Bessie Smith sang it second

Bessie Smith sang it second

fiction
edward w pritchard

Most people take as axiomatic that Black Americans put the soul in twentieth century American music. Comparing just Black and White singers, there is something  maybe imparted from the prejudiced and suffering Black people endured throughout the first three quarters of the twentieth century that results in the early blues of Black Americans being superior to that of White Americans singing the same genre of songs. Today we shall test this using Bessie Smith and  Marion Harris.

Marion Harris [1896 - April 23, 1944] first sang and recorded "St Louis Blues" and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", and "After Your Gone", later, [five or ten years],  recorded by Bessie Smith. Of good family, Harris performed in vaudeville and pre-1920 became the first female white musician to record the blues. WC Handy the Black composer, who wrote St Louis Blues , said this of Marion Harris "she played the blues so well that people sometimes thought she was colored" So Marion Harris, white blues pioneer  recorded the three classic blues songs first and Bessie Smith perhaps the greatest female blues singer ever recorded them second. Who had the superior performances judged by the recordings of these three songs.

Marion Harris has perfect diction on her songs and there is a sadness conveyed that moves the listener. Her performance of "After your Gone" is comparable to Bessie Smith's. However Bessie Smith's performance of St Louis Blues is with out compare and of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is the standard for that song. Maybe a  tie on "After your Gone" and large advantage to Bessie Smith on the other two songs.

Why is Bessie Smith's music the penultimate? Did she bring a suffering to a performance because she was a dark skinned Black woman, a larger woman or was it because of her humble roots. Hard to know. Listen to both singers particularly when you are sad and down yourself. Marion Harris was talented but no singer  Black or White compares to Bessie Smith.
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