A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them
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Book Overview
An exciting lineage of women singers--originating with Ma Rainey and her prot g e Bessie Smith--shaped the blues, launching it as a powerful, expressive vehicle of emotional liberation. Along with their successors Billie Holiday, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and Janis Joplin, they injected a dose of reality into the often trivial world of popular song, bringing their message of higher expectations and broader horizons to their audiences. These women passed their image, their rhythms, and their toughness on to the next generation of blues women, which has its contemporary incarnation in singers like Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams (with whom the author has done an in-depth interview). Buzzy Jackson combines biography, an appreciation of music, and a sweeping view of American history to illuminate the pivotal role of blues women in a powerful musical tradition. Musician Thomas Dorsey said, "The blues is a good woman feeling bad." But these women show by their style that he had it backward: The blues is a bad woman feeling good.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0393059367
ISBN13:9780393059366
Release Date:February 2005
Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company
Length:336 Pages
Weight:1.35 lbs.
Dimensions:1.2" x 6.5" x 9.6"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Compelling take on blues history
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
Some readers may be familiar with the general contours of the lives of the women presented here--Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Aretha Franklin, and others. But the way that Jackson weaves together these stories against the tapestry of 20th Century American culture is original and compelling. Jackson convincingly shows how different woman blues singers (and later rock and alt country singers) drew on each other's work for inspiration. Their contributions were cultural and social as well as artistic. Most importantly, for potential readers--Jackson tells a good story. The writing is gripping and fast-paced. I recommend it highly.
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