Pink
Anderson was born in Lawrence, South Carolina, on the 12th of
February 1900, and was raised in Spartanburg in the northwestern
part of South Carolina. He first went on the road at age fourteen,
employed by a Dr. Kerr of the Indian Remedy Company. In the early
1900’s, pitchmen such as this would travel from town to town with a
‘Medicine show’. Musicians attracted attention to the cart, from which
the ‘doctor’ would sell a most miraculous elixir, available today only
for the paltry sum of one dollar-step-right-up.
Pink
travelled with Kerr until 1945, when the good doctor retired. In the early
days Pink sang a little, danced and told a few jokes: ‘I couldn’t play
nothing but ‘bastopol’ tuning when I started on guitar. You know,
“John Henry” and songs like that.’
In
1916 Pink met Simmie Dooley, a blind singer much older than himself,
living in Spartanburg. With Simmie he became a blues singer. When Pink
wasn’t out with the Indian Remedy Company, he and Simmie played at
picnics and parties in small towns around Spartanburg, like Woodruff and
Roebuck.
Pink’s
musical life with Simmie was very different from his stage life. They’d
go into the woods to practise, usually with a bottle of corn Whiskey to
help their throats, and Simmie would sing the songs over and over until
Pink got the chords. Sometimes Simmie would cut a switch and hit at
Pink’s hands if he kept missing a change.
Pink
recalled playing at a country club party, after he’d spent the entire
day sitting on a log in the woods behind the golf course trying to learn
the chords for ‘The stars and stripes forever’. His hands were so
swollen from Simmie’s switch that he could hardly play.
With Simmie, Pink made his first recordings: two sides for the old Columbia
1400 series, made in Atlanta in the late ‘20s. Columbia tried to get him
into the studio again without Simmie, but Pink refuse, and it was not
until the early ‘50s that Paul Clayton heard him playing at a fair and
recorded him again, doing a group of his favourite medicine show tunes.
After
Dr. Kerr’s retirement in 1945, Pink worked less and less, preferring to
stay near his home in Spartanburg. He kept a small guitar, washboard and
harmonica trio working until 1957, when heart troubled forced him into
retirement.
After
Simmie’s death in December 1960, Pink made a few recordings, including
his appearance in a film called The Bluesmen (1963). Otherwise, he
mainly played for friends, and taught songs to his son.
Pink
Anderson died in 1974.
ALBUMS
American Street Songs - Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson - Riverside RLP 12-611 (Carolina Street Ballads: "John Henry" - "Everyday In The Week" - "The Ship Titanic" - "Greasy Greens" - "Wreck Of The Old 97" - "I've Got Mine" - "He's In The Jailhouse Now") - Pink Anderson (recorded May 29 1950 by Paul Clayton) Pink Anderson: Vol. 1 Carolina Bluesman (1961) Prestige/Bluesville BV 1038 ("My Baby Left Me This Morning" - "Baby, Please Don't Go" - "Mama Where Did You Stay Last Night" - "Big House Blues" - "Meet Me In The Bottom" - "Weeping Willow Blues" - "Baby I'm Going Away" - "Thousand Woman Blues" - "I Had My Fun" - "Every Day In The Week" - "Try Some Of That") Pink Anderson: Carolina Medicine Show Hokum & Blues with Baby Tate (1962) Folkways Records FS 3588 ("You Don't Know My Mind" - "That's No Way To Do" - "Weeping Willow Blues" - "Meet Me in The Bottom" - "I Got a Woman 'Cross Town" - "Greasy Greens" - "Boweevil" - "Chicken" - "He's In The Jailhouse Now" - "The Titanic" - "The Boys Of Your Uncle Sam" - "Baby Tate" - "See What You Done Done") (recorded live in Spartanburg, 1961-62 by Samuel Charters) Pink Anderson: Vol. 2 Medicine Show Man (1962)Prestige/Bluesville BV 1051 / OBCCD-587-2 ("I Got Mine" - "Greasy Greens" - "I Got A Woman 'Way Cross Town" - "Travelin' Man" - "Ain't Nobody Home But Me" - "That's No Way To Do" - "In The Jailhouse Now" - "South Forest Boogie" - "Chicken" - "I'm Going To Walk Through the Streets Of...") The Blues Of Pink Anderson: Ballad & Folksinger, Vol. 3 (1963) Prestige/Bluesville BV 1071 / OBCCD 577-1 ("The Titanic" - "Boweevil" - "John Henry" - "Betty And Dupree" - "Sugar Babe" - "The Wreck Of The Old 97" - "I Will Fly Away" - "The Kaiser" - "In The Evening")
SINGLES
"Papa's About To Get Mad" / "Gonna Tip Out Tonight" - Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley (recorded 14 April 1928) - Columbia 14336-D "Every Day In The Week Blues" / "C.C. And O. Blues" - Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley (recorded 14 April 1928) - Columbia 14400-D
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