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LITTLE
MILTON +
Little Milton (4/30/2003 at the Gibson Lounge, Memphis) (c) Patrick Montier
BIOGRAPHY
James
Milton Campbell (Little Milton), singer and guitarist: born
Inverness, Mississippi 7 September 1934; married; died in
Memphis, 4 August 2005 at 70.
Both blues and soul enthusiasts acknowledged Little Milton to be
a superlative singer and guitarist and an electrifying stage
performer. He had his greatest commercial successes with "We're
Gonna Make It" and "Who's Cheating Who?" in 1965,
and has left a legacy of 50 years of high calibre recordings.
He was born James Milton Campbell into a poor family in
Inverness, Mississippi in 1934. His father, "Big"
Milton Campbell, was a sharecropper and part-time blues musician
and when his son started playing the guitar, he was called "Little"
Milton. He was largely self- taught, and in particular, he copied
what he heard on the radio. Little Milton later described his
influences to Michael Haralambos for the book Right On: from
blues to soul in black America (1974),
T-Bone Walker inspired me because that cat always played clean.
He would pick one string at a time and most of the other guitar
players would flail it and make chords.
As a teenager in Greenville, Mississippi, Little Milton would
play black clubs at the weekend and white honky-tonks during the
week. He learnt country songs from listening to the Grand Ole
Opry and he would joke, "I could have been another Charley
Pride."
Little Milton made his first record by playing guitar for Willie
Love in 1951 and he was spotted by Ike Turner, who recommended
him to Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records. Little Milton
recorded for Sun in 1953/54 and although his records, "Lookin'
For My Baby", "Beggin' My Baby" and a fine rumba
blues, "Somebody Told Me", showed promise, Phillips
dropped his black artists once he had found Elvis Presley.
Forming his own band, the Playmates of Rhythm, Little Milton
developed his craft through a residency in a club in East St
Louis. He had regional success with "I'm a Lonely Man"
and "That Will Never Do" for the Bobbin label, which
was owned by the manager of the radio station KATZ. Little Milton
discovered the blues guitarist Albert King and recorded him for
the label and he had a young Fontella Bass singing with his band.
In 1961 Little Milton was signed to the successful Chicago label
Chess and established himself with Oliver Sain as his musical
director. "So Mean to Me", written by Campbell and
Sain, indicated that Milton's gravel voice, although as tough as
Howlin' Wolf's, possessed sweeter and more melodic possibilities,
the same qualities, in fact, as Bobby Bland. After a number of
small rhythm and blues hits, he made the US pop charts with the
emotional "Blind Man".
The success of "Blind Man" made Chess realise that in
Little Milton they might have a crossover artist like Chuck Berry
or Bo Diddley. They asked Carl Smith and Raynard Miner, the
writers of Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me" and Jackie
Wilson's "Higher and Higher", to write for him. Smith
and Miner took blues themes and updated them in commercial songs,
arranged with punchy horns and gospel-styled chanting. "We're
Gonna Make It" told of a poverty-stricken individual who was
saved by the love of his woman:
And if I have to carry round a sign saying, "Help the deaf,
the dumb and the blind", I've got your love and you know you
got mine, So we're gonna make it.
This exciting record topped the US rhythm and blues charts for
three weeks and reached No 25 on the pop charts, and it had an
unexpected significance in the context of race relations. Little
Milton told Haralambos:
We got involved in this racial issue at the time when "We're
Gonna Make It" came out, and this was a hopeful tune. Now,
when we did this, we had no thoughts concerning the great
Reverend Martin Luther King's movement. We were just trying to
get a hit record, man, but it was a tune that everybody could see
was reaching for hope, for a brighter tomorrow.
Little Milton's songs often described complicated relationships.
His best record, "Who's Cheating Who?" is typical of
many of his songs, and demonstrates his humour:
My nights out with the boys Don't have to be with boys at all,
And when you go to bed with your mother, baby, Her name could
easily change to Paul.
Although Little Milton did not have UK hits, his records became
familiar in this country through repeated playing on The Jack
Spector Show on Radio Caroline. Milton made
several albums for Chess, notably We're Gonna Make It (1965),
Little Milton Sings Big Blues (1966), Grits Ain't Groceries (1969)
and If Walls Could Talk (1970). With the death of the label's
owner Leonard Chess in 1969, he moved to the soul label Stax.
With Stax Records, Little Milton often recorded with strings and
the Memphis Horns. His successes included "Annie Mae's Café",
"Little Bluebird" and "Your Wife Is Cheating On Us",
and he recorded a stunning version of Charlie Rich's country song
"Behind Closed Doors". The lament "Walking the
Backstreets and Crying" (1973), which he performed in the
celebrated concert film Wattstax that year, is punctuated with
brass and his guitar riffs. Stax went bankrupt in 1975 and Little
Milton was again looking for a new label.
The least satisfying period of Little Milton's career was
recording for Glades, the subsidiary of the disco label TK, in
the mid-Seventies, although there are still fine tracks, like
"Angel of Mercy". The funky style was a waste of his
talent and after this, there was a succession of one-off albums,
including Age Ain't Nothin' but a Number for MCA in 1983.
The following year, he signed with Malaco and, starting with
Playin' For Keeps, made 14 albums in 20 years. "The Blues Is
Alright" became a blues anthem but by now Little Milton was
regarded as an elder statesman rather than a chart name, and he
was collecting awards rather than hit singles. He made his UK début,
highly successfully, at a blues festival in Colne, Lancashire in
1998. His 1999 album, Welcome To Little Milton, made with Keb'
Mo', Delbert McClinton and Dave Alvin, was nominated for a Grammy.
Little Milton switched to Telarc Records earlier this year and he
and his producer, Jon Tiven, wrote all the songs on the
subsequent album Think of Me, which showcased his guitar
technique. He said, "I'm gung-ho for the guitar, and I
always have been. I've been doing this since 1954 and if I had it
to do over again, I'd do the same thing." Sadly, Little
Milton had had to replace his beaten-up but cherished 1959 Gibson
guitar, when a technician told him, "Milton, I can heal the
sick but I can't raise the dead
STAX DISCOGRAPHY
Yellow Stax 45s
0100 If That Ain't A Reason / Mr Mailman
0111 I'm Living Off The Love You Give / That's What Love
Will Make You Do
0124 Before The Honeymoon / Walking The Back Streets And
Crying
0141 I'm Gonna Cry A River / What It Is
0148 Rainy Day / Lovin' Stick
0174 What Is It / Who Can Handle Me Is You
0191 Tin Pan Alley / Sweet Woman Of Mine
0210 Behind Closed Doors / Bet You I Win
0229 Let Me Back In / Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson
0238 If You Talk In Your Sleep / Sweet Woman Of Mine
0252 Packed Up And Took My Mind / How Could You Do It To
Me
Purple and white Stax/Fantasy 45s
1017 That's What Love Will Make You Do / ?
1051 Walking The Back Streets And Crying / If That Ain't A
Reason (For Your Woman To Leave You)
1052 If You Talk In Your Sleep / Let Me Back In
1057 Little Bluebird / Blue Monday
Yellow Stax LPs
5514 - BLUES 'N SOUL - LITTLE MILTON
Woman Across The River/Behind Closed Doors/Sweet Woman Of Mine/Worried
Dreamer//How Could You Do It To Me/You're No Good/Tain't Nobody's
Bizness/Hard Luck Blues.
Purple and white Stax/Fantasy LPs
4117 - WAITING FOR LITTLE MILTON - LITTLE MILTON (Reissue)
4123 - CHRONICLE - ALBERT KING/LITTLE MILTON
Can't You See What You're Doing To Me/Everybody Wants To Go To
Heaven/Angel Of Mercy/I'll Play The Blues For You/Breakin' Up
Somebody's Home/That's What The Blues Is All About (Albert King)//If
That Ain't A Reason (For Your Woman To Leave You)/That's What
Love Will Make You Do/What It Is/Tin Pan Alley/Behind Closed
Doors/Let Me Back In/If You Talk In Your Sleep (Little Milton).
8514 - WALKIN' THE BACK STREETS - LITTLE MILTON
Walking The Back Streets And Crying/Before The Honeymoon/Somebody's
Tears/Blue Monday/Married Woman/Eight Men And Four Women/Open The
Door To Your Heart/Letter Full Of Tears/Bet You I'll Win.
8518 - BLUES N' SOUL - LITTLE MILTON (Reissue)
8529 - GRITS AIN'T GROCERIES - LITTLE MILTON
Let Me Down Easy/Grits Ain't Groceries (All Around The World)/Blind
Man/I Can't Quit You Baby/That's What Love Will Make You Do/Walking
The Back Streets And Crying.
8550 - WHAT IT IS - LITTLE MILTON
Spring/Let Me Down Easy/We're Gonna Make It/Blind Man/Tell Me
It's Not True/That's What Love Will Make You Do/What It Is.
8582 - TIN PAN ALLEY - LITTLE MILTON
If That Ain't A Reason (For Your Woman To Leave You)/Mr. Mailman
(I Don't Want No Letter)/I'm Living Off The Love You Give/That's
What Love Will Make You Do/I'm Gonna Cry A River/Rainy Day/Lovin'
Stick/Tin Pan Alley/Let Me Back In/Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson/If
You Talk In Your Sleep/Packed Up And Took My Mind.
Ace (UK) CD
Ace twoffer CD 052 Blues 'N' Soul / Waiting For Little
Milton
Fantasy CDs
4123 Chronicle Albert King / Little Milton
8518 Blues 'n Soul Little Milton
8529 Grits Ain't Groceries Little Milton
8533 New King Of The Blues Harmonica Little Milton
8550 What It Is Little Milton
8582 Tin Pan Alley Little Milton
5514 - BLUES 'N SOUL - LITTLE MILTON
Woman Across The River/Behind Closed Doors/Sweet Woman Of Mine/Worried
Dreamer//How Could You Do It To Me/You're No Good/Tain't Nobody's
Bizness/Hard Luck Blues.
4117 - WAITING FOR LITTLE MILTON - LITTLE MILTON (Reissue)
4123 - CHRONICLE - ALBERT KING/LITTLE MILTON
Can't You See What You're Doing To Me/Everybody Wants To Go To
Heaven/Angel Of Mercy/I'll Play The Blues For You/Breakin' Up
Somebody's Home/That's What The Blues Is All About (Albert King)//If
That Ain't A Reason (For Your Woman To Leave You)/That's What
Love Will Make You Do/What It Is/Tin Pan Alley/Behind Closed
Doors/Let Me Back In/If You Talk In Your Sleep (Little Milton).
8514 - WALKIN' THE BACK STREETS - LITTLE MILTON
Walking The Back Streets And Crying/Before The Honeymoon/Somebody's
Tears/Blue Monday/Married Woman/Eight Men And Four Women/Open The
Door To Your Heart/Letter Full Of Tears/Bet You I'll Win.
8518 - BLUES N' SOUL - LITTLE MILTON (Reissue)
8529 - GRITS AIN'T GROCERIES - LITTLE MILTON
Let Me Down Easy/Grits Ain't Groceries (All Around The World)/Blind
Man/I Can't Quit You Baby/That's What Love Will Make You Do/Walking
The Back Streets And Crying.
8550 - WHAT IT IS - LITTLE MILTON
Spring/Let Me Down Easy/We're Gonna Make It/Blind Man/Tell Me
It's Not True/That's What Love Will Make You Do/What It Is.
8582 - TIN PAN ALLEY - LITTLE MILTON
If That Ain't A Reason (For Your Woman To Leave You)/Mr. Mailman
(I Don't Want No Letter)/I'm Living Off The Love You Give/That's
What Love Will Make You Do/I'm Gonna Cry A River/Rainy Day/Lovin'
Stick/Tin Pan Alley/Let Me Back In/Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson/If
You Talk In Your Sleep/Packed Up And Took My Mind.
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