T- Bone Walker was born on May 28th, 1910 in his hometown of Linden Texas. Many years later he would be the first musician to bring the use of an electric guitar to popularity and form the roots of what we know today as The Blues. T-Bone was born with musician parents, so music was part of his life from the second he was born. Throughout his childhood he had learned how to play many various stringed instruments, but it was at age 13 he started learning his most popular one, the guitar. At this age he was also working as a guide for fellow blind guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson. Since Jefferson was blind he needed someone who can escort him around from gig to gig, this job would fall on T-Bone’s shoulders. A few years later at age 16 he was able to earn enough money to take his career to the next level and play gigs at local festivals and carnivals. Some years later in 1929 he recorded two singles with Columbia Records and saw some success with its distribution.
He spent the next decade working alongside other acts, but it was in 1939 when he started getting notoriety for his playing . It’s hard to tell if Walker was the first to start playing the Electric Guitar, or if it was fellow guitarists Charlie Christian, Eddie Durham, or Floyd Smith. However, it was evident by 1939 that Walker was far and away the best player of the guitar making electric solos and great songs to accompany them. Walker recorded many projects in the 1940s including his first hit “Mean Old World” and another hit “Call It Stormy Monday” which became the blueprint for The Blues for years to come. These songs and many others were distributed nationwide and got T-Bone walker much notoriety, mainly because his playing of the electric guitar was nothing ever heard before. He toured all over the country during the 40s and 50s and saw great success. His many years of touring and his drinking and gambling habits was a lot for T-Bone and his health declined. He passed away from pneumonia on March 16th, 1975
T-Bone is most known for his pioneering of the Electric Guitar and his influence on the early Blues. He showed the world that the big band style didn’t have to be the one and only way to go about music The guitar was then known as the instrument that kept the rhythm of the song, but Walker’s intense playing style showed that it can be the lead and outshine other instruments such as the Brass and Pianos. He was able to play highly complex and infatuating guitar solos that would show the true versatility of the instrument as well as his skill. Some of these solos he could play on only a single string. His guitar playing helped bring a new attitude and soul to the music of the time. The three songs I will have linked below is “Call it Stormy Monday”, “Mean Old World”, and “T- Bone Blues”. These songs are his most popular oes and show the blueprint for modern blues that many artists like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Buddy Guy would emulate in the years to come.
Lyrics:
They call it stormy Monday, yes but Tuesday’s just as bad
They call it stormy Monday, yes but Tuesday’s just as bad
Wednesday’s even worse; Thursday’s awful sad
The eagle flies on Friday, Saturday I go out to play
The eagle flies on Friday, but Saturday I go out to play
Sunday I go to church where I kneel down and pray
And I say, “Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me
Just trying to find my baby, won’t you please send her on back to me.”
The eagle flies on Friday, on Saturday I go out to play
The eagle flies on Friday, on Saturday I go out to play
Sunday I go to church, where I kneel down, Lord and I pray
Then I say, “Lord have mercy, won’t you please have mercy on me
Lord, oh Lord have mercy, yeah, won’t you please, please have mercy on me
I’m just a-lookin’ for my sweet babe, so won’t you please send him home, send him on home to me.”
Lyrics:
This is a mean old world, baby, to live in by yourself
This is a mean old world to live in by your self
When you can’t get the woman you love, you know she’s loving someone else
Well, I drink to keep from worrying and I smile to keep from crying
I drink to keep from worrying, baby, I smile to keep from crying
That’s to keep the public from knowing just what I have on my mind
Some day, some day, baby, I’ll be six feet in my grave
Some day, some day, darling, I’ll be six feet in my grave
And, I won’t be around here to be mistreated, darling, like a low-down slave
Lyrics:
I love my baby, she’s so mean to me
Yes I love my baby, she’s so mean to me
I’m gonna change my way of living baby, move across
the deep blue sea
You know you didn’t want me baby, when you climbed up
on my knee
You were drinkin’
moonshine
whiskey mama, tryin’ to
jive
poor me
Yes I love you, yes I love you, yes I love, and I
don’t care what you do
Brownskin woman, who might you’re good man be
Brownskin woman, who might you’re good man be
Say the reason why I ask you baby, you sure look good
to me
While doing research I couldn’t find many details in his songs that relate directly to Texas. While he was born and raised there, there isn’t much in his music that relates back to Texas music of the past, since his work with the electric guitar was revolutionary. He was inspired by fellow guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson, who he helped guide when he was a kid, and he was born from Couchman Texas. While I couldn’t find any direct information saying that Jefferson directly taught Walker in his youth, I believe its safe to say that Walker and Jefferson spent many hours talking and playing music together in the many hours they spent together. His time in Texas wasn’t forever as he moved to California in the 1940s. His songs followed the formula that many blues artists in the South followed, long guitar solos and soulful lyrics sprinkled in, but what Walker brought that they didn’t was his electric guitar.
T-Bone Walker’s influence on the Blues genre is nothing short of spectacular. His electric guitar playing shaped the future of the genre entirely and every successful Blues artist that came behind him should give him his thanks. I wish I could have learned more about how his namesake spread across the country. While he recorded songs and they got distributed, I wish I knew more about the impact on the cultures of the time as opposed to just finding information on the music side of things. I also wished I could have found more on how Texas specifically influenced his childhood and music background, but I couldn’t find any Texas specific details, only details about how past blues artists inspired him.
Bibliography:
- T-Bone Walker Biography, https://musicianguide.com/biographies/1608001526/T-Bone-Walker.html.
- “T-Bone Walker.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/T-Bone-Walker.
- “Walker, Aaron Thibeaux [t-Bone] (1910–1975).” TSHA, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/walker-aaron-thibeaux-t-bone.
- “T-Bone Walker.” T-Bone Walker | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/t-bone-walker.
