Moonshine

Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Moonshine’: A Study of the Adverse Effects of Alcohol on a Community

In 1938, the walls of an Aurora, Illinois recording studio must have been rocking, and, if he had any true love for music, tears of joy must have been rolling down the engineer’s face as John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson laid down one of his greatest and most low-down blues numbers, ‘Moonshine’. His vocal performance is haunting and his accompanists are top-notch performers and certainly were on their games that day. His trademark country harmonica style was in its full glory as he used it to great effect to accentuate the melody of the lyrics as well as drive home the feelings those lyrics are meant to represent. Those feelings are of a need for change in behavior, not only for himself but also for those around him. ‘Moonshine’ is a cautionary tale about the bad things that can come about from consuming illegal whiskey.

The song begins slowly with a fantastic harp roll as Sonny Boy leads us into the world of debauchery he’s about to show us the pitfalls of. The band, including Big Joe Williams on guitar, comes in with a staccato rhythm just before Sonny Boy begins to shed light on what this particular blues is all about:

Now an’ this moonshine, moonshine’d have harmed many men
Now an’ this moonshine, moonshine’d have harmed many men
Now that is the reason why, Yank I believe I’ll make a change

This is essentially the refrain that serves as the anchor and moral instruction of the song. Sonny Boy is speaking to Yank Rachel, whose mandolin expertly echoes Williamson’s vocal melody. He does this to show that he’s not only making a statement for himself, but that he is speaking directly to his friends. He’s telling us that he’s going to stop drinking moonshine because of the problems that ensue from its consumption, and that we should also refrain from the practice.

Each verse gives us examples of the types of things that can happen to you if you get drunk on moonshine, because for Sonny Boy, moonshine is the cause of all these problems, and the way to stop doing such things is to not drink moonshine. The first verse tells us that drinking moonshine causes you to gamble, fight, and not “treat your wife right”. He goes on to describe the hallucinogenic effects of alcohol by the examples of imagining that a “policeman is a little delivery boy” and a “streetcar is a little children’s play-toy”, and leaving us to contemplate the somewhat obvious problems that those two things entail. The third verse involves passing out and not listening to your wife, which, for Sonny Boy at least, should not be considered acceptable behavior. The final verse tells us that having too much to drink will allow you to go out into the street and “cuss out most anybody you meet”. All of these stories are examples of the type of behavior Sonny Boy wants to eliminate not only in himself, but also his friends and greater community. He feels that alcohol is a major problem in the community and his song is meant as both a warning and a moral example. If Sonny Boy can “make a change”, so can anyone.

A curious point is whether this song is made up of examples from Williamson’s personal problems with alcohol, people he knows, or just stories he’d heard. In any case Sonny Boy offers us a stark picture of what kind of damage drinking can do to a person’s life, which by extension shows us the overarching effect alcohol abuse can have on an entire community. Whether or not ‘Moonshine’ is a personal story, if you come away from the song thinking that Sonny Boy wasn’t sincere in his delivery of his hope and plea for change, I would suggest a second listen. Both the vocals and instrumentation sound desperate and yearning, at times like a dog’s howl. The tempo slowly accelerates as the message is driven home and the ensemble gets into their groove. Both Sonny Boy’s vocal and instrumental deliveries are at their best, and lyrically, the song delivers not only a message but also great poetry.

Only in the first instance of the refrain do we encounter the common AAB style. The rest of the song is of the also common AB-Refrain type. But this blues is anything but common and it shows why Sonny Boy was such a strong influence on future blues greats, even those who did not play harmonica, such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. I would argue that many of Hooker’s songs mirror Williamson’s in their style and delivery, so much so that I was searching frantically to find out if Hooker had recorded a version of ‘Moonshine’ to compare the two, but to no avail. Luckily though, we have Sonny Boy’s infectious and moving version to treasure.