Celebrating Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
Tomorrow is the 50th Anniversary of the great blues man Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup‘s passing. This portrait of Arthur was taken by Dick Waterman, who recently passed on, and is included in the book I edited of Waterman’s photographs and stories, Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive.
Arthur Crudup, Melbourne, Australia, 1970. Photograph by Dick Waterman.
Big Boy Crudup’s songs influenced me growing up, as I first heard “That’s All Right, Mama,” “My Baby Left Me,” and “So Glad You’re Mine” as recorded by Elvis Presley in the mid-1950s. Those songs changed my life. This post from The Back Room is a tribute to Big Boy Crudup, who influenced both Dick Waterman and Elvis Presley.
On April 24th, Govinda Gallery Director, Chris Murray, will be giving an illustrated talk about Elvis Presley in 1956 at Jenn Crovato‘s 1310 Kitchen at the Georgetown Inn, in Washington, DC. Copies of Elvis at 21 (Insight Editions, 2023) will be available at the event.
What a legend!! I have your Dick Waterman book
Arthur Crudup was a great musician, and I had the opportunity to hear him one Saturday afternoon in 1970, literally sitting at his feet in the basement of my college dorm. He was playing at the Boston Tea Party, opening for the Allman Brothers that weekend. One of the RAs in the dorm went to see him there, and found out that he wasn’t being paid a lot, and in fact was crashing at the Tea Party rather than sleeping in a hotel room. He arranged for Crudup to play in a pass the hat way to make a few extra dollars.
Great music, and it set the mood for that night’s concert on campus with the Grateful Dead. Music sure was great in those days. Thanks for showcasing photos of musicians and helping to keep their work alive.
count me in… should be big fun….philip m