Trouble, trouble, I've had it all my days,
It seems that trouble's going to follow me to my grave.
~Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Trouble, trouble,
I've had it all my days,
Trouble, trouble, I've had it all my days,
It seems that trouble's going to follow me to my grave.
~Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was one of the best Blues singers of the 1920's. Many people called her the Empress of the Blues. She was a big person, but she also had a captivating voice. Nobody really knows when Smith was born, but everyone is certain that she was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Many suggest that she was born in 1894-6, 1898, or 1900. Bessie's parents had died when she was very young, causing her older sister, Viola, to raise her. Surprisingly enough, most of Smith's influence did not come from her sister, but from her oldest brother, Clarence.
By 1912, the six foot, two hundred pound Smith was a professional dancer and singer. This was when she was discovered by one of the greatest Blues singers of that time, Ma Rainey. Then Ma Rainey and Smith went on the road together. They stayed together until 1915. After separating, Smith joined T.O.B.A.
On February 15, 1923, Smith signed a contract with Frank Walker of Columbia Records. In that same year, she made her first recording debut, accompanied by pianist Clarence Williams. Many of the songs that she wrote at this time consisted of Jailhouse Blues and Pickpocket Blues. Her records would sell more than any Blues singer of that time. In fact one of her records was estimated to have sold $800,000,000! But sadly, everyone's popularity will fall, and her recording career was over by 1927. Durring her short career, she sang with James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman, Louis Armstrong, and Fletcher Henderson. Then in 1929, luck smiled on Bessie. She made an appearance in the movie, The St. Louis Blues.
Smith had alot of difficult times during her life. These life difficulties
were usually placed into many of her songs. An example would be in her song,
Please Help Me Get Him Off My Mind, which was created during the
final seperation of her and her husband, Jack Gee. Jack was very abusive
towards her and you can tell that in the song, which goes, "It's
all about a man who always kicks and dogs me around. It's all about a man
who kicks and dogs my aroun'; And when I try to kill him, that's when my
love for him come down." Another type of songs that she wrote are
about revenge against a person in her life. This type of song is like the
Black Mountians Blues, which goes, "Had a man in Black Mountian,
sweetest man in the town, Had a man in Black Mountians, sweetest man in
the town; He met a city gal and throned me down. I'm bound for Black Mountian,
me and my razor and my gun, I'm bound for Black Mountian, me and my razor
and my gun; Gonna shoot him if he stands still, and cut him if he runs.
Smith had a very violent temper. While she was making an appearance in her hometown, a man was bothering her and a couple of her friends. After a while, she walked up to him and knocked him down. The man retaliated by stabbing her in the side with a knife, causing her to chase him down the street until she collapsed from the strain of the wound. Another time when her temper got the best of her was when she found her husband at that time, Jack Gee, with one of her chorus girls. After severely beating the girl and throwing her from the parked train, she began to pursue Jack down the New York railroad track. During the chase, Smith was firing at him with his own gun. After this incident, Jack and Bessie separated.
Smith's life was brought to a disturbing halt on September 27, 1937. There are many different stories about Smith's accident. She was in car with her lover Richard Morgan on Route 61 in Coahoma, just north of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The car swerved out of control and crashed into a tree. Smith's right arm was severed, causing here to bleed to death. Smith was buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Lawn Cemetery, in Sharon Hill, PA.
Smith received some fame after her death. By 1970, Smith was still lying in an unmarked grave. After learning of this, Janis Joplin felt sorry for her and contributed money for a headstone to remember Smith. The inscription read:
The Greatest Blues Singer In The World Will Never Stop
Singing
Bessie Smith
1895-1937
(Less than two months later, Janis Joplin herself died of a drug overdose.) In 1980, she was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame. And in 1989, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Bessie's Songs
""Gimme a Pigfoot":
Bibliography
Snow, Joel. "Bessie Smith." Blues Online. http://www.mathrisc.lunet.edu/blues/Bessie_Smith.html, Febuary 13, 1998.
Whitney, Ross. "Reflections Of 1920's and 30's Street Life In the Music of Bessie Smith." Blues Net. http://www.hub.org/bluesnet/readings/bessie.html, Febuary, 13, 1998.
Unknown. "Bessie Smith 1989, Early Influence". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. http://www.rockhall.com/induct/smitbess.html, Febuary 13, 1998.
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