Bessie Smith and the Role of Women in the Blues - Research Paper Example

The Blues: Bessie Smith and the role of women in the Blues. From the beginning, the Blues was a genre associated with African American working culture, and within that culture social relations between men and women took a different turn than in the majority white American society. A key feature of the early Blues period in the 1920s and 1930s was the rise of a number of strong female artists, not least the “Empress of the Blues”: Bessie Smith. This paper traces the origins of Bessie Smith and her music, and demonstrates how she provided a useful and necessary contrast to prevailing concepts of womanhood in America at that time. Bessie Smith was born to a poor African American family in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was brought up by her older sister because her parents both died very young. This hard start in life, moving from house to house without a stable home environment, is the classic stuff of the Blues, and she got involved in singing with other family members initially as a way to earn money to feed herself and her siblings. Many details about Bessie’s early life are not known, and this is mainly because the lives of black people were often not considered remarkable enough to be documented accurately. Evidence of her school career and early singing activities is, for example sketchy. It is likely that she experienced singing in the Church, since her father was a part time preacher as well as a day labourer, and in the street, since that is where she would have spent a lot of time as a child. It appears that Bessie started her performing career with her brother in the streets near her home, and then gradually progressing to various roles in Vaudeville and travelling “tent shows” which appeared frequently in Chattanooga due to the town’s strong connections with railway companies. (Scott, 2008, p. 92) Much of this early work was in supporting roles, such as chorus singing. As a young woman without parents to chaperone her, Bessie had a freedom to experience all the excitement, and of course the danger and immorality, that surrounded the music scene in the black communities of the South. Bessie’s singing talent and huge personality made an impression with music publishers and soon she began to record songs made famous by other female singers like Ma Rainey, adding her own personal style, and incidentally creating a fashion for “cover” records which then took hold of the music publishing world. (Davis, 1995, p. 76) Although Bessie Smith died tragically in an automobile accident at the age of only forty three, she was one of the most distinctive voices of the early Blues period. Bessie Smith’s singing talent was the key to her success but added to this was her larger than life personality and her commanding physique. As a large and confident black woman she dressed lavishly and obviously enjoyed the star status that her career had brought her. The beauty that she had was of a different kind than the ideals of the age: instead of the slim and tailored look that professional women chose, Bessie opted for flamboyant styles and exuberant colors. This was not a woman who could be easily overlooked in a room full of people. Her voice was loud and deep, but with a very subtle flexibility that made it ideal for the nuances of sadness that the early Blues lyrics required. Bessie sang the popular blues songs of the day, most famously the title song “St Louis Blues” for the famous film of that name, but she also wrote her own material which indicated an assertive, rebellious, and very womanly perspective on the world. The lyrics to her song, “Young Woman’s Blues” for example, promote the lifestyle of a wandering singer, deliberately choosing to reject conformity and the attractions of respectable married life, which emulated white society’s standards: “I’m as good as any woman in your town, I ain’t no high yella, I’m a deep killer brown. “I ain’t gonna marry, ain’t gon’ settle down. I’m gon’ drink good moonshine and run these browns down.” (Bessie Smith, quoted in Scott, 2008, p. 135) The term “high yella” refers to the way that some black people with lighter skin aspired to pass as white people, and to the tendency in those days to link skin color with class, a notion which she obviously rejects with gusto in this song. The reference to moonshine and later in the song to the fact that she “can get plenty men” are not just copied from traditional Blues themes of alcohol and romantic conquest that the men sang. By all accounts Bessie lived out exactly this kind of life, having for years struggled with alcohol and being involved with a number of lovers, allegedly both male and female. These musical ideas challenge the notion that women have to be submissive and conform to strict moral codes in order to be respected. Bessie Smith celebrates the right for women to be different and to have all the freedoms that men take for granted. Bessie Smith became popular not only in the South which was to be expected, given her choice of material, but also in the north and with sophisticated white audiences, which was more surprising. Newspaper critics gave her very positive reviews, citing not only the music but the down-to-earth stage persona of the singer, for example, who provided many encores, with little dance steps in between, before “announcing breathlessly that she was tired and that she was too fat for that sort of thing” (Davis, 1995, p. 77) Witnesses from this period report how impressed they were with “her dangling jewelry and fringed gowns, the spell she could put on an audience, the naughtiness of some of her songs…” (Davis, 1995, p. 52) This naughtiness refers to the persona that Bessie Smith projected on stage, and also to the daring lyrics of some of her best loved songs. One example “You’ve got to give me some” uses a series of suggestive metaphors which are presented as the pleadings of “Miss Jones to Butcher Pete”, since the phrase “you gotta gimme some” is repeated again and again in every verse. The images such as “good old meat … round steak… sweet lollipop … lots of cream,” (Davis, 1998, p. 358) are thinly disguised descriptions of the male anatomy and this created a highly charged atmosphere of sexual tension which both shocked and delighted polite American audiences. The raunchy lyrics reclaim for women the right to see men as sex objects, and to sing the Blues when they are separated from their lovers. In conclusion, then, it is clear that Bessie Smith set down a new standard for female musicians to follow. She just ignored the restrictions that society placed on her because of her race, class and gender, and pursued a career in which her Blues music and her rebellious, nomadic lifestyle were in absolute harmony. Such freedom was denied to most women, since for respectable white and African American families social customs required women to be moral guardians in the home and a good example to their children. Thanks to Bessie Smith American women of every race and class were given an exciting alternative view of womanhood, which was absolutely authentic. Since her death she has had many imitators, and her legacy inspires Blues musicians and fans in every age, including present times. References Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: First Vintage Books, 1998. Davis, Francis. The History of the Blues: The Roots, The Music, The People. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1995. Scott, Michelle R. Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the emerging urban South. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Read More