The following from The Manchester Guardian (Newspaper) Tuesday, January 19,1965
The Original Sonny
By Chris Morphet
THE hands are bony, gnarled and beautiful. He wears a comic bowler hat and a bizarre dark gold and black suit. When he walks he shambles along with his wiry stooping body. His lips are strong yet supple ? this is one of the original blues harmonica players, Sonny Boy Williamson, who was recently on tour in this country.
At 68 he is a little doddery and sounds his years, with perpetual recollections of past experiences. But everyone falls silent when he stares and speaks. Most of the time, though, he is patronised or barely appreciated by both his audience and so-called admirers. A typical dialogue would be:
"Who's the greatest, Sonny?"
"Everybody's great, there ain?t nobody's the greatest"
"Do you know Elvis Presley?"
"Elvis who?"
"Elvis Presley"
"I slept in the same bed as him . . . I know 'em all . . . I bin in this business 48 years an' there ain't nobody I don't know . . . Anybody's good so long as they try and play what they know?don't matter who they are or where they come from."
"When did you first take up the harmonica, Sonny?"
"I was born with it in ma mouth"
Although you can't dance easily to what Sonny plays you don't really want to. He is a gripping entertainer ? swaying, leaning over backwards, tapping out the best and blowing fantastic shrill notes, wails, moans and deep growling "harp" sounds. He sometimes plays through one nostril contorting his face into a camel-like image: or he may play his "Echo Vamper" half-way in his mouth, like a child with a stick of rock.
Because they do not understand either the Blues or Sonny himself, many go away puzzled, thinking him a phoney or conceited. Before and after performing he drinks whisky non-stop and talks patiently like some sort of seer. You get involved with his "presence" and then you are won over.
