Wed 29 Aug 2007
Lonnie Johnson’s place in blues history would have been immortalized if even if he had never recorded past the 1930’s. It certainly would have made blues critics life easier who generally tend to dismiss Johnson’s later recordings. Unfortunately, for them, Johnson persisted hooking up with the King label in the late 1940’s, enjoying the biggest commercial success of his career and after a fallow period in the 1950’s made a full fledged comeback in the 1960’s before passing in 1970.
In latter years Johnson couldn’t win with blues or jazz fans. In the 1960’s the blues and folk audience looked away in embarrassment when he sang “How Deep Is the Ocean,” “My Mother’s Eyes,” or “Red Sails in the Sunset.” The jazz crowd dismissed him as a relic. Supposedly Duke Ellington, with whom Johnson recorded with in 1928, declined to appear with this “old blues guy” when he guest-starred with Ellington’s band at Town Hall in 1961. The New York Daily News caught the flavor of the moment with the headline “The Janitor Meets the Duke.” As singer Barbara Dane noted: “…He was a very sophisticated player in a moment when the world was looking for the rough and earthy Delta players. …Lonnie had a strong attraction for the romantic pop songs like “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” etc. which he played when the audiences were looking for the gritty blues. People during the early ’60s searching for blues roots wanted to hear ‘funky and back-alley’ and Lonnie played clean and uptown. Lonnie craved respect for what he created, like any other musician. The (white) public at that time was mostly looking for someone who could personally introduce them to their fantasy of black culture. In other words, he was out of tune with the times.”
We’ll save Johnson’s 1960’s sides for another time which also warrant more attention. In this article we reassess Johnson’s stint with King which ran from 1947 through 1952 and resulted in close to seventy issued sides. When Johnson signed with King in 1947 his music and music in general was changing. By 1947 he had switched to electric guitar, was incorporating more ballads into his repertoire while the music was in transition from blues to R&B. It is true that Johnson reworked several of his earlier songs and perhaps over relied on a few signature guitar phrases during this period. Still, while many were unprepared for the changing musical times, Johnson seamlessly sailed into the new era not only achieving commercial success but also cutting music of a consistently high artistic caliber.
On December 10, 1947 Johnson entered the King Records studio at 1540 Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio and recorded what was probably the most successful record of his long career, “Tomorrow Night”, often subtitled on the King label as “Lonnie Johnson’s Theme Song.” By 1950 “Tomorrow Night” had sold a million copies. With his guitar subdued, Johnson’s bittersweet voice is at the fore as he croons what is essentially a pop number. In a bluesier mode from this same session are the laid back “What A Woman” and the outstanding “Happy New Year Darling”a melancholy love song with superb guitar:
Christmas Eve morning, baby I was on my way back home to you (2x)
It was your love that kept me fighting, kept me safe the whole war through
It seems a long, long time since I been fightin’ the Japs ‘cross the deep blue sea (2x)
Yes, that’s why I’m so glad darling, to have a little wife love still waitin’ for me
It’s so great to have you darlin’, to have a little wife like you (2x)
My three brothers couldn’t make it, but they say happy new year to you
Johnson’s songwriting is often undervalued. He wrote well crafted and imaginative songs usually filled with dark imagery, longing and an unflinchingly misogynist view of woman and love. The rest of Johnson’s King tenure would find him recording a mix of ballads in the manner of “Tomorrow Night”, straight blues and a sort of hybrid of the two styles.
Tomorrow Night (MP3) 
Happy New Year Darling (MP3)
