MUS 15: Blues and the American Century

Lecture 5: Blues Queens

Sample question

● According to Fields, true or false:– “Racial prejudice, endemic to the culture of the

antebellum South, was the single most important driver of racial domestic policy in 19th Century USA.”

Emerging market

● “fourteen million black people, thousands of Southern whites who had enjoyed minstrelsy for years, and urban audiences of both races who liked vaudeville and cabaret.”– Sandra Lieb, Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma

Rainey, p. 20

Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA)

● “Demand for black entertainment came from a black population that was on the move geographically and economically at the turn of the century.” (Daphne Harrison, Black Pearls, p. 18)

● Urban black populations, in both north and south, swell at 20th cent.

● Founded by Anselmo Barrass in 1909● Exploitation of black labor, including musical.● TOBA either laudable or despicable, depending on your

prestige as an artist.

Mamie Smith (1843-1946)

● Perry Bradford, WC Handy had been trying to convince record companies to make records for black consumers. Eventually convinces Okeh Records (subsidiary of General Phongraph).

● That Thing Called Love, 1920● You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down, 1920

– Sold 100,000 – huge

● Crazy Blues, 1920– First blues recording

– Sold incredibly well; paves way for “race record” genre.

Mean Daddy Blues, 1921

● Elements of pop and blues

Flood of artists post-Crazy Blues

● Columbia signs Mary Stafford in 1921– Mary Stafford, Crazy Blues, 1921

– “first colored girl to sing for Columbia”

● Cardinal signs Ethel Waters● Emerson signs Lillyn Brown:

Jazz-me Blues (1921)● Arto signs Lucille Hegamin

Pace Phonograph Company: Black Swan recordings

● Black owned – opens in May 1921, releases recordings by Ethel Waters (Down Home Blues), acquired by Paramount in 1923.

Rabbit Foot Minstrels

● Pat Chapelle → Fred Swift Wolcott, owners● Alumnae:

– Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Bessie Smith

Gertrude Pridgett -- “Ma” Rainey (1886 - 1939)

● Moniker comes from routine in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels with her husband, Will “Pa” Rainey.

● “Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues”● The “Foots” were southern – never played in the North.

– Comedy, dance, contortionist, “the Faust act,”

● By the time of her first recording, by paramount in 1923, she’d already been performing for 25 years.

● “Gertrude Rainey was one of the last of the great Negro minstrel artists, and definitely one of the first to feature blues as such (around 1902) on the stage.” – (Derrick Stewart Baxter, Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers, p. 38)

Ma Rainey● Performing what?

– 1. chorus dance number

– 2. skit, e.g. impersonation of Japanese people, or a live chicken onstage.

– 3. fast number, usually sung by a “soubrette”

– 4. another skit

– 5. Ma Rainey: jokes about sex, then song.● “pig meat,” “bird liver”

● A good man is hard to find, or “walking the dog”, ending with “See see rider blues” as a showstopper● Brief retirement to mexico in 1921? ● 1923 Moonshine Blues● Professional; advocated for fair pay (TOBA was known to be stingy), helped new talent (including Bessie Smith)

– Legend: kidnaps her in chatanooga, teaches her to sing the blues.

– Hard to know the truth about this relationship

● Made 92 recordings! None are high quality (paramount records)● Recorded with top jazz musicians (Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Tommy Dorsey, etc):

See See Rider Blues, 1925● Retires to Columbus, GA, and runs two theaters.

See See Rider Blues

I'm so unhappyI feel so blueI always feel so sadI made a mistakeRight from the startOh, it seems so hard to partOh, but this letterThat I will writeI hope he will rememberWhen he receive' it

Seeee see, riderSee what you done doneLawd, lawd, lawd.

Made me love youNow your girl done comeYou made me love youNow your gal done come

I'm go'n away, babyWon't be back till fallLawd, lawd, lawdGo'n away, babyWon't be back till fallIf I find me a good manI won't be back at all

I'm gonna buy me a pistolJust as long as I am tallLawd, lawd, lawdGonna kill my man andCatch the Cannonball. If he don't have meHe won't have no gal at all

These Dogs of Mine, 1924Look-a here people, listen to me,

Believe me I'm telling the truth.

If your corns hurt you just like mine,

You'd say the same words too.

Out for a walk, I stopped to talk,

Oh how my corns dis burn,

I had to keep on the shaded side of the street,

To keep out light of the sun.

Oh Lawdy these dogs of mine,

They goin' to worry me all the time.

The reason why I don't know,

Sometimes I soak 'em in sapolio*,

Lord I've begged to B.Q.**,

I can't wear me no sharpnosed shoes.

Oh Lordy how the sun do shine,

Down on all of these hounds of mine.

Jealous Hearted Blues, 1924You can have my money, baby, everything I ownBut for God sakes leave my man alone

'cause I'm jealous, jealousJealous hearted meLord I'm just jealousJealous as I can be

It takes a rocking chair to rock, a rubber ball to rollTakes a man I love to satisfy my soul

Yes I'm jealous, jealousJealous hearted meLord I'm just jealousJealous as I can be

Got a range in my kitchen, cooks nice and brownAll I need is my man, to turn my damper down

Because I'm jealous, jealousJealous hearted meLord I'm just jealousJealous as I can be

Going to buy me a bulldog, to watch him while I sleepJust to keep my man from making his midnight creep

Yes I'm jealous, jealousJealous hearted meLord I'm just jealousJealous as I can be

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, 1927

Now, you heard the restAh, boys, I'm gonna show you the bestMa Rainey's gonna show you her black bottom

Way down south in AlabamyI got a friend, they call dancin' SammyWho's crazy about all the latest dancesBlack bottom stomps and the Jew baby prances

The other night at a swell affairSoon as the boys found out that I was thereThey said, "Come on, Ma let's go to the cabaret"Where that band you ought to hear me say"

I want to see that dance you call the black bottomI wanna learn that danceDon't you see the dance you call your big black bottomThat'll put you in a trance

All the boys in the neighborhoodThey say your black bottom is really goodCome on and show me your black bottomI want to learn that dance

I want to see the dance you call the black bottomI want to learn that danceCome on and show that dance you call your big black bottomIt puts you in a trance

Early last morning 'bout the break of dayGrandpa told my grandma, I heard him sayGet up and show your old man your black bottomI want to learn that dance

Now I'm gonna show y'all my black bottomThey stay to see that danceWait until you see me do my big black bottomI'll put you in a trance

Ah, do it ma, do it, honeyLook it now Ma, you gettin' kinda rough hereYou gotta be yourself now, careful nowNot too strong, not too strong, Ma

I done shown y'all my black bottomYou ought to learn that dance

Prove it on me Blues (1928)Went out last night, had a great big fightEverything seemed to go on wrongI looked up, to my surpriseThe gal I was with was gone

Where she went, I don't knowI mean to follow everywhere she goes;Folks say I'm crooked. I didn't know where she took itI want the whole world to know

They say I do it, ain't nobody caught meSure got to prove it on me;Went out last night with a crowd of my friendsThey must've been women, 'cause I don't like no menprove it on me

It's true I wear a collar and a tieMakes the wind blow all the whileDon't you say I do it, ain't nobody caught meYou sure got to prove it on me

Say I do it, ain't nobody caught meSure got to prove it on me

I went out last night with a crowd of my friendsIt must've been women, 'cause I don't like no menWear my clothes just like a fanTalk to the gals just like any old man

Cause they say I do it, ain't nobody caught meSure got to prove it on me

Technology

● Bessie Smith: Columbia Records (after 1925, licensed Western Electric equipment)

● Ma Rainey: Paramount (in Chicago), plus the defects of reissues, which are also not always high quality.

Bessie Smith (1894 - 1937)

● Begins career as a dancer; as a TOBA performer, and apprentice to Ma Rainey, does comedy as well as song and dance

● Death: car accident...racism? (cf. James Baldwin) ● Downhearted Blues (1923)● Gulf Coast Blues (1923)● Cemetary Blues (1923)● Gin House Blues (1926) – lyrics

– “Gin House Blues is a real Gin house” (Baldwin)

● After you’ve gone (1927)– Compare with Ruth Etting’s recording (also 1927)

● Poor Man’s Blues (1928)

Bessie Smith, Backwater Blues

● lyrics● song● John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and

How it Changed America.● Davis:

– “The seasonal rains causing the Mississippi River to flood...are part of the unalterable course of nature, but the sufferings of untold numbers of black people who lived in towns and the countryside along the river were attributable to racism. Black people were often considered expendable, and their communities were forced to take the overflow of backwaters in order to reduce the pressure on the levees. While most white people remained safe, black people suffered the wrath of the Mississippi.” (109)

Empty Bed Blues (1928)

I woke up this morning with an awful aching headI woke up this morning with an awful aching headMy new man had left me just a room and an empty bed

Bought me a coffee grinder, got the best one I could findBought me a coffee grinder, got the best one I could findSo he could grind my coffee, 'cause he had a brand new grind

He's a deep-sea diver, with a stroke that can't go wrongHe's a deep-sea diver, with a stroke that can't go wrongHe can touch the bottom, and his wind holds out so long

He knows how to thrill me and he thrills me night and dayOh, he knows how to thrill me and he thrills me night and dayHe's got a new way of loving, almost takes my breath away

Oh, he's got that sweet something and I told my girlfriend LouHe's got that sweet something and I told my girlfriend LouBut the way she's ravin', she must have gone and tried it too

When my bed get empty, make me feel awful mean and blueWhen my bed get empty, make me feel awful mean and blueMy springs are getting' rusty, sleepin' single like I do

Bought him a blanket, pillow for his head at nightBought him a blanket, pillow for his head at nightAnd I bought him a mattress, so he could lay just right

He came home one evening with his spirit way up highHe came home one evening with his spirit way up highWhat he had to give me, made me ring my hands and cry

He give me a lesson that I never had beforeHe give me a lesson that I never had beforeWhen he got through teachin' me, from my elbow down was sore

He boiled my first cabbage and he made it awful hotHe boiled my first cabbage and he made it awful hotWhen he put in the bacon, it overflowed the pot

When you get good lovin', never go and spread the newsWhen you get good lovin', never go and spread the newsIt'll build up to cross you, and leave you with them empty bed blues

[Verse 1]My heart is sad and I'm all aloneMy man's treating me meanI regret the day that I was bornAnd the man I ever seenMy happiness is less todayMy heart is broke, that's why I say

[Chorus:]Lord, a good man is hard to findYou always get another kindJust when you think that he's your palYou look and find him foolin' 'round some old galThen you rave, you all craveYou want to see him in his graveSo if your man is nice, take my advice;Hug him in the morning, kiss him at nightGive him plenty lovin'; treat your good man rightOh, a good man is so hard to find

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Country Blues

● Beulah “Sippie” Wallac, “Shorty George,” 1923● –, “Up the Country Blues” (1923)● Victoria Spivey, “Black Snake Blues” (1926)

Sex and Lesbianism

● Rainey (Prove it on me blues)● Lucille Bogan

– Women won’t need no men (1927)

– BD Woman’s Blues (1935)

– Shave em Dry (1935)● lyrics

cf. Ma Rainey’s Version

Protest?

● Angela Davis, “Blame it on the Blues: Bessie Smith, Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, and the Politics of Protest,” in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism

● “There is little social protest in the blues.” (Samuel Charters)

● “The number of protest blues is small...” (Paul Oliver)

Washwoman’s Blues

All day long, I’m slaving, all day long, I’m bustin sudsGee my hands are tired, wasin out these dirty duds

Lord, I do more work than forty’leven gold dust twins(X2)Got myself a achin from my head down to my shins

Sorry I do washin just to make my livelihoodOh the washwoman’s life, it ain’t a bit of good.

Rather be a scullion cookin in some white folks yard,I could eat up plenty, wouldn’t have to work so hard

Angela Davis on Washwoman

● “There is equivocation in these words, a light and scathing irony – a hint of protest. The washwoman is saying that her occupational possibilities are so restricted that the only other jabs available to her would require her to be a servant...we hear veiled protest of the social conditions that create such objective impasses in the lives of black people.” (Davis, p. 100)

Davis

● “A critical aesthetic representation of a social problem must be understood as constituting powerful social and political acts.”

● Ma Rainey, Chaingang BluesThe judge found me guilty, the clerk he wrote it down The judge found me guilty, the clerk he wrote it down Just a poor gal in trouble, I know I'm county road bound

Many days of sorrow, many nights of woeMany days of sorrow, many nights of woeAnd a ball and chain everywhere I go

Chains on my feet, padlock on my hand Chains on my feet, padlock on my handIt's all on account of stealing a woman's man

It was early this morning that I had my trialIt was early this morning that I had my trialNinety days on the county road, and judge didn't even smile.

Convict Labor

● It can be readily understood why this system is so much more vicious than was the old slave system. In a regular slave system, the owner might have such selfish interest in the slave as any man may have in the preservation of valuable property. But in the convict lease system of Georgia, it is to the landlord’s advantage to put the least into the Negro and get the most out of him whom he owns for a limited time only.”– William Pickens, writing in an ACLU pamphlet from 1921

(quoted in Davis, p. 103)

Davis

● “Black people throughout the south who listen to rainey perform “Chain Gang Blues” and who were all too familiar with the chain gang and convict lease systems, likely would have interprete this song as a deeply felt protest aimed at the racism and sexism of the criminal justice system.” (104)

Flood songs

● Blind Lemon, Rising High Water Blues● Barbecue Bob, Mississippi Heavy Water Blues● Charley Patton, High Water Everywhere

Davis

● “<The blues> are certainly far more than complaint, for they begin to articulate a consciousness that takes into account social conditions of class exploitation, racism, and male dominance...while there may not be a direct line to social activism, activist stances are inconceivable without the consciousness that such songs suggest.”

Bessie Smith, Young Woman’s Blues (1926)

Woke up this mornin' when chickens was crowin' for dayFelt on the right side of my pilla', my man gad gone awayBy this pilla' he left a note readin', "I'm sorry, Jane, you got my goatNo time to marry, no time to settle down"I'm a young woman and ain't done runnin' 'roundI'm a young woman and ain't done runnin' 'roundSome people call me a HoboSome call me a bumNobody knows my name, nobody knows what I've doneI'm as good as any woman in your townI ain't no high yellerI'm a deep killer of brownI ain't gonna marry, ain't gonna settle downI'm gonna drink good MoonshineAnd rub these browns downSee that long lonesome roadLawd, you know it's gotta and I'm a good woman and I can get plenty men

Empty Bed Blues (1928)

I woke up this morning with an awful aching headI woke up this morning with an awful aching headMy new man had left me just a room and an empty bed

Bought me a coffee grinder, got the best one I could findBought me a coffee grinder, got the best one I could findSo he could grind my coffee, 'cause he had a brand new grind

He's a deep-sea diver, with a stroke that can't go wrongHe's a deep-sea diver, with a stroke that can't go wrongHe can touch the bottom, and his wind holds out so long

He knows how to thrill me and he thrills me night and dayOh, he knows how to thrill me and he thrills me night and dayHe's got a new way of loving, almost takes my breath away

Oh, he's got that sweet something and I told my girlfriend LouHe's got that sweet something and I told my girlfriend LouBut the way she's ravin', she must have gone and tried it too

When my bed get empty, make me feel awful mean and blueWhen my bed get empty, make me feel awful mean and blueMy springs are getting' rusty, sleepin' single like I do

Bought him a blanket, pillow for his head at nightBought him a blanket, pillow for his head at nightAnd I bought him a mattress, so he could lay just right

He came home one evening with his spirit way up highHe came home one evening with his spirit way up highWhat he had to give me, made me ring my hands and cry

He give me a lesson that I never had beforeHe give me a lesson that I never had beforeWhen he got through teachin' me, from my elbow down was sore

He boiled my first cabbage and he made it awful hotHe boiled my first cabbage and he made it awful hotWhen he put in the bacon, it overflowed the pot

When you get good lovin', never go and spread the newsWhen you get good lovin', never go and spread the newsIt'll build up to cross you, and leave you with them empty bed blues

[Verse 1]My heart is sad and I'm all aloneMy man's treating me meanI regret the day that I was bornAnd the man I ever seenMy happiness is less todayMy heart is broke, that's why I say

[Chorus:]Lord, a good man is hard to findYou always get another kindJust when you think that he's your palYou look and find him foolin' 'round some old galThen you rave, you all craveYou want to see him in his graveSo if your man is nice, take my advice;Hug him in the morning, kiss him at nightGive him plenty lovin'; treat your good man rightOh, a good man is so hard to find

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Poor Man’s Blues

Mister Rich Man, Rich ManOpen up your heart and mindMister Rich Man, Rich ManOpen up your heart and mindGive the poor man a chanceHelp stop these hard, hard time

While you livin' in your mansionYou don't know what hard time meansWhile you livin' in your mansionYou don't know what hard time meansOh, workin' man's wife is starvin'Your wife is livin' like a queen

Please, listen to my pleadin''Cause I can't stand these hard time longOh, listen to my pleadin'Can't stand these hard time longThey'll make an honest man do thingsThat you know is wrong

All man fought all the battlesAll man would fight again todayAll man fought all the battlesAll man would fight again todayHe would do anything you ask himIn the name of the U.S.A

Now the war is overAll man must live the same as youNow the war is overAll man must live the same as youIf it wasn't for the poor manMister Rich Man what would you do?

Ida Cox (1896 - 1967)

● Tours with same minstrel and tent shows in the 1910s as Ma Rainey.

● Thematic material: death● Graveyard Dream Blues, 1923● Coffin Blues, 1925● Graveyard Bound Blues, (1924?)