Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. House Rent Stomp - Big Bill Broonzy
2. Big Bill Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
3. Down in the Basement Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
4. Starvation Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
5. Somebody's Been Using That Thing - The Famous Hokum Boys
6. Black Cat Rag - The Famous Hokum Boys
7. Pig Meat Strut - The Famous Hokum Boys
8. Guitar Rag - The Famous Hokum Boys
9. Saturday Night Rub - The Famous Hokum Boys
10. I Can't Be Satisfied - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
11. Grandma's Farm - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
12. Skoodle Do Do - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
13. Tadpole Blues - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
14. Bow Leg Baby - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
15. Skoodle Do Do - Big Bill Johnson
16. Saturday Night Rub - The Hokum Boys
17. Pig Meat Strut - The Hokum Boys
18. Papa's Gettin' Hot - The Hokum Boys
19. Police Station Blues - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
20. They Can't Do That - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
21. No Good Buddy - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson, Bill Williams
22. State Street Woman - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
23. Meanest Kind of Blues - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
24. I Got the Blues for My Baby - Big Bill Broonzy, Sammy Sampson
25. Banker's Blues - Big Bill Johnson
26. How You Want It Done - Big Bill Johnson

Disc 2:

1. Worried in Mind Blues - Big Bill Johnson
2. Too Too Train Blues - Big Bill Johnson
3. Mistreatin' Mamma - Big Bill Johnson
4. Big Bill Blues - Big Bill Johnson
5. Brown Skin Shuffle - Big Bill Johnson
6. Stove Pipe Stomp - Big Bill Johnson
7. Beedle Um Bum - Big Bill Johnson
8. Selling That Stuff - Big Bill Johnson
9. Mr. Conductor Man - Big Bill Johnson
10. Too Too Train Blues
11. Worrying You Off My Mind, Pt. 1
12. Worrying You Off My Mind, Pt. 2
13. Shelby County Blues
14. Mistreatin' Mama Blues
15. Bull Cow Blues
16. How You Want It Done
17. Long Tall Mama
18. M and O Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
19. Rukus Juice Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
20. Friendless Blues
21. Milk Cow Blues
22. Hungry Man Blues
23. I'll Be Back Home Again
24. Bull Cow Blues, Pt. 2
25. Serve It to Me Right

Disc 3:

1. Starvation Blues
2. Mississippi River Blues
3. At the Break of Day
4. I Want to Go Home
5. Hard Headed Woman
6. Dying Day Blues
7. I Want to See My Baby
8. Serve It to Me Right
9. Dirty No-Gooder
10. Let Her Go-She Don't Know
11. Hobo Blues
12. Prowlin' Ground Hog
13. C.C. Rider [Take A]
14. C.C. Rider [Take B]
15. Sweet to Mama - State Street Boys
16. Rustlin' Man - State Street Boys
17. She Caught the Train - State Street Boys
18. Midnight Special - State Street Boys
19. Dozen - State Street Boys
20. Don't Tear My Clothes - State Street Boys
21. Southern Blues
22. Good Jelly
23. C & A Blues
24. Something Good
25. You May Need My Help Someday

Disc 4:

1. Rising Sun Shine On
2. Mountain Blues
3. Bad Luck Blues
4. I Can't Make You Satisfied
5. I'm Just a Bum
6. Keep Your Hands Off Her
7. Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Someday
8. Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down
9. Down the Line Blues
10. Bricks in My Pillow
11. Tell Me What You Been Doing
12. Ash Hauler
13. Evil Women Blues
14. These Ants Keep Biting Me
15. Big Billl Blues (These Blues Are Doggin' Me)
16. You Know I Need Lovin'
17. Match Box Blues
18. Low Down Woman Blues
19. Keep Your Mind on It - The Hokum Boys
20. Bull Cow Blues, No.3
21. Married Life's a Pain
22. Black Mare Blues
23. Pneumonia Blues
24. Big Bill's Milk Cow, No. 2
25. W.P.A. Blues
26. I'm a Southern Man - Big Bill Broonzy

Disc 5:

1. Nancy Jane - The Hokum Boys
2. Lowland Blues
3. Seven-Eleven (Dice Please Don't Fail Me)
4. You Know I Got a Reason
5. Oh Babe (Don't Do Me That Way)
6. Detroit Special
7. Falling Rain
8. Black Widow Spider
9. Cherry Hill
10. Out With the Wrong Woman
11. Don't Tear My Clothes, No. 2 - Chicago Black Swans
12. You Drink Too Much
13. Southern Flood Blues
14. My Big Money
15. My Woman Mistreats Me
16. Let's Reel and Rock - Big Bill Broonzy
17. Come Up to My House - Big Bill Broonzy
18. Get Back (Black, Brown and White) - Big Bill Broonzy
19. Terrible Flood Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
20. Little Bug - Big Bill Broonzy
21. Horny Frog [Take 1] - Big Bill Broonzy
22. Horny Frog [Take 2] - Big Bill Broonzy
23. Mean Old World [Take 1] - Big Bill Broonzy
24. Mean Old World [Take 2] - Big Bill Broonzy
25. Barrelhouse When It Rains - Big Bill Broonzy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169533 in Music
• Released on: 2003-09-29
• Number of discs: 5
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: 1.08 pounds

Customer Reviews

****�
Finally! All of Big Bill Broonzy's classic and hugely influential prewar sides gathered together. 128 sides recorded for labels like Paramount, ARC and Perfect Records, and featuring Big Bill as a solo performer, as well as leading various small combos.

Big Bill Broonzy was one of the major links between country blues and the urban Chicago variety, and artists like Memphis Slim and Muddy Waters recorded entire LPs of his material.
The sound on these five discs is not great, but you probably won't find any better-sounding Big Bill-sides from the 20s and 30s, and this is certainly no second-rate compilation, in spite of the relatively low price and the cartoonish design of the box. On the contrary, it is a well-annotated, carefully remastered overview of the music of Big Bill Broonzy in his prime.

Big Bill's Best Box...3.5 stars
With this box you get the pre-war sides of the Chicago Gentleman of the blues. Broonzy was interesting in that, at least to me, he seems rather emotionally detatched, vocally, much of the time. Particularly in comparison to many of his contemporaries. Whereas Skip James can make you feel like you just heard a ghost crying on the wind, Broonzy kinda sounds like a stately, distinguished gentleman. Certainly a feat, considering how sexually explicit some of his lyrics are.

I think the idea of a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is ridiculous to begin with, but if Broonzy isn't in it (maybe he is, I don't know), then it's even more ridiculous than I thought. Broonzy had a much larger stylistic impact upon rock & roll than did, say, Robert Johnson, who I would imagine is probably already in there for no other reason than Clapton and Keith Richards can't seem to ever shut up about him. Detach yourself from the hype and actually just listen to the musics of Broonzy and Johnson. There is nothing of Johnson's sound or style that widely found its way into rock & roll. Now listen to quite alot of Broonzy's music. Much of Broonzy's music isn't even so much blues as it is rhythm & blues... the very foundation of the later Chicago blues sound, and early R&R sounds. Water down the lyrics, add some horns or an electric guitar, speed it up a bit, make it 25 years later and some of Big Bill's music is 1950s rock & roll.

Not that I give or take two doo-doos of merit to something because it did or did not influence rock, but seeing as how so many classic-rock fans are always regurgitating the same stuff they've read in 50 Clapton interviews, it annoys me how many blues-rock fans will go on and on about how Robert Johnson was the greatest blues musician ever, as well as some sort of genius proto-architect of rock, when this guy (Broonzy) that most of those same people have never heard, clearly, at times, sounds like a main influence for everyone from Little Richard to Johnny Cash & the Tennessee Two. I'm not slighting Robert's music here, just saying that if you believe the hype, he seemed to do everything but create the earth and sky.

As for Broonzy's music itself, this is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes he does indeed fall into many of the repetitious and bland pitfalls that became the hallmark of the famed post-war "Chicago Blues sound" that oftentimes bores me to tears. That is certainly not all the music in this great box, though. And of course some of his music does dig deep. It's not all just sex and fun.

I feel special mention must be made of Black Bob, Broonzy's longtime pianist. He is as much the star of this box as is Broonzy himself.

As for JSP's work on this box, it is lovely as usual. This is the best sounding Big Bill I have heard. My 3.5 stars don't slight JSPs fine transfers, it's just that as much as I like Big Bill, I personally have never elevated him to the same level as the Memphis Minnies, Lonnie Johnsons, Skip James', Blind Willie McTells, etc... of the world. If you're a huge Big Bill fan, or a first-timer just looking to check him out, this is as fine a box (and price) as you will ever find. I've had this box for 4 or 5 months now and it has yet to escape my player for more than a couple days.