Customer Reviews

Bessie: Revised and expanded edition

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I discovered Bessie Smith's music in the late 80's/early 90's
when Sony/Legacy released a 4-box "Complete Recordings" series
spanning her whole recording career from 1923, when she
signed to Columbia Records' "Race Records" division and became
a huge star with the low-down rawkus blues songs that were popular
with both blacks and whites of the time, all through the 1920's,
to the depression era, where her popularity faded and the real-life
blues of people on breadlines eclipsed the romantic & hard times
blues in her most popular recordings.

"Folks don't wanna hear the blues no 'mo, times is hard!"
Bessie was heard to exclaim to her closest freinds.
Born in or around April 1894, in Chattanooga, TN into
abject poverty, suffocating Jim Crow racism, child abuse,
desolation all around her, the young tall stringy black gal
named Bessie Smith learned to scrap for survival at very early age.
Her and her brother Clarence took to the streets at a young age
as "buck dancers" and minstral-type skit performers,
which over time, Bessie developed perfect comedic timing,
slick dance moves, presence, and a voice that could stop people
in their tracks and put them in a trance!
People who heard Bessie in person said that her singing was
clear, powerful and went straight to your soul!
It was like a religious experience some said, except in her day
the blues was seen as crude and profane by narrow-minded church
types who saw her as a tortured soul singing the devil's music
who would surely burn in hell for all eternity!

The author of this book had at his disposal the invaluable,
totally believable and colorful recantings of Bessie's niece
through marriage, Ruby Walker, who traveled & performed with Bessie
and who cuts through alot of the folklore surrounding Bessie's
legend, as black artists of that time were not followed around
by biographers who chronicled their every move.
Bessie was a hell of a woman who lived high & low,
sang with all her might, fought like a demon, could be the
kindest person on earth and at the same time,
the meanest nastiest crudest sow ever to draw breath!
Black, White, Rich, Poor, Man or Woman...it didn't matter!
She was not the one to cross because BIG BESSIE would beat
you down with her fists, cut you with a straight razor,
stab you with a butcher knife or blow you away with
her 44. pistol if you pissed her off, disrepected her,
or got in the way of her living her life to the fullest!
She was strong as a man, could swill down her favorite
corn liquor, eat huge plates of down home soul food,
party & screw till the early dawn light, out curse a
longshoreman, and even ran 3 blocks with a butcher knife
sticking in her gut, chasing a disgruntled man who
she'd beat up for harrassing her & her chorines
at a back woods party! (A Tough Broad Indeed!!)

She once knocked a white man's teeth out who called her
a black ni*#!* and tried to cheat her out of her money!
She really dug her young attractive strapping male and
female chorines and carried on torrid affairs with them
which were all rife with passion & drama!
She even took on the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan in 1928!
The things this strong no-nonsense black woman got away with
at a time when blacks (male or female) were still being lynched
in the south is unbelievable! But that was Bessie!!
She was a shrewd business woman who was once the highest paid
woman entertainer in the country at a time that was unheard of
for a black performer. Her tent & theatre shows were huge both
in the south and in the big northern cities as well...
people lined up for blocks to hear and see her
weave her mystifying blues spell!

But with all of her power, natural talent, the light & dark of
her nature, she was still a woman, a vulnerable little po'
black gal from down home who was scarred by her times,
and she had horrible choice in men!---Enter Frank Gee,
who was her achilles heel, waterloo, love of her life
and cheif exploiter all-in-one!
Her man and her family could get away with using her to
no end, and she forgave them things that she would've killed
an outsider for! There were periods too, off the road,
where Bessie could be downright domestic and dote on her
husband, adopted son, family & freinds.
She could be like the sunshine or a hellacious monsoon!!
This story has so many layers and textures..great humor,
horror, debauchery, devil-may-care attitude, fights, lovers
of both sexes, great tragedy, etc.
All the stuff of a great epic tale by Homer!
But like I said, Bessie was a hell of a woman, a pioneer on so
many levels, a force of nature and a singer of enormous gifts
whose influence continues to reach over near nine decades
and still effects people who hear her or read her story!
She truly lived what she sang about!
Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Big Maybelle,
Big Mama Thornton, Ruth Brown, Janis Joplin, Mahalia Jackson,
Tina Turner, even PINK...just a few of the mythic women artists
whose careers span many musical genres and who each became legends
in their own right by putting all of their heart, soul and passion
into their performances...just like MAMA BESSIE did!!
She was even a huge influence on GAY DISCO ICON, SYLVESTER!!
In fact, she and Ruby used to love to go to the drag pageants
and undercover hole-in-wall gay joints back in the 1920's!!
This book is a must read and would make an excellent movie!
Don't sleep on this one here!!
Her untimely death and funeral has always been wrapped in
as much folklore as her colorful life was, but this book
addresses and explodes the myth from the facts.

REST IN PEACE BESSIE SMITH
(April 15th 1894 - September 26th 1937)

Albertson has had the rare fortune to have interviewed Bessie Smith's niece Ruby Walker Smith who toured with Bessie for over a decade. No other book on Bessie is needed. You can't find all these great interviews w/ relatives and friends in another book. And the great thing is this one is written well. Not a dry biography but one with enough candor and insight to make Bessie seem alive.
"See that long lonesome road, Lawd you know it's gonna end, and I'm a good woman and I can get plenty of men."

Bessie smith was Hip-Hop before it had a name.She was a One Woman Business&went through so Much.not only One of the Greatest Artists Ever but also a Woman who battled&did Her thing Her own way. Her music still knocks me out&she had a edge about Herself.this Book is very detailed&does her Justice&covers so much. a Must read&have.

"Bessie" by Chris Albertson presents the life and times of America's greatest blues singer within the context of the entertainment business as it existed during her lifetime. With access to new materials not available to other biographers, including the remarkable memories of Ruby Walker, who traveled for years with Bessie on the "Chitlin'" circuit, Albertson digs beyond the clichéd traditional story of an uncouth phenomenon of nature, who sang, and lived, the blues life, drinking hard and dying tragically.

Albertson confirms many of the now legendary brawls and drinking and infidelity which occupied a substantial amount of Bessie Smith's time and energy. But he also brings out the fact that as much as anything Bessie Smith was a product of the vaudeville entertainment which ruled the day in the 1920s and into the 30s. Yes, Smith could holler and shout the blues like no other before or after her. But she also sang popular tunes of the day, novelty songs, and gave performances that were rich in comedy and theatricality. Smith's ability to bring the genuine blues to a mass audience within the confines of a touring vaudeville troupe brings a richness to the story of Bessie Smith that has long been missing.

Albertson's depiction of the life and times of Bessie Smith is well-written, filled with previously unknown facts, and reflects both the authors admiration for his subject and his objectivity as a biographer. Highly recommended.

This book was so thorough, compelling and easy to read that I couldn't put it down! So often biographies of prolific musicians are impressively researched but extremely dry and boring. This is usually the result of unfocused writing or a badly organized book. This book is exhaustively researched but is not at all exhausting to grasp. It reads like a brilliantly written novel.

Bessie Smith is near the top of my lists of artists I'd love to go back in time to hear, if I had access to a time machine. No footage, save "St. Louis" Blues, of any of her performances exists. And while she left a treasure trove of recordings from nearly every phase of her career (except for the last), very little of her story has every been told except for repeated myths.

This book rights that egregious wrong is righted by Chris Albertson's book. Meticulously researched, Albertson's well written book is the most intimate look at Smith's life we are likely to get. Much of what Albertson recounts, in fact, comes directly from people who were close to Bessie Smith, and who worked with her. Along the way, Albertson unflinchingly debunks some of the oldest legends about Smith, up to and including the truth about the circumstances of Smith's death.

Albertson expertly pulls back focus to give readers a picture of the times in which Smith lived and worked, during a 27-year-long career, just enough to give the reader a complete picture before zooming in on Smith again. The result is not just a record of the life of Bessie Smith, but a record of her life and times.

Albertson uses Columbia Records archives to tell the story of Smith's recording sessions throughout her career, offering brief reviews of Smith's recorded performances, and note her collaborations with other legendary artists from Jellyroll Morton, to Louis Armstrong and Bennie Goodman. It was enough to send me to iTunes to download some of Smith's catalog. Afterward, I took to reading the book while listening to Smith's music as a soundtrack. If you've heard these songs before, you may listen with new perspective after reading Albertson's account of the recording sessions.

The author makes clear in the introduction and throughout the book the depth of his admiration for Smith and her artistry. It would have been easy for him have given us a hagiography. To his credit, he produces a "warts-and-all" biography that takes into account not only Smith's talent, but her strengths and weaknesses as a human being in a style that reflects throughout his respect for his subject.

The result is as full and human a picture of Smith as we're likely to get, instead of the stereotype of a hard-drinking "blues mama." That Bessie Smith lived much of what she sang about is made clear in the telling of her story, but Albertson writes of her joys and triumphs too. Smith sang the blues, but her life consisted of both joys and sorrows.

To tell the truth, I didn't want this story to end. The last part of the book is perhaps the most compelling, because of Albertson's portrayal of Smith's determination to grow and adapt as an artist, and keep up with the changing times. He makes it clear that she was at the beginning of what looked like another upward climb. And even though I knew how it was going to end, I couldn't help rooting for her. I also couldn't help wishing that someone had thought to record and/or film her in this last phase, in the midst of evolving. If I had that time machine, this might be the period I'd go back to in order to hear Smith, and to catch a glimpse of what she was becoming.

It was in the middle of this that the people knew Smith and were interviewed by Albertson started talking about "the last time I saw Bessie." Like them, I felt her story had ended far too soon. But I was glad I got a chance to read it, as they were glad to have been a part of it.

The book came in a quick shipment. The quality was okay and the book was an excellent source of knowledge

Amazon asked me to review this book, just because I bought a copy through them. The fact is that I also wrote the book. Now, tht does not necessarily mean that I like it, but it's okay. I do not like the first version (1971) and wish all copies could be sent to a certain "Reverend" in Gainsville, Florida for burning. It is a far, far more suitable candidate for such dumb action than the one he used to get his 15 minutes of infamy.

I shouldn't ask you to buy "Bessie" and wouldn't ask you to steal it, but I highly recommend borrowing it--as long as you return it to the lender.

Have I come through for you, Amazon?