The Resume

(June 26, 1903-August 15, 1958)
Born in Lake Dick, Arkansas
Birth name was Lee Conley Bradley
Blues singer, guitarist and songwriter
Songs include 'Big Bill's Blues,' 'I Can't Be Satisfied,' 'C.C. Rider,' 'Midnight Special,' 'Matchbox Blues,' 'Rockin Chair Blues,' 'Key to the Highway,' 'Guitar Shuffle' and 'Black, Brown and White Blues'
Member of the first class of inductees into the Blues Hall of Fame (1980)

Why he might be annoying:

He kept changing the details when he talked about his past. (Or as one biographer put it, 'He treated his life story as a set of fluid possibilities as opposed to fixed events.')
His last name was misspelled 'Broomsley' on several early records.
He temporarily retired from music to become a janitor at Iowa State University (1949)
While touring Europe in the 50s, he had a son out of wedlock with a Dutch woman.

Why he might not be annoying:

He appeared at the legendary 'From Spirituals to Swing' concerts at Carnegie Hall as a replacement for the late Robert Johnson (1938).
He successfully made the transitions from country blues to urban blues to folk music.
Ronnie Wood called Broonzy's 'Guitar Shuffle' his favorite guitar song, adding 'It was one of the first tracks I learned to play, but even to this day I can't play it exactly right.'
The pallbearers at his funeral were chosen to be half black and half white, and included blues great Muddy Waters and historian Studs Terkel.
His song about race relations, 'Black, Brown and White Blues,' was paraphrased by Rev. Joseph Lowery at the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Blues Musicians
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 40]
• Folk Singers
• I Covered 'Frankie and Johnny'
• I Covered 'Stagger Lee'
• I Died in 1958 (Ranked: 55)
• I Fathered Children Out of Wedlock
• I Have Throat Cancer
• I Performed at 'From Spirituals to Swing'
• I Retired, Just Kidding
• My Music was Lost in the 2008 Universal Studios Fire
• Profiles 32251-32500 (Ranked: 32474)
• Triple Initial Alliteration

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying