Big Boy Crudup

Musician

• Born: August 24, 1905
• Birthplace: Forest, Mississippi
• Died: March 28, 1974
• Place of death: Nassawadox, Virginia

An obscure figure during his lifetime, Crudup recorded a small but influential body of work that included several songs later recorded by Elvis Presley and other rock musicians, providing a critical link between traditionally African American musical styles of the early twentieth century and popular music of the late twentieth century.

Early Life

Born in the central Mississippi town of Forest in 1905, Arthur William Crudup (CREW-duhp) reportedly began singing in church choirs and gospel groups at an early age. Early details of his life are unclear; Crudup recalled in interviews that his family moved frequently during his childhood, working as migrant laborers throughout the South and Midwest before resettling in Mississippi in the mid-1920’s. Crudup continued singing semiprofessionally into adulthood, but like most African Americans in the Deep South, he remained reliant upon menial jobs to support himself. Around 1940, as a member of a gospel group called the Harmonizing Four, Crudup migrated to Chicago in the hope of establishing a full-time musical career. He soon split with the group and worked as a solo musician, adopting a country blues style familiar to other African Americans who had migrated to Chicago to escape the segregation and economic deprivation of the South.

Life’s Work

At first, Crudup achieved little success as a musician in Chicago. Although an accomplished singer, he had not learned to play guitar until his early thirties and was limited in his ability to provide accompaniment to his vocals. In addition, many African American migrants from the South were beginning to abandon country blues for the electrified urban music developing in Chicago during this period. Crudup was reportedly homeless for several weeks, living in a packing crate and playing on the street for tips. Sometime during this period, Lester Melrose of Bluebird Records discovered Crudup and signed him to a recording contract. Crudup made his first records in September of 1941, achieving a minor hit with “Mean Old Frisco Blues” in 1942.

A musicians’ strike and wartime rationing interrupted his recording career, but Crudup released a number of records during the late 1940’s that became hits on the rhythm-and-blues charts, including “Rock Me Mama,” “Ethel Mae,” and “That’s All Right.” Other blues artists such as B. B. King, Willie Dixon, and Brownie McGhee recorded his songs and achieved success with them, yet Crudup was rarely compensated financially for these recordings. During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Crudup continued to live in Chicago but returned often to the South to perform and record. He recorded songs for a variety of record labels, sometimes under aliases, during this period; however, discouraged by his limited financial success, Crudup retired from recording in 1954. That year, Elvis Presley, a then-unknown white singer, recorded a version of “That’s All Right” at the Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee. The song became a hit and propelled Presley to prominence as the chief representative of a new musical style known as rock and roll, which combined the styles of urban and rural African American music with the country and pop music popular among white Americans. As Presley and other rock musicians rose to prominence in American popular culture, Crudup faded into obscurity, returning to the South to work as a laborer and itinerant performer.

The folk music revival of the early 1960’s saw a resurgence of interest in the music of Crudup, who resumed recording and performing for audiences at colleges and festivals. Although he remained active through the 1960’s, Crudup continued to earn little money from his past recordings made famous by other artists. Legal action in the early 1970’s to recover royalties from these recordings was unsuccessful, and Crudup continued to live in relative poverty until his death in 1974.

Significance

Like many African American musicians of his era, Crudup lived most of his life in poverty and relative obscurity. His recording career was relatively brief, and his proficiency and versatility as a musician limited, yet Crudup possessed a unique, expressive style of performance that lent itself readily to the fledgling genre of rock music, providing material for youthful white performers seeking to incorporate African American styles and material into their repertoires. Like many African American artists of his era, Crudup received scant recognition and little money for his contributions to popular music, leading many to cite him as an example of racial inequities in the music industry. The majority of white artists performing his songs, including Presley, openly acknowledged his influence even as music executives and publishers continued to deny him royalties for the songs they recorded. At the end of the twentieth century, Crudup remained an obscure figure in American popular music, known primarily to music scholars and enthusiasts.

Bibliography

Ferris, William. Blues from the Delta. New York: Da Capo Press, 1988. This history of Delta Blues music discusses the influence of Crudup on contemporary blues musicians and later rock performers.

Neale, David. Roots of Elvis. Lincoln, Nebr.: iUniverse, 2003. Extensive discography of songs recorded by Elvis Presley contains several references to songs written by Crudup and descriptions of their origins and cultural significance.

Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. This classic history of American blues includes information about the early recording career of Crudup and his influence upon early rock-and-roll artists.

Rheingold, Todd. Dispelling the Myths. New York: Believe in the Dream, 1993. Dissects and dispels popular assumptions concerning the cultural links between Crudup and Elvis Presley, including accusations that Presley consciously exploited and took credit for Crudup songs that he performed and recorded.