Bob Wills

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James Robert "Bob" Wills (* 6. March 1905 in Kosse , Limestone County (Texas) ; † 13. May 1975 in Fort Worth ) was a US -American Country musician, band leader, violinist and founder of Western Swing .

Life

Childhood and youth

Jim Rob Wills, as the future music legend was called at a young age, grew up as the oldest of ten children in rural Texas in Hall County . His parents and grandparents taught him to play the fiddle . He first appeared on stage when he was ten. The farmer's son and trained hairdresser tried his hand at various jobs before joining a medicine show in 1929 that went from fair to fair. One of his brothers was Johnny Lee Wills, who as a violinist in his band "Johnny Lee Wills & His Boys" was able to record some hit parades in Western Swing from 1950.

First steps

A little later he founded the duo Wills Fiddle Band with Herman Arnspiger, the guitarist of the Medicine Show . The duo started in the Fort Worth area in 1929 . They were soon joined by the singer Milton Brown , his brother Durwood and Clifton Johnson. In 1931 they found a sponsor in the manufacturer of light crust flour and renamed themselves Light Crust Doughboys . They were looked after by W. Lee O'Daniel, the manager of their sponsor.

The band quickly gained popularity but fell out with O'Daniel. Milton Brown then left and was replaced by Tommy Duncan in 1932. The dispute with her manager, who was less interested in the music than in selling his flour, escalated. During this time, the Fort Worth Doughboys released their first single Nancy Jane / Sunbonnet Sue (Victor # 23653) in April 1932 . Daniels eventually kicked Bob Wills out of the band that same year for being drunk. Tommy Duncan then also left the Fort Worth Doughboys.

Career

Bob Wills moved to Waco, Texas, and founded the Playboys with Tommy Duncan and his brother Johnny Lee Wills . The mighty O'Daniels, who would later become governor of Texas, continued to give them trouble, and so the Playboys were forced to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1934. Here they called themselves Texas Playboys .

More band members were hired, including steel guitarist Bob Dunn, and the band began to expand their musical repertoire. Eventually brass was even added, a very unusual move for a country formation. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys began looking for new forms of musical expression. During these years a new variant of jazz , swing , emerged in the southern United States . The owners of the large dance halls also demanded danceable, hall-filling music from the country bands. Bob Wills expanded his group to a big band with up to 18 musicians at times and brought in jazz elements. A new style of music had emerged: Western swing , which combined country and jazz. Bob Wills and his former colleague Milton Brown, who with his band also made important contributions to the Musical Brownies, are considered pioneers of Western Swing . Tragically, Brown was killed in a traffic accident in 1935.

Blue Yodel No.1 , 1937

The Texas Playboys' popularity grew steadily. Their concerts were consistently sold out. The line-up changed frequently, because not every musician could meet the high demands of their band leader. A trademark was the solo interludes, in which individual instrumentalists were called to the microphone by Bob Wills with loud commands. At the next record label Vocalion they were then dubbed Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys and published there in October 1935 the jazz standard St. Louis Blues / Four Or Five Times . Her first hit was the Wills composition New San Antonio Rose / The Convict And The Rose , which was recorded on November 28, 1938 and reached number 15 in the charts. On November 29, 1938, Ida Red was recorded, which served as the template for Chuck Berry's first hit Maybelline in August 1955.

The successful streak lasted until the beginning of World War II. Bob Wills and other band members signed up as war volunteers. Wills and Duncan were released after a few months due to a lack of physical fitness. They moved to California and revived the Texas Playboys.

Milk Cow Blues (radio recorded)

Wills switched to the Okeh label in July 1940 . Two number 1 hits were produced here, namely Smoke On The Water / Hang Your Head In Shame in February 1945 (which was in the C&W charts for 16 weeks ) and Stars And Stripes On Iwo Jima / You Don't Care What Happens To Me in May 1945. After just one year, he signed with Columbia. The Texas Playboys' greatest hit, New Spanish Two Step / Roly Poly, appeared there in March 1946. The last # 1 placement was Brain Cloudy Blues / Sugar Moon Blues in March 1947. The Brain Cloudy Blues was nothing more than a variation the Kokomo Arnold composition Milk Cow Blues from 1934. As the rare "Tiffany Transcriptions", the Milk Cow Blues by Bob Wills was recorded on March 21, 1946 in the famous Sound Recorders studios in San Francisco. Of these records - only intended for airplay on the radio - fewer than 10 copies per track exist worldwide. In the spring of 1948 Wills changed labels again and went to MGM Records . He stayed with this label until 1954. In 1948 he fell out with Tommy Duncan, who eventually left the group. Those years were marked by an increasing discontinuity. Alcohol problems, disputes and numerous changes of location were characteristic of this phase of life, along with various marriages. His last big hit appeared in October 1950: Faded Love / Boot Heel Drag , which reached number 8 on the Country & Western hit parade. With this original composition, which quickly became a classic of country music, Bob Wills once again proved his skills as a songwriter.

Decline

In the 1950s, western swing was increasingly replaced by rockabilly and rock 'n' roll . Bob Wills lost a large part of his followers and had to downsize his band. There were also health problems. In 1959 he teamed up again with Tommy Duncan, and successes came almost immediately. With Heart To Heart Talk they achieved another top 10 hit. The Texas Playboys were back in business.

In 1962 and 1963 Wills suffered heart attacks that forced him to give up his grueling work as a band leader. But he continued as a soloist. In 1968 he received the greatest award in country music: he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame . In the same year he suffered a stroke that led to paralysis on one side. Bob Wills was finished.

It was above all Merle Haggard who saved his idol from falling into oblivion. His album A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player , dedicated to Bob Wills, ushered in a western swing revival in the early 1970s. Haggard organized a Texas Playboys reunion session in which Bob Wills once again conducted his old band from his wheelchair. The following night he suffered another stroke from which he did not recover.

Bob Wills died on May 13, 1975. He was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970), the Western Music Association Hall of Fame (1995) and the Western Swing Society Hall of for his achievements in country music Fame (2002) recorded.

Discography

  • 1980 - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys (MCA 526)

literature

Web links

Commons : Bob Wills  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wills, Bob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wills, James Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American country musician, band leader and founder of western swing
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Limestone County, Texas
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1975
Place of death Fort Worth