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on, and is included in the book I edited of Waterman’s photographs and stories, Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive.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.
