Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later recorded by Elvis Presley and other artists.

Early life
Crudup was born on August 24, 1905, in Union Grove, Forest, Mississippi, to a family of migrant workers traveling through the South and Midwest. The family returned to Mississippi in 1926, where he sang gospel music. He had lessons with a local bluesman, whose name was Papa Harvey, and later he was able to play in dance halls and cafes around Forest. Around 1940 he went to Chicago.

Musical career
He began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. As a member of the Harmonizing Four, he visited Chicago in 1939. He stayed in Chicago to work as a solo musician but barely made a living as a street singer. The record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while Crudup was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Hudson Whittaker, better known as Tampa Red, and signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label.

Recordings
He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s. He toured black clubs in the South, sometimes playing with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James. He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup. His songs "Mean Old 'Frisco Blues", "Who's Been Foolin' You" and "That's All Right" were popular in the South. These and his other songs "Rock Me Mama", "So Glad You're Mine", and "My Baby Left Me" have been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley, Slade, Elton John and Rod Stewart.

Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s because of disputes over royalties. He said, "I realised I was making everybody rich, and here I was poor". His last Chicago session was in 1951. His 1952–54 recording sessions for Victor were held at radio station WGST, in Atlanta, Georgia. He returned to recording, for Fire Records and Delmark Records, and touring in 1965. Sometimes labeled "The Father of Rock and Roll", he accepted this title with some bemusement.

Later years

In 1968, the blues promoter Dick Waterman began fighting for Crudup's royalties and reached an agreement in which Crudup would be paid $60,000. However, Hill and Range Songs, from which he was supposed to get the royalties, refused to sign the legal papers at the last minute, because the company thought it could not lose more money in legal action. In the early 1970s, two Virginia activists, Celia Santiago and Margaret Carter, assisted Crudup in an attempt to gain royalties he felt he were due, with little success. By 1971, he had collected over $10,000 in overdue royalties through the intervention of the Songwriters Guild of America (then called the American Guild Of Authors And Composers).

On a 1970 trip to the United Kingdom, Crudup recorded "Roebuck Man" with local musicians. His last professional engagements were with Bonnie Raitt.  Recognizing his fortunes would not change, Crudup said in 1970, "I was born poor, I live poor, and I am going to die poor."

Death
Crudup died of complications of heart disease and diabetes in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia, on March 28, 1974, four years after the failed royalty settlement.

There was some confusion about the date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his siblings.

Legacy
Crudup has been honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail, placed at Forest. Elvis Presley acknowledged Crudup's importance to rock and roll when he said, "If I had any ambition, it was to be as good as Arthur Crudup".

One of the experts who consider Crudup's "That's All Right" to be the "first rock and roll song" is Southeastern Louisiana University rock historian Joseph Burns. He adds that "this song could contain the first ever guitar solo break". Another source is equally definitive, stating that the recording "stands as a convincing front-runner for rock ‘n’ roll’s ground zero".

An 2004 article in The Guardian argues that rather than Presley's version being one of the first records of rock and roll, it was simply one of "the first white artists' interpretations of a sound already well-established by black musicians almost a decade before [...] a raucous, driving, unnamed variant of rhythm and blues".

The Blues Hall of Fame stated that Crudup "became known as 'The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll' after Elvis Presley recorded three of his songs" but adds that "Crudup was a classic victim of music industry exploitation, and despite the commercial success of his music, was never able to even support his family from his music". The Hall quotes Presley as having said, "Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw".

Discography

Solo albums
Mean Ol' Frisco (Fire, 1962)
Crudup's Mood (Delmark, 1969)
Look on Yonder's Wall (Delmark, 1969)
Roebuck Man (United Artists Records, 1970)

Collaborative albums
Sunny Road, with Jimmy Dawkins and Willie Smith (Delmark, 1969)
Arthur "BigBoy" Crudup Meets the Master Blues Bassists, with Willie Dixon and Ransom Knowling (Delmark, 1994)

Compilation albums
The Father of Rock and Roll (RCA, 1971)
Give Me a 32-30 (Crown Prince, 1982)
Star Bootlegger (Krazy Kat, 1982)
I'm in the Mood (Krazy Kat, 1983)
Crudup's Rockin' Blues (RCA, 1985)
Shout Sister Shout! (Bullwhip, 1987)
That's All Right Mama (Matchbox, 1989)
The Father of Rock and Roll (Blues Encore, 1992)
That's All Right Mama (BMG, 1992)
Complete Recorded Works, vols. 1–4 (Document, 1993)
Rock Me Mama (Orbis, 1993)
That's Alright Mama (Laserlight, 1995)
Crudup's After Hours (History, 1996)
The Complete Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, vols. 1 and 2 (Jazz Tribune, 1997)
After Hours (Camden, 1997)
Cool Disposition (Catfish, 1999)
Dirt Road Blues (Past Perfect Silver Line, 2000)
The Essential Arthur Crudup (Document, 2001)
Blues Legends (Rainbow, 2002)
Everything's Alright (Our World, 2002)
Crudup's After Hours (Past Perfect Silver Line, 2002)
Rock Me Mama (Tomato, 2003)
The Father of Rock 'n' Roll (Wolf, 2003)
Rock Me Mamma: When the Sun Goes Down, vol. 7 (RCA, 2003)
The Story of the Blues (Archive Blues, 2004)
Too Much Competition (Passport, 2006)
Gonna Be Some Change (Rev-Ola, 2008)
My Baby Left Me: The Definitive Collection (Fantastic Voyage, 2011)
The Blues (Fuel, 2012)
Sunny Road (Delmar, 2013)

Charted singles

See also
Checker Records
Fire Records
First rock and roll record
Origins of rock and roll

References

External links
 Biography of Arthur Crudup
 
 
 Biography, links and song extracts
 Biographical data on Arthur Crudup
 Illustrated Arthur Crudup discography

1905 births
1974 deaths
Delta blues musicians
Chicago blues musicians
Electric blues musicians
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American blues singers
Blues musicians from Mississippi
People from Forest, Mississippi
Trumpet Records artists
Groove Records artists
RCA Victor artists
Delmark Records artists
Bluebird Records artists
Ace Records (United States) artists
Fire Records artists
Mississippi Blues Trail
Burials in Virginia
People from Northampton County, Virginia
20th-century American guitarists
Guitarists from Illinois
Guitarists from Mississippi
Deaths from diabetes
African-American guitarists
20th-century African-American male singers
아서 윌리엄 "빅 보이" 크루덥(Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup, 1905년 8월 24일 ~ 1874년 3월 28일)은 미국의 델타 블루스 가수, 작곡가, 기타 연주자다.

블루스계 권외에서는 엘비스 프레슬리 등의 아티스트가 녹음하게 되는 〈That's All Right〉, 〈My Baby Left Me〉, 〈So Glad You're Mine〉의 작곡가로 유명하다.

초기 생애 
미시시피주 포레스트 태생으로 부모는 남부와 중서부를 표표하는 이주 노동자였다. 1926년 가족은 미시시피주로 돌아와 복음성가를 노래했다. 동리 블루스 음악가 파파 하비의 지도를 받았다. 이후 포레스트 인근의 무도장 및 카페에서 연예했다. 1940년대경 시카코로 이주했다.

음악가 경력 
미시시피주 클라크데일에서 블루스 가수로서의 경력을 시작했다. 하모나이징 포의 일원으로서 1939년 시카고에 방문했다. 시카고에서 단독 음악가로 성립하려 했지만 길거리 가수로서 연명하는 게 고작이었다. 포장 상자에서 사는 크루덥을 우연히 발견하였다고 주장하는 음반 프로듀서 레스터 멜로스는, 그를 탐파 레드에게 소개시켜 주고 RCA 빅터의 블루버드사에 녹음 계약을 맺게 해 주었다. 탐파 레드는 크루덥에게 "할 수 있는 일을 해라. 할 수 없다면, 그 일은 잊어버려라."고 조언했다.

녹음 
1940년대 말부터 RCA에서의 녹음이 시작되어 1950년대 초에는 에이스 레코드, 체커 레코드, 트럼펫 레코드에서도 녹음을 진행했다. 남부의 흑인용 클럽을 순회하며 소니 보이 윌리엄 2세, 엘모어 제임스와 협연도 성사했다. 음반 예명으로는 "얼머 제임스(Elmer James)", "퍼시 리 크루덥(Percy Lee Crudup)"을 썼다. 남부에서 〈Mean Old 'Frisco Blues〉, 〈Who's Been Foolin' You〉, 〈That's All Right〉가 인기를 얻었다. 이 곡들 및 〈Rock Me Mama〉, 〈So Glad You're Mine〉, 〈My Baby Left Me〉 따위는 일후 엘비스 프레슬리, 엘튼 존, 로드 스튜어트의 구음을 거친다.

크루덥은 저작료 분쟁으로 1950년대를 임시해 녹음을 중단한다. "모두가 내 덕에 부자가 되었지만, 나는 홀로 가난했다."고 말하기도 했다. 시카고에서 행한 세션은 1951년이 마지막이었다. 1952년 ~ 54년 빅터 녹음 세션은 조지아주 애틀랜틱에서 진행되었다. 파이어 레코드와 델마크 레코드에서 녹음업에 복귀하면서 1965년 순회공연도 떠났다. 여기서 "로큰롤의 아버지"라고 홍보될 때는 다소 어안이 벙벙했지만, 이 별칭을 받아들이기로 했다. 이즈음의 크루덥은 가수로서 받는 저임금을 보강하게끔 노동자로 종사했다. 저작료도 받지 못한 형편이었다. 멜로스와 저작료를 두고 싸운 뒤 미시시피주로 건너가 밀주를 생업으로 삼았다. 이후 버지니아주로 이주해 농사꾼에 종업하며 세 명의 아들을 비롯한 가족들과 피붙이들과 살았다. 주류 업체에서 더러 노래하면서 밀주를 공급했다. 그중 한 곳은 노샘프턴 컨트리에 위치한 듀드롭 여관이란 곳이다.

말년 
1968년 블루스 홍보업자 딕 워터맨이 크루덥의 저작료를 위해 투쟁, 크루덥에 60,000달러를 지불하는 합의에 도달했다. 하지만, 저작료를 지불하기로 된 힐 앤 레인지는 소송으로 더 이상의 돈을 잃을 수 없다고 판단, 종국에 가서 서류 서명을 거부했다. 1970년대 초에는 버지니아주 운동가 실리아 산티아고와 마가렛 카터가 조력해 마땅한 저작료를 받아내기 위해 힘썼으나 소폭적인 성공에 그쳤다. 1971년경, 크루덥은 미국 작곡가 조합의 중재를 통해 밀린 저작료로서 10,000달러 이상 금액을 받았다. 1970년 영국 여행 적에는 현지 음악인들과 "로벅 맨(Roebuck Man)" 명의로 녹음을 진행했다. 마지막으로 행한 전문 참사는 보니 레이트와 행한 것이다.

사망 

저작료 합의 실패에서 4년이 흐른 1974년, 크루덥은 숨을 거두었다. 사망 일자는 그가 사용한 숱한 명의로 인해 다소 혼란이 있으며, 그 명의 가운데는 형제자매의 것도 있다. 심장병과 당뇨병의 중첩으로 1974년 3월 버지니아주 노샘프턴 컨트리의 나사와독스 병원에서 사망한 것으로 되어 있다.

유산 
포레스트에는 그의 업적을 기리는 미시시피 블루스 트레일 명판이 건립돼 있다. 엘비스 프레슬리는 다음과 같은 말로 크루덥의 중요성을 일깨우기도 했다. "내게 꿈이란 게 있었다면, 아서 크루덥처럼 훌륭한 사람이 되는 것이었다."

각주

외부 링크 

 Biography of Arthur Crudup
 
 
 Biography, links and song extracts
 Biographical data on Arthur Crudup
 Illustrated Arthur Crudup discography
 

1905년 출생
1974년 사망
아프리카계 미국인 음악가
미국의 블루스 기타 연주자
미국의 블루스 가수
미국의 남자 가수
블루스 명예의 전당 헌액자