Stick McGhee

Early life

McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. He received his nickname in his early years, when he would push his older brother Brownie McGhee (who was stricken with polio) in a wagon with a stick. Granville began playing the guitar when he was thirteen years old. After his freshman year, he dropped out of high school and worked with his father at Eastman Kodak. In 1940, Granville quit his job and moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, and then to New York City. There he entered the military in 1942 and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. In 1946, he was discharged and settled in New York.

Entertainment career

In the military, McGhee often played his guitar. One of the songs that he was best known for was "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee". The original lyrics of the song were as follows:

Drinkin’ that mess is our delight,
And when we get drunk, start fightin’ all night.
Knockin’ out windows and tearin’ down doors,
Drinkin’ half-gallons and callin’ for more.
Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine!
Goddam!
Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine!
Goddam!
Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine!
Goddam!
Pass that bottle to me!"

It was one of the earliest prototypical rock-and-roll songs. Cover versions were recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis and Mike Bloomfield's Electric Flag (as "Wine"). The song lent its name to the alcoholic fruit drink spodi. In 1946, Granville and Brownie McGhee collaborated and modified the song into a "clean" version for Harlem Records. The record was released a year later, in January 1947, at the price of 49 cents. It did not get much airplay until two years later, when Stick recreated the song for Atlantic Records. It was on the Billboard R&B chart for almost half a year, rising to number 2, where it stayed for four weeks.

Numerous cover versions of his songs were recorded over the years. The first cover was by Lionel Hampton, featuring Sonny Parker; next was a cover by Wynonie Harris, followed by a hillbilly-bop version by Loy Gordon & His Pleasant Valley Boys. "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" continued to be popular throughout the 1950s in cover versions by various artists, including Malcolm Yelvington in 1954, Johnny Burnette in 1957, and Jerry Lee Lewis in 1959.

McGhee continued to make records for Atlantic and created popular songs such as "Tennessee Waltz Blues", "Drank Up All the Wine Last Night", "Venus Blues", "Let's Do It", and "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show", but his music career overall was not successful. McGhee moved from Atlantic to Essex Records, for which he recorded "My Little Rose". The record was not commercially successful, so he moved to King Records in 1953. There he recorded a number of rock-and-roll songs, such a "Whiskey, Women and Loaded Dice", "Head Happy with Wine", "Jungle Juice", "Six to Eight", "Double Crossin' Liquor", "Dealin' from the Bottom", and "Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter". However, he was unable to make money from his records, so he left King for Savoy Records in 1955. He retired from the music industry in 1960, having lost his passion for music. In the late 50s McGhee recorded LP album tracks with Sonny Terry for the Folkways and Prestige-Bluesville record labels. In 1960 a New York session with Sonny Terry for Herald Records produced "Sleep In Job" and "Money Fever" on #553. This would be McGhee's last recording session. He became ill shortly afterward and died of cancer in August 1961.

Death

McGhee died of lung cancer in The Bronx, New York, on August 15, 1961, at the age of forty-three. He left his old guitar to Brownie's son before he died.