Feminist discourse in the lives and works of american blueswomen of the 1920s (part one)

This essay is not concerned with how the blues came to be, its historical connections with African immigrants, or its roots in other music idioms. It is concerned with a genre of the blues that was confined to the 1920s and exclusive to (usually black) women – how society helped shape that genre, and in turn how its major artists became spokeswomen and helped shape society through their music. Throughout the essay I will be referring to the lives, and to the texts and performances of the songs of specific blues women, as well as writings by women within the huge blues bibliography dominated by men. The blues women became icons to writers such as Daphne Duval Harrison (author of Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s) and Sandra Lieb (author of Mother of the Blues: Study of Ma Rainey), who consider them important because they demonstrated “the economic impact … on a major American industry and the evolution of the entertainment industry and its relationship to the development and promotion of the arts and artists” (Harrison, p.15). Harrison claims one of the aims of her book is to “clarify the role of black women in American history” (p.15) – a history documented mostly by white males, so in itself “Black Pearls” is a feminist statement. Where better to begin looking for evidence of “feminist discourse” in the lives and works of the blues singers of the 1920s?

There were well over one hundred women blues singers performing at any one time during the 1920s, and the most famous included Mamie Smith, Sippie Wallace, Ida Cox, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, all from different backgrounds and therefore all stylistically different. Ma Rainey’s style was rural and southern compared to Bessie Smith’s mostly urban based themes and vocal technique. Ida Cox sang vaudeville and dancehall) while the more sophisticated singers such as Alberta Hunter and Edith Wilson were cabaret-trained.

Women’s blues have been traced back as early as the turn of the century, and even then were known to be sung by women who had some control over men – Jelly Roll Morton commented on how prostitutes singing the blues in brothels around 1902, and T Bone Walker remembered how his mother used to sing the blues when she was alone. These early versions of the blues were probably a far cry from the commercially recorded songs of the 19205, but were no less influential. Women were important to the spread of men’s rural or country blues, since they were often forced to travel the country in search of work, taking into new areas a healthy tradition of local folksongs. Another reason for the migration of women away from the South into northern cities may have been due to new pleasures that were frowned upon by local churches such as whiskey joints and dancehalls. They moved to the larger cities in search of the hedonism heard about in folksongs and early blues songs, without the guilt that religion would lay on them. The reality was not as sweet though, and many blues women sang of the problems caused by excess alcohol and drugs, such as Bessie Smith’s famous “Gin Mill Blues”, Margaret Johnson’s “Dead Drunk Blues” and Victoria Spivey’s “Dope Head Blues”.

Victoria Spivey: Dope Head Blues

The young women who migrated to the cities at the age of 15 or 16 between 1915 and 1920 were the ones most Likely to become blues singers in the Twenties, and their first taste of the real world was in domestic jobs in kitchens or brothels, in contrast to the heavy labour of the men. Their experiences were therefore different and combined with cautionary tales from hardened women who were disillusioned by the cities and their men, these young girls grew up with a new consciousness that could help see them through the Twenties.

The words of the blues women were therefore not those of a southern black rural experience, they were sophisticated emotions, yet harsh and real in their delivery. When black women sang, they exorcised some of the feelings of rejection or sorrow they encountered in everyday Life, so it seemed only natural that they should sing the blues. Harrison wrote “Men mistreat the women that love them. Mistreating a woman may mean ignoring her, exploiting her sexually, taking her money, beating her, being unfaithful or abandoning her for no good reason, or (worst of all) another woman” (p.63).

Sandra Lieb agrees that their songs didn’t communicate historical details, but rather painted a picture of their everyday lives. Their Lyrics were an “essential truth about the black experience … poverty, suffering, heartbreak and pain (as well as humour, fortitude, strength and endurance)” (Lieb, p.82). Women’s blues were therefore paradoxical in that “the very act and mode of articulation demonstrates a toughness that releases, exhilarates and renews. The blues singer evokes, matches and intensifies the “blue” feeling of the listener in the very act of singing the blues” ( Harrison, p.66). In fact, articulateness was one of the most highly regarded qualities amongst the highly oppressed black community, as was strength of character and perseverance, qualities that were all evident in women’s blues. “The blues women expressed reality and enhanced the emotional impact of their experiences through the satire, irony and drama of their individual performance styles” ( Harrison, p.66). They therefore became icons of hope to downtrodden black women who realised that they had worked themselves out of similar hopeless situations. They were given titles to show this respect – Ma Rainey became “The Mother Of The Blues” and Bessie Smith became “Queen Of The Blues” or “Empress Of The Blues”. The way that they dressed reinforced this image. They looked “regal in satins, laces, sequins and beads, and feather boas trailing from their bronze or peaches and-cream shoulders (and) wore tiaras that sparkled in the lights” (Harrison, p.222).

“Variations in their experiences were often reflected in their treatment of themes” ( Harrison, p.67). So what did they sing about, and were there any common themes that suggested shared experiences?

Bessie Smith rarely sang politically-charged lyrics, racial or social issues were discussed in very little of her total recorded output. Edward Brookes states that there was political apathy amongst black Americans in the 1920s and early 30s (p.xvi) which is unusual considering that the Ku Klux Klan was at its strongest since the Reconstruction. Was Bessie Smith’s lack of political lyrics a product of this apathy, or merely a Limitation imposed on her by white record company bosses? “Poor Man’s Blues” is one song in which her political voice is heard. A protest song about social conditions, “Poor Man’s Blues” is full of metaphors, the “poor man” symbolising the black Americans, therefore the “rich man” by association symbolising whites. The lyrics condemn white Americans for a string of broken promises throughout their history, from slavery to the economic slavery of the Reconstruction, to the injustices of the First World War when black women lost factory jobs because white women refused to work with them, or when the men returned from the war to reclaim their posts. From Bessie Smith’s “Poor Man’s Blues” – “If it wasn’t for the poor man, Mr. Rich Man what would you do?” The fact that the statement comes from a woman makes it seem even more bold and shocking, and was surely a boost to black consciousness.

Ma Rainey seemed specific about the themes of her songs. She ignored many major events in life such as “birth and motherhood, childhood and children, adolescence, family relations, old age (except for an occasional mocking reference) and formal religion or church affairs” (Lieb, p.81). These were all important parts of everyday life, yet Rainey chose not to sing about them, downplaying their importance by failing to acknowledge their existence, concentrating instead on things that really mattered to modern black American women – love and sex. These omissions are also true of men’s blues, but their absence seems more conspicuous in women’s blues since it seems a feminist statement in itself.

Read more about Ma Rainey at Wikipedia. Stream or download some of her recordings at the Internet Archive or listen below.

Ma Rainey: Booze and Blues