B.C. Williamson - The Official Website

Giraffe (1953)

My debut in all its ragged glory. The blues of 'I Went Down This Mornin' and 'Shotgun Blues' have been compared - many found it odd that two songs on the same album were in the same key and tempo. Most put this down to my limited vocal range at the time, not the fact that I had the Bo Diddley-esque ability of only being able to play three chords.

BC Williamson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Sam "Rumplestilt" Skinns: bass
Ray Jay Robertson: rhythm guitar
Joseph Johnson: organ, piano


1 I (Went Down This Mornin' &) Got Myself a Gun
2 Shotgun Blues
3 Old Crossed Paths And Lines
4 Rock All Night
5 Picasso Was Never As Blue As Me, Baby
6 Blue's Just a Colour (But It's My Colour)
7 Nothing More Than a Simple 12 Bar Jam

Loaded Weapon (1955)

Fatal Discharge (1960)

This was my landmark 60s album. The band was on fine form for this record. I believe that the British artists at the time based their sound on this piece of recording. I daresay also that I never reached this standard again, unfortunately.

BC Williamson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Rusty "Cool" Katts: bass
JJ Smith: rhythm guitar
Joseph Johnson: organ, piano




1 Ready To Explode (So Mad At You)
2 Cocked And Ready To Fire
3 Looking Down The Barrel
4 Twistin' and Turnin'
5 I Could Never Understand (The Way You Look At Me)
6 Waitin' By My Door
7 If You Could Only Love Me More
8 I Feel So Bad
9 Turn Up The Heat
10 Fatal Discharge

Bluer Than Blue (1963)

This was another highly successful early 60s album with a mix of the pastiched traditional jazz element and our signature blues sound, rushed out to satisfy the needs of fans. But it was good, from what I remember, an example of my 'pre-narcotic sound', as it was named by Rolling Stone in 1974 - as my old friend JJ Smith said, 'no junk equals no funk.'

BC Williamson: guitar, vocals, trumpet, Stroh violin
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Catman Parker: saxophone, double bass, horn conductor
The Havana Hornblowers: horn section


1 Your Point?
2 Tick-Tock Turnaround
3 Jazz In Red
4 All Soul
5 Foxtrot Blueprints

And That's Why They Call Me Johnny (1965)

My mid-Sixties record. Polarized my audience. Some liked the endless jamming. Some did not. I suppose it marks the beginning of my move away from blues, which was slowly becoming an irrelevance. We began incorporating Latin rhythms and more proto-punk influenced riffs. The band had never been better, I said. "Taking four homeless men off the streets, putting them in suits and giving them instruments isn't enough," one review said. 

BC Williamson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
"Boom Boom" Banson: bass
Shorty Rhymes: rhythm guitar
Blind Orange Peel: organ, piano

1 Standin' Tall An' Straight
2 Violence In The Street Blues
3 I'm So Blue Again
4 The King Of The Blues
5 Your Eyes Look At Me Colder These Days

Rise (1966)

This was a political album of the mid 60s. I was angry about the way our people were being treated, so I wrote this album, which was my first foray into creative recording. We began to use many different interesting instruments, and I would experiment heavily with prototype delay and reverb effects. Sadly, our first piece of studio experimentation soon got banned for its anarchistic opener: 'Dead H*nky's Blues.'

BC Williamson: guitar, piano, mandolin, percussion, accordian, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums, percussion
"Boom Boom" Banson: bass, piano bass
Shorty Rhymes: rhythm guitar, Mellotron
David "Kandinsky" Wolf: organ, piano, Ondes Martenot

1 Dead H*nky's Blues
2 Someday (Cr*cker Will Get His Justice)
3 Stand Up (Let's Have Us A Revolution)
4 We Don't Need No Wh*tey
5 Are You Trying To Start A Fight?
6 Rise

LIVE (1967)

This was an album released to fill up the gap left by my temporary retirement. It was mostly made up of live recordings from the past decade. Some critics remarked that it sounded suspiciously like studio recordings with applause effects added later. This may have been true on some tracks- if you can remember the 60s, you weren't there, as they say, but this album has its charms.

BC Williamson: guitar, organ, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Various others: other instruments




1 Introduction
2 Shotgun Blues
3 I (Went Down This Mornin' &) Got Myself A Gun
4 What'd I Say
5 Band Introduction
6 Jam
7 Fatal Discharge
8 Standin' Tall An' Straight
9 Dust My Broom
10 Picasso Was Never As Blue As Me, Baby [Encore]

Ready For Re-Entry (1969)

My first and last psychedelic blues album. By this point I felt like an old man; the solipsistic hippy kids were too far ahead of me. I tried to keep up but it just resulted in this. Pink Floyd later copied my idea of the space-inflected concept album.

"Great music to listen to when you're feeling bad, because you'll never feel quite as bad as this music." - Rolling Scone

BC Williamson: guitars, harmonica, vocals, theremin
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Coral "Reef" Jaimes: bass
Harold "Ivory" Keys: organ, piano, signal generator

1 The Eagle Has Landed (Upon You)
2 You Will Lose Your Mind
3 Cruisin' At 400 Light Years Per Hour
4 Blues In Space No.5
5 Psychedelic Space
6 Ready For Re-Entry
7 (Burnin' Through) The Earth's Atmosphere
8 Landing In Water (Over and Over Again)
9 Ready For Re-Entry [Reprise]

White Not Blue (1970)

This jazz-fusion album was released not long after the unsuccessful 'Ready For Re-Entry'. It must have made (or broken, depending on how you look at it) world records for the lowest-selling album of all time, and I think we must have lost some money over it. Anyway, it prompted Venezuela to terminate my record contract.

BC Williamson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
"Broken Wrist" Parkes: bass
Duke "L" Singer: rhythm guitar
Benny Newport: backing vocals
Texas Hip Bradley: organ/piano

1 In The Key of B
2 Jazz (I'm Fine)
3 Your Eyes Are Like Spaceships
4 Atonal No.7
5 In The Key Of D Minor
6 Untitled Track 1
7 Driftin' Through Time
8 Collage In My Mind
9 Untitled Track 2
10 Lonesome Blues
11Ramblin'
12 The Sea Of Experience
13 No Man Is An Island (But I'm A Continent)
14 Voodoo Existence

Sounds From A Dark Room (1970)

Come Back (1975)

After hiding away in Cuba for some years, I started to regain the courage to begin playing. Venezuela and my band had long since left me, but I located some musicians in the Mississippi bayous, and they joined my new band. Come Back met largely positive reviews for its new brand of R&B/roots sound, but it didn't sell, and prompted the first of my numerous retirements from the industry.

BC Williamson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Franklin D. Roosterfelt: bass
Sammy Dee: rhythm guitar
"Big-Head" Johnson: organ/piano


1 I'm Back
2 Long Time No See
3 Driving Through The Tunnel
4 Mississippi Blues
5 Cantonese Blues
6 Improvisation
7 Sweet Columbia (You Were So Wrong)
8 Let Me Climb Your Mountain
9 Believe Her 'Till I Leave Her

Me And The Blues (1977)

This was an ill-advised tribute album to all of the classic blues songs I learned the trade from. Pacific didn't think it would sell well in the age of disco, so they distributed it by mail order. I knew the album was doomed from that point. The critics called it 'cheap and uninteresting', and I tended to agree. The ever-dull Clapton had a similar idea with "Me and Mr. Johnson",  in 2004, 27 years later.

BC Williamson: guitar, organ, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Bobby Johnstone: bass
Jimmy "Crack" Boxsman: rhythm guitar



1 Dust My Broom (Johnson)
2 Love In Vain (Johnson)
3 Worried Life Blues
4 Rambling On My Mind (Johnson)
5 Key To The Highway (Broonzy)
6 Everyday I Have The Blues
7 (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man (Dixon)
8 Mannish Boy (Morganfield/London/McDaniel)
9 The Sky Is Crying (James)
10 I'm In The Mood (Hooker)
11 Little Red Rooster (Dixon)
12 Crawling King Snake (Hooker)

All selections not credited are traditional songs. Arrangements: B.C. Williamson

Bluesbreakers With B.C. Williamson (1979)

An album made with John Mayall, who asked me to join the band permanently. I declined, not only due to my low opinion of their music, but in order to produce a new group formed by Tick-Tock and others, "The Tick-Tock Turner All-Star Band," who released their first album that year. I only knew I made this album because I read about it in a newspaper a few months later. Of course, "Rolling Thunder" Ferry would go on to record 'Asquith Cogs' with his own super-group just a few years later, but that's another story.

BC Williamson: guitar, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
John Mayall: guitar, harmonica, vocals, organ
"Rolling Thunder" Ferry: bass, rhythm guitar

1 Giveaway
2 Old Macdonald Farm
3 All Her Love
4 Triple Crossing Mime
5 What'd I Say
6 Ramblin' On My Mind
7 Ambling Into Town

Neither John Mayall  or any of the other Bluesbreakers ever appeared on this album; they do not endorse the B.C. Williamson project

Lamp Post Blues (1985)

This mid-80s double album, with its heavy use of synthesizers and disco rhythms, was criticized for not reflecting the times, with it's odd, Dadaist lyrics (which referenced the Berlin Wall, Apartheid, nuclear power, Duran Duran, and many other entities). Now hailed as a great art-blues album by the sort who think Damien Hirst is an artist comparable to Picasso.  I haven't listened to the thing for years.

BC Williamson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Andy "Warehouse" James: bass, rhythm guitar
Joe Jackson: organ, piano


1 Lamp Post Blues
2 Fallin' (From Above)
3 The Streets Are Black & White
4 Ain't Nothin' To See
5 Get Me A Drink
6 Film Noir No.6

Bluestown Music (1987)

This was my second mail-order blues album of my unsuccessful period. Critics noted some marked improvement from the previous classics album 'Me and the Blues', of ten years before, but they still said it was god-awful.

BC Williamson: guitar, vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
"Fatman" Sampson: bass
Chicken-Legs Thompson: rhythm guitar
Jon Moses Jonestown: organ, piano




1 Rolling And Tumbling (Newbern/Morganfield)
2 Baby, Please Don't Go
3 Born Under A Bad Sign (King)
4 Caldonia (Jordan)
5 Catfish Blues (Petway)
6 Cross Road Blues (Johnson)
7 Going Down Slow (Oden)
8 Kansas City (Leiber/Stoller)
9 Killing Floor (Burnett)
10 Sweet Little Angel
11 Walkin' Blues (Johnson)

All selections not credited are traditional songs. Arrangements: B.C. Williamson

Lease Of Life (1989)

This was my final album before becoming a priest, and first collaboration with The Phukets, a vocal group. Its use of gospel musicians and horn sections alienated my fans, causing my label Pacific to kick me out finally. It looked like my career was over. It did produce one hit, a duet with the lead singer of The Phukets,  Nelson J. Dapson: 'Heretic (Jesus Died For Your Sins)'.

BC Williamson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
The Phukets: backing vocals
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Tank-top Steveson: rhythm guitar
Jim Jonesmith: organ, piano bass


1 Go Down Moses [Disco Version]
2 Go Rest High Upon That Mountain
3 Can The Circle Be Unbroken
4 He Who Brought Us From Egypt
5 The Lord Is Good
6 Heretic (Jesus Died For Your Sins)
7 True Believer
8 Have You Seen The Light? (The Light Of The Lord)
9 Took Me So Long (But I Got Saved)

Larger Than Life (2008)

This record was produced very recently. After leaving the clergy, I decided to get back to my roots, and this album was well received, recorded in Nassau for three weeks. Unfortunately, everyone else in the area refused to play with me, but that was fine - I played all of the instruments, with the Phukets overudubbing backing vocals.

BC Williamson: Guitars, harmonica, vocals, bass, drums, keyboards
The Phukets: backing vocals





1 Still In Love With You (After All These Years)
2 Bin' A Long Long Time
3 Talkin' Nobody Loves Me Blues
4 The Old Man In The Lonely Corner
5 Colours On Canvas
6 Why Don't You Love Me (After All These Years)
7 Preachin' (Not Teachin')

Back To Africa (2009)

This is my latest album. It celebrates my return to my homeland of Africa. I recorded it in a shantytown in Nigeria, with local musicians. And Tick-Tock, of course. Paul Simon may have done this 20 years ago, but I had the idea first.

BC Williamson: guitar, vocal
Tick-Tock Turner: drums
Marcel Mozam: bass
Daffyd Muham Skajofamasi Jones: rhythm guitar
"Legs" Madiba: djembe
Zilo Maphrosa: percussion



1 Goin' Back (Goin' Back To Africa)
2 Amazing Race
3 Inkosi Sikalele Africa
4 (I Am) Home Again
5 We're (Back) In The Slave Ships
6 Afrika Jam
7 The First Time (I Saw Africa)
8 Sing The Gospel (High And Wide)
9 Out Of The Townships, Into The Ghetto

Nowhere Is Now Here (2010)

Scraping The Barrel: Rare And Unreleased 1953 - 2010

All music/lyrics © Rackermann Records 2009 unless otherwise specified. 
Express permission must be sought to reproduce them in any form.