Bessie

by Chris Albertson

Book Overview

Considered by many to be the greatest blues singer of all time, Bessie Smith was also a successful vaudeville entertainer who became the highest-paid African-American performer of the roaring twenties. This book -- a revised and expanded edition of the classic biography of this extraordinary artist -- debunks many of the myths that have circulated since her untimely death in 1937. Chris Albertson writes with insight and candor about the singer's personal...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812817001
• ISBN13: 9780812817003
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Stein and Day
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A Different Perspective on the "Empress of the Blues"

"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.

Empress Bessie Was My Kinda Red-Hot Moonshine-Drinkin' Blues Mama!!

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 a

Empress of the Blues

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."

Great Book on a True Queen

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.