More Info on Arthur CrudupSimilar Undetermined MusicSearch Artistopia
Biography
Infobox musical artist | name = Arthur Crudup| image = Arthur_Big_Boy_Crudup_(blues_musician).jpg| caption = Arthur Crudup at the College of Commerce, Edinburgh , 1969 (Photo by Phil Wight)| image_size =| landscape = yes| background = solo_singer| birth_name = Arthur Crudup| alias = Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup; Arthur William Crudup; Elmer Jones; Percy Lee Crudup| birth_date = birth date|1905|8|24|mf=y| birth_place = Forest, Mississippi|Forest , Mississippi , United States | death_date = death date and age|1974|3|28|1905|8|5|mf=y| death_place = Northampton County, Virginia , United States| origin =| instrument = Guitar , Human voice|vocals | genre = Blues , Delta blues , Rock and roll | occupation =| years_active = 1939–1974| label = Bluebird Records|Bluebird | associated_acts =| website =| current_members =| past_members =| notable_instruments = Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 & ndash; March 28, 1974) was an United States|American Delta blues singing|singer , songwriter and guitarist . He is best known outside blues circles for writing song s such as " That's All Right " (1946), http://repertoire.bmi.com/title.asp? blnWriter=True& blnPublisher=True& blnArtist=True& keyID=1479466& ShowNbr=0& ShowSeqNbr=0& querytype=WorkID Official legal title of Crudup's 'That's All Right' " My Baby Left Me " and " So Glad You're Mine ", later cover version|covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other musician|artists .
Career
Arthur Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi|Forest , Mississippi , United States . For a time he lived and worked throughout the South and Midwest as a migrant worker. He and his family returned to Mississippi in 1926. He sang gospel music|gospel , then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi . As a member of the Harmonizing Four he visited Chicago in 1939. Crudup stayed in Chicago to work as a solo (music)|solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor 's Bluebird Records|Bluebird record label|label .
He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records (US)|Ace Records , Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s and toured throughout the country, specifically black people|black establishments in the Southern United States|South , with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James (around 1948).Groom, Bob, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Complete Recorded Works Vol.3 (11 March 1949 to 15 January 1952) DOCD-5203, Document Records, 1993. He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup. He was popular in the South with gramophone record|records such as "Mean Old 'Frisco Blues", "Who's Been Foolin' You" and "That's All Right".cite book | first= Tony | last= Russell | year= 1997 | title= The Blues - From Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson to Robert Cray | edition= | publisher=Carlton Books Limited | location= Dubai | page= 105 | isbn= 1-85868-255-X
Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s, because of further battles over royalties . His last Chicago session was in 1951. His 1952-54 recording sessions for Victor were held at radio station WGST in Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta , Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia . He returned to recording with Fire Records and Delmark Records and touring in 1965. Sometimes labeled as "The Father of Rock and Roll", he accepted this title with some bemusement. Un-gratified due to the loss of royalties, he would refer to his admirer Presley as 'Elvin Preston'. Throughout this time Crudup worked as a laborer to augment the non-existent royalties and the small wages he received as a singer. Crudup returned to Mississippi after a dispute with Melrose over royalties, then went into moonshine|bootlegging , and later moved to Virginia where he had lived and worked as a musician and laborer. In the early 1970s, two local Virginia activists, Celia Santiago and Margaret Carter, assisted him in an attempt to gain royalties he felt he was due, with little success.
From the mid 1960s, Crudup returned to bootlegging and working as an agricultural laborer, chiefly in Virginia , where he lived with his family including three sons and several of his own siblings. On the Eastern Shore of Virginia , while he lived in relative poverty as a field laborer, he occasionally sang and supplied moonshine to a number of drinking establishments, including one called the Dew Drop Inn, in Northampton County, Virginia|Northampton County for some time prior to his death from complications of heart disease and Diabetes mellitus|diabetes . On a 1970 trip to the United Kingdom|UK he recorded Roebuck Man with local musicians. His last professional engagements were with Bonnie Raitt .
There was some confusion as to his actual date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his sibling s. He died of a myocardial infarction|heart attack in the Nassawadox, Virginia|Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia in March 1974. http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1970.html Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed November 2009
Crudup was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail placed at Forest.cite web|url= http://www.msbluestrail.org/_webapp_2187825/Arthur_Crudup|title=Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup|last=Mississippi Blues Commission|publisher=msbluestrail.org|accessdate=1 February 2010
Discography
Mean Ol' Frisco (1962)
Crudup's Mood (1969)
Look On Yonder's Wall (1969)
Roebuck Man (1974)
See also
Fire Records
Checker Records
Origins of rock and roll
First rock and roll record
Quotations
"Do what you can do" Tampa Red told Crudup, "what you can't do, forget about it".
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.shs.starkville.k12.ms.us/mswm/MSWritersAndMusicians/musicians/Crudup.html Biography of Arthur Crudup
http://www.onlinerootsofrock.com/blues/artists/crudup Biography, links and song extracts
http://www.john-meekings.co.uk/acrudup.html Biographical data on Arthur Crudup
http://www.wirz.de/music/crudup.htm Illustrated Arthur Crudup discography
Worldcat id|lccn-no92-2953
Persondata | NAME = Crudup, Arthur | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = United States|American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist | DATE OF BIRTH = August 5, 1905 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Forest, Mississippi|Forest , Mississippi , United States | DATE OF DEATH = March 28, 1974 | PLACE OF DEATH = Northampton County, Virginia , United States DEFAULTSORT:Crudup, Arthur Category:1905 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Delta blues musicians Category:Chicago blues musicians Category:Electric blues musicians Category:African American musicians Category:American blues musicians Category:American blues singers Category:American male singers Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:Blues musicians from Mississippi Category:People from Scott County, Mississippi Category:Groove Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Ace Records artists Category:Fire Records artists Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Mississippi Blues Trail Category:Burials in Virginia
