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Topic: Happy Belated Birthday Memphis Minnie(nsc) Return to archive
7th June 2004 08:26 AM
FPM C10
Can't believe I missed this, but along with the birthdays of Woody, Charlie, and Cardinal Fang, we need to tip our hats to the greatest woman blues singer/guitarist EVER, Memphis Minnie. I've just recently gone from being a casual fan to a fanatic. Bob Dylan was once asked who he thought was sexy, and he answered "Memphis Minnie". I heard Lucinda Williams' version of Minnie's "Nothin' In Ramblin'", and my band started playing it, so I started doing some research. Now I have 130 of the 200+ songs she recorded during her career.


Minnie was the BOMB. She could play guitar, drink, and brawl with any man, once bested Big Bill Broonzy in a Chicago guitar showdown (Bill made off with the prize, a bottle of whiskey) and rumor has it that she sometimes turned tricks during breaks at her gigs - if the man in question was good looking enough, and had the money.


some biographical info:


Memphis Minnie was born in Algiers,Louisiana June 3, 1897 to Abe and Gertrude Douglas. She was the oldest of 13 children. Minnie's given name was "Lizzie Douglas." She didn't care for it much and eventually became known professionally and personally as Memphis Minnie.


The blues of the infamous Beale Street drew Minnie "up north" to Memphis. Beale Street and most blues clubs could be rough places. Johnny Shines recalls, " Any men fool with her she'd go right after them right away. She didn't take no foolishness off them. Guitar, pocket-knife, pistol, anything she get her hand on she'd use it; y'know Memphis Minnie used to be a hell-cat...."

Minnie was among the first twenty performers to be elected to the Hall of Fame in the inaugural W.C. Handy awards in 1980 and she won the top female vocalist award in the first Blues Unlimited Reader's Poll in 1973, finishing ahead of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey...Many blues artists date an entire era in their lives by referring to her. As Koko Taylor said. 'the first blues record I ever heard was ME AND MY CHAUFFEUR BLUES, by Memphis Minnie'

Minnie is perhaps the most famous female country blues artist of our time. Her songs were about the "hard times", the "happy times" and the "love times." She wrote and recorded hundreds of songs. Among them, "Bumble Bee Blues," "You Got to Move," "Hole in the wall" and many more. Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Johnny Shines, Big Mama Thornton among the many diverse artists who have counted her as being one of their main influences.


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.


Minnie died in 1973.


from Blues Biographies:


Memphis Minnie


She could play like a man. The old bluesman would think back about Memphis Minnie, nod their heads and smile.


From the dog days of the depression through World War II, she was the biggest female star of the Blues, almost single-handedly carrying the feminine flame from the twilight of the classic era to the dawn of R&B. Along with Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, she was the link between acoustic country blues and electric urban blues, welcoming small town newcomers like Muddy Waters, Little Walters, and Jimmy Rogers to the artistic liberation of big city life.


Her father bought her a banjo when she was 10 and by 15 she was Lizzie "Kid" Douglas playing guitar on the Memphis streets and in jukes around the Delta. A year later, she joined the Ringling Brother Circus and went off to tour the south. Eventually, she partnered with Casey Bill Weldon, her first husband, "The Hawaiian Guitar Wizard" from the Memphis Jug Band. But the match didn't last.


In 1929, she married Kansas Joe McCoy. That year the pair were discovered playing in a Beale Street barbershop by a Columbia talent scout. Minnie and Joe had mastered a rolling, interlocking two-guitar technique that was known as "the Memphis Style". In their first session they recorded Minnie's risque' romp "Bumble Bee" and suddenly their carrer was buzzing.


Flush with success, the couple moved to Chicago, where they stormed the Windy City scene. By 1935, the marriage was over, but their individual reputations were set. Joe went on to front the Harlem Hamfats, Chicago's premier hokum band, the favorites of Al Capone. Minnie became the Grand Dame of '30's blues, adapting the form from its rural roots to the small band sound that set the stage for revolution. One of the first artists to go electric, she plugged in as early as 1942.


A flamboyant personality, flaunting silver dollar bracelets and the glamorous trappings of celebrity, she recorded almost 200 titles, many with her third husband, Ernest "Little Son Joe" Lawlar.


By the early fifties, Minnie's style was considered passe'. She and Little Son Joe returned to Memphis in 1957, where he died four years later. Around this time, she too suffered a stroke which left her virtually helpless for the rest of her days.


Memphis Minnie died in a nursing home in 1973, but not before the world had rediscovered her legacy. The 60's Blues Revival brought fitting recognition of her talent and charm to new generations, and she passed peacefully, knowing she would be remembered as an all-time lady of blues.


by: Mick Kleber

7th June 2004 09:57 AM
Ten Thousand Motels Good stuff!!! Thanks for posting that FPM-C10.
7th June 2004 11:52 AM
Sir Stonesalot Wow. I had never heard about that turning tricks during intermissions thingy.

Learn something new everyday.
7th June 2004 12:29 PM
Joey
quote:
Sir Stonesalot wrote:
Wow. I had never heard about that turning tricks during intermissions thingy.

Learn something new everyday.



Thanks Fleabit .

Thanks S.S.
7th June 2004 12:39 PM
not bound to please
quote:
Joey wrote:


Thanks Fleabit .

Thanks S.S.