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Joe Hill Louis

Joe Hill Louis
Louis c. 1950
Louis c. 1950
Background information
Birth nameLester Hill
Also known as
  • The Be-Bop Boy
  • The Pepticon Boy
  • Chicago Sunny Boy
Born(1921-09-23)September 23, 1921
Raines, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedAugust 5, 1957(1957-08-05) (aged 35)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
GenresBlues
OccupationMusician
Instruments
  • Guitar
  • vocals
  • harmonica
  • drums
Years active1940s–1957
Labels

Lester Hill (September 23, 1921 – August 5, 1957), known professionally as Joe Hill Louis, was an American singer, guitarist, harmonica player and one-man band. He was one of a small number of one-man blues bands (along with fellow Memphis bluesman Doctor Ross) to have recorded commercially in the 1950s. He was also a session musician for Sun Records.

Life and career

Early life

Louis was born Lester (or possibly Leslie) Hill[3] on September 23, 1921,[4] in Raines, Tennessee, now part of Memphis.[5] His nickname "Joe Louis" arose as a result of a childhood fight with another youth.[3] At the age of 14 he left home to work as a servant for a wealthy Memphis family.[6] He also worked at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis in the late 1930s. From the early 1940s onwards he worked as a musician and one-man band.[4]

Recording and radio career

Louis made his recording debut on Columbia Records in 1949, and his music was released on a variety of labels through the 1950s, such as Modern, Checker, Meteor, Big Town, and Mimosa.[3] Louis also recorded for Sam Phillips' Sun Records,[3] both under his own name and as a backing musician for a wide variety of other singers.[6]

Joe Hill Louis, "Boogie in the Park" (1950)
"Boogie in the Park" (1950), featuring Louis playing an electric guitar and a drum kit at the same time
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His most notable electric blues single, "Gotta Let You Go" b/w "Boogie in the Park" (recorded in July 1950 and released the following month as part number 9001/9002), featured Louis performing "one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded" while also playing a rudimentary drum kit. It was the only record released on Sam Phillips's early 'It's The Phillips' label before he founded Sun Records.[1] Louis's electric guitar playing is also considered a predecessor of heavy metal music.[7]

Another notable recording he made at Sun Records was as guitarist on Rufus Thomas's "Bear Cat", an answer record to Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog", which reached number 3 on the R&B chart[8] and resulted in legal action for copyright infringement. He also shared writing credit for the song "Tiger Man", which has been recorded by Thomas and Elvis Presley, among others. Around 1950 he took over the Pepticon Boy radio program on WDIA from B. B. King.[9] He was also known as "The Pepticon Boy" or "The Be-Bop Boy",[3] and recorded as "Chicago Sunny Boy" for Meteor Records in 1953.[10]

Death

Louis died on August 5, 1957, in John Gaston Hospital, in Memphis,[4] at the age of 35, of tetanus contracted as a result of an infected cut on his thumb, sustained while he was working as an odd job man.[6]

Selected discography

  • Boogie in the Park (Ace CDCHD-803, 2001)
  • King of the One Man Bands (Key Postwar Cuts 1949–1954) (JSP 4208, 2008) 2-CD
  • A' Jumpin' & A' Shufflin' The Blues 1950–1954 (Jasmine JASMCD-3143, 2019)

References

  1. ^ a b DeCurtis, Anthony (1992). Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture (4th ed.). Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. ISBN 0822312654. His first venture, the Phillips label, issued only one known release, and it was one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded, 'Boogie in the Park' by Memphis one-man-band Joe Hill Louis, who cranked his guitar while sitting and banging at a rudimentary drum kit.
  2. ^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 138. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  3. ^ a b c d e Dahl, Bill. "Joe Hill Louis | Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  4. ^ a b c Harris, 1989, p. 337.
  5. ^ [1] Archived January 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ a b c Turner, 1985, p. 24.
  7. ^ Miller, Jim (1980). The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. New York: Rolling Stone. ISBN 0394513223. Retrieved 5 July 2012. Black country bluesmen made raw, heavily amplified boogie records of their own, especially in Memphis, where guitarists like Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson (with the early Howlin' Wolf band) and Pat Hare (with Little Junior Parker) played driving rhythms and scorching, distorted solos that might be counted the distant ancestors of heavy metal.
  8. ^ Turner, 1985, p. 37.
  9. ^ Harris 1989, p. 337.
  10. ^ Inaba, Mitsutoshi (2016). John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson: The Blues Harmonica of Chicago's Bronzeville. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-4422-5443-5.

Bibliography

  • Harris, S. (1989). Blues Who's Who, 5th paperback edition. New York: Da Capo Press.
  • Turner, B. (1985). "The Blues in Memphis". Album booklet for Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950–1956. London: Sun Records.
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