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SMNTY Classics: Ladies of the Blues · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie an Samantha.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm welcome to stuff. One never told you a production
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: by Heart Adio and we were back with another classic today.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Hard to say with scheduling, but this is coming out
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: towards the end of Black History Month in twenty twenty five.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: We haven't chosen our movie yet, but there are a
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: couple of music options that might come up. But even so,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: we thought it'd be cool to bring back the episode
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: we did on Ladies of the Blues and how Black
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: women really led. That were just the heart of that
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and it was a really I got to listen to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: a lot of good music.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: After that one, and I always loved that.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so please enjoy this class episode. Hey, this is
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff. I've never told
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: your protection of iHeartRadio.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: So Annie, I know who your favorite band was, which
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: is Green Day. What was your favorite album of all
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: time or even to this day.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, no, no, I can't do that.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: That's a huge question.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: I was hoping it was gonna be embarrassing and not
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: necessarily a huge question.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: But okay, No, I do have a list of my
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: ten like favorite movies books just for these kinds of things,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: and I have music on there and have songs on there,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: but i'd have to consult it, and I need to
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: update it because I can tell you my favorite Green
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Day album was American Idiot because it was like prime,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: it came out at the right time for me, uh
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: and I loved it.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Is that an album that you consistently like, what is
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: your most placed album currently?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, I want to check now, I have no idea,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: and I oh, I get a lot of flack about this,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: but I don't use a lot of the popular streaming
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: music platforms, and so I listen to music I heart.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Of course I do, of course.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: But when that doesn't happen for whatever reason, I use
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: like Gosh, I use I have updated it so it's
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: still actually iTunes, it's not Apple. And then I use
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: YouTube music. I used to use Google play like, I
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: use really obscure kinds of things. So I don't think
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: there's an accurate count anywhere, because I listen all over
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the place. I know for a long time, the top
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: played song was this. It's from Mass Effect three. It
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: is the opening credit song, and I played it on
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: repeat for an entire day when I moved and I
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: was being the most dramatic and most emo you could
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: ever imagine.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: That is delightful.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's a bunch of I think it would
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: be a bunch of random songs from movies that had
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: some emotional impact for me. So every time I listened
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: to it, it brings me back to that emotional scene
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: or something.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, well my favorite. So I call it
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: some kind of Blue. For the longest time, I was like,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: I don't know why, but it's just kind of blue anyway. So, yeah,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: one of my favorite albums and that I've had to
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: buy repeatedly because I had the CD for it for
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: a while and I had the like the red deluxe
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: mix was Miles Davis. Kind of Blue probably my favorite
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: album to date, and I have listened to it for
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: over twenty five years after I discovered it, and it
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: puts me in a specif mood like you were saying,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of smooth eeriness to it that I love,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: and I know the transformation and his growth in his
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: music is so phenomenal. But that is one of my
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: favorite albums I'm a huge fan of. Really, this is
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: kind of in my musical days because I really really
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: also Love Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's Collapse. For some reason,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: those were my favorite songs and I really like it
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: just makes me happy when I hear them singing silly
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: songs like Starry Night and all of those are just like, oh,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I want to dance to this, even though like watching
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: them sing is just them singing at each other with
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: big smiles on their face. I love it. But stuff
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: like that like so reminiscent to me of like the
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: musicals and just like feeling something but feeling happy but
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: then then having some kind of blue like the depth
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: of like remembering and the depth of his music that
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: had pain but joy but growth like all of that.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: And while we were watching Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, it
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: really put me in that same mood. Of course, the
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: whole movie in itself was just like, oh, like a
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: gut punch anyway, but because we watched that, and after
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: we watched that, we were like, we need to talk
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: more about these amazing women of the blues. And so
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: today that's what made me think about it, because I
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: definitely had a moment of like, I need to listen
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: to Miles Davis today. I need to listen to Ella Fitzgerald,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: whom I love. I need to keep listening to Eda James,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Like obviously these are the names.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: That we know.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: But for today, we wanted to kind of go back
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: a little further, a little beginning and kind of the
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: beginning of women in blues and who they were and
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: what they did, and why we should continue to say
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: their name in the history of them so they don't
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: get erased. Which is that conversation about Ma Raini. It
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: took a long time for people to really recognize who
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: she was because Bessie Smith, it was a big time
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: for women in the blues when Mo Rainie came through,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: Bessie Smith got a lot of credit. And then later
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: on we know, like elfhis Gerald, as we said, Billie Holiday,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: all of them had a lot more backing and publicity,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: I think is the way I would say it today.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: We wanted to talk about these amazing women and about
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: the history of the blues. But yeah, before we start,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: let's talk about that history. Much like most of the
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: music in the United States, blues began and was created
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: by the enslaved black community. We know if we look
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: back at all the music and trace it all the
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: way back the black community probably was the one that
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: we should be thankful to. And it's no surprise here
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: in the early nineteenth century they think was the when
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: they it kind of heightened. We know that gospel and
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: the blues all kind of sound similar in that what
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: they were doing, what they were speaking, and then of
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: course jazz came along with that. As one article writes,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: the foundation of the blues is a combination of quote
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: religious spirituals and African styles, and later that would be
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: combined with folk music known for US as country blues,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: which is typically a solo singer with a guitar or
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: a piano, such as that of Robert Johnson. And Robert
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Johnson is also the one that has that legend of
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: selling his soul for his gift in music, so he
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: is kind of that crush so everything if you listen
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: to his which is by the way, phenomenal, and there's
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: a lot of mystery behind him, So if you love
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: any kind of historical context and musicians, there's a lot
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: of mystery, like he just kind of came out of
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: nowhere and it was this talented musician. The way people
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: tell it is that he never played guitar when they
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: picked it up, made a deal with the Devil and
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: became one of the best musicians, and a lot of
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: his songs includes the Crossroads of the Devil, like all
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: of those, so he definitely has kind of pioneered some
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: of that sound. And then there is the Delta Blues,
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: which originated from the Mississippi Delta around the early nineteen
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: hundreds but got big attraction in the nineteen twenties. Also,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: you need to understand this is probably one of the
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: worst areas technically in history and the treatment of the
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: enslaved community, and so there was a lot of conversation
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: about how that music was formed and how deep and
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: how soulful it was. And again, different places, different where
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: This is one of those hard things that we know
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: when a community is not treated properly and or ignored,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: most likely we're not going to get the in depth
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: history or typically anything written about it. So what we
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: have is a lot of different sources letting us know
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: what's happening and who did what. But the Delta Blues
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: kind of came from that type of background. The Delta
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Blues is quote traditional songs handed down by word of
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: mouth and old lyrics, which was recreated into a different
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: aditation and is often accompanied by a guitar and harmonica.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Quote the style it is very rhythmic, has strong vocals
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: and simple but powerful lyrics, and slide guitar featured prominently
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: in the music. So yeah, you definitely can hear the
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: twang of the guitar. I think this also goes in
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: that country blues kind of also could look at it
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: with the whole Oh brother, where art thou, which is
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: still very whitewashed, but it does have kind of the
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: legend of Robert Johnson in there by the way that
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: was based on him, And according to one of the articles,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: the style of blues typically follows like this have four
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: beasts in a bar, are built on the twelve bar
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: blues form and uses three four bar phrases, so they
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: have three line verse structures where the second line repeats
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: the first for example AaB, and sometimes singers improvise the words.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: The repetition of the first line gives them time to
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: think up the third line. So definitely kind of like
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: jazz in that it's from the heart and you feel
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: it and you go with it, which is also why
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: kind of like of them. Maybe one community is better
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: than the other. Okay, So now that we got the
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: history of that, let's talk about some of these legendary women.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, and let us start with Ma Raini herself.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: So we talked about her a bit in our feminist
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: movie Friday episode on the movie Maraini's Black Bottom, which
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: was adapted from a nineteen eighty dude play.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So if you missed that episode, you can go check
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: it out. But all right.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Maraini was often referred to as the Mother of the Blues.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Born Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett from Columbus, Georgia, both of
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: her parents were performers excuse me, and it didn't take
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: her long to start displaying her own talents as a singer.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: As a teenager, her debut performance was at the Springer
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Opera House in Columbus, and she soon started traveling and
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: performing vaudeville acts. It was during one of her performance
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: circuits she met her husband, Will Pah Rainey, who was
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a comedian and singer as well. Soon they were married
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: and partnered to form a double act, Ma and Paul Rainey.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: They traveled and performed together for several years, but soon
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: would separate and she created her own show, Madame Gertrude
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Ma Rainey and her Georgia smart set. Soon she would
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: start bringing in these large crowds and endoring fans to
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: shows she starred in across the country with songs like
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I Ain't Got Nobody, a Good Man is Hard to
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Find and CC Writer Blues. And she signed a recording
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: contract with Paramount Records in nineteen twenty three, So this
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: is sort of where the movie saw that a lot
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: of that going on. She recorded almost one hundred records
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: between nineteen twenty three and nineteen twenty eight, and it
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: just throughout the catalog. She had so many hits, and
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: when it came to her song she had a unique style.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: One article says of her style, Rainy's songwriting was notable
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: for its raw depiction of life from the perspective of
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: a woman at struggling with heartbreak, depression, and other maladies.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: But amidst these difficulties, Rainie's protagonists did not rely on
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: male partners or submit to the rules society tried to
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: inflict on them. In the song Oh Papa Blues, Rainy
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: tells of the wrongs a former lover committed against her,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: but her lamentation soon turns to scheming for revenge and
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: prove it on me Blues, Rainy boasts about her attraction
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: to women and wearing men's clothing. As scholar and activist
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Angela Davis wrote, the women in Rainy's songs quote explicitly
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: celebrate their right to conduct themselves as expansively and even
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: as undesirably as men. Though she lived in Chicago during
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: the twenties and early thirties, Rainy soon left after she
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: was no longer contracted with Paramount and traveled to continued
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: touring and performing, but soon returned home after the death
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: of her sister and mother to Columbus, Georgia. She was
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: active in church and even owned and managed two theaters
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: until she died at the age of fifty three of
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: heart disease.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Right, so, there are two people on our list that
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: were openly queer, and she was one of those, and
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: we love that story. So all is the fact that
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: we know she's just an amazing woman who stood her ground,
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: and we loved this. And while Maul Rainey was the
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: mother of the Blues, Mamie Smith, who we're going to
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: talk about next, was considered the queen of the Blues.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: So Mami Smith became the first black singer to record
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: a song and the first person to record the blues
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: in nineteen twenty in New York City, and that song
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: was Crazy Blues.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Not much is known.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: About Mamie Smith's past, but many believed she was born
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Mami Robinson in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she started performing at
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: the age of ten, dancing and touring with four Dancing Mitchell's.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Soon she would star in the musical Review Made in Harlem,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: produced by Perry Bradford, and Bradford signed with a General
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: Photograph wanting to record some of his songs, and he
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: and Smith would record several songs together which would be
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: considered successful. Many recording companies follow suit because of this album,
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: signing other women blues singers, creating the new quote race
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: records market, which we kind of talked about a little
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: bit in Mo Rainie because it was all the hits,
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: so they were trying to bring in as many blue
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: singers as they could, sounding like Mammy Smith, Mo Rainie,
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Bessie Smith, who we're talking about in just a few minutes.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: But yeah, many credit Mammy Smith and Perry Bradford for
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: the beginning of the women in the Blues singing and
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: the success.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Smith was successful in her career and would go on
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: to record more records, toured with the Jazz Hounds, performing
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: in New York theaters, and even appeared in films in
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: the nineteen forties, and Smith continued to work until she
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: died in Harlem in nineteen forty six.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, and now we move on to a different Smith,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Bessie Smith. Yes, Yes, who was considered the Impress.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Of the Blues. I like this, we got a queen, yeah, mother,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: We've got the empress. Yeah.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well there was another one that we're not going
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: to talk about. Who is the uncrowned oh of the Blue.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: So I was like, what does that mean?
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Oh well, I like this, it's like a superhero team
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: of musicians.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Bessie Smith was known for her powerful voice, very full
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: of soul. She signed a contract with Columbia Records in
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: nineteen twenty three and became one of the highest paid
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: black performers of her time. Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: in eighteen twenty four. After both of her parents' deaths,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: she was given to the care of her aunt along
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: with her remaining siblings, and it was during this time
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: she began to perform first street performances with her younger
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: brother playing guitar, but soon she performed as a dancer
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: in the Moses Stokes Minstrel Show and later on The
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Rabbit Foot Minstrels, which is where she met Maraini.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: Right, which is where they were rubored to have. Like
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Maulrainie may have mentored her. So people say that's a
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: strong word for what it was, but they were definitely associated,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: and it looks like not surprisingly because they were all
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: in Chicago or Harlem at one point in time, a
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: lot of them interacted together.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Soon Bessie Smith was discovered and was signed to Columbia Records,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: where she would record the hit Downhearted Blues. She was
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: a success, not only touring all over, but was able
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: to buy her own custom railroad car to travel and
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: sleep in.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: I wonder how much that would cost. Another thing to
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: add to my middle age crisis list?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Can I buy a railroad car?
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: Going?
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: And though Bessie Smith would go through some hardships in
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: her career and even changed her style as the times
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: changed to she continued in her career and touring up
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: until the day she tragically died on her way to
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: a show in Memphis, Tennessee. Yeah, she died in a
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: vehicle accident at the age of forty three. But her
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: impact in the world of blues is undeniable. It's obvious,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: and it influenced so many artists, including our next one,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Billy Holliday.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Right and Billie Holiday born Eleanora Fagan is one of
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: the most iconic singers in the jazz blues world, well
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: in the world of music altogether, and her legend goes
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: beyond just her talent, and we thought it was really
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: important to bring her into this too, because she did
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: some things that went a little beyond just making records,
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: not that not all of them did, because they made
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: significant impact, but literally, she defied the United States government.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Holiday dared to sing when she was barred by the
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: FBI and by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, whose leadership
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: at the time was willing to set her up in
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: order to shut her down. So like all these conspiracy things,
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: and not just any song, but a song that is
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: famous to this in this depiction of the horror of
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: the lynchings of the black community during the Jim Crow era.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: The song Strange Fruit, which was originally written as a
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: poem titled Bitter Fruit, written by Abel Meerpole in nineteen
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: thirty seven, after which his wife wrote it as a
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: song and hearing it at Union rallies, including in Madison
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Square Garden, it was brought to Holiday, who felt a
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: personal connection to the song due to her father's own
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: death after the hospitals refused to treat him because of
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: his race, and she first sang the song in the
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: dark room at the end of her show at the
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: New York Cafe Society in nineteen thirty nine. And yet
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: it caused a lot of conversation and a little bit
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: of controversy, and it was so controversial that her record company,
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Columbia Records, would not produce it, but she finally did
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: through an independent label, the Commodore Records, and many, including
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: those from the black community, felt it was too controversial
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: to play at that time, but she did, and her
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: legacy and her voice powering the song that really just
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: still haunts. The first time I heard it, I think
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: I literally had to stand still listening to the lyrics
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: because I was like, Wow, her voice is beyond haunting,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: and we all know her voice.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: She has a very unique voice.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: And yeah, like I said, people who are still listening
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: today have this picture from the lyrics that is painted
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: which implies this beautiful day that turns into a day
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: of nightmares and horrific tragedy. I mean, we could talk
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: about the history of this. We kind of mentioned about
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: the anti lynching bill which just passed with this song
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: happening in nineteen thirty nine. But with that, Yeah, she
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: stood up and she did it, and she continued to
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: do it even after she was told not to. And
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: she signed again with Columbia Records in nineteen fifty eight,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: after which she was previously on Verb label, which she
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: made about one hundred new records and redefined herself as
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: the quote torch singer and I hear it with her
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: iconic voice. Her later recordings including her masterpiece Lady in Satin,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: and her final album was released after her death, which
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: she recorded in nineteen fifty nine.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Now let's talk about Big Mama Thornton. Willie May Thornton
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: or Big Mama Thornton was born in December nineteen twenty
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: six in Araton, Alabama. I hope I'm not butchering that pronunciation.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: After the death of her mother. When she was fourteen,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Thornton left to start her career and joined the Hot
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Harlem Review from Georgia. She was a singer, a drummer,
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: and harmonica player and traveled with the Review for seven years.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: In nineteen forty eight, Thornton moved to Houston, Texas, where
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: she started her recording career. Thornton signed on to Peacock
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Records in nineteen fifty one. There she would travel with
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Johnny Otis and a few others performing different show like
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the Houstons, Bronze Peacock and at the Harlems Cotton Club.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: And it was during this time she wrote and recorded
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: one of her most popular songs, hound Dog mm Hmmm,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: which was released by Peacock in nineteen fifty three and
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: it topped the charts. It sold over two million copies.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: And yes, this song would be recorded by Elvis Presley
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: in nineteen fifty six. And while this catapulted his career
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: in success, Thornton only received about five hundred dollars for it.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Right, I'm assuming that's a pretty good bit in the
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: nineteen fifties, but still nowhere near what she deserved.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and what he was getting for sure, right, But
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: She continued to tour and record throughout her life, including
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: performing in nineteen eighty three along with Muddy Waters, BB
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: King and Lloyd Glenn.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Right, all right, let's talk about Lizzie Miles. So Lizzie
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Miles was born in New Orleans on Bourbon Street in
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: eighteen ninety five, and she started singing as a teenager
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: with a neighborhood jazz band. She worked in Southern circuits
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: and different shows until she moved to Chicago in the
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: early twenties, performing with different bands like the Elger's Creole
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Orchestra and King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. So yes, this
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: is all during the Great Migration that we talked about
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: in our movie episode. And she soon moved to New
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: York after where she started her recording career, and she
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: would continue to work clubs and cabarets and would even
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: go on tour in Europe in Paris. Her style was unique.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: She was nicknamed the Creole songbird. She was attributed with
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: Afro Creole blues, so it's very specific and her style
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: of performant was very specific. She was able to record
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: her work after signing with Okay Record in nineteen twenty
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: two and continue to do so, making almost seventy records,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: and she would even record under pseudonyms on smaller labels.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: So she kept recording and changed her name around just
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: to do her things. And like the other blues and
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: jazz artists of her time, she also hit hard times
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: due to the depression as well as the declining interest
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: in the blues, but there was a resurgence in her
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: career in the fifties, so she went on to sign
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: on to another label at that time with Cook Records,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: and record three more albums and she even performed in
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: one Less festival before her retirement.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Wow, very prolific. Now let's talk about Lil Green.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Born Lillian Green in Mississippi in nineteen nineteen, and like
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: many others on this list, was heavily influenced by gospel
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: music and her religious family, and she was first discovered
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: in her church choir. Her and her family moved to
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Chicago in the thirties, where she started to sing in
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: local clubs and was discovered by a producer at Bluebird Records,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: and she was a favorite at the Apollo in Harlem
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: and would often tour with bands such as Big Bill
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Brumsey and the Bennie Goodman's orchestra. She was soon signed
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: onto a record company, where she made two hits, including
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: her sultry rendition of why Don't You Do Right?
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the version I know before I knew
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: the Jessica Rabbit bit, but Jessco Rabbit bit from who
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: framed Roger Rabbit.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, brought it back in.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: The eighties, and Everybody's like, what what is the song?
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: And then I was like, but I know this song
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: and if you listen and you can actually go listen
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: to it today on YouTube or anything fantastic like it
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: is very you know it immediately when you hear it.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, definitely gonna have to check that out that because
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen that movie in forever.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: I saw it once and it scared me as a kid,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and it ever again, so.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: I remember this for Lloyd's character is awful.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I believe it. I believe it. Green continued to tour
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and perform up until her death at the age of
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: thirty five from pneumonia.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Then we have sister Rosetta Tharp and yes, the
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: list could be so much bigger, but we had to
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: talk about the godmother of rock and roll. Sister Rosetta Tharp.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: She was originally known as the creator of pop gospel,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: and her image is a powerhouse for guitarists, which still
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: electrifies many who watch her performance. I see clips of
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: her performing in front of the choir all the time,
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: and so many replications of what the US used to be.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: It literally is like, look how amazing the music is.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: And she was one of the prime examples. And though
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: she's heavily associated with rock and rolling gospel, her love
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: and her influence in the blues world is significant. And
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: also she's one of the ones that was actually out
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: and queer having a relationship with a woman and like
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: really showing love to her girlfriend at the time. But
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: it was very unique to see obviously in the fifties
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: and all of that. But born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas,
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: learned and mastered the guitar at the age of six
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: and often seen with her mother, who was known as
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Mother Bell, whether it was at church or later could
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: be seen on the street corner of preaching in Chicago.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: And though she did get married, it was her and
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: her mother who moved to New York, where Tharp would
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: soon start performing as a cotton club in nineteen thirty eight,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: and it was in nineteen thirty eight that Tharp recorded
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: her first album that included rock Me, one of her
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: biggest hits at the time, and her style was unique
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: and iconic, so much so she was even featured for
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: her rock and roll Spiritual Song and Billboard magazine at
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: that time. And it was in that same year she
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: performed her show at the Carnegie Hall for From Spirituals
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: to Swing Show, which was recorded and is considered one
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: of the first rock and roll albums. So they said,
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: it's very like obvious, it's not in a studio, but
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: it's still at a record recorded as one of the best,
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: at one of the first. And she's been one of
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: the biggest influences in the world of music, including influencing
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: artists like Chuck Berry, who even made a statement saying
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: his career was quote one long sister Rosetta Tharp impression,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: and also influenced artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash,
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: and so many more. And she was finally inducted into
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in twenty eighteen.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: It took forever, and her influence is still heavily seen
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: today and Minnie would still call her one of the
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: best guitarists to date, inclining.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Me, ooh, I love it age six.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: She mastered it at the age of six.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Wow. Mmmm, that's impress CZ.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: That's like, that's so wow wow mm hmm.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Everybody on this list incredibly impressive. Now I definitely want to.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Sit down make a playlist of their songs and just
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I feel like the blues really helps me get in
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: a creative space.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is exciting. I'm excited to go check
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: them out.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: And as you said, Samantha, this is by no means
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: a definitive list.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: There's so many on here that we could have gone through,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: and there's so many that I did leave out.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Don'll be upset. And I know there's so many today
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: that we know are influential and have been influenced by
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: these women. But of course, again we wanted to look
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: at the history and towards the beginning some of the
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: first names that we know, some of the styles of them,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: again again crediting the fact that it was the black
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: community that really has given us the basis of what
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: we have as music, like there's no light to that,
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: Like everything that we know honestly comes back to the
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: fact that a black community created it and a whole
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: lot of white people decide to steal it, and now
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: we have to go back to being able to credit them,
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: which is kind of like critical Racoryoo what I'm still
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: angry about the hearings right now?
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, that's fair.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Well, if there's someone you think we should cover that
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: we didn't, or if you want us to go more
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: in depth on anybody that we talked about here, or
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: any other topic suggestion you have on your mind, you
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: can always contact us. We love hearing from you our
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: emails Stephanie and mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: can find us on Twitter at moms Stuff podcast or
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks. It's always to our super producer, Christina. Thank you, Christina,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: and thanks to.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: You for listening Stuff I Never Told You the protection
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the heart
• 28:51
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• 28:53
  Speaker 2: favorite shows.