"Scarface" John Williams

"Scarface" John Williams (October 19, 1938 – March 4, 1972) was an American R&B singer and Mardi Gras Indian. He performed with the New Orleans band Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns.

Early years John Williams was born October 19, 1938, to Mary Palmer, aged sixteen from Port Allen, Louisiana. Mary was forced to give the infant away at five days old to Adelle "Della" Gatlin Williams. He was raised by Della and her husband Lucius Williams on Terpsichore Street in uptown New Orleans. According to John Williams' daughter Deborah, "Lucius was a laborer. John's mother Adelle influenced him musically because she sang and played guitar and piano. It was told to me that she once played piano for Mahalia Jackson. My father's mother was very religious and only sang gospel music, sometimes on street corners in the French Quarter. She never recorded, just travelled everywhere to spread the gospel." Deborah Williams related to author John Broven, "I think my grandmother influenced John the most because my mother, Mary Marks, said that my grandmother told my father, 'You are meant to sing', and she didn't want him to have a regular job – she didn't want him to do anything but just that. By the age of 18 he was performing.

Career Huey Smith recruited eighteen-year-old "Scarface" John Williams and Sidney Rayfield (Huey's barber) to join him and sometime vocalist Bobby Marchan in the newly formed Huey Smith and the Clowns. The band was signed to a long-term contract with Ace Records. In early 1957, Huey recorded the song with which he's most identified – "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu". On the session, in addition to Smith on piano, were sax man Lee Allen, Earl King on guitar, Frank Fields on bass, and Charles "Hungry" Williams on drums. Not caring for the sound of his own voice, Huey instructed John Williams to move nearer to the mic. "Get in closer John," he said. "I'm trying to get a hit out of this." sang lead or back-up vocals in various Clown configurations. Huey Smith had an open-minded approach to who sang lead vocals. "Some things like 'Beatnik Blues', 'Genevieve', I figure John Williams can do better than Bobby (Marchan)," Huey said.

Williams was among the many Clowns who left to pursue a solo career, including Curley Moore, Gerri Hall, Bobby Marchan, Issachar "Junior" "Izzycoo" Gordon, and Raymond Lewis among others. John Williams, James Black, and Eugene Harris left the Clowns in the early 1960s to form the Tick-Tocks. They first recorded with Bobby Marchan as Bobby Marchan and the Tick Tocks for Bobby Robinson's Fury Records in 1960. In 1962 they recorded for Robinson's Enjoy Records as the Tick-Tocks, and Rush Records as Johnny Williams and the Tic Tocs. From 1966 through 1967 John Williams & the Tick Tocks recorded for Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn's Sansu Records.

A new Huey Smith and the Clowns recording of "Rocking Pneumonia"- featuring original vocalist "Scarface" John Williams- came out on Atlantic Records subsidiary label Cotillion Records in 1972. It had been recorded along with remakes "High Blood Pressure", "Don't You Just Know It", and "We Like Mambo" in 1970. Williams, was a member of the Apache Hunters Mardi Gras Indian tribe, and "We Like Mambo" contained Indian references.

Brother John Is Gone The song "Brother John", first recorded by the Wild Tchoupitoulas, was adapted from street lore by Cyril Neville as a eulogy to "Scarface" John Williams. Chief Jolly (George Landry) of the Wild Tchoupitoulas stated that it was in 1972 that Williams "got stabbed to death outside a bar at St. Andrew and Rampart. It was right after Carnival when he died. So they made up a song about him, just made up- out in the streets."

Cyril Neville's lyrics refer to "Brother John" as "a mighty brave, with a heart of steel" who "never would bow and he never would kneel". The reference to Cora in the song refers to "Corrine Died On The Battlefield" a song by Danny Barker, based on a story Barker had heard of a woman killed in a much earlier Indian altercation. According to Paul Longpre, former Chief of the Golden Blades, Cora Anne was a Queen who masked with the Battlefield Hunters. "She got killed in '27 or '28 at the Magnolia bridge... She got caught in a crossfire between the Hunters and the Wild Squatoolas."

On March 4, 1972, just eighteen days after Mardi Gras, "Scarface" John Williams, the 33-year-old chief of the Apache Hunters, was stabbed in the heart as he tried to stop a fight at a Dryades St. bar in New Orleans. The incident happened a few blocks from Sidney Rayfield's barbershop. Rayfield ran to the scene and lifted his fellow Clown from the gutter. Williams, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on March 5, 1972, "wounded in the chest and neck, was pronounced dead on the scene. A seven-inch butcher knife was used." John's wife, Mary, remembered seeing his body lying by a street drainage portal. "The blood was running down the drain," she said. "The blood stayed in that spot for years. Even the rain didn't wash it away."

Discography "Snoopin' And Accusing" b/w "This Is The Life" by Bobby Marchan and the Tick Tocks - Fire 1014 (1960) "Stop" b/w "True By You" by the Tic Tocs featuring Johnny Williams - Rush 1042 (1961) "Mary" b/w "I'm Gonna Get You Yet" by the Tick Tocks - Enjoy 1006 (1962) "A Little Tighter" b/w "Operation Heartache" by John Williams and the Tick Tocks - Sansu 459 (1966) "Blues, Tears and Sorrow" b/w "Do Me Like You Do Me" by John Williams and the Tick Tocks - Sansu 472 (1967) "Mary" and "Is It Too Late" from Gumbo Stew (Original A.F.O. New Orleans R&B) - Ace U.K. CDCHD 450 (1993) "Gonna Get You Yet" from More Gumbo Stew (More A.F.O. New Orleans R&B) - Ace U.K. CDCHD 462 (1993) "Somebody's Got To Go" from Still Spicy Gumbo Stew (Original A.F.O. New Orleans R&B) - Ace U.K. CDCHD 520 (1994) "Do Me Like You Do Me", "Operation Heartache", "A Little Tighter", and "Blues, Tears and Sorrow" from Get Low Down! The Soul of New Orleans '65–'67 - Sundazed SC 11094 (2001)