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Transcript

Ladies of the Blues · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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