Bessie Smith : Muddy Waters

Rotten Tomatoes

Bessie Smith died in Clarksville, Mississippi, in 1937, and it is said that 10,000 adoring fans attended her funeral. Amazing in view that as stated as fact, she was buried in an unmarked grave, and only got a tombstone later, many decades afterward from Janis Joplin, who was influenced so greatly by Bessie. The fact that she was buried with no tombstone after recording 160 songs, sounds so unfair to me. Bessie in a sense lives on in her music ,still inspiring many singers of the blues and artist of other genres as well. Bessie Smith truly was born into the blues and died in the blues. She is truly the Empress of the blues, who lived the blues from start to finish.

Empress of the Blues Vol.2

Love oh love my careless love

Careless Love is one of the most easily recognized blues. Listen to this 1925 version by Bessie Smith. The melody betrays itself in a couple notes.


Here's a lovely version by Odetta, with a nice gentle swing.


It isn't just women who sing this one, though. Here's Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Clint Howard and Fred Price doing an old tym-ee version.


Here's Mae Mercer. Notable here are her backup players, Sonny Boy Williamson (II), Willie Dixon and Memphis Slim.

There does not seem ......

to have been enough of Bessie recently.





Buy here
Empress of the Blues Vol.1
Empress of the Blues Vol.2
Empress of the Blues Vol. 3

Bessie, Billie & Ruth - Story by Sweet Baby J'ai

I love this video story by Sweet Baby J'ai, in it she tells the story of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Ruth Brown.

Bessie, Billie & Ruth

Classic Female Blues

The Classic Female Blues music is a part of the blues that I love to high light for many reasons. According to Wikipedia;

The classic female blues spanned from 1920 to 1929 with its peak from 1923 to 1925. The most popular of these singers were Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ida Cox, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter, Clara Smith, Edith Wilson, Trixie Smith, Lucille Hegamin and Bertha “Chippie” Hill. Hundreds of others recorded including Lizzie Miles, Sara Martin, Rosa Henderson, Martha Copeland, Bessie Jackson (Lucille Bogan), Edith Johnson, Katherine Baker, Margaret Johnson, Hattie Burleson, Madlyn Davis, Ivy Smith, Alberta Brown, Gladys Bentley, Billie and Ida Goodson, Fannie May Goosby, Bernice Edwards and Florence Mills.

They sang often backed behind their bands consisting of piano, several horns and drums. These women were pioneers in the record industry: they were among the first black singers recorded, they were the first blues singers recorded, and they were instrumental in spreading the 12-bar blues form throughout the country. In terms of performing, they often wore elaborate outfits and sang of the injustices of their lives, bonding with their audience’s sorrows. Their schedules were grueling, staying on the road most of the time with tent shows in the summer and theatres during the winter. With the crash of Wall Street in 1929, the popularity of the blues singers declined. Some went back home, took up jobs or moved to Hollywood. In the '60s with the blues revival, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter, Edith Wilson and Victoria Spivey returned to the stage.

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, from Georgia, was the “Mother of the Blues,” and lived from 1886–1939. She was the first woman to incorporate blues into her act of show songs and comedy. In 1902, she heard a woman singing about the man she’d lost, and quickly learned the song. From then on at each performance, she used it as her closing number calling it “the blues.” She recorded over 100 songs and wrote 24 of them herself. “Bessie Smith (and all the others who followed in time), wrote jazz historian Dan Morgenstern “learned their art and craft from Ma, directly or indirectly.” Young women followed Ma Rainey’s path in the tent show circuit, since black performers were not allowed to be in venues. Eventually most singers were booked on the T.O.B.A. (Theatre Owners Booking Association) circuit.

Books on Classic Female Blues

Albertson, Chris. Bessie. New York: Stein & Day Publishers, 1972. ISBN 0-300-09902-9

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. New York: Random House, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-679-77126-3

Harrison, Daphne Duval. Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the '20s. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8135-1279-4

Lieb, Sandra. Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. Amhearst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981. ISBN 0-87023-394-7

Placksin, Sally. American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present. Los Angeles: Wideview Books, 1982. ISBN 0-87223-756-7

Stewart-Baxter, Derrick. Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers. New York: Stein & Day Publishers, 1970. ISBN 0-8128-1321-9

Blues Postage Stamps

I've been trying to put together a post on blues postage stamps. You know, a little something something for the philatelists who read SML. Oh, and the bluesmen just call them stamp collectors.

But my ability to collect pictures of the blues stamps is not so good. I know that there are many more stamps then the few I have posted here.

Here is what I have come up with so far, I will update my collection when I find more photos of blues stamps.

If you know of any photos that I can post here let me know in a comment.

Bessie Smith Postage Stamp


Muddy Waters Postage Stamp


W.C. Handy Postage Stamp


Ma Rainey Postage Stamp


Josh White Postage Stamp


Robert Johnson Postage Stamp


The Robert Johnson Postage Stamp (I wish I could find a better image) is a really cool one because of the contraversy that sourounds it. It was made using the photo booth image (read all about it here). According to the article;

The cigarette that dangles from Johnson’s lips was famously removed at the order of the USPS, an interesting change that is analyzed in great detail in Patricia Schroeder’s excellent 2004 work Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture. In order to accommodate the dimensions of the stamp, Johnson’s guitar and hand are also moved slightly, and the drapery background of the original portrait becomes a wall of shingles in stamp designer Julian Allen’s version.

And others also called foul, and claimed that the postal service was Sanitizing History On a Postage Stamp.

In 1994 the United States Postal Service removed the cigarette from its picture of blues great Robert Johnson so no one would doubt where it stood on smoking.

Request From Down Under For Bessie Smith

A reader from Australia said, "I love reading your blog! As an Australian it's somewhat a gateway to a subculture of American blues."

This kind of jarred me out of this malaise that I am in (notice no updates since I don't know when).

He went on to request some Bessie Smith mp3s (because my old links are broken), though I am too lazy to actually post some myself or fix the broken links, I can oblige by doing a search and reporting my results and linking to them.

Over at the cool blog Badminton Stamps you can find an mp3 to one of my favorite Bessie Smith songs "Take Me For a Buggy Ride." I don't think this song is really about riding in a buggy, kind of like this blog is not named after the act of making lemon aid ;)

Speaking of Lemons, I now call Mrs. F my lemon. So it gives a whole nother meaning to "Squeeze My Lemon."

More links to blogs that have some Bessie Smith mp3s;

Louis Armstrong w/King Oliver featuring Bessie Smith - Big Butter and Egg Man
Album: High Society
Posted at: Lil Mike's Last Known Thoughts & Random Revelatons

Bessie Smith - Hustlin' Dan
Album: Moistworks Dan
Posted at: Moistworks

Bessie Smith
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Down Hearted Blues
- Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
Albums: Various
Posted at: Doors Of The Kingdom. This is an excellent post, you have to check it out, great write up and many mp3 links to download.

And finally, YouTube has some good Bessie Smith Links you can check them out here. Make sure you check out the "St. Louis Blues" Video, it is too cool. Also of note is the video, Careless love blues.

One of my favorite videos over at YouTube about Bessie Smith is not a song by Bessie Smith, but it is a song about Bessie Smith:

Norah Jones performs The Band's "Bessie Smith"

Bessie Smith MP3s

When I first started this blog I had it in mind to make it kind of like a calander. I did a lot of research on what happened in the world of blues on certain days of the year. And then I wanted to post an interesting blues
factoid and give an mp3 or video to match that date.

Did you know that today is the birthday of Charley Patton the "Father of Delta Blues" was born on May 1, in 1891. And it is also the birthday of noted harmonica player Little Walter born Marion Walter Jacobs on May 1 in 1930.

Then I kind of got off track. So I'm making up for not posting some of the events of April. That is why I have been posting the birthdates of some of the blues greats who were born during this month.

Which brings me to the fact that Apr 15, 1898 was the birthdate of one of the Queens of the blues, Mrs. Bessie Smith. To celebrate, please play these two mp3's.

You can read all about Bessie Smith here in these past entries here at SqueezeMyLemon,

Bessie Smith - Saint Louis Blues Video

Some other Mp3s By Bessie Smith

Mp3s are in red.

Bessie Smith - St. Luis Blues.mp3

Bessie Smith - Back Water Blues.mp3

file under;
music, blues, mp3, Bessie Smith

mp3s by Bessie Smith

Mrs. Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tenn. in 1894 she learned her craft working with the venerable Gertrude (Ma) Rainey. She was one of the earliest blues singers. She honed her considerable singing abilities working in traveling shows. She started her recording career in New York City, where she recorded more than 160 songs between 1323 and 1933. She worked with and recorded with jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins. She was even appeared in the 1929 movie St. Louis Blues.

She was called the “Empress of the Blues” because of her wonderful and powerful singing voice.

Like so many blues singers, the blues finally caught up with her. She died in a car accident while on tour in Mississippi in 1937.

"Down Hearted Blues" (3:24, 597kB) - Columbia 80863-5, New York City, 16 February 1923

"The St. Louis Blues" (3:10, 550kB) - Columbia 14064-D, New York City, 14 January 1925

"Cold in Hand Blues" (3:11, 558kB) - Columbia 14064-D, New York City, 14 January 1925

"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (2:57, 511kB) - Columbia 14451-D, New York City, 15 May 1929

"I'm Down in the Dumps" (3:10, 548kB) - Okeh 8495, New York City, 24 November, 1933


File under;
blues
Bessie Smith