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King Solomon Hill

 
Artist: King Solomon Hill
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Similar Artists:

Bob Grant, Lane Hardin, Bo Weavil Jackson
  • Born: 1897, McComb, MS
  • Died: 1949, Sibley, LA
  • Active: '30s
  • Genres: Blues
  • Instrument: Vocals

Biography

One of the more fascinating footnotes in blues history, King Solomon Hill's scant recorded legacy suggests a singer and guitarist of considerable originality and primitive force. Born Joe Holmes circa 1897 in McComb, Mississippi, he first attracted attention in the Lousiana area, becoming a constant at parties and juke joints; most certainly a self-taught guitarist, he is rumored to have roamed the Delta and Panhandle regions playing alongside Sam Collins, Ramblin' Thomas, Oscar "Lone Wolf" Woods and possibly Blind Lemon Jefferson. Hill signed to the Paramount label in 1932, soon travelling to Grafton, Wisconsin to record the six tracks -- two of them alternate takes -- which comprise his known discography; songs like the eerie "Gone Dead Train" and "Down on Bended Knee" feature apocalyptic, seemingly alien vocals certainly unique to their time and place, accompanied by a raw guitar sound distinguished by irregular rhythms and notes said to be stretched out by a cow bone. After this lone session, Hill returned to the juke joint circuit, eventually vanishing from sight; reputedly a heavy drinker, he died of a massive brain hemorrhage in Sibley, Lousiana in 1949. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: King Solomon Hill
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King Solomon Hill (1897, McComb, Mississippi - 1949, Sibley, Louisiana) was a bluesman who recorded a small handful of songs in 1932. Hill is speculated to have been Joe Holmes, a self-taught guitarist from Mississippi.

As of 2007 King Solomon Hill has eight known recordings which are as follows:

  • "Whoopee Blues" (Take 1)
  • "Whoopee Blues" (Take 2)
  • "Down on My Bended Knee" (Take 1)
  • "Down on My Bended Knee" (Take 2)
  • "The Gone Dead Train"
  • "Tell Me Baby"
  • "My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon"
  • "Times Has Done Got Hard"

Popular culture references

"The Gone Dead Train" was used as the title for a ninth-season episode of the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and actually is briefly played in the episode, along with mention of King Solomon Hill as the artist.

The 1969 film Performance, directed by Nicholas Roeg and Donald Cammell and starring Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, contains a song called "The Gone Dead Train," performed by Randy Newman. However, this is a rewrite by Jack Nitzsche and Russ Titelman and bears only a passing resemblance to "The Gone Dead Train" as performed by King Solomon Hill.[1][2] As noted by rock critic Greil Marcus, the "dead train" in the Newman version is used as a metaphor for impotence.[3] In Hill's original, the train appears to literally refer to an actual locomotive, which Hill referred to as a "Death Train."[2]

References

  1. ^ http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/g/gonedeadtrain.shtml
  2. ^ a b http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/artistswithsongs/king_solomon_hill_1.htm>
  3. ^ Marcus, Greil. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock and Roll Music. 1975 (4th Edition 1997) ISBN 0452278368

External links

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Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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