King Solomon Hill

King Solomon Hill (1897, McComb, Mississippi – 1949, Sibley, Louisiana)[1] was an American blues musician, who recorded a small handful of songs in 1932. His unique guitar and voice make them among the most haunting blues recorded. Hill is speculated to have been Joe Holmes, a self-taught guitarist from Mississippi.[1]

As of 2011, King Solomon Hill has eight known recordings which are as follows:

Otherwise, little evidence exists of his life outside of music, but he was noted as a heavy drinker. Hill died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Louisiana in 1949.[1]

Popular culture references

"The Gone Dead Train" was used as the title for a ninth-season episode of the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and actually is briefly played in the episode, along with mention of King Solomon Hill as the artist.

The 1969 film Performance, directed by Nicholas Roeg and Donald Cammell and starring Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, contained a song called "The Gone Dead Train," performed by Randy Newman. However, this is a rewrite by Jack Nitzsche and Russ Titelman and bears only a passing resemblance to "The Gone Dead Train" as performed by King Solomon Hill.[2][3] As noted by rock critic Greil Marcus, the "dead train" in the Newman version is used as a metaphor for impotence.[4] In Hill's original, the train appears to literally refer to an actual locomotive, which Hill referred to as a "Death Train."[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c "King Solomon Hill - Joe Holmes". Thebluestrail.com. http://www.thebluestrail.com/artists/mus-jho.htm. Retrieved November 18, 2011. 
  2. ^ Lyricsplayground.com
  3. ^ a b Blueslyrics.tripod.com
  4. ^ Marcus, Greil. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock and Roll Music. 1975 (4th edition 1997) ISBN 0452278368

External links