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sam_k_'s review against another edition
5.0
Two five star books in a row… unheard of.
This book was a really nice insight into a time period I really enjoy and a great introduction to Angela Davis’s writing style.
What I really appreciate about this book is that Angela Davis tackles both the historical context of the songs and artists she talks about while also talking about the specific lyrical content of certain songs. Given that this was written in the 90s and music wasn’t accessible in the same way, her dedication was impressive and I appreciated her attention to detail.
Unfortunately the blues as a genre is very overlooked and I liked how Angela Davis gave it credit where it was due: it emerged as one of the first genres out of slave spirituals and work songs, and although the lyrics seem innocuous at first glance, the artists (specifically Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey) layered their music with undertones that were not understandable to the white ruling class and even the emerging black middle class and elites. Davis argues that it served as a way to form an emerging Black consciousness post slavery and a way for women to see themselves in music and grapple with both racism and the patriarchy.
Although Billie Holiday is not a blues musician, her style of jazz has blues roots in the way she interprets the (on the surface) shitty Tim Alley lyrics she was forced to sing, and Davis also dedicates a chapter to Strange Fruit to explore the moment that activism went from being subtle undertones in music to acceptability in calling out injustices, especially in the 30s with the rise of communism, working class-led movements, and a growing distaste (in the dominant white sphere) of lynching.
All in all, really thoughtful research and in-depth explanations that made me appreciate these three artists even more than I already did.
This book was a really nice insight into a time period I really enjoy and a great introduction to Angela Davis’s writing style.
What I really appreciate about this book is that Angela Davis tackles both the historical context of the songs and artists she talks about while also talking about the specific lyrical content of certain songs. Given that this was written in the 90s and music wasn’t accessible in the same way, her dedication was impressive and I appreciated her attention to detail.
Unfortunately the blues as a genre is very overlooked and I liked how Angela Davis gave it credit where it was due: it emerged as one of the first genres out of slave spirituals and work songs, and although the lyrics seem innocuous at first glance, the artists (specifically Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey) layered their music with undertones that were not understandable to the white ruling class and even the emerging black middle class and elites. Davis argues that it served as a way to form an emerging Black consciousness post slavery and a way for women to see themselves in music and grapple with both racism and the patriarchy.
Although Billie Holiday is not a blues musician, her style of jazz has blues roots in the way she interprets the (on the surface) shitty Tim Alley lyrics she was forced to sing, and Davis also dedicates a chapter to Strange Fruit to explore the moment that activism went from being subtle undertones in music to acceptability in calling out injustices, especially in the 30s with the rise of communism, working class-led movements, and a growing distaste (in the dominant white sphere) of lynching.
All in all, really thoughtful research and in-depth explanations that made me appreciate these three artists even more than I already did.
outcolder's review against another edition
4.0
Challenging. She'll write stuff that has me thinking, "well, I don't know about that..." but then maybe why I don't know is because I am white and male. In any case, it gave me lots of good reasons to listen to those songs again and to listen for something that I hadn't been listening for before.
There are plenty of less challenging bits in here, where she is mainly pointing out how the white male writers have missed or better said misdirected the way these women are represented in the larger culture. The chapters on Billie Holiday are like that. You have Billie Holiday's autobiography, and the genius of her music, and then you have this crap, dopey image of her everywhere from the Diana Ross pic to most of the writing about her. It doesn't add up, but Davis's chapters about her do.
Also, it is nice to put all this music in the context of the social struggles Davis is more known for. It's like, kinda, white (for lack of a better word) to always want to consider art as something timeless and, uh, art-for-art's sake... the artist against the world. Eric Crapton is always talking about the blues like that: "a man and a guitar against the world." Davis doesn't make that mistake. She quotes some Marcuse, a Marxist academic she studied with in another era, and tries to identify both the timelessness and the timeliness in this music.
The second half of the book is her transcriptions of the lyrics. Reading blues lyrics is as challenging as reading about them. It always feels like they were never meant to be written down, and for me, that the voice in my head isn't doing the words justice.
There are plenty of less challenging bits in here, where she is mainly pointing out how the white male writers have missed or better said misdirected the way these women are represented in the larger culture. The chapters on Billie Holiday are like that. You have Billie Holiday's autobiography, and the genius of her music, and then you have this crap, dopey image of her everywhere from the Diana Ross pic to most of the writing about her. It doesn't add up, but Davis's chapters about her do.
Also, it is nice to put all this music in the context of the social struggles Davis is more known for. It's like, kinda, white (for lack of a better word) to always want to consider art as something timeless and, uh, art-for-art's sake... the artist against the world. Eric Crapton is always talking about the blues like that: "a man and a guitar against the world." Davis doesn't make that mistake. She quotes some Marcuse, a Marxist academic she studied with in another era, and tries to identify both the timelessness and the timeliness in this music.
The second half of the book is her transcriptions of the lyrics. Reading blues lyrics is as challenging as reading about them. It always feels like they were never meant to be written down, and for me, that the voice in my head isn't doing the words justice.
bubblegumcreams's review against another edition
5.0
m1thrandir's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
moseslh's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating, if sometimes dense, exploration of three female Blues/Blues-influenced musicians and the social impact and relevance of their work. During the research process for this book, Dr. Davis discovered that the lyrics to most of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith's songs had never been transcribed. Davis transcribed the lyrics to all of their recorded works herself and includes the comprehensive collection of their lyrics in the back of the book for reference, so the book is really only half as long as it looks. I enjoyed learning about the significance of Rainey and Smith and their use of music to speak out about the realities of working class Black female lives and to empower Black women. Davis's final two chapters are on Billie Holiday, who does not fit neatly into a category with Rainey and Smith, as she was not (strictly speaking) a Blues artist. The first chapter on Holiday was the book's weakest. Because Holiday's repertoire consisted mostly of politically neutral Tin Pan Alley material, Davis relies on more subjective measures like how she sings her songs, and the resulting chapter is less convincing. The reader needs to either listen to each song mentioned in order to follow Davis's arguments or blindly trust Davis's inherently subjective basis of analysis; I think an audio book format with embedded recordings would have been a much better way for Davis to convey her message. The second chapter on Holiday, unlike the first, focuses on a specific song, namely "Strange Fruit," which does carry an overtly political message. This chapter was one of the finest in the book and more than makes up for its predecessor's weakness. The book was slow at times and felt decidedly less accessible than Davis's [b:Are Prisons Obsolete?|108428|Are Prisons Obsolete?|Angela Y. Davis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320521835s/108428.jpg|104488], but was a worthwhile read nonetheless.
lindy_b's review against another edition
3.0
It's one of those books that gets cited everywhere and is considered foundational to scholarship around blues women (and I understand why) but was underwhelming to me once I actually read it. In particular, I'm not impressed by how Davis would often assert that she could tell, through careful study of inflection, that a singer meant something ironically (e.g.), but would not go on to describe that inflection. These days, it's easy to search for the song on your streaming service of choice and judge for yourself, but when the book was written, some of the music discussed was not yet available on compact disc. It's just not persuasive.