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Queer Blues: The Hidden Figures of Early Blues Music
From the very beginning, the blues has had a close connection with the LGBTQ community. There is a long and decorated history of so-called 'dirty blues' songs, stretching back beyond the earliest attempts to capture the blues on record. The 1920s and 30s saw the release of dozens of raunchy, bawdy blues recordings aimed at a knowing LGBTQ audience. Queer Blues tells the story of the pioneering LGBTQ composers and entertainers that wrote, performed, and recorded these wonderfully outlandish, life-affirming songs and chronicles, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Josephine Baker to Frankie 'Half-Pint' Jaxon and many more. This is the definitive account of the LGBTQ trailblazers of early blues and a fascinating consideration of the intersection between music and LGBTQ history, from the award-winning Darryl W. Bullock.
468 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 6, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 3 reviews
November 13, 2025
I first came across Darryl W. Bullock as the author "David Bowie Made Me Gay", which was a history of 100 years of LGBT+ popular music, particularly from Britain, taking in the rock'n'roll era, 60s beat, punk, glam rock, in fact most areas of popular music. It was a fascinating read that showed just how important LGBT+ singer, musicians, songwriters and producers were to popular music. His latest book: "Queer Blues: The Hidden Figures of Early Blues Music" is, if anything, ever more impressive.
Ever since I heard the music of Leadbelly back in the 1960s, I have loved the Blues - particularly the acoustic rural blues of the deep south. Bullock's book looks at a different, but related and equally important aspect of the blues: the urban jazz influenced blues of great singers such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith and Billie Holiday, as well as songwriters like Porter Grainger and dancers like Josephine Baker. Then, as now, many LGBT+ people moved to urban areas where they could find like-minded people and perhaps find safety in numbers. And many of these pioneers were queer, often bisexual and sometimes transgender. Some of them - such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith - became major stars who opened the way for others.
Many of the songs they sang had openly queer content, such as Ma Rainey's "Sissy Blues", Bessie Smith's "Jail House Blues", Frankie 'Half-Pint' Jaxon's "I'm Gonna Dance Wit De Guy Wot Brung Me", Tampa Red's "My Daddy Rocks Me" and Bessie Jackson's "BD Woman's Blues" among many others. These musicians plied their trade in national (and sometimes international) tours, tent shows, speakeasies, minstrel shows, etc. Indeed, some of the paler African American acts who performed in minstrel shows were expected to "black-up" so they looked more stereotypical. Although the best acts did get record contracts, they were in the main live acts and the recordings of the likes of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith represent only a fraction of their work. If only we had live recordings from the 1920s and 1930s!
Many of them faced the double whammy of racism and homophobia. Just as the predominantly white queer scene was often racist, so much of the Black media disliked the openly queer content of many of the songs. At the time Black musicians could face serious problem getting hotel accommodation while touring, so some of the better organised troupes had their own railway carriages that provided rest and refreshment for their acts. Misogyny was also common and many of the women performers had found themselves in abusive relationships with men.
I thought I knew a lot about the history of the Blues, but this fascinating book contains much I had never come across before, both in terms of musicians and of the lives many of them were forced to live.
Ever since I heard the music of Leadbelly back in the 1960s, I have loved the Blues - particularly the acoustic rural blues of the deep south. Bullock's book looks at a different, but related and equally important aspect of the blues: the urban jazz influenced blues of great singers such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith and Billie Holiday, as well as songwriters like Porter Grainger and dancers like Josephine Baker. Then, as now, many LGBT+ people moved to urban areas where they could find like-minded people and perhaps find safety in numbers. And many of these pioneers were queer, often bisexual and sometimes transgender. Some of them - such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith - became major stars who opened the way for others.
Many of the songs they sang had openly queer content, such as Ma Rainey's "Sissy Blues", Bessie Smith's "Jail House Blues", Frankie 'Half-Pint' Jaxon's "I'm Gonna Dance Wit De Guy Wot Brung Me", Tampa Red's "My Daddy Rocks Me" and Bessie Jackson's "BD Woman's Blues" among many others. These musicians plied their trade in national (and sometimes international) tours, tent shows, speakeasies, minstrel shows, etc. Indeed, some of the paler African American acts who performed in minstrel shows were expected to "black-up" so they looked more stereotypical. Although the best acts did get record contracts, they were in the main live acts and the recordings of the likes of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith represent only a fraction of their work. If only we had live recordings from the 1920s and 1930s!
Many of them faced the double whammy of racism and homophobia. Just as the predominantly white queer scene was often racist, so much of the Black media disliked the openly queer content of many of the songs. At the time Black musicians could face serious problem getting hotel accommodation while touring, so some of the better organised troupes had their own railway carriages that provided rest and refreshment for their acts. Misogyny was also common and many of the women performers had found themselves in abusive relationships with men.
I thought I knew a lot about the history of the Blues, but this fascinating book contains much I had never come across before, both in terms of musicians and of the lives many of them were forced to live.
March 14, 2025
An interesting read that kept me there all the way throughout the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 3 reviews