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The soundtrack for this page is "Ain't No Grave" originally by Claude Ely. It was recorded by Bozie Sturdivant in 1941 and then in 1946-7 by Sister Rosetta Tharpe as "Can't No Grave Hold My Body Down."
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We are covering a lot of ground and a really critical history in this theme focusing on slavery and the great migration. We can’t cover that much material in the expanse of one theme, or even one semester for that matter.
This theme has a very specific focus: the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and language at the end of slavery and start of the 20th century. We will read Angela Davis’s Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Davis argues that the end of slavery (deeply embedded with the hidden messages and resistance of the Spirituals) and the new 20th century were a moment when Black women began to articulate new ideas of freedom, gender roles, sexuality, and independence. That articulation came from and in the Blues. |
Slave Songbook |
In this unit, we will look closely at Davis’s argument and listen for the continuum between Spirituals and Blues. Along the way, we will need to make sure we fully understand the history of slavery, emancipation, and the Great Migration. We will end our unit with a woman who seemed to traverse the entire spectrum with her background in the Spirituals/Revival Movement, her new slant on Gospel music, her connection to the Blues, and her genius as an unacknowledged predecessor to Rock N’ Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Part One: The Blues Bank Assignment
The
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Choose at least THREE songs below. Listen carefully to the lyrics. If you are not familiar with the Blues, get yourself comfortable with this sound. Read this chapter from Angela Davis’s Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (click here for chapter).
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"Sam Jones Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Poor Man's Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Pinch Back Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Take Me a Buggy Ride" by Bessie Smith
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"Money Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Young Woman Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Black Eye Blues" by Ma Rainey
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"Love Me Daddy Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Cell-Bound Blues" by Ma Rainey
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"Hard-Driving Papa" by Bessie Smith
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"Hellhound on My Trail" by Robert Johnson
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"C&A Blues" by Peetie Wheatstraw
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"Chicago Bound Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Prove It on Me Blues" by Ma Rainey
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"Easy Come, Easy Go Blues" by Bessie Smith
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"Mistreatin Daddy" by Bessie Smith
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"Bad Girl Blues" by Memphis Willie B.
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"Sissy Blues" by Ma Rainey
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"Send Me to the Electric Chair" by Bessie Smith
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"See, See Rider Blues" by Ma Rainey
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Part Two:The Sacred-Secular Continuum with Sister Rosetta tharpe
The Sacred-Secular Continuum |
By this time in the semester, you will see that the difference between the Spirituals (the sacred music) and the Blues (the secular music) is not that vast: the longings for freedom and even the sounds overlap. What we now call Gospel music also developed in tandem with the Blues. Even the father of Gospel, Thomas Dorsey, started out as a Blues man (as Georgia Tom). For this part of the course, you need to take a look at the videos below and focus on Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
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Watch all of this history clip! (4 minutes)
Watch all of this documentary clip! (8 minutes) |
Watch all this documentary! (50 minutes) At least skim!
More songs (this is optional)
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Watch all of this performance
OPTIONAL READING Read this excerpt fromThe Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson.
Click here for the reading. This is OPTIONAL. |
Part Three (optional): Contemporary BluesWomen
Contemporary BluesWomen"The history of black people was something you could use as a note of inspiration but … you could never use it to explain something in theoretical terms. There was no discourse that it generated, in terms of the mainstream academy that gave it a kind of recognition. And so my idea was to try to generate a discourse, or a vocabulary that would not just make it desirable, but would necessitate that black women be in the conversation…." |
Angela Davis argues that Billie Holiday is the bridge between the past and present. Let's keep making connections to contemporary blueswomen. If you are interested in this kind of rhetorical work, follow Davis’s lead in talking about and thinking rhetorically about Black women’s music.
At its heart, we are looking at how Black women help shape Black and feminist consciousness in song in order to do what Spillers suggests in the quote at the left: generate a discourse and vocabulary that puts Black women in the conversation. These are the kinds of questions that Davis is asking in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. Pick up from here:
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The artists and performances below were selected completely by previous students in African American rhetorics classes who presented these artists in Hype Presentations. If you would like to suggest a LIVE(!) performance by a specific contemporary artist you consider a Blueswoman, please send that information to [email protected] and it will be added to the list here.
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