"Empty Bed Blues"

Bessie Smiths’ “Empty Bed Blues” shows how Diaspora of the United States during the turn of the century and the 1920s, the time this song was recorded, has changed music, and culture. The Untied States development, and commodification of cultural aspects such as music is because of this said diaspora, the continuous traumatic displacement of people throughout history. It also shows how African American music has changed from the 1800s and earlier, from not being written down, and mostly characterized as gospels and religious music to the 1920s, the extremely influential in both musically and advancement that were made for women’s empowerment. The movement most relevant to the Pre-War City Blues is the mass migration of African Americans in the 1800-1900s from deep south to the northern cities to escape the constant and sometimes even deadly racism. Additionally, it displays the very common usage of romanticization of African Americans community. Smiths’ song lyrically communicates what Angela Davis’ was saying in her article “Mama’s Got the Blues,”about the sexual freedom, and sometimes backlash surrounding the blues. Bessie Smiths’ “Empty Bed Blues” song form can be denoted as an AABA song. The A is started with the lyric “Woke up this morning with an awful achin’ head.” The B is started with the smaller lyric “My new man left me.”

Comments

[BethRatay]

The songs “Bad Luck Blues” and “Empty Bed Blues” both are in a AA’B verse form, and are accompanied by piano with one or two other instruments that “respond” to the singer. (In “Bad Luck Blues” there is a muted trumpet with a very faint clarinet in the background, and “Empty Bed Blues” has a trombone.) What is your reaction to the piano part? Does it it convey the same mood as the singer and instrument? How does the instrument (trumpet or trombone) respond to the singer? Lastly, you can talk about how the third line in each verse (the “knock-down” B line), works in the song. Is it effective or not? Here are two posts that address some of these questions well. Please comment on one of the two posts to add your thoughts to the discussion.

http://benleedscarson.com/ma-rainey-and-bessie-smith/bessie-smiths-empty-bed-blues.html
http://benleedscarson.com/ma-rainey-and-bessie-smith/ma-raineys-bad-luck-blues-1.html