Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues [Paperback]

Paul Gordon (Author), Beth Garon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1992

Universally recognized as one of the greatest blues artists, Memphis Minnie (1897–1973) wrote and recorded hundreds of songs, among them the famous "Bumble Bee Blues," "I'm Talking About You," and "What's the Matter with the Mill?" Blues people as diverse as Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines, Big Mama Thornton, and Chuck Berry have acknowledged her as a major influence. At a time when most female vocalists sang Tin Pan Alley material, Minnie write her own lyrics and accompanied her singing with magnificent guitar-playing. Thanks to her merciless imagination and dark humor, her songs rank among the most vigorous and challenging popular poetry in any language. Although organized feminism was at it’s lowest ebb, Memphis Minnie, a black working-class woman, called no man master, defied gender stereotypes, and exemplified a radically adventurous life-style that makes most careers of the '20s and '30s seem dull by comparison. Woman with Guitar is the first full-length study of the life and work of this extraordinary free spirit, focusing on the lively interplay between Minnie's evolving artistry and the African American community in which she lived and worked. Drawing on folklore, psychoanalysis, critical theory, women's studies, and surrealism, the Garons’ inspired explorations of Minnie's songs illuminate the poetics of popular culture as well as the largely hidden history of working-class women's self emancipation.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Woman with Guitar is Beth Garon's first book. She lives in Chicago where she runs a rare-book business.

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 22, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306804603
• ISBN-13: 978-0306804601
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,413,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for poets, feminists, music scholars & historians., May 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues (Paperback)

This much-needed study documents the life and work of Lizzie "Kid" Douglas, preeminent blues vocalist and guitarist, c. 1920-1950. Poets will appreciate the careful transcriptions and interpretations of Minnie's lyrics; scholars, the meticulous research; and feminists, the story line of a rough n' ready woman making her way in the music business. Fifty photographs of Minnie, her record contracts and sheet music, and period advertisements, further vivify this portrait of an African-American musical legend

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A poorly done biography of a blues legend., December 16, 2002

By 

Irving Warner (Fife, Washington, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues (Paperback)

There are so many poorly researched segments in this biography, that to list them would be too lengthy. Half of the book is biography, the other half academic deconstructions of Minnie's songs. The first 30 years of her life is nearly absent; questions remain unanswered even after that. The one good thing about this work, is that there's all sorts of room left for someone to write a definitive--or even near definitive--biography of this great blues singer and song writer.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars When the Analysis Breaks, November 7, 2007

By 

grasshopper4 (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues (Paperback)

The first part of this book is a useful sketch of Memphis Minnie's life. It sets out the basics of her life history, and we gain an appreciation for her skill as a blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. The second part of the book is mainly useful for the content of the lyrics and the discography. The authors' interpretive commentary on various blues lyrics often leaves a bit to be desired. At times, the intepretation of the symbolic expression yields intriguing ways to think about the blues tunes. There also are unifying threads that pull together some of the themes. The major weaknesses, however, relate to the ways that the authors read too much into the lyrics rather than elucidating compelling conclusions by reading meaning from the lyrics. The writing also foregrounds some ideas from literary theory in a style that is clunky and pedantic. The analysis, thus, often distracts rather than embellishes one's appreciation of the poetic skill and clever humor in Memphis Minnie's tunes. The commentary also sometimes has a tone that comes off as both haughty and naive at the same time. For example, the Garons make unsubstantiated claims that they can't support. A glaring one is the way they chastize folklorists for assuming that there is only one meaning to a text. This argument doesn't hold up, as for at least 4 decades folklorists have been looking at meaning as an emergent quality that varies with performance; furthermore, folklorists were writing about polysemy long before anyone even mentioned the term "postmodernism." Much of the analysis suffers from this mixture of seemingly bold claims that really lack good evidence for their support. Nevertheless, the book is an introduction to a remarkable musician, and the discography is a good one.