⬇️ DOCTOR CLAYTON ⬇️
(Peter Joe Clayton)
(9CD)
Clayton was born in Georgia (though he claimed he had been born in
Africa) and moved to St. Louis as a child with his family. He had four
children and worked in a factory in St. Louis, where he started his
career as a singer (he could also play the piano and the ukulele but
never did so on record). Clayton recorded six sides for Bluebird Records
in 1935, but only two were issued. Clayton's entire family died in a
house fire in 1937; following this he became an alcoholic and began
wearing outsized hats and glasses.
To pursue his music career, Clayton moved to Chicago with Robert
Lockwood, and he received attention from Decca Records, thanks to a
helpful recommendation from another musician, Charley Jordan. Ultimately
Clayton returned to Bluebird, recording with Lockwood, the bassist
Robert (Ransom) Knowling, the pianist Blind John Davis, and Lester
Melrose, in 1941–42. He also recorded for Okeh Records at this
time.
Among the songs he wrote were "Cheating and Lying Blues", frequently
covered by other blues artists; "Pearl Harbor Blues", written after the
Pearl Harbor bombing of 1941; and "Moonshine Women Blues", which became
a chart hit for B.B. King under the name "The Woman I Love" in 1968. He
recorded again in 1946, recording the tunes "Hold That Train, Conductor"
and "I Need My Baby", which were also both covered by B.B. King. Most of
his later recordings featured Blind John Davis on piano.
He was a regional sales success and played regularly in Chicago
nightclubs with Lockwood and Sunnyland Slim. Attesting to his
companion's popularity, Slim worked as "Dr. Clayton's Buddy" in his
debut recording session, in 1947. In the same year, Willie "Long Time"
Smith recorded, "My Buddy Doctor Clayton".
Document Records released all of Clayton's output recorded between 1935
and 1942 on one CD. Old Tramp Records released the remaining 1946
recordings.