Forgotten Blues Heroes: Doctor Clayton

"My buddy my buddy doctor Clayton, he has been here and gone
But you know he waved his hand, and told me to carry on

We used to drink gin, beer and whiskey, and walk together all night long
But now he has passed away, and told me to carry on"

(Willie "Long Time" Smith, My Buddy Dr. Clayton, 1947)

 Nearly 50 years after his untimely death the exceptional singer and masterful songwriter known as Doctor Clayton is little spoken of today. Clayton worked strictly as a vocalist (by some accounts he could play piano and ukulele), employing an impressive falsetto technique, later refined into a powerful, swooping style that was instantly recognizable. In addition he was an unparalleled songwriter, writing mostly original material with a rare wit, intelligence and social awareness. Clayton's vocal style was widely emulated and a number of his songs became blues standards. Despite the high esteem he was held in by fellow blues artists and his popularity during his lifetime Clayton's fine blues recordings remain largely ignored.

 Peter Joe Clayton was born April 19, 1898 in Georgia, by most reports, although claimed he was born in Africa and that he moved to St. Louis with his parents. In St. Louis he married and had four children, was employed as a factory worker and started his singing career. In 1937 tragedy struck when a fire burned down his house, killing his wife and children. He began drinking and living recklessly, a pattern that continued throughout his life. In his book "Big Bill Blues" Big Bill Broonzy reminisced about Clayton with obvious fondness: "Doctor Clayton was a good hearted boy. He wouldn't get a room, he wore tennis shoes in winter time and slept on pool tables and in alleys and basements, anywhere he could, because all the money he made from singing he would drink it up, or lose it in some kind of game." He certainly cut and odd figure usually sporting strange hats and oversized glasses sans the lenses. Robert Lockwood recalls coming back from St. Louis after recording with Clayton to find him in a sorry state of affairs: "When I got back here, Doctor Clayton didn't have no shoes! What happened was, after the recording session, the Doctor had taken the money he had made and bought everybody drinks and food at the club that night. ...And when Doctor Clayton passed out, they stole his money and everything he had. They took his shoes off, took his coat. And when he woke up, he didn't have shit." Many of Clayton's songs deal with tough times and 1942's "On The Killing Floor" seems to echo his reckless lifestyle:

"Please give me a match to light this short that I found
I know it looks bad for me, picking tobacco off the ground
I was in my prime not so very long ago
But high priced whiskey and woman done put me on the killin' floor
Lord it's zero weather and I ain't got a lousy dime
I'm walking from door to door and I can't find a friend of mine."

 But according to his sometime partner Blind John Davis there was another side to Clayton: "He was a brilliant fellow. He went to 52nd grade in school and he could sing opera, he could sing semi-classics, he could sing the blues and everything".

 He moved to Chicago with partner Robert Lockwood to pursue his musical career with the aid of Charley Jordan who had connections with the Columbia and Decca labels. Clayton was supposed to record for Decca but ended up hooking up with Lester Melrose of Bluebird. As Lockwood related later: "Doctor Clayton started singin', and Melrose had a baby. ...He had to have Doctor Clayton! Yeah! Lester Melrose heard Doctor Clayton sing, and he went crazy."

 He first recorded for Bluebird in 1935 cutting six sides four of which went unissued, not recording again until 1941. Between 1941-1942 he recorded four sessions for Bluebird and Okeh backed by pianist Blind John Davis with guitarist Robert Lockwood and bassit Ransom Knowling on some sides. Knowling also plays tuba on some sides as Clayton alternatley exhorts him to "Kill yourself, Mr.Ransom", "Blow your horn, Mr.Ransom", and "Toot your horn, Mr. Ransom". This period included many memorable sides including wartime numbers like '''41 Blues" and "Pearl Harbor Blues" (cut three months after the attack). In '''41 Blues" Clayton offers his solution to end hostilities:

"War is raging in Europe, up on the water, land and in the air
If Uncle Sam don't be careful, we'll all soon be right back over there
This whole war would soon be over if Uncle Sam would use my plan
Let me sneak in Hitler's bedroom with my razor in my hand."

 In "Pearl Harbor Blues" he had this to say:

"On December the seventh, nineteen hundred and forty one
The Japanese flew over Pearl Harbor, dropping bombs by the ton
This Japanese is so ungrateful, just like a stray dog on the street
Well he bite the hand that feeds em', soon as he get enough to feed."

 Other numbers during this period include the oft covered "Cheating And Lying Blues" and "Gotta Find My Baby" plus memorable sides like "Watch Out Mama", "Moonshine Woman Blues" (covered by B.B. King in 1959 as "The Woman I Love" with an overdubbed version charting in 1968) and "Ain't No Business We Can Do." Slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk was recorded playing "Cheating And Lying Blues" in 1964 live on Maxwell Street which also combined the lyrics form "Ain't No Business We Can Do" and Pat Hare's 1954 "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" was a direct descendent of "Cheating And Lying Blues" ("I'm gonna murder my baby if she don't stop cheating and lying/Well I'd rather be in the penitentiary than to be worried out of my mind").

 His next session was in February 1946 with a small group led by "Baby Doo" Caston with a final session in August 1946. These sessions included the original versions of oft-covered songs such as "Root Doctor", "Angels in Harlem" (covered by Smokey Hogg and by Larry Davis as "Angels In Houston"), "Hold That Train Conductor" (covered by B.B. King in 1961) and "I Need My Baby" (covered by B.B. King as "Walking Dr. Bill") and perhaps ironically "Aint Gonna Drink No More." Also cut during this period was "Copper Coloured Mama" which King covered as "The
Woman I Love" in 1954.

 Clayton’s records were steady sellers and he regularly appeared at Chicago clubs such as Sylvios working with Robert Lockwood and Sunnyland Slim and toured in a bus with his likeness on the side. Attesting to this popularity was Sunnyland Slim who recorded as "Doctor Clayton's Buddy" on his debut 1947 sessions and Willie Long Time Smith who in 1947 recorded the tribute, "My Buddy Doctor Clayton." Clayton died on January 7th 1947 in Chicago, of pulmonary tuberculosis at Chicago's Cook County Hospital. According to Big Bill only ten people attended Clayton's funeral including himself and Tampa Red.

 Echoes of his vocal style survived in the music Professor Longhair, Jimmy Witherspoon and particularly early B.B. King. King covered several of Clayton's compositions and offered this praise: "Well, Doctor Clayton was the man that I used to idolize; just about everything he did I used to sing along with it for hours."

Essential Listening

Complete Recorded Works (1935-42) (Document): Collects 24 sides cut between 1935-42 including gems like "Cheating And Lying Blues", "Gotta Find My Baby" and "Pearl Harbor Blues."

Doctor Clayton And His Buddies (Old Tramp): Includes the remaining six Clayton titles including "Angels In Harlem", "Root Doctor Blues", "Hold That Train Conductor." Also collects sides by Sunnyland Slim and Willie "Long Time" Smith including Smith's tribute, "My Buddy Doctor Clayton."

Sources

-I Ain't Gonna Drink No More: The story of Doctor Clayton - Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm 24, Nov.1986

-Liner Notes to Document CD 5179: Doctor Clayton, Complete Recorded
Works 1935-1942 in chronological order - David M. Frost, March 1993

-Robert Lockwood , Jr. Interview- Larry Hoffman, Living Lues 121,May/June 1995