Pink Anderson

Pink Anderson

Pink Anderson and son "Little Pink Anderson" in the 1960s
Background information
Birth name Pinkney Anderson
Born (1900-02-12)February 12, 1900
Origin Laurens, South Carolina, U.S.
Died October 12, 1974(1974-10-12) (aged 74)
Genres Piedmont blues
Country blues
Instruments Guitar, Vocals
Years active 1930s - 1960s
Associated acts

Little Pink Anderson

Pinkney "Pink" Anderson (February 12, 1900 – October 12, 1974[1]) was an American blues singer and guitarist.

Life and career

He was born in Laurens, South Carolina. After being raised in nearby Greenville and Spartanburg, he joined Dr. William R. Kerr of the Indian Remedy Company in 1914 to entertain the crowds while Kerr tried to sell a concoction purported to have medicinal qualities.[2]

cemetery marker for Pink Anderson in Spartanburg, SC.
Cemetery marker for Pink Anderson in Lincoln Memorial Garden, keeping his musical talents in tune with an old Gibson J-50 guitar and a harmonica.

He still "went out" when he could with Leo "Chief Thundercloud" Kahdot (of the Potawatomi native Americans) and his medicine show, often with the Jonesville, South Carolina based harmonica-player Arthur "Peg Leg Sam" Jackson. In May 1950, Anderson was recorded by folklorist Paul Clayton at the Virginia State Fair.

Anderson recorded an album in the early 1960s and performed at some live venues.[3] He appeared in the 1963 film The Bluesmen. He reduced his activities in the late 1960s after a stroke.[4] Attempts by folklorist Peter B. Lowry in 1970 to get Anderson on tape were not successful, although apparently he could occasionally summon up some of his past abilities. A final tour took place in the early 1970s with the aid of Roy Book Binder, one of his "students", taking him to Boston and New York.

He died in October 1974, of a heart attack at the age of 74. He is interred at Lincoln Memorial Gardens in Spartanburg.[1] Anderson's son, known as Little Pink Anderson (b. July 13, 1954[5]), is currently a bluesman living in Vermillion, South Dakota.[6]

The Pink in Pink Floyd

Syd Barrett, of English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, came up with the band's name by juxtaposing the first names of Pink Anderson and North Carolina bluesman, Floyd Council.[3] Barrett noticed the names in the liner notes of a 1962 Blind Boy Fuller album (Philips BBL-7512). The text, written by Paul Oliver, read: "Curley Weaver and Fred McMullen, (...) Pink Anderson or Floyd Council - these were a few amongst the many blues singers that were to be heard in the rolling hills of the Piedmont, or meandering with the streams through the wooded valleys."

Discography

Singles

Albums

(Carolina Street Ballads: "John Henry" - "Everyday in the Week" - "The Ship Titanic" - "Greasy Greens" - "Wreck of the Old 97" - "I've Got Mine" - "He's in the Jailhouse Now") - Pink Anderson (recorded May 29, 1950 by Paul Clayton)

("My Baby Left Me This Morning" - "Baby, Please Don't Go" - "Mama Where Did You Stay Last Night" - "Big House Blues" - "Meet Me in the Bottom" - "Weeping Willow Blues" - "Baby I'm Going Away" - "Thousand Woman Blues" - "I Had My Fun" - "Every Day in the Week" - "Try Some of That")

("You Don't Know My Mind" - "That's No Way to Do" - "Weeping Willow Blues" - "Meet Me in the Bottom" - "I Got a Woman 'Cross Town" - "Greasy Greens" - "Boweevil" - "Chicken" - "He's in the Jailhouse Now" - "The Titanic" - "The Boys of Your Uncle Sam" - "Baby Tate" - "See What You Done Done") (recorded live in Spartanburg, 1961-62 by Samuel Charters)

("I Got Mine" - "Greasy Greens" - "I Got a Woman 'Way Cross Town" - "Travelin' Man" - "Ain't Nobody Home but Me" - "That's No Way to Do" - "In the Jailhouse Now" - "South Forest Boogie" - "Chicken" - "I'm Going to Walk Through the Streets of...")

("The Titanic" - "Boweevil" - "John Henry" - "Betty and Dupree" - "Sugar Babe" - "The Wreck of the Old 97" - "I Will Fly Away" - "The Kaiser" - "In the Evening")

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dead Rock Stars website - accessed February 2008
  2. ↑ Komara, Edward, ed. (October 28, 2005). The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-92699-7. OL 7496252M.
  3. 1 2 Allmusic biography
  4. ↑ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. pp. 88–89. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  5. ↑ Bio on the CD "Sittin' here singing the blues"
  6. ↑ "NATIONAL MUSIC MUSEUM Photo,NATIONAL MUSIC MUSEUM Pictures, Stills, Alvin "Little Pink" Anderson, a Carolina bluesman now living in". Newshopper.sulekha.com. Retrieved 2011-12-30.

External links

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