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The Bourgeois Blues

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"The Bourgeois Blues", sometimes titled as "Bourgeois Blues", is a blues song by American folk and blues musician, Lead Belly. The song was written in June 1937 in response to the discrimination and segregation that Lead Belly faced during a trip to Washington, DC to record for Alan Lomax. It rails against racism and Jim Crow laws and tells of the conditions that African-Americans encountered at the time in the southern United States.

The song was recorded in December 1938 for the Library of Congress and then re-recorded in 1939 for commercial release. Since then, it has been remixed and covered by a number of artists including Pete Seeger and Hans Theessink. Billy Bragg's remix of the song, protesting the Iraq War, gained attention in 2006.

"The Bourgeois Blues" is regarded as one of Lead Belly's best original pieces, but is also a center of controversy. There is doubt over the song's authorship, with some scholars contending that Lead Belly was unlikely to have written a work in a genre new to him without a collaborator providing the impetus. In addition, questions have been raised over the role of Lead Belly in the American Communist Party and whether he and his song were being used to further the party's political goals. The party denies these allegations.

Background and creation

Lead Belly and Martha
Lead Belly and Martha, whose experiences inspired the song

Most historians date the creation of "The Bourgeois Blues" to Lead Belly's visit to Washington, DC in 1937.[1] He was invited by the folklorist Alan Lomax to record tracks for the Library of Congress's folk music collection in June 1937. On the first night that Lead Belly and his wife Martha spent in the city, they encountered racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws similar to those found in their native Louisiana: most hotels refused to rent rooms to African-Americans and of the few hotels that would, all were either full or refused to serve Lead Belly because he was with a white man (Lomax).[2] Lomax, described as an unnamed "white friend" in some versions of the story, offered to let Lead Belly and his wife stay for the night in his apartment near the Supreme Court Building. The next morning, Lead Belly awoke to Lomax arguing with his landlord about the presence of a black man, with the landlord threatening to call the police.[3]

While in Washington, Lead Belly encountered several other incidents of segregation that are believed to have contributed to the impetus of the song. For instance, when Lead Belly, Lomax, and their wives wanted to go out to dinner together, they discovered that it was impossible for the mixed race group to find a restaurant that would serve them.[4] Lead Belly was told that if he returned later without Lomax, he would be served.[2]

In response to one of these incidents, a friend of Lead Belly's, variously identified as either Lomax or Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, joked that Washington was a "bourgeois town." Though Lead Belly did not know what the word "bourgeois" meant, he was fascinated by the sound of it, and after its meaning was explained to him he decided to incorporate it into a song about the trip.[5] The song came together quickly; one account claims that it only took a few hours for Lead Belly to write it.[3] Lomax liked it because it was partly based on what happened in his apartment.[2]

Lyrics, themes and music

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I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around[6]

"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues-style protest song that serves as an "indictment" of the culture of Washington, DC.[2] It protests the Jim Crow laws of the city as well as the racism of the city's white population. The song is structured with several verses and a refrain that declares that the speaker is going to "spread the news all around" about the racial issues that plague the city.[7] The song, particularly in the refrain, conflates race and economics by referring to Caucasians as "bourgeois".[7]

The first two verses speak of the segregation that Lead Belly encountered in Washington DC: the first recounts the fact that during the trip, Lead Belly was "turned down" wherever he tried to get served due to his race,[3] while the second recounts the argument between Lomax and his landlord over Lead Belly staying in his apartment.[7] The third verse sarcastically cites "the home of the brave, the land of the Free" and juxtaposes that concept with the mistreatment he received at the hands of white people in Washington, DC. The fourth verse speaks of the racism of the white population of the city, leading to the song's end, which suggests that African-Americans boycott buying homes in the district.[8]

Throughout the song, its tone implies that the speaker is unable to do anything about the discrimination and racism that he encounters;[9] despite this, by "spreading the news" of his poor treatment in a song, the speaker uses what power he has to tell both southern African-Americans and northern whites that the status quo is deeply flawed and that something needs to change.[9]

"The Bourgeois Blues" follows a traditional twelve-bar blues format.[10] The song is written in 4
4 time but is annotated to note that the song rhythmically should swing at medium shuffle.[11] The song is set in the key of B♭. It is twelve measures long with verses one through four repeating, followed by the final two verses and a coda.[11]

Recordings and adaptions

Lead Belly first recorded "The Bourgeois Blues" in December 1938 in New York City, for donation to the Library of Congress.[8] He re-recorded the song in April 1939 for Musicraft Records, for release the same year as a 78 rpm record.[12] The version that was commercially released features Lead Belly singing and playing the twelve-string guitar without any other accompaniment.[7]

Since then, the song has been covered and reimagined by a wide variety of artists including Pete Seeger and Hans Theessink.[13] Seeger recorded and released both live and studio versions of the song on several of his albums.[14] In Australia, the song was reworked as "Canberra Blues" by The Bitter Lemons, an R&B band.[15] The lyrics speak of the problems faced by young Australians in the Australian Capital Territory in the 1960s. Theessink adapted the song to his style of European blues for the album Journey On in 1997.[16]

In 2006, Billy Bragg reworked the song as "Bush War Blues".[17] Bragg's cover is a topical protest song about the Iraq War. In one verse, Bragg claims that the Iraq War was not for democracy but instead was to "make the world safe for Halliburton".[18] In another, he takes on the Christian right, asking where the moderates are. Finally, Bragg chides the United States government for not dealing with poverty at home before going to war.[18]

Legacy

"The Bourgeois Blues" is one of Lead Belly's most famous songs and is remembered as his most "heartfelt protest song".[2] There is a disagreement between scholars over the importance of the song. Robert Springer claims that the song is "peripheral" to the wider study of blues music while Lawson points to it as a watershed moment in the way African-Americans see themselves in the fabric of the United States.[9] There is also some controversy over the relationship between the song and radical politics. After its release, it became popular with left-wing political groups. Lead Belly was invited to perform at Camp Unity, the Communist Party USA's summer retreat,[19] and the FBI subsequently opened a file on him in the 1940s.[20] This led to the accusations that the Communists were taking advantage of him and using him as a platform. The party claims, to the contrary, that they were some of the few people who respected him and gave him a chance to perform.[20]

Jeff Todd Titon and several other writers have suggested that Lead Belly had significant help with the creation of "The Bourgeois Blues" and that it is not a genuine protest song.[21] This theory stems, first, from the idea that Lead Belly did not have a history of performing or writing protest music before he was discovered by Lomax.[22] Since the music that Lomax recorded was sold to northerners who were sympathetic to Civil Rights, it has therefore been suggested that Lomax helped him write the song to please this new audience. Second, the use of the term "bourgeois", a word even the extant story acknowledges was unfamiliar to him, seems out of place compared to the vocabulary of his past work.[22]

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Seeger 1998, p. 11 and Seeger 1964, p. 4 lists the creation date as 1938 while most other sources (Wolfe & Lornell 1992, p. 206) date the song to June 1937.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Wolfe & Lornell 1992, p. 206
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Scalera 2013
  4. ↑ Weissman 2005, p. 168
  5. ↑ Wolfe & Lornell 1992, p. 206 and Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Seeger 1998, p. 11
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Lawson 2010, p. 42
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Wolfe & Lornell 1992, p. 207
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Lawson 2010, p. 43
  10. ↑ Schmid 1991, p. 26
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ledbetter & Lomax 2011
  12. ↑ Wolfe & Lornell 1992, pp. 297-298
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Seeger 1998, p. 11 and Seeger 1964, p. 4
  15. ↑ Marks & McIntyre 2011, p. 194
  16. ↑ Dicaire 2001, p. 222
  17. ↑ Lyons 2013, p. 164
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Martin & Steuter 2010, p. 172
  19. ↑ Filene 2000, p. 72
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Wolfe & Lornell 1992, p. 210
  21. ↑ Tracy 2001, p. 134
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Titon 1977, pp. 190-191

Bibliography

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External links

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