
   Maybe. Some sources give his family name as Ford, and his given name is often listed Aleck, or possibly Willie.
2. Rice Miller.
   Probably the most correct. Miller is his most commonly attributed family name, but ‘Rice’ is probably a nick-name playing on the fact that millers work with cereals like rice.
3. Little Boy Blue.
   No. Although he often used this name when touring the Delta juke-joints as a young man.
4. Willie Williamson.
   No. He might possibly have been called Willie, but the name Williamson was ‘borrowed’ from John Lee Williamson up in Chicago.
5. Nobody knows.
   True. Any combination of Aleck/Willie/Miller/Ford is possible. ‘Rice’ is probably a nick-name. It wasn’t Williamson, anyway.

Who wrote Buddy Guy’s big hit ‘The First Time I Met the Blues’?

1. Jimmy Reed.
   No. Jimmy wrote loads of great songs that were covered by other big Blues stars, but not this one.
2. Willie Dixon.
   No. Despite writing (or at least taking credit for) most of the Chicago Blues Songbook, Willie didn’t do this one.
3. Little Brother Montgomery.
   Correct. Eurreal ‘Little Brother’ Montgomery recorded his song for the Bluebird label in 1936, and he was often heard playing piano at club gigs with Buddy in the late 50s and 60s, maybe grateful for the sudden influx of royalty checks!
4. Otis Rush.
   No. But the magnificent Otis and Buddy used to hang aroung the West-side clubs with the composer, back in the day.
5. Buddy Guy.
   Sadly, no. Although he is sometimes given the credit by people who should know better!

What was the title of John Hammond’s 1938 Carnegie Hall tribute to Black American Music?

1. Swingin’ the Blues.
   No. But it was a tune played that night by the Count Basie Orchestra, and was the first track on the live album, which was not released until 1959!
2. Spirituals to Swing.
   Correct. It was a ground-breaking event, and it was repeated a year later with an equally impressive cast of stars.
3. Praise the Lord- A Night of Spirituals.
   No. But The Golden Gate Quartet, Mitchell’s Christian Singers and Sister Rosetta Tharpe made sure there was some ‘praise singing’.
4. All This Jazz.
   No. But with The Count Basie Orchestra, James P. Johnson and a host of Jazz talents on the bill, that music was well represented.
5. Boogie-Woogie Rhythms.
   No. However, the pianists Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Thompson all played boogie tunes that night, which resulted in their long residency at the smart Café Society Club, and the start of a ‘boogie-woogie’ craze all over America.

Who was Robert ‘Jr’ Lockwood’s stepfather?

1. Robert Johnson.
   Correct. The King of the Delta Blues had a long relationship with Esther Lockwood, and taught her son to play guitar. He proved to be an excellent student.
2. Jimmy Rogers.
   No. Robert Jr. was nearly ten years older than him!
3. Son House.
   No. But Son House is credited with showing some slide-guitar technique to the young Robert Johnson.
4. Rice Miller.
   No. Better known as ‘Sonny Boy II’ this lovable rogue was a mentor to Robert Jr. and hired him to play on his King Biscuit Time radio show and with his juke-joint band.
5. Charles Lockwood
   No. Admiral Charles Lockwood was Commander of the US submarine Fleet during WWII, although he sailed on the USS Mississippi!

Where did the ‘Sunset Route’ run?

1. Omaha to San Francisco.
   No. That was the ‘Pacific Railroad’ completed in 1869, later known as the Union Pacific..
2. Chicago to L.A.
   No. You’re thinking of Route 66!!
3. Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado River.
   Kind of. This early section of the Sunset Route, later part of the Southern Pacific, was extended to reach Houston and San Antonio, and was a favourite route of early Blues legends Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lead Belly, who would play for tips on the train.
4. Houston to Los Angeles.
   Correct. The Galveston and San Antonio Railway was connected to the Southern Pacific network in 1883, completeing the second Transcontinental line, and was known as The Sunset Route, much favoured by post-WWII Texas Bluesmen headed for California.
5. Hollywood to Santa Monica.
   No. But Sunset Boulevard runs from Downtown LA, through Hollywood to the Pacific coast north of Santa Monica.

Who played bass in the Chess Records’ house band?

1. Big Crawford.
   This veteran bass-man played on some of Muddy Waters’ first records, but was never a permanent part of the Chess set up.
2. Willie Kent.
   This fantastic Chicago bass player backed Little Walter on the club scene back in the day, but Chess Records was long gone when Willie started his own recording career.
3. Willie Dixon.
   Correct. Willie was hired by Leonard and Phil Chess when they first established Chess Studios for his bass playing and arranging skills, but he pushed a broom and packed a lot of records in the early days too. Later Willie wrote and played on dozens of classic Chicago Blues songs.
4. Ransom Knowling.
   No. Ransom played bass for many classic Chicago Blues stars from the mid-30s onwards, including The Harlem Hamfats, Big Boy Crudup, adding tuba, or ‘brass bass’ to Doc Clayton’s ‘Pearl Harbor Blues’ in 1942 and dozens more.
5. Homesick James.
   No. ‘Homesick’ did play bass on many of his cousin Elmore’s big Chicago hits, but they were for the Vee-Jay and Fire labels.