Major keys, along with minor keys, are a common choice for popular songs. She believed that her truth needed to be told, so she told it. Bemoaning the fate of losing a home to flood waters after five days and nights of rain, Smith laments: Thousands of people aint got no place to go. While many latter-day listeners have equated this song with the disastrous 1927 flood of the Mississippi River, Smith actually recorded this before that particular flood had occurred. The beat does not change because each verse follows the same AAB pattern, which results in the same rhythm continuing on. Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com. Hostname: page-component-75b8448494-knlg2 According to the Theorytab database, it is the 5th most popular key among Major keys and the 5th most popular among all keys. Cover versions of Back Water Blues by Irma Thomas | SecondHandSongs Backwater Blues Sheet music for Piano (Solo) | Musescore.com I love writing blues poems. The song has a homophonic texture due to the use of instruments and vocalization in unison. Backwater Blues Chris Fisher-Lochhead The rhythm remains constant throughout the song, allowing the melody to flow peacefully during the piece. "When it rains five days, and the skies turn dark as night (x2) There's trouble taking place in the lowland that night." Harmonically, what is the piece based on? In "Backwater Blues", the writer retells the incidents surrounding the flooding of Nashville in 1927. The repetition of her lyrics depict just how saddening her situation is- she is in the middle of losing everything. It was covered by Brother John Sellers, Toni Lynn Washington, Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns, The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band and other artists. Leadbelly - Backwater BluesTaken from: 16 Greatest Songs (As Pictured)Track no. Dinah Washington - Back Water Blues - YouTube In order to interrogate said materials, six recordings by different musicians were chosen and meticulously transcribed. She made almost 200 recordings, including duets with Louis Armstrong and Joe Smith. The beginning of Down Hearted Blues actually reminded me of Ragtime music slightly. Her ability to use \"blue notes\" and other vocal embellishments, along with a loose melodic phrasing, became hallmarks of jazz and blues inflection that other musicians (singers and instrumentalists) emulated. The scene is set with the terrific storm by the female speaker, so depressed that she cant even get out of the door. Bessie actually wrote Backwater Blues for the Cumberland River flood that hit Nashville on Christmas morning 1926. Smith describes how down she is about her life and how she knows there is nothing she can do about it. Print and download Backwater Blues sheet music by Bessie Smith. Jazz- Review Questions. After discussing blues history, we went over Bessie Smiths Backwater Blues, then Langston Hughes Too Blue, and concluded our study with Jericho Browns Duplex (specifically A poem is a gesture toward home). [2], The song has long been associated with the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Chris Fisher-Lochhead. Smith did not cut any corners in her songs- she told everyone how the world really was and how she felt about it. Mmm, I cant move no more. Back-Water Blues 65th in 1927. Today, I hear phrases such as the winter blues and Blue Monday and know that they are not considering this history. Baraka attributes this knowledge to his mentor Sterling A. Backwater Blues by Bessie Smith - Digital Sheet Music, View our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. A modified 12 bar blues. Entire black neighborhoods were wiped out. Smith continued on to become very successful with hits like St. Listening Guide to Backwater Blues by Bessie Smith - YouTube Not only did she sing, she was also an actress and comedian. She lets the chords of the instruments dangle off of her words, resulting in a beautiful piece that focuses primarily on the lyrics. When it rained five days and the sky turned dark as night, Zur deutschen bersetzung von Backwater Blues, Die 10 schnsten Songs fr ein gemtliches Picknick, Die 10 beliebtesten ESC-Songs aller Zeiten, "Sing meinen Song" 2023: Alle Infos, Teilnehmer, Songs & Folgen, "Let's Dance 2023": Alle Tnze aus Show 9 + Songtexte, I'd Rather Be Dead and Buried in My Grave, Udo Lindenberg & Apache 207 - Komet Songtext, Ikke Hftgold, Schrze & DJ Robin - Bumsbar Songtext, Purple Disco Machine & Kungs - Substitution Songtext, Hypaton, David Guetta & La Bouche - Be My Lover (feat. When it's . View Official Scores licensed from. As musicologist Dr. David Evans has noted, Back-Water Blues was recorded in February 1927, before the great disaster of April. Adds to the blues feel as the music is seen to reflect the realities of her situation. Louis Blues featuring Louis Armstrong, Backwater Blues, and Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out. As the Swing era was emerging, Bessie Smith was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1937 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Smith . Bessie Smith (Down Hearted Blues, 1923) Jazz Legend. Youtube, uploaded by RagtimeDorianHenry, 3 Jun 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6TiLIeVZA. It was covered by Brother John Sellers, Toni Lynn Washington, Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns, The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band and other artists. Backwater Blues by Bessie Smith Chords, Melody, and Music Theory The narrator, who presents himself as a victim describes how . Though, after repeated listening and reading of blues standards like Backwater Blues, call and response became more than an AAB tercet on page/to my ear. *Als Songtexte.com PUR User kannst du entscheiden, welche Inhalte von externen Anbietern wie Youtube, When it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night, when it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night, then trouble's takin' place in the lowlands at night. Poet, writer, teacher, and political activist Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. :)---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Title: Backwater BluesLevel: BeginnerCom. Kevin Young was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. View all Google Scholar citations We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Bessie Smith (1894-1937) began her professional career as a blues singer in cabarets in 1912. The three most important chords, built off the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees are all major chords (E Major, A Major, and B Major). It was originally composed by Joe "King" Oliver and is largely performed as an instrumental, although lyrics were . Irma Thomas released it on the album Our New Orleans 2005 - A Benefit Album in 2005. Smith is believed to be one of the highest paid black performers of her time. About a thousand people lost their lives. Of course, we Americans have historical amnesia. "useRatesEcommerce": false Bessie Smith - Songs, Death & Facts Writer (s): Smith Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com. Back-Water Blues' was one of the best known works of the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, recorded for Columbia Records in 1927 with James P. Johnson on piano. Brown, who alongside Langston Hughes was a pioneer of blues poetry in the 1920s. The opening choruses of each performance . The song has long been associated with the great flood of the lower Mississippi River in 1927. Songtext von Bessie Smith - Backwater Blues Lyrics [1] Its musical composition entered the public domain on January 1, 2023. Nonetheless, when she recorded it in 1927 Backwater Blues became an anthem for the great Mississippi River Flood. This incident gave birth to an important blues era, now known as the Delta Blues era. Back-Water Blues, composed by Bessie Smith and recorded by her on 17 February 1927, has long been associated in the popular mind and even by some writers with the great flood of the lower Mississippi River and its tributaries that occurred that year. Backwater Blues tells the story of how the speaker is forced out of her home due to flooding waters. The third-sixth verses have the traditional AAB blues pattern, which helps emphasize what she is saying during each verse. The consonant chords allow for a smooth harmony to flow continuously during the song. This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith . Through an examination of Smith's touring itinerary, the testimony of fellow entertainers who toured with her, newspaper reports, and other documents, it can be shown that the song was composed about a flood of the Cumberland River that struck Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas morning, 1926. Render date: 2023-05-02T09:42:40.381Z I think in the best identity poems that the self represents something much larger than the self. AAB e.g. 15Label: Route 16Year: 1990This CD is from my own collection. Backwater Blues - The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band - YouTube How does the music reflect the lyrical content of the piece? Train with real songs. Her voice is subversive, defiant despite all odds against her. Bessie Smith, "Backwater blues", 1927 - YouTube This piece draws its material from the song "Backwater Blues" by Bessie Smith and from the historically articulated performance practice that has accrued to it. When it thunders and lightnin' and the wind begin to blow. Backwater Blues Bessie Smith Chords and Lyrics for Guitar Blues on Yellow Marilyn Chin from Rhapsody in Plain Yellow. Almost a million people became homeless for a time. LISTENING part 1 SEIGFRIED CHAP 5. richard wagner germany Death. Almost half a million homes were destroyed. She uses her voice in this particular form to symbolize that she has given up and that she knows she will never find true love. While many latter-day . Please use a recent version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, or Opera instead. Over her ten year career, she created one hundred and sixty recordings. The third line either comments or reverses the first two lines. In the Voice and in the Deep, Blues Poetry - Poetry Foundation Jazz- Review Questions Flashcards | Quizlet Theres this rich toughness in her voice that tells us this girl and her people are going to get through this calamity. They relocated the white folks in an expedient manner but corralled the black folks into abysmal camps. Through an examination of Smith's touring itinerary, the testimony of fellow entertainers who toured . Learn to hear chords by ear. She manages to escape her flooding home, only to look back and see that she will never be able to go back to it. "it rained five days and the sky turned dark as night". Updated September 9, 2020. Harmonically, what is the piece based on? Each verse in the song follows an AAB pattern from beginning to end. What is 12-bar-blues form? The song "Backwater Blues" is a blues and jazz standard written by Bessie Smith. He attended Rutgers University and Howard University, spent three years in Jericho Brown's first book,Please(New Issues, 2008), won the American Book Award, and his second book,The New Testament(Copper Canyon, 2014), was named one of the best poetry books of the year SterlingAllenBrown devoted his life to the development of an authentic black folk literature. Yeah, when it's thunderin' and lightnin'. Become a Musicnotes Pro - Premium member today and receive 24 titles per year plus take 15% off all digital sheet music purchases and get PDFs included with every song! I have her strong voice in my ear at all times. Her lyrics aid the audience in understanding why she is down. Smith, Bessie. Carl Van Vechten Estate/Library of Congress, Washington D.C., photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1936, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Smith. Discover an intuitive and deep understanding of how music works. Smith (on vocal with James P. Johnson on piano) recorded it as "Back-water Blues" on February 17, 1927, in New York City. Smith performed for nearly a decade until Columbia Records signed her in 1923. The poem moves to personal depression. Lets look at this poem closely. Marilyn Chin (1955- ) was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Oregon, and received her MFA from the University of Iowa. This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith recorded her song. Bemoaning the fate of losing a home to flood waters after five days and nights of rain, Smith laments: 'Thousands of people ain't got no place to go.'. Bob Dylan - Backwater blues Lyrics | Genius Lyrics In our workshop, In the Voice and in the Deep, Blues Poetry, participants and I studied blues music, history, aesthetics, and ultimately blues poetry. There were reports that officials behaved in a discriminatory fashion. 'Cause my house fell down. Nonetheless, when she recorded it in 1927 "Backwater Blues" became an anthem for the great Mississippi River Flood. [Verse 5] And I went . Known as the\"Empress of the Blues,\" Bessie Smith's first recording, \"Down-Hearted Blues,\" from 1923, was very successful, and helped her to become the leading African-American performer of the time. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Smith, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXShOJVwaM, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6TiLIeVZA, 1980: Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, 1989: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1989: Received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 1994: Face was placed upon a US Postage Stamp, 2001: Down Hearted Blues was named one of the Songs of the Century by the National Endowment for the Arts, 2002: Down Hearted Blues was listed on the National Recording Preservation Board by the Library of Congress, 2006: Down Hearted Blues listed in the Grammy Hall of Fame. This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith recorded her song. Back-Water Blues. Bessie Smith. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, courtesy of the Rock Hall Library and Archive, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith. Marilyn Chin reads and discusses Bessie Smith's "Backwater Blues Chin is the recipient of the PEN/Josephine Miles Award, a Fullbright Fellowship, and the Paterson Prize, among numerous other honors. Designed and built by Hooktheory in California. Most of us dont remember the great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, but when I read this poem a few years ago during a gathering on the behalf of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the same issues resoundedneighborhoods destroyed, slow government response, the African American neighborhoods were hit the hardest. Backwater Blues gefllt bisher niemandem. One subscription across all of your devices. First, research supports the claim that blues music originated during the postUS Civil War era (186165) and is derived from spirituals and work and field songs of Black sharecroppers of the rural south, particularly the Mississippi Delta. The rhythm and beat remain constant throughout the song. Teach music and songwriting in ways that keep students engaged, excited, and inspired. There aint no place for a poor old girl to go. On September 26, 1937, Smith was en route to a show in Memphis, Tennessee with her companion of many years, Richard Morgan, when he sideswiped a truck and lost control of their car. Total loading time: 0 The melody is conjunct, making it easy to follow the lyrics of the song and the instrumental portions at the same time. The vocalization stands out far more than the sound of the instruments, primarily due to Smiths incredible voice.