Eddie "Guitar" Burns obit

‘Lost legend’ Eddie Burns dies at age 84

 

He was not on the list.

Longtime Detroit blues musician Eddie Burns passed away Wednesday at the age of 84.

Burns, who was born Feb. 8, 1928 in Mississippi, was an outstanding blues singer, harmonica player and guitarist who was active on the music scene for seven decades. Burns settled in Detroit in 1948 and was a member of John Lee Hooker’s band. He backed up Hooker on the recording “Real Folk Blues.” Burns also had several solo recordings of his own.

“Eddie Burns and Washboard Willie were the first guys who gave me a chance,” harmonica player Little Sonny said. “They helped me become what I am.”

Little Sonny performed with Burns on his last show in 2008 at the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts that also featured Bobby Rush and Otis Clay.

Burns was already ailing at that time, and Little Sonny was not sure it was a good idea, but, in retrospect, he’s glad he was able to perform with Burns at what turned out to be his friend’s last show.

“I did some of my first stuff with him and his last stuff was with me,” Little Sonny said. “It was a miracle how it worked out.”

Little Sonny described Burns as a “lost legend.”

Burns was born in Belzoni, Mississippi. His father was a sharecropper who performed as a singer in medicine shows, but Burns was raised mainly by his grandparents. He was self-taught in playing the harmonica and made his first guitar.

Burns was initially influenced by the music of Sonny Boy Williamson I and Big Bill Broonzy. He relocated from the Mississippi Delta via Waterloo, Iowa, to Detroit in 1948. Originally Burns excelled at playing the harmonica, and his debut single, "Notoriety Woman" (1948), featured this ability accompanied by the guitar playing of John T. Smith. Burns told of meeting John Lee Hooker there: "Well see, John T. and me was playing at a house party this particular Saturday night. We was in Detroit Black Bottom. ... so Hooker was on his way home from somewhere – I guess he was at some other party, house parties used to be real plentiful here. Hooker heard it, knocked at the door, and they let him in. He introduced himself and he sat down and played some with us. And then, he liked the way I was blowing harmonica. ... he had a session coming up on Tuesday, this was on a Saturday. And so then, he wanted to know if I wanted to do this session with him on Tuesday. And I told him, yes, naturally. So that's how John T. and me went down to cut for Hooker. When we got through the man wanted to know what I had. I had one song, 'Notoriety Woman.' And so he said I'd need two, and I sat there and made up 'Papa's Boogie.'" By the following year Burns was playing guitar accompaniment on recordings by Hooker.

Billed as Big Daddy, Little Eddie, or Big Ed, he performed regularly in Detroit nightclubs but had to supplement his earnings by working as a mechanic. In those early years Burns's own recording was not prolific, with just a handful of tracks released on several labels. His output veered from Detroit blues to R&B as the 1960s progressed, when he issued a number of singles for Harvey Fuqua's Harvey Records. Now permanently billed as Eddie "Guitar" Burns, he appeared on Hooker's album The Real Folk Blues (1966).