Lucille Bogan
Template:Short description Template:Infobox musical artist
Lucille Bogan (née Anderson; April 1, 1897Template:SndAugust 10, 1948)<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. Music critic Ernest Borneman noted that Bogan was one of "the big three of the blues", along with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.<ref name="Russell">Template:Cite book</ref> Many of Bogan's songs have been recorded by later blues and jazz musicians.<ref>Wheeler, Lorna (2004). "Shave 'Em Dry: Lucille Bogan's Queer Blues". Transgression and Taboo: Critical Essays. Messier and Batra, eds. CCA-CPP. p. 161. Template:ISBN.</ref>
Many of her songs were sexually explicit, and she is generally considered to have been a "dirty blues" musician.<ref name="Russell"/>
In 2022, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.<ref name="auto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Life and careerEdit
She was born Lucile Anderson, the daughter of Gussie and Wylie Anderson.<ref name="bare1">Template:Cite book</ref> According to some sources, she was born in Amory, Mississippi,<ref name="AMG">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but according to her entry in the 1900 census her birthplace was Birmingham, Alabama.<ref name="bare1"/><ref name="Russell"/> In 1914, she married Nazareth Lee Bogan, a railwayman, and gave birth to a son, Nazareth Jr., in either 1915 or 1916. She later divorced Bogan and married James Spencer.
She first recorded vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with the pianist Henry Callens.<ref name="AMG"/> Later that year she recorded "Pawn Shop Blues" in Atlanta, Georgia; this was the first time a black blues singer had been recorded outside New York or Chicago.<ref name=williamson>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1927 she began recording for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin, where she recorded her first big success, "Sweet Petunia", which was covered by Blind Blake. She also recorded for Brunswick Records, backed by Tampa Red.
By 1930, her songs tended to concern drinking and sex, such as "Sloppy Drunk Blues" (written and first recorded by Bogan but released first by Leroy Carr in 1930 then by Bogan the following year, later recorded by others) and "Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More" (later recorded by Memphis Minnie). She also recorded the original version of "Black Angel Blues", which (as "Sweet Little Angel") was covered by B. B. King and many others. With her experience in some of the rowdier juke joints of the 1920s, many of Bogan's songs, most of which she wrote herself, have thinly veiled humorous sexual references. The theme of prostitution, in particular, featured prominently in several of her recordings. One of these was "Groceries on the Shelf (Piggly Wiggly)", which was originally written and recorded by Charlie "Specks" McFadden.<ref name="bare">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Piggly Wiggly is the name of a supermarket chain operating in the South and the Midwest, which pioneered self-service grocery sales.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bogan used this self-service notion in her amended lyrics to the song, part of which ran, "My name is Piggly Wiggly and I swear you can help yourself, And you've got to have your greenback, and it don't take nothin' else".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1933, she returned to New York, and, apparently to conceal her identity, began recording as Bessie Jackson for the Banner label of ARC. She was usually accompanied on piano by Walter Roland, with whom she recorded over 100 songs between 1933 and 1935, including some of her biggest commercial successes, "Seaboard Blues", "Troubled Mind", and "Superstitious Blues".<ref name="Russell"/> Her other songs include "Stew Meat Blues", "Coffee Grindin' Blues", "My Georgia Grind" (accompanied on piano by Charles Avery), "Honeycomb Man", "Mr. Screw Worm in Trouble", and "Bo Hog Blues".
Her final recordings with Roland and Josh White include two takes of "Shave 'Em Dry", recorded in New York on Tuesday, March 5, 1935. The unexpurgated alternate take is notorious for its explicit sexual references, a unique record of the lyrics sung in after-hours adult clubs.<ref name=williamson/> According to Keith Briggs' liner notes for Document Records Complete Recordings, these were recorded either for the fun of the recording engineers, or for "clandestine distribution as a 'Party RecordTemplate:'". Briggs notes that Bogan seems to be unfamiliar with the lyrics, reading them as she sings them, potentially surprised by them herself.<ref>Liner notes. Lucille Bogan (Bessie Jackson) Complete Recordings, Vol. 3, 1934–1935. Document Records BDCD-6038 (1993).</ref> Another of her songs, "B.D. Woman's Blues", takes the position of a "bull dyke" ("B.D."), with the lyrics "Comin' a time, B.D. women, they ain't gonna need no men", "They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural man" and "They can lay their jive just like a natural man."<ref name="AMG"/>
She appears not to have recorded after 1935. She managed her son's jazz group, Bogan's Birmingham Busters, for a time, before moving to Los Angeles shortly before her death from coronary sclerosis in 1948.<ref name="LarkinBlues">Template:Cite book</ref> She is interred at the Lincoln Memorial Park, in Carson, California.
In 2022, she was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.<ref name="auto"/> The citation noted that "Bogan recorded some of the most memorable blues songs of the pre-World War II era, including some that were landmarks in blues and some that continue to sensationalize her reputation decades after her death".<ref name="auto"/>
DiscographyEdit
SinglesEdit
As Lucille BoganEdit
| A-side | B-side | Year | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Chirpin' the Blues" | "Triflin' Blues (Daddy Don't You Trifle on Me)" | 1923 | Okeh |
| "Lonesome Daddy Blues" | "Don't Mean You No Good Blues" | ||
| "The Pawn Shop Blues" | "Grievious Blues" Template:Small | ||
| "Levee Blues" | "Sweet Patunia" | 1927 | Paramount |
| "Jim Tampa Blues" | "Kind Stella Blues" | ||
| "Doggone Wicked Blues" | "Oklahoma Man Blues" | ||
| "Women Won't Need No Men" | "War Time Man Blues" | ||
| "Craving Whiskey Blues" | "Nice and Kind Blues" | ||
| "Pay Roll Blues" | "New Way Blues" | 1929 | Brunswick |
| "Coffee Grindin' Blues" | "Pot Hound Blues" | ||
| "My Georgia Grind" | "Whiskey Selling Woman" | 1930 | |
| "They Ain't Walking No More" | "Dirty Treatin' Blues" | ||
| "Black Angel Blues" | "Tricks Ain't Walking No More" | 1931 | |
| "Crawlin' Lizard Blues" | "Struttin' My Stuff" | ||
| "Sloppy Drunk Blues" | "Alley Boogie" |
As Bessie JacksonEdit
| A-side | B-side | Year | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Seaboard Blues" | "Troubled Mind" | 1933 | Banner, Conqueror, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo |
| "House Top Blues" | "T N & O Blues" | ||
| "Roll and Rattler" | "Groceries on the Shelf" | ||
| "Superstitious Blues" | "My Baby Come Back" | ||
| "Mean Twister" Template:Small |
"Baking Powder Blues" Template:Small | ||
| "New Muscle Shoals Blues" | "Red Cross Man" | ||
| "Sweet Man, Sweet Man" | "Down in Boogie Alley" | 1934 | |
| "Drinking Blues" | "Boogan Ways Blues" | ||
| "Reckless Woman" | "Tired as I Can Be" | ||
| "Pig Iron Sally" | "My Man Is Boogan Me" | ||
| "Changed Ways Blues" | "I Hate That Train Called the M and O" | ||
| "Walkin' Blues" | "Forty-Two Hundred Blues" | ||
| "Stew Meat Blues" | "Skin Game Blues" | 1935 | |
| "Barbecue Bess" | "Shave 'Em Dry" | ||
| "That's What My Baby Likes" | "Man Stealer Blues" | ||
| "Jump Steady Daddy" | "B.D. Woman's Blues" | ||
| "You Got to Die Some Day" | "Lonesome Midnight Blues" | 1936 |
Compilation albumsEdit
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Alabama Blues (1930–1935) Template:Small |
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| (1927–1935) Template:Small |
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| (1923–1935) |
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| Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 1 |
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| Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 2 |
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| Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 3 |
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| Reckless Woman, 1927–1935 |
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| The Essential Template:Small |
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| Shave 'Em Dry: The Best of Lucille Bogan |
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