0:00:02 > 0:00:04# When did you leave Heaven
0:00:06 > 0:00:09# How did they let you go... #
0:00:09 > 0:00:13Broonzy was the first guy I saw visually.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16I saw him on BBC TV.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19I was probably about seven or eight years old,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22where he was singing When Did You Leave Heaven.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26# But you are so divine
0:00:28 > 0:00:34# When did you leave Heaven... #
0:00:34 > 0:00:37It encapsulated everything I wanted to be, you know.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40The first time I ever wanted to play a guitar and sing
0:00:40 > 0:00:43and actually I wanted to be black at the time.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47# It was a dream
0:00:47 > 0:00:55# Lord, what a dream I had on my mind... #
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Here was something that we could really identify with.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04It was stark and simple. Very, very exciting, really.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09We swallowed this kind of lone folk singer persona, you know.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13We didn't find out till afterwards that he had a whole secret backlog.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21I'd hear Big Bill Broonzy and my head would always turn
0:01:21 > 0:01:25and I'd say, "Shut up, I'm listening to this now!"
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Because he was my number one.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39What the film clip did to me, it created a mythical world.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42I was 12, 13 years old when I saw it.
0:01:42 > 0:01:48And my ideal world is a club that's like that club.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Whenever I want to write something that has a certain mood,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00I think of that image of that club.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03I call it the Riff Club.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06So the Big Riff starts there.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16# I'm feelin' so good
0:02:16 > 0:02:18# Just feelin' so good, baby... #
0:02:18 > 0:02:23These first moving images of Big Bill Broonzy were filmed in 1951,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26the year he brought the blues to Britain.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Though he would inspire a generation of musicians,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34his earlier life was cloaked in mystery.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37His fans believed he was an old-style Mississippi bluesman.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44The image that was presented of him was like Sharecropper Bill.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47And one character after a gig went up to him
0:02:47 > 0:02:49and said, how could he possibly have come on tour,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52shouldn't he be working on the plantation?
0:02:52 > 0:02:55And apparently Bill said he was lucky because he had a very
0:02:55 > 0:02:59sympathetic massa who had let him go away and play his guitar.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03I mean, what complete bullshit. But there you go.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09What I learned as a would-be biographer
0:03:09 > 0:03:14when I started looking for the fact-based documentation
0:03:14 > 0:03:19for Big Bill Broonzy's life was, in the words of Winnie the Pooh,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23the more I looked for them, the more they weren't there.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Bill was always telling the truth, his truth.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34# Cos I'm trouble in mind
0:03:34 > 0:03:38# Babe, I'm so blue... #
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Most British fans had never seen a live blues musician
0:03:42 > 0:03:44from America's deep south.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47They were entranced by Bill's charisma
0:03:47 > 0:03:49and by the evocative lyrics of his songs.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52# You know the sun
0:03:52 > 0:03:56# Sun gonna shine
0:03:56 > 0:04:00# In my back door someday. #
0:04:04 > 0:04:10I think there was a pretty precise mind at work behind those words
0:04:10 > 0:04:14and it was almost like Hank Williams or some of those people that
0:04:14 > 0:04:17wrote songs that seemed really simple,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19and underneath it there's a real truth, you know,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23and the words are kind of hitting on something that's a lot, lot deeper.
0:04:23 > 0:04:30# Goin' down this road now feeling bad, baby
0:04:30 > 0:04:35# Goin' down this road feeling so low and bad
0:04:35 > 0:04:39# I ain't goin' to be treated this way. #
0:04:39 > 0:04:43Broonzy's music was a kind of road map of his life.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45He was able to navigate his way across Britain
0:04:45 > 0:04:49and then Europe by creating a network of useful contacts
0:04:49 > 0:04:52who believed he was exactly what he appeared to be.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Bill was always very knowing. He was savvy.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01He could come in and read a situation
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and identify what course of action
0:05:04 > 0:05:08he needed to take with the best chance of success for himself.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Among Bill's many admirers was a Belgian couple,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Margo and Yannick Bruynoghe.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22They helped write his autobiography,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25without realising how much of it was fiction,
0:05:25 > 0:05:30though Big Bill Blues did hold many clues to where he came from.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Yannick asked Bill to put down
0:05:35 > 0:05:40whatever he wanted to put down
0:05:40 > 0:05:42about blues, about him,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45about the blues, about the other blues singers.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49He said, "You take a pen and you write down everything.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53"The thing is to write down what he's told."
0:05:53 > 0:05:57If it's true or not, that wasn't our problem.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04'If anybody asks me if I'm from Mississippi, I'll say yes,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06'but I don't like to talk about it.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11'Because I was born poor, had to work and do what the white man told me.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19'So I've been playin' for those white people for a long time.'
0:06:22 > 0:06:25The place and date of Broonzy's birth have been
0:06:25 > 0:06:27the subject of conjecture.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33The family register says his name was Lee Conley Bradley, born 1903.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36But Broonzy himself gave a different date.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39'I was born in the year 1893.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45'My mother was a Christian and my dad was a Christian.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47'I joined the church and was baptised.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53'But Christian is one thing and money is another.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58'We had to keep our instruments hid under the house
0:06:58 > 0:07:01'because our mother wanted us to be preachers.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09'I made a fiddle out of a cigar box,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12'and we'd play for white people's picnics.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14'One steps, two steps and square dances.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18'Negroes on one side, and whites on the other.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26'A white man told me, "You're too good for playin' to Negroes."
0:07:26 > 0:07:30'So that's the way I started playing for whites.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33'White folks want all the good things for themselves.'
0:07:35 > 0:07:38Broonzy as a boy learned to navigate what was
0:07:38 > 0:07:40a minefield of racism as a performer.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45Anything that's good for white audiences could not be used
0:07:45 > 0:07:48by black audiences as well, because it would symbolise
0:07:48 > 0:07:52a level of social equality, all right, in entertainment.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59My aunt Mary used to sing,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01and she couldn't carry a note,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05but she would be up singing and dancing.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10It was just, we had a really happy family.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Broonzy's stories from that time
0:08:15 > 0:08:19were often metaphors about his everyday life in Arkansas.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24'I knew a man near my home, and they called him Mr White.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29'All his fences were white, the trees, he painted them white.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33'All the sheep, the goats, even down to the chickens, was white.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36'Everything on his place was white.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38'He didn't want nothin' black on his plantation.'
0:08:40 > 0:08:42Any time there was a chicken,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46a goat, a sheep, a mule or anything like that
0:08:46 > 0:08:48that was brown or black, he said,
0:08:48 > 0:08:52"I don't want no nigger chickens on my farm."
0:08:52 > 0:08:54And he'd make somebody take them off
0:08:54 > 0:08:58and give them to one of the black families.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00There were many stories.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05I mean, fantastic, fantastical stories actually.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10Made-up stuff about birds and crows and bloody necks...
0:09:14 > 0:09:17People getting up from the dead.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19I didn't know whether it was true or not.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22I mean, I was a child, I believed it. That was Uncle Bill.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26# Lord, I did all I could
0:09:26 > 0:09:30# Ooh, Lord, trying to please my soul and so... #
0:09:30 > 0:09:33I think to understand Big Bill you have to understand that he
0:09:33 > 0:09:35was a young man with ambition.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39# I ain't gonna raise no more cotton
0:09:39 > 0:09:44# I declare, I ain't gonna try to raise no corn... #
0:09:44 > 0:09:47He wanted to make something of his life.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50He wanted to make a statement.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53He wanted to earn a living in a way
0:09:53 > 0:09:56that wasn't dead-ended and gruelling.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05To express his feelings, Bill often adapted other people's songs,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08painting himself as a lone figure in a hostile world.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18'Backwater Blues is about one of the truest things that ever happened.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21'That was the way the flood water hit us.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27'I was down there at the time and it was a terrible flood.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30'The water was over the entire neighbourhood.'
0:10:33 > 0:10:38# Lord, that was really enough trouble
0:10:38 > 0:10:43# To make a poor man wonder where in the world to go
0:10:46 > 0:10:51# They rowed a little boat
0:10:51 > 0:10:55# Just about five miles across the farm... #
0:11:00 > 0:11:05The floods of 1917 provoked the building of levee camps
0:11:05 > 0:11:07all around the Mississippi river.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Broonzy worked there to supplement his modest wages as a fiddler.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24'I worked in levee camps, and every place I'd hear guys singin'.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26'And when you hear a fellow sing the blues,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29'it's really a heart thing, from the heart.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32'That's the only way to say those things.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40'You know, the way we lived in those tents, the food
0:11:40 > 0:11:44'we had to eat was really just scraps from what other people had refused.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50'You could kill anyone down there so long as he's coloured.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53'They said, "If you kill one nigger, we'll hire another."
0:11:53 > 0:11:55'You know what I mean?
0:11:55 > 0:11:58'In those days, a Negro didn't mean no more to a white man than a mule.'
0:12:01 > 0:12:06The worst things they said within our hearing range,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09because they didn't want the kids to know about stuff like that,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13but they tarred and feathered a black man down on Ninth Street
0:12:13 > 0:12:17in Little Rock and hung him up and set him on fire.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21I don't know what he supposedly had done,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25but it was bad, it was really bad.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29I'm thinking that Uncle Bill probably thought that it can't
0:12:29 > 0:12:33be any worse if I take off and try to do something better.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42'If I hadn't been a damned good fighter and a big son of a gun,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46'I would have been in the graveyard a long time ago.'
0:12:46 > 0:12:50It seems as though my grandmother mentioned one time
0:12:50 > 0:12:52that he had to leave Arkansas.
0:12:52 > 0:12:53He had to leave.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58Because we always wanted to know why he didn't stay here with us
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and she said, "Well, he had to leave, he couldn't stay here with us."
0:13:01 > 0:13:06You know, she never went into any details or anything like that.
0:13:06 > 0:13:12And I don't really know exactly what he did, but during that time
0:13:12 > 0:13:17a black man could just show up in the wrong place, you know,
0:13:17 > 0:13:24or say the wrong thing to somebody, so I just don't know for sure.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29# I believe, I believe
0:13:29 > 0:13:32# Uncle Sam can use me... #
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Broonzy told how he was drafted for the First World War.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42Perhaps he wanted to disguise or lose his identity there.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50# Now, I do believe, baby
0:13:50 > 0:13:53# Lord, I be anything you want me to be... #
0:13:53 > 0:13:57'In 1917, I was called into the army.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01'Camp Robinson in Little Rock shipped us to Brest in France.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04'I didn't know where I was goin' any more than a goat.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09'I was in one of those labour battalions, building barracks,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11'putting in a good road.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13'We did all the dirty work.
0:14:13 > 0:14:14'The officer would say,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17"You have to do that because you don't know nothin' else."
0:14:22 > 0:14:25'I couldn't read or write,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28'and I had to keep worryin' the fellers to help me write home.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32'So every day I tried to read or write somethin'.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36'Looking at labels in the stockroom, at different cans and boxes,
0:14:36 > 0:14:43'I learned to spell out C-A-N-D-Y and T-O-M-A-T-O,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46'and on like that, till I could write home to my mother.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51'I didn't know the war was over till I was on the way back home.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54'I came out of the army in 1919.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57'And I couldn't stand bein' bossed around by nobody.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59'Bein' in the army had opened my eyes.'
0:15:02 > 0:15:06Bill would recount the humiliations of his homecoming in the song,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09When Will I Get To Be Called A Man.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12# That night we had a ball
0:15:12 > 0:15:14# Next day I met the old boss
0:15:14 > 0:15:18# He said, "Boy, get you some overalls"
0:15:18 > 0:15:20# I wonder when
0:15:20 > 0:15:23# I wonder when
0:15:23 > 0:15:26# I wonder when will I get to be called a man
0:15:26 > 0:15:30# Do I have to wait till I get 93? #
0:15:30 > 0:15:34'He said, "You can take off them clothes and get some overalls.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38'"There ain't no nigger goin' to walk around here with Uncle Sam's uniform on."'
0:15:39 > 0:15:43When Will I Be Called A Man is a song where Broonzy pulls
0:15:43 > 0:15:49together a narrative that speaks in a universal way for his people,
0:15:49 > 0:15:54about the need for change to happen
0:15:54 > 0:15:57and to raise the question, when will it happen?
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Just before going to war, Bill had found himself a wife.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06But his marriage now hit the rocks.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13'I got married. Her name was Gertrude.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15'She was 17 and I was 21.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19'We had chicken and cake and ice cream at our wedding.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32'But there were differences between me and Gertrude now.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34'She didn't sympathise with me no more.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38'Before I went in the army, whatever my wife said, went.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41'I shouldn't do this and I shouldn't do that.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54'Now, I wouldn't stand that with her, or the white man.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58'I couldn't stand eatin' out of the back trough all the time.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00'I didn't want nobody tellin' me what to do.
0:17:02 > 0:17:03'"What the heck," I said.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06'"Down here a man ain't nothin', no how."'
0:17:11 > 0:17:15Broonzy's choice of where to go was influenced by the Chicago Defender.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20This black-owned newspaper denounced the racism of the South
0:17:20 > 0:17:23with an honesty no other paper dared.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27It also listed the many attractions of the northern city of Chicago.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34The paper's greatest crusade was the encouragement of an exodus
0:17:34 > 0:17:39of black farm workers from the South to the cities of the North.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42The Defender really helped to influence
0:17:42 > 0:17:46quite a number of people to make that move.
0:17:46 > 0:17:47One of them was Big Bill.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52He decided to take a chance to go to the city.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56As a young man, he knew that it was a risk, and it was a risk,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59because you're leaving a way of life
0:17:59 > 0:18:01that people had lived for generations.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04# I got my ticket
0:18:04 > 0:18:08# I'm holdin' right here in my hand... #
0:18:08 > 0:18:11'So I left home in January 1920.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15'I caught the freight and rode on North, just singin' the blues.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18# I'm holdin' right here in my hand
0:18:22 > 0:18:26# Lord, I've got a real good woman
0:18:26 > 0:18:30# But the poor gal just don't understand... #
0:18:36 > 0:18:40'I arrived in Chicago on February 2nd, 1920.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43'I got a job and started playin' music all around,
0:18:43 > 0:18:44'and makin' money out of that.'
0:18:46 > 0:18:52The South Side that Big Bill stepped into would have been amazing to him.
0:18:53 > 0:18:59This was heaven for someone like Broonzy and other migrants.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04It represented progress. It represented modernity.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08And for a young man with ambition like Broonzy, it was...
0:19:08 > 0:19:10It represented opportunity.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Culture, freedom, jobs.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19You lived in your own neighbourhood,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22you didn't run into, directly into, Jim Crow,
0:19:22 > 0:19:24you know, like you did in the South.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27So you had a sense of freedom.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30You was walking down the street, you didn't come into contact with
0:19:30 > 0:19:32somebody who's going to tell you to get off the sidewalk.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42The Chicago Bill encountered wasn't as racially divided as the South,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45but it was equally class ridden.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49There were the expensive clubs with top-line jazz performers
0:19:49 > 0:19:51like Duke Ellington.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53These were often run by gangsters who were
0:19:53 > 0:19:55making their fortune from prohibition.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Further down the South Side, poorer black immigrants were
0:20:06 > 0:20:10dancing at house parties, which helped them pay their rent.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13'We used to have a bunch of fun round there.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15'Musicians didn't have to pay for nothin'
0:20:15 > 0:20:18'and we'd get a chance to meet some nice lookin' women.'
0:20:20 > 0:20:22And on a weekend, on the South Side,
0:20:22 > 0:20:26there'd be any number of house rent parties.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30And for someone who was new to the city like Big Bill,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34it gave him a chance to develop a reputation, to learn the city,
0:20:34 > 0:20:40to eat, to drink, and to join a fraternity of young musicians
0:20:40 > 0:20:44who were similarly attempting to make their name.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50'I bought me a guitar for a dollar and a half.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53'I'd met some big shot and I was ready to make a record.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57'I wrote a guitar solo called House Rent Stomp
0:20:57 > 0:21:00'about those rent parties.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03'No words, just pickin' the old guitar strings.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08'Makin' the first two, E and B, cry, makin' the G and D talk,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11'and the A and E moan.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Lee Conley Bradley soon went about inventing a new persona
0:21:28 > 0:21:30for the challenges ahead.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35He changed his name to Big Bill Broonzy.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38But, at first, that didn't help him fill his pockets.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43'I got nothin' for my first songs. No royalties.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46'Until I started in this music business, I didn't know
0:21:46 > 0:21:50'about people who'd rob their own brother for a lousy dollar.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55I'd always been around people that if they made a little somethin',
0:21:55 > 0:21:58'they'd give you a little somethin' too.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00'So I went down to Maxwell Street,
0:22:00 > 0:22:03'and that's how I know they sold good,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05'because I bought 50 of them myself!'
0:22:08 > 0:22:12He composed many songs and never made a dime out of them
0:22:12 > 0:22:14because they were totally cheated,
0:22:14 > 0:22:20and the music business did not care about the real blues.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22They could have cared less, or anything.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26They just wanted to make a buck. But he rose above that.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28He was just a prince of a guy.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32He said, I'm not going to spend my time fighting with people.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38'I didn't know nothin' about trying to demand my money.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42'What I'd do was get me some job in a foundry or other work.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45'Steam all around me, hot iron fallin'.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50'I worked every day and played music at night because I didn't
0:22:50 > 0:22:54'make enough money just playin' music to take care of my family.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56'It didn't bother me to work.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59'That way I could always send my mother 2 a week.'
0:23:03 > 0:23:07But finding a day job in Chicago was getting harder as the economy went
0:23:07 > 0:23:11into free-fall and the prospects for the music business looked bleak.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15When the Great Depression hit, it affected every
0:23:15 > 0:23:19industry in America and the recording industry was no exception.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25There was a period where virtually no blues recordings were
0:23:25 > 0:23:28made in the early 1930s.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32The Depression, of course, was a time of tremendous economic crisis.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35But for Big Bill as a recording artist,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38it was a time of tremendous opportunity.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Because of his creativity, he was able to craft
0:23:43 > 0:23:47a broad range of songs that spoke to the issues of the time,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49in a way that really allowed him
0:23:49 > 0:23:54to penetrate the African American record-buying market.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57# I'm feelin' sick and bad
0:23:57 > 0:23:59# My head is hurting too
0:23:59 > 0:24:04# Go get the doctor so he can tell me just what to do
0:24:04 > 0:24:07# Because I keep on aching... #
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Who would want to buy a song about starvation?
0:24:10 > 0:24:15Who would want to buy a song about pneumonia?
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Right? Unless they were faced with those problems.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22So in that way you might say he was a blues preacher.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26# I've got holes in my pockets
0:24:26 > 0:24:30# There be patches on my pants
0:24:32 > 0:24:36# Yeah, I got holes in my pockets, mama
0:24:36 > 0:24:39# With big patches on my pants... #
0:24:39 > 0:24:41They're powerful.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44They talk about the scourge of alcoholism, the bottle,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47in a song like Good Liquor Going To Carry Me Down.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51No matter what the incentives are, that are presented
0:24:51 > 0:24:55to the protagonist to put down that bottle,
0:24:55 > 0:24:56he's unwilling to do it.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03So this is a way of speaking out about the realities of life.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06# When I lay down in the evening
0:25:06 > 0:25:08# I hold my woman tight
0:25:08 > 0:25:12# When I wake up in the morning keep that bottle out of sight
0:25:12 > 0:25:14# I just keep on drinking
0:25:14 > 0:25:17# Yeah, man, keep on drinking
0:25:21 > 0:25:23# I just keep on drinking
0:25:23 > 0:25:28# Till good liquor carry me down
0:25:29 > 0:25:33# I went to the doctor with my head in my hands
0:25:33 > 0:25:35# The doctor said, "Big Bill,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38# "I'm going to have to give you monkey gland"
0:25:38 > 0:25:40# You just keep on drinking
0:25:40 > 0:25:42# Yeah, man, you keep on drinking
0:25:45 > 0:25:48# You just keep on drinking
0:25:48 > 0:25:53# Till that liquor carry you down. #
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Broonzy was no lightweight.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02There was great substance to his music
0:26:02 > 0:26:05and he could make it playful.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09It didn't have to be a man's soul, each and every time you heard it.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12It could be something light that you could dance to, could take
0:26:12 > 0:26:16a breath to, you could have a drink to, you could laugh with.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18Or you could cry with.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Bill was not a salesman of the blues.
0:26:22 > 0:26:23But I don't think he had to be.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30Broonzy didn't need to sell the blues
0:26:30 > 0:26:33because, unlike many of his colleagues,
0:26:33 > 0:26:37he boasted a vast repertoire - ragtime, spirituals, boogie.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40He could adapt to fit every taste and occasion.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46They were making these songs from personal experiences, to the people.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49And the black people were sitting down and drinkin'
0:26:49 > 0:26:52and they related to it.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58"Man, that's it! You're right on time!" You know. Stuff like that.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Bill Broonzy was a frontrunner. Sort of like a leader.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08He was inspirational and he would give advice.
0:27:08 > 0:27:14He was a tall figure and he was the king of the South Side of Chicago.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18And he was highly respected by all the musicians, and the people.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Broonzy had become a star attraction who could fill the South Side
0:27:27 > 0:27:30clubs with a hard-edged music that embodied
0:27:30 > 0:27:34the migrant experience of the 1930s.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37But Bill was due for a radical make over
0:27:37 > 0:27:42when he was suddenly invited to New York, to appear at the city's
0:27:42 > 0:27:46temple of high culture, Carnegie Hall.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52From Spirituals to Swing introduced the cream of black performers
0:27:52 > 0:27:55to a white concert audience for the first time.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00Broonzy knew, from his early years playing segregated picnics
0:28:00 > 0:28:05in the South, how to impress a gathering of whites.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09He chose to perform a song he'd written especially for this occasion.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18Broonzy performed the song Just A Dream.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23Now he politicises the song by adding a line that refers to
0:28:23 > 0:28:26dreaming that he was at the White House.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29He dreams that he was at the White House, that he
0:28:29 > 0:28:32was welcomed by the President, that he was welcomed
0:28:32 > 0:28:36by the highest political authority of the land.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40So Broonzy injects this line in the version of Just A Dream
0:28:40 > 0:28:42that he sings to white audiences.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46The desire for political equality.
0:28:46 > 0:28:52But he ends the song with a refrain that it was just a dream.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54Couldn't happen.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00# I dreamed I was in the White House
0:29:00 > 0:29:03# Sittin' in the President's chair
0:29:03 > 0:29:07# I dreamed he shook my hand
0:29:07 > 0:29:10# And he said, "Bill, I'm so glad you're here"
0:29:10 > 0:29:12# But that was just a dream
0:29:14 > 0:29:19# Lord, what a dream I had on my mind
0:29:23 > 0:29:27# And when I woke up, baby
0:29:27 > 0:29:32# Not a chair there could I find... #
0:29:35 > 0:29:40This was the turning point in Big Bill Broonzy's career.
0:29:40 > 0:29:46He could see that, armed with only his guitar, his voice,
0:29:46 > 0:29:51his songwriting and his charisma, he could capture an audience
0:29:51 > 0:29:54and he could capture an audience in the most prestigious
0:29:54 > 0:29:56concert venue in America.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00So when he would play for white audiences
0:30:00 > 0:30:02he would play folk songs, you know.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05But when he played for black people, he'd sing blues,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08the blues records that he'd made for last 14 years.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12He didn't play folk songs for black people.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15That wouldn't have worked, and he knew that.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17# See that woman Her hands up over her head?
0:30:17 > 0:30:20# Did you hear me, what I said?
0:30:20 > 0:30:23# She's a truckin' little woman, don't you know
0:30:23 > 0:30:26# She's a truckin' little woman, don't you know... #
0:30:26 > 0:30:30Bill was starting to play two styles of blues for two different worlds.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33And he enjoyed the success.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Big Bill was a heavy drinker and he was a womanizer, yeah.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41They said Big Bill's whisky bill used to be at Ruby Gatewood's lounge,
0:30:41 > 0:30:43used to be more than he made.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Said he'd have a 200 whisky bill over the weekend.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Cos he'd party and buy his friends drinks.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55It was while partying down South that Bill met his second wife,
0:30:55 > 0:30:57known as Texas Rose.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00She often stayed home in Chicago while Bill,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03enjoying the trappings of his success,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06would proudly drive his Cadillac down to North Little Rock.
0:31:08 > 0:31:09# Goin' back
0:31:09 > 0:31:11# I'm goin' back to Arkansas... #
0:31:11 > 0:31:13He had bought his mother a house there,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16to get her off the old plantation.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18But he didn't travel alone.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20# I know I will be happy
0:31:20 > 0:31:23# Me and my wife and mother-in-law
0:31:23 > 0:31:24# That's why I'm goin' back
0:31:24 > 0:31:27# I'm goin' back to Arkansas... #
0:31:27 > 0:31:30When he came home, he always had some woman with him.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32I mean, he would hang out with them
0:31:32 > 0:31:34but he'd always get the ladies' attention.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37I don't know if it was his guitar or his good looks.
0:31:37 > 0:31:38But...
0:31:39 > 0:31:41Yeah, he was a ladies' man.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44From what I understand, I can remember my mother saying,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48"Uncle Bill brings a different lady home."
0:31:48 > 0:31:50And I couldn't tell you what none of them looked like,
0:31:50 > 0:31:51can't remember that.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53Cos our focus was on him.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55He always looked good.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58And that could have just been me, you know.
0:31:58 > 0:31:59But to me, he did.
0:32:00 > 0:32:01Dapper!
0:32:05 > 0:32:07Everybody would come over.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10And my grandmother would cook and my auntie would cook
0:32:10 > 0:32:12and we'd just have a good time.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16He'd be playing and we'd be dancing and just having a good time.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19It was just, I guess, like one big party.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40All of the older ones, my mother,
0:32:40 > 0:32:43they would all, you know, get dressed up
0:32:43 > 0:32:46and make up and stuff.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49He'd take a lot of pictures. The family would come over.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Everybody would try to see Uncle Bill.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54And they'd want to be in a picture with him.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02But things were so hard back then.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06Where my grandma Mitty Bradley lived,
0:33:06 > 0:33:08up behind her house,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12they burnt this big huge cross behind her house.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15And see, just over the hill from her house
0:33:15 > 0:33:18were the white neighbourhoods, the...
0:33:18 > 0:33:20what they call the working class, I guess.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24But they would burn those crosses on that hill and you could...
0:33:24 > 0:33:26the whole neighbourhood could see 'em because of
0:33:26 > 0:33:29the way that, you know, it was built.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32# This little song that I'm singin' about
0:33:32 > 0:33:34# People, you know it's true... #
0:33:34 > 0:33:38Stung by the racial provocation he'd experienced all his life,
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Broonzy wrote a song that would have a major impact
0:33:41 > 0:33:43on his career.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47Black, Brown and White Blues is as much of an anthem
0:33:47 > 0:33:50as Bill ever wrote.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52What he does in a set of verses
0:33:52 > 0:33:57is present a vignette of racial prejudice.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05And that gives his voice plenty of time to, kind of, tell the story.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08# Well, listen to me, brothers
0:34:11 > 0:34:12# You know it's true
0:34:14 > 0:34:18# If you're black and gotta work for a living
0:34:18 > 0:34:20# This is what they will say to you
0:34:20 > 0:34:22# If you're white
0:34:22 > 0:34:24# You're right
0:34:24 > 0:34:26# If you're brown
0:34:26 > 0:34:28# Stick around
0:34:28 > 0:34:30# But if you're black
0:34:30 > 0:34:31# Oh, brother
0:34:31 > 0:34:33# You got to git back
0:34:33 > 0:34:35# Git back, git back. #
0:34:39 > 0:34:43'I tried RCA Victor, Columbia, Decca,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46'but none of them would record that song.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49"We like the music," they said, "but not the words."
0:34:49 > 0:34:51# They called everybody's number
0:34:51 > 0:34:54# But they never did call mine... #
0:34:54 > 0:34:56'I said, "What's wrong with it?
0:34:56 > 0:34:57"Y'all know it's true."
0:34:58 > 0:35:02'Me, I tried everything not to be made to "git back."
0:35:02 > 0:35:03'I changed everything.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05'I even learned to play my guitar differently
0:35:05 > 0:35:07'and sing different songs.'
0:35:09 > 0:35:13'So I found out that fine clothes, a big cigar, a change of talking
0:35:13 > 0:35:15'don't hide what's on your face.'
0:35:15 > 0:35:20'If you're black in the USA, you got to "git back."
0:35:20 > 0:35:22# They was payin' me 50 cent They said
0:35:22 > 0:35:23# If you was white
0:35:23 > 0:35:25# You'd be all right
0:35:25 > 0:35:26# If you was brown... #
0:35:26 > 0:35:27While Bill was struggling
0:35:27 > 0:35:30with the commercial pressures of the record business,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Black, Brown and White Blues was adopted as something of an anthem
0:35:34 > 0:35:37by his new white fans in local radio.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42Well, there's a lot of people in the world have never had to "git back."
0:35:42 > 0:35:44But I wrote it because I had to "git back."
0:35:46 > 0:35:50These radio shows were ushering in the folk revival movement
0:35:50 > 0:35:54where Bill would be cast as the down-home country blues man.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57# Git back, git back, git back. #
0:35:57 > 0:35:59He joined folk musicians like Pete Seeger
0:35:59 > 0:36:03who were discovering what they called the soul of the nation.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07I met Bill in Chicago.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12I remember singing with him...
0:36:13 > 0:36:16..at the University of Chicago.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19And I think he was amused
0:36:19 > 0:36:23to see a white man try and learn to sing the blues.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31Although we only saw each other occasionally,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34I tried to learn from him as much as I could.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39Pete Seeger later accompanied Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee
0:36:39 > 0:36:41in one of Broonzy's biggest hits
0:36:41 > 0:36:43about the freedom of the road.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47# I got the key
0:36:47 > 0:36:50- # To the highway - All right!
0:36:50 > 0:36:54# Billed out, I'm bound to go
0:36:55 > 0:36:59# I'm gonna leave here running because
0:36:59 > 0:37:02# Walking is most too slow
0:37:06 > 0:37:10# Now give me one, one more kiss, darling
0:37:12 > 0:37:15# Just before I go
0:37:16 > 0:37:19# If I leave this time
0:37:19 > 0:37:23# I may not come back no more... #
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Bill wanted people to understand that the blues was not simply music.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33That it came from a life experience.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37That it was shaped by the culture of the South.
0:37:37 > 0:37:38That it was shaped by
0:37:38 > 0:37:40his relationships with his family and friends
0:37:40 > 0:37:44and that it was shaped through a fraternity of musicians.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49And he wanted people to understand that the blue note,
0:37:49 > 0:37:50the sound of the blues,
0:37:50 > 0:37:55that sound that can make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck,
0:37:55 > 0:38:00that it came from a space of black tragedy and resilience.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08Broonzy spoke frankly about that in the 1947 recording
0:38:08 > 0:38:10Blues In The Mississippi Night.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15This testimony was the brainchild of Alan Lomax.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20Like Pete Seeger, he was a member of the crusading People's Songs.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23Lomax wanted to paint Broonzy and his companions
0:38:23 > 0:38:26as Delta bluesmen from, in his words,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29"the dangerous jungles of the South".
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Bill Broonzy started this conversation.
0:38:33 > 0:38:34You know, he said,
0:38:34 > 0:38:38"Well, we're going to get to the heart of the matter, right now.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41"We're going to define what really the blues is."
0:38:41 > 0:38:44'I always believed that it was really a heart thing,
0:38:44 > 0:38:45'from his heart, you know?
0:38:45 > 0:38:49'And expressin' his feelin' about how he felt...
0:38:49 > 0:38:50'to the people.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52'Blues is kind of a revenge, you know?
0:38:52 > 0:38:55'You want to say something, signifying-like.
0:38:55 > 0:38:56'That's the blues.'
0:38:56 > 0:38:59They described a set of circumstances that in many cases
0:38:59 > 0:39:01are chilling to listen to.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04Involving lynchings, murder,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06racial intimidation.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09'They say, "If you kill a nigger, I'll hire another nigger.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13- "If you kill a mule, I'll buy another."- 'Yeah, yeah.' - 'One of those things.'
0:39:13 > 0:39:17They were talking very, very frankly. It was amazing.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19Because something would remind them
0:39:19 > 0:39:21and they would just start singing a fragment of a song like
0:39:21 > 0:39:26# I'm going to Memphis when I make parole... #
0:39:26 > 0:39:32# I'm goin' to Memphis when I make parole
0:39:32 > 0:39:33# Stand on the levee
0:39:33 > 0:39:36# And watch the big boat blow. #
0:39:36 > 0:39:39- 'You know what I mean?' - 'Yeah, they used to sing...'
0:39:39 > 0:39:42Among the people who were captivated by
0:39:42 > 0:39:44the Blues In The Mississippi Night record
0:39:44 > 0:39:46was Johnny Cash.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49He referred to it as one of his favourite records
0:39:49 > 0:39:52and he recorded a song called Going To Memphis.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54# ...past Tennessee
0:39:54 > 0:39:56# With Mississippi all over my face
0:39:56 > 0:39:58# I'm goin' to Memphis, yeah
0:39:58 > 0:40:01# Well, the freezin' ground at night
0:40:01 > 0:40:04# Is my own foldin' bed
0:40:04 > 0:40:07# Pork salad is my bread and meat
0:40:07 > 0:40:10# And it will be till I'm dead
0:40:10 > 0:40:12# I'm goin' to Memphis
0:40:12 > 0:40:15# Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed
0:40:15 > 0:40:16# But when that levee's through
0:40:16 > 0:40:17# And I am too
0:40:17 > 0:40:20# Let the honky-tonk roll on
0:40:20 > 0:40:22# Come mornin' I'll be gone
0:40:22 > 0:40:24# I'm goin' to Memphis
0:40:24 > 0:40:26# Yeah, I'm goin' to Memphis... #
0:40:26 > 0:40:30Major TV networks would carry Bill's Broonzy's life story
0:40:30 > 0:40:33to audiences who'd never even heard the bluesman's name.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38Bill did have an impact on popular music
0:40:38 > 0:40:39in a variety of areas.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Elvis Presley noted Bill as an influence,
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Elvis said, "I loved the low-down Mississippi blues singers,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51"especially Big Bill Broonzy and Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup."
0:40:51 > 0:40:54But he also noted that he'd get scolded at home
0:40:54 > 0:40:56for listening to them.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05By the 1950s, Broonzy's music had begun to influence the mainstream.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07At the same time, however,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10it was being increasingly ignored by the black community.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14An influx of younger musicians had arrived
0:41:14 > 0:41:16to enjoy the post-war economic boom.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18# Ever since you've come to Chicago
0:41:18 > 0:41:21# I declare you've changed your name
0:41:22 > 0:41:25# Little girl, you changed your way of walking
0:41:25 > 0:41:27# Ain't nothin' about you the same... #
0:41:29 > 0:41:31What he began to detect
0:41:31 > 0:41:36was that the style he was playing in was not what was happening.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38At that time, there were several styles emerging
0:41:38 > 0:41:41that African American audiences were excited about.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44There were jump blues, there were crooners,
0:41:44 > 0:41:49and Bill didn't really fit neatly into those categories.
0:41:50 > 0:41:51He was older.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53He did not speak to the young generation.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56He spoke to the first generation of migrants.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59And that generation, in the eyes of the industry,
0:41:59 > 0:42:01was shrinking.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05But his day as a recording star, as a blues star,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08for the black market, was in decline.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14And so for him, he was clear-sighted
0:42:14 > 0:42:18in identifying that the style he was playing in
0:42:18 > 0:42:20was losing momentum.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24And he set about identifying a course for himself
0:42:24 > 0:42:27which would allow him to continue to perform
0:42:27 > 0:42:32for white audiences in the United States and in Europe.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36# Yeah, my luck'll be changed
0:42:36 > 0:42:39# Ooh, Lord, and I'll be on my way. #
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Bill had made half a dozen trips to Europe, during the 1950s.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Knowing how the image of the country bluesman
0:42:48 > 0:42:50had appealed to white Americans,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52he decided to try his act in Europe.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57Broonzy was seeking new and fertile pastures.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59In his private life, too.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07He divorced Texas Rose and married a third wife,
0:43:07 > 0:43:08Chicago Rose.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13But, to Bill, out of sight meant out of mind.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17It was, for him, impossible in Chicago
0:43:17 > 0:43:22to have a white woman as a companion or his wife.
0:43:23 > 0:43:28This is why he wanted to marry every girl he met.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33And, of course,
0:43:33 > 0:43:37he had made a big lie, as usual.
0:43:37 > 0:43:38He said always,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41"You know, I'm a divorced man
0:43:41 > 0:43:44"and I'll show you my divorce paper."
0:43:45 > 0:43:48The document was genuine enough
0:43:48 > 0:43:52but the Rose it referred to was the divorced Texas Rose
0:43:52 > 0:43:55rather than his current wife, Chicago Rose.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58The deceit worked rather well for him.
0:44:00 > 0:44:01He was a ladies' man.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05He was a handsome, charismatic gentleman.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09And the opportunity to spend time with women
0:44:09 > 0:44:11was something that he certainly enjoyed.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14There were two noteworthy relationships he had
0:44:14 > 0:44:17with European women, when he was overseas.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22One of them with a French social worker, Jacqueline.
0:44:22 > 0:44:28# Lord, I've got a beautiful baby
0:44:30 > 0:44:34# Jacqueline is her name... #
0:44:37 > 0:44:40When the affair with Jacqueline broke up,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42Bill wasn't slow to find himself a new love,
0:44:42 > 0:44:44in Amsterdam.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48Bill's relationship with Pim van Isveldt
0:44:48 > 0:44:51was truly a whirlwind romance.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53As their relationship developed,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56as he had suggested with Jacqueline,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00he spoke very explicitly about getting married.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04He sent cards to her talking about "To my wife"
0:45:04 > 0:45:08and suggesting names, once he knew she was pregnant.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12So he was clearly invested in this relationship,
0:45:12 > 0:45:17and a relationship from which their son, Michael Van Isveldt,
0:45:17 > 0:45:20was born, in December of 1956.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28Loads of letters and postcards
0:45:28 > 0:45:33that he used to send my mother from all over Europe, mainly.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35My mother always cherished them.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37But they're very romantic
0:45:37 > 0:45:40and kind and sweet.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44Also because the fact that he could hardly write.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48So he wrote everything in a phonetic way.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52I was one and a half when he died.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Yeah. So what's there to tell?
0:45:54 > 0:45:55I have no recollection of him.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59It wasn't until I was eight or so,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03I started to realise that my father was, or had been,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06a world-famous American blues player.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11And then slowly, slowly I got aware of that fact and...
0:46:12 > 0:46:15I slowly got proud of it, even.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20And I changed...that was the time I changed my name
0:46:20 > 0:46:23from Michiel, which is my original name,
0:46:23 > 0:46:27into Michael, because that was English.
0:46:27 > 0:46:32And that gave me the feeling I was closer to him then.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36I couldn't hide from the identity of my father
0:46:36 > 0:46:38just because of the fact I was black.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42Who did know the real Bill Broonzy?
0:46:42 > 0:46:46Not his son, not his lovers, nor his listeners.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Broadcasters across Europe were portraying him in his chosen role
0:46:50 > 0:46:53as the last of the Mississippi bluesmen.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01# Got some trouble in mind
0:47:02 > 0:47:04# Babe, I'm so blue
0:47:05 > 0:47:08# Yes
0:47:08 > 0:47:10# But I won't
0:47:11 > 0:47:13# Won't be blue always
0:47:15 > 0:47:20# You know the sun, sun gonna shine
0:47:22 > 0:47:26# In my back door someday. #
0:47:30 > 0:47:33We swallowed this, kind of, lone folk singer persona, you know,
0:47:33 > 0:47:34and it wasn't till later,
0:47:34 > 0:47:37when on the radio you'd start hearing or getting hold of records
0:47:37 > 0:47:39with his band in Chicago where he's playing
0:47:39 > 0:47:43really good plectrum lead guitar and everything, you know.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48And we just saw him as the, sort of, troubadour solo folk singer.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52I guess the first Broonzy song I heard, The Glory of Love,
0:47:52 > 0:47:54was one of the first pieces I tried to learn.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56And I've been playing it ever since.
0:48:03 > 0:48:05# You've got to give a little
0:48:05 > 0:48:06# Take a little
0:48:06 > 0:48:10# Let your poor heart break a little
0:48:10 > 0:48:11# That's the story of
0:48:11 > 0:48:14# That's the glory of love
0:48:15 > 0:48:17# Sigh a little and cry a little
0:48:18 > 0:48:22# Let the clouds roll by a little
0:48:22 > 0:48:23# Oh, baby
0:48:23 > 0:48:26# That's the glory of love
0:48:29 > 0:48:31# Long as there's the two of us
0:48:32 > 0:48:34# We have the world and its charm
0:48:37 > 0:48:41# When the world is through with us
0:48:41 > 0:48:43# We'll have each other's arms
0:48:44 > 0:48:46# Sigh a little and cry a little
0:48:47 > 0:48:51# Let the clouds roll by a little
0:48:51 > 0:48:52# Oh, that's the story of
0:48:52 > 0:48:54# That's the glory of love. #
0:49:00 > 0:49:03When I first heard Big Bill play, I was 16.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05I was just potty about him.
0:49:05 > 0:49:06But you were in a little bubble
0:49:06 > 0:49:09and occasionally you would meet someone else
0:49:09 > 0:49:12and you'd think you had something really special
0:49:12 > 0:49:15and they'd suddenly mention the name Big Bill Broonzy
0:49:15 > 0:49:18and suddenly there you were, even more people in the bubble!
0:49:18 > 0:49:22There was nothing like that in the early '50s, nothing at all.
0:49:22 > 0:49:23It was just,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26"This is music, listen to this!"
0:49:26 > 0:49:29It was very exciting,
0:49:29 > 0:49:31finding this music
0:49:31 > 0:49:35that inevitably you thought of it as yours.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39And it was a question of getting every single recording you could
0:49:39 > 0:49:43and just listening and listening and slowing it down.
0:49:43 > 0:49:44It was a bit like a secret society.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46It was happening all over the country.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48I can only really speak for London.
0:49:48 > 0:49:49But I guess all over the country
0:49:49 > 0:49:54there were these little places of concentration of fanatics
0:49:54 > 0:49:57discovering acoustic blues guitar, you know?!
0:50:01 > 0:50:03It was quite underground.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05I mean, it sounds stupid,
0:50:05 > 0:50:10us little white kids identifying with the real thing, but we did.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12You know, we thought, "Let's get on the road, man."
0:50:12 > 0:50:15"Jack Kerouac." You know? "Let's get out there and hitch hike."
0:50:15 > 0:50:17And we did and it was great, you know.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23You did actually change your life.
0:50:25 > 0:50:26But what made the biggest impact
0:50:26 > 0:50:29on the lives of a generation of British musicians
0:50:29 > 0:50:32was a moody Belgian film they saw on television.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42# How is everything up in Heaven?
0:50:46 > 0:50:51# I would love to know... #
0:50:51 > 0:50:56'It turned out that the impact of that 17 minute documentary
0:50:56 > 0:50:58'was enormous.'
0:50:59 > 0:51:04# Just for these Earthly things
0:51:07 > 0:51:14# Why did you lose your little halo?
0:51:14 > 0:51:18# Baby, why'd you drop your wings? #
0:51:18 > 0:51:21Well, some of these British teenagers grew up to be
0:51:21 > 0:51:25Eric Clapton, Ray Davies, Keith Richards.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29And this was their first visual exposure
0:51:29 > 0:51:31to a blues musician.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34# Heaven... #
0:51:34 > 0:51:36It was always one man...
0:51:37 > 0:51:39..with his guitar, versus the world.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42You know, it wasn't a company.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44It wasn't a band or a group or anything.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47When it came down to it, it was one guy
0:51:47 > 0:51:49who was completely alone
0:51:49 > 0:51:52and had no options, no alternatives whatsoever
0:51:52 > 0:51:57other than just sing and play to ease his pain.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01And that echoed what I felt in many aspects of my life.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07Broonzy gave the impression he was very centred in his own world,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10self-invented world.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12And he's a performer, as well.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15It's not just his music, it's the totality.
0:52:15 > 0:52:19It's like a great actor goes on and assumes a role.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21Or he knows his role and he knows his character really well
0:52:21 > 0:52:23and performs it.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25So it's the whole presence, to me,
0:52:25 > 0:52:26not just the playing.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29And also he was versatile.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31I mean, he wasn't just your gut blues.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33He'd play beautiful melodies
0:52:33 > 0:52:35and it kind of led you to think
0:52:35 > 0:52:38that there are different kinds of blues.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40You know?
0:52:40 > 0:52:43And not everything is set as 12 bars
0:52:43 > 0:52:47and set in just that one style.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50It's very simple in concept
0:52:50 > 0:52:53but to deliver it is another thing.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Bill didn't just deliver his music to Europe.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04He went as far as North Africa
0:53:04 > 0:53:07and even describes travelling down to Senegal,
0:53:07 > 0:53:11becoming the first performer to take the blues "back to Africa".
0:53:13 > 0:53:15'I played in Morocco and Algiers
0:53:15 > 0:53:18'and then they sent me to a place called Senegal.'
0:53:19 > 0:53:22'Back during the time of trading black people,
0:53:22 > 0:53:24'which white people did,
0:53:24 > 0:53:27'I really think that my foreparents came from there.
0:53:27 > 0:53:28'From Senegal.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31'A lot of those people was traded to the Americans.'
0:53:33 > 0:53:37Bill reckoned he'd discovered the Broonzy family roots,
0:53:37 > 0:53:39their African identity.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47But every time he travelled home across the ocean,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50he'd find the Chicago music scene moving ever further
0:53:50 > 0:53:52from his down-home blues.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00The audiences for blues in Chicago in the '50s
0:54:00 > 0:54:02were embracing a set of artists
0:54:02 > 0:54:06who were really reaching their first flowering -
0:54:06 > 0:54:09Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Junior Wells.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11And they were the headliners.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16'Now these young boys tell me my blues is old-fogeyism.'
0:54:18 > 0:54:21'That I don't rate no more in these modernist times.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23'And they mean it!
0:54:23 > 0:54:26'Don't try coming into these joints on the South Side
0:54:26 > 0:54:28and singing one of those down-home Arkansas blues.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30'Man, they'll beat you to death!'
0:54:33 > 0:54:37Black folks are progressive people.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39And we're looking forward.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41When we look to the past,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45we're looking in the direction of hurt, of slavery,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48of vicious racism and night riders,
0:54:48 > 0:54:52and minstrelsy with the blackface and the banjo.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54The image of things past
0:54:54 > 0:54:58is not something that black folks like to hold so closely.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00For a lot of years we haven't.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07Bill was now burdened with that image of things past
0:55:07 > 0:55:08and his health was failing.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13He'd become his own invention -
0:55:13 > 0:55:15the country blues journey-man,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18playing white holiday camps and colleges.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24'I've travelled all over, tryin' to keep the old-time blues alive.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28'And I'm going to keep on, as long as Big Bill is still living.'
0:55:33 > 0:55:35Bill was the artist in residence
0:55:35 > 0:55:38at this extraordinary little summer camp.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45And I happened to be dropping in one day
0:55:45 > 0:55:49to sing the campers some songs.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51When I'd met Bill before,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55he'd noticed that I'd bought a 16mm movie camera.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59Bill said, "Do you have that camera with you?"
0:55:59 > 0:56:01And I said, "Yes."
0:56:01 > 0:56:06He said, "I think you should film me singing."
0:56:06 > 0:56:10# Lord, I'm sittin' on this stump, baby... #
0:56:10 > 0:56:11One day later,
0:56:11 > 0:56:16he went under the knife for cancer of the throat.
0:56:17 > 0:56:23But even though he knew this grim future awaiting him,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26he was full of smiles.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33# Lord, I'm sittin' on this stump, baby
0:56:33 > 0:56:37# I declare I've got a worried mind
0:56:45 > 0:56:49# Lord, I left my baby
0:56:49 > 0:56:53# Oh, she was standin' in that back door, cryin'. #
0:56:59 > 0:57:03The only time we realised the change was when he got sick.
0:57:03 > 0:57:04And that was, you know,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07he just wasn't able to keep up that...
0:57:09 > 0:57:10..face any more.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14You know, that happy-go-lucky thing.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17I mean, he wasn't grouchy but he just wasn't able to...
0:57:17 > 0:57:20You know, he had a hard time talking.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22His voice...
0:57:22 > 0:57:24it was like a whisper.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28You know, you had to get really close to him.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35The blues singer with no voice
0:57:35 > 0:57:38had spent his last dollars on a cancer operation.
0:57:41 > 0:57:43He died in August 1958,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46leaving many friends and admirers.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53For some years, Bill's seemingly urbane style of blues
0:57:53 > 0:57:55fell out of favour in the States
0:57:55 > 0:57:57and was all but forgotten.
0:57:58 > 0:57:59But in Britain and Europe,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03his reputation as the ambassador of the blues grew,
0:58:03 > 0:58:07not least because of his unique mix of charm, modesty
0:58:07 > 0:58:09and self-invention.
0:58:11 > 0:58:13'When you write about me,
0:58:13 > 0:58:17'don't say I'm a musician or a guitar player.
0:58:17 > 0:58:18'Just write,
0:58:18 > 0:58:22"Big Bill recorded 250 blues songs.
0:58:22 > 0:58:26"He was a happy man when he was drunk and playin' with women
0:58:26 > 0:58:29"and he was liked by all the blues singers.
0:58:29 > 0:58:31"Some would get a little jealous
0:58:31 > 0:58:35"but Bill would just buy a bottle of whisky and slip off from the party
0:58:35 > 0:58:37"and he'd go home to sleep."
0:58:42 > 0:58:46# Last night I were layin' sleepin', darling
0:58:46 > 0:58:51# And I declare, Bill was all by his self
0:58:56 > 0:59:02# Yes but the one that I really loved
0:59:04 > 0:59:07# I declare, she was sleepin' someplace else... #
0:59:07 > 0:59:10Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd