WEBVTT - The Dirty Dirty Blues 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:09.165 School of Humans. 0:00:11.205 --> 0:00:14.645 So this episode is very dirty. I mean, I know 0:00:14.725 --> 0:00:17.285 most of the episodes are dirty, but this one has 0:00:17.405 --> 0:00:21.165 a lot of very explicit language used in it. And 0:00:21.245 --> 0:00:23.245 so this is just a fair warning to you know, 0:00:23.325 --> 0:00:26.125 probably don't listen to this in front of a small 0:00:26.205 --> 0:00:28.845 child or at work unless you have a cool job. 0:00:30.525 --> 0:00:31.805 But let's get into it. 0:00:32.245 --> 0:00:42.565 Welcome to American Filth, Hey filth heads, and Happy Valentine's Day. 0:00:43.605 --> 0:00:44.525 To really get. 0:00:44.405 --> 0:00:46.805 You in the mood for today, you know, this day 0:00:46.845 --> 0:00:50.925 of love and sensuality and love making. I'm going to 0:00:51.005 --> 0:00:53.605 read you some lyrics. I'm going to do it in 0:00:53.645 --> 0:00:57.485 a very dramatic, poetic sort of way. All right, here 0:00:57.485 --> 0:01:02.525 are the lyrics. I got nipples on my titties big 0:01:02.565 --> 0:01:05.485 as the end of my thumb. I got something between 0:01:05.685 --> 0:01:11.005 my legs that I'll make a dead man come. Oh daddy, baby, won't. 0:01:10.765 --> 0:01:12.565 You shave him dry? Now? 0:01:12.725 --> 0:01:16.125 Draw it out? Want you to grind me, baby, grind 0:01:16.165 --> 0:01:22.245 me until I cry. This is from a song that 0:01:22.325 --> 0:01:25.365 came out almost ninety years ago in nineteen thirty five 0:01:25.685 --> 0:01:28.645 called a Shave Them Dry. And let me tell you 0:01:28.805 --> 0:01:31.485 this was not the only song like this that came 0:01:31.525 --> 0:01:35.165 out in the nineteen twenties and the nineteen thirties. There 0:01:35.165 --> 0:01:38.845 are some folks saying some nasty shit, and we're gonna 0:01:38.885 --> 0:01:47.525 learn about it today. Cue the theme song. This is 0:01:47.565 --> 0:01:49.845 American Filth and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell 0:01:49.885 --> 0:01:54.485 you a filthy story from American history in today's episode. 0:01:54.645 --> 0:01:56.565 The Dirty, Dirty Blues. 0:02:11.085 --> 0:02:13.205 Okay, So that song that we heard was called Shave 0:02:13.245 --> 0:02:16.445 Him Dry, and it was recorded by Lucille Bogan under 0:02:16.445 --> 0:02:20.445 her pseudonym Bessie Jackson. And the funny thing about those 0:02:20.565 --> 0:02:22.805 is those are just the opening lines of the song, 0:02:22.965 --> 0:02:25.725 you know, like she doesn't even warm you up or 0:02:25.805 --> 0:02:28.845 like ease you into it. And in the context of 0:02:28.885 --> 0:02:31.805 this X ray song, it's probably just about getting right 0:02:31.845 --> 0:02:35.285 to the banging without bothering with all that pesky for play. 0:02:36.245 --> 0:02:38.885 And some of y'all might be thinking, right now, Wow, Gabby, 0:02:38.965 --> 0:02:41.325 it's so fun to hear you recite these lyrics in 0:02:41.365 --> 0:02:43.525 a very poetic, dramatic sort of way. 0:02:44.205 --> 0:02:46.685 But why don't you just play the song. Well, here's 0:02:46.685 --> 0:02:47.005 the thing. 0:02:47.165 --> 0:02:50.885 Songs require licensing, which requires money, and I just can't 0:02:50.925 --> 0:02:53.885 afford it right now. But I do encourage you go 0:02:54.005 --> 0:02:56.965 listen to Lucille Bogan, Go listen to her music, it's 0:02:57.005 --> 0:03:01.485 freaking fantastic. In the meantime, though, let's hear some other 0:03:01.645 --> 0:03:06.125 lyrics from Shave Them Dry. Say I fuck all night 0:03:06.445 --> 0:03:09.365 and all the night before baby, and how I feel 0:03:09.445 --> 0:03:14.165 just like I wanna fuck some more. And here's another 0:03:14.245 --> 0:03:17.525 excerpt from the song. Now it fucking was the thing 0:03:17.605 --> 0:03:20.165 that would take me to heaven. I'd be fucking in 0:03:20.205 --> 0:03:26.885 the studio till the clock strike eleven. Do you guys 0:03:26.965 --> 0:03:31.205 remember when uh wop came out and all these conservatives 0:03:31.245 --> 0:03:34.165 were in a tizzy over the lyrics, Well, imagine if 0:03:34.205 --> 0:03:37.165 they had heard Lucille Bogan singing this in nineteen thirty five. 0:03:41.165 --> 0:03:43.885 Another song that Bogan wrote was called Till the Cows 0:03:43.925 --> 0:03:48.405 Come Home, and it is just as vulgar in its lyrics. 0:03:48.805 --> 0:03:51.645 The general premise of the song is that Bogan can 0:03:51.725 --> 0:03:59.805 fuck until the cows come home. The song opens with 0:03:59.845 --> 0:04:02.365 Bogan saying that every time she bangs a man, she 0:04:02.445 --> 0:04:06.845 gives them quote the dogone clap, And here she does 0:04:06.885 --> 0:04:10.085 not mean the std what she actually means, as she 0:04:10.165 --> 0:04:11.445 explains in the song. 0:04:11.605 --> 0:04:16.045 That's the kind of pussy that they really like. So 0:04:16.085 --> 0:04:16.605 that's a good one. 0:04:16.645 --> 0:04:19.485 You guys could use tonight for Valentine's Day. You know, 0:04:19.725 --> 0:04:22.325 you'd be like, hey, partner or hey random person, I'm 0:04:22.325 --> 0:04:24.685 gonna give you the clap tonight, and they'll be like, 0:04:24.725 --> 0:04:26.405 what are you talking about, Like I don't want the clap. 0:04:26.405 --> 0:04:28.005 It's like no, it's like you're gonna clap for it. 0:04:28.085 --> 0:04:33.845 You're gonna give it a standing ovation. Anyway, Later in 0:04:33.885 --> 0:04:37.405 that song, she says, if you suck my pussy, baby, 0:04:37.445 --> 0:04:40.445 I'll suck your dick. I'll do it ya, honey till 0:04:40.485 --> 0:04:44.125 I make you shit. Oh baby, honey, do it all 0:04:44.245 --> 0:04:50.245 night long. Do it to me, Papa till tomorrow comes. Look, 0:04:50.325 --> 0:04:53.765 even tomorrow is coming. In these lyrics amazing and I 0:04:53.845 --> 0:04:57.405 really respect this because Bogan is not even doing innuendo. 0:04:57.605 --> 0:05:00.845 She's just going for it, crooning about how much she 0:05:00.925 --> 0:05:04.405 loves sex so much that I'll make her partner shit. 0:05:09.165 --> 0:05:12.125 So Lucille Bogan, she's considered the Queen of the Dirty Blues, 0:05:12.165 --> 0:05:15.005 but these were just a few of the many, many, 0:05:15.045 --> 0:05:15.885 many songs. 0:05:15.645 --> 0:05:16.805 That she wrote and recorded. 0:05:17.525 --> 0:05:20.565 So who is this lady just brazenly singing about boning 0:05:20.565 --> 0:05:26.925 in the nineteen thirties. Well, she was born Lucille Anderson 0:05:27.085 --> 0:05:29.725 just before the turn of the Century on April first, 0:05:29.965 --> 0:05:34.805 eighteen ninety seven, and there are conflicting records about where 0:05:34.845 --> 0:05:38.165 she was born. It was either Mississippi or Alabama. And 0:05:38.205 --> 0:05:40.885 there's really not a whole lot known about her early years. 0:05:41.205 --> 0:05:43.805 But when she was seventeen, she married this guy named 0:05:43.845 --> 0:05:47.565 Nazareth Lee Bogan. He was a railway man who already 0:05:47.565 --> 0:05:50.845 had a daughter. But a year or two into their marriage, 0:05:50.885 --> 0:05:57.445 she gave birth to a son of her own. She 0:05:57.485 --> 0:06:01.005 and Nazareth later divorced and she remarried, but she kept 0:06:01.045 --> 0:06:07.365 Bogan as her name, and what is known about her 0:06:07.365 --> 0:06:10.565 life is mostly about her career as a singer. She's 0:06:10.605 --> 0:06:13.965 among the first blues musicians to ever be recorded, alongside 0:06:14.045 --> 0:06:17.885 legends like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. The first tunes 0:06:17.885 --> 0:06:20.965 Bogan laid on wax were actually vaudeville songs that she 0:06:21.085 --> 0:06:24.525 recorded in New York in nineteen twenty three, and she 0:06:24.605 --> 0:06:28.685 did this with Okay Records. Later that same year, Bogan 0:06:28.725 --> 0:06:31.965 made music history when Okay's Ralph Pierre came down to 0:06:32.005 --> 0:06:35.365 the South to record a country, blues, jazz and gospel 0:06:35.445 --> 0:06:38.645 artists in a converted warehouse in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. 0:06:39.205 --> 0:06:39.885 On this trip. 0:06:40.165 --> 0:06:43.365 Not only did Pierre record country music's first genuine hit 0:06:43.645 --> 0:06:47.205 by Fidland John Carson, but this session made Bogan the 0:06:47.245 --> 0:06:50.285 first black blues singer to be recorded outside of the 0:06:50.285 --> 0:06:54.245 big cities of New York in Chicago. And here's a 0:06:54.445 --> 0:06:57.805 very fun fact. The building where they recorded this music 0:06:58.005 --> 0:07:00.725 where a very significant moment in music history took place. 0:07:01.285 --> 0:07:03.485 It was actually torn down a few years ago to 0:07:03.525 --> 0:07:09.885 make room for something even more important, a Margaritaville. Ha 0:07:09.085 --> 0:07:09.605 ha ha. 0:07:10.245 --> 0:07:12.245 History's dumb, don't preserve it anyway. 0:07:13.165 --> 0:07:15.205 While coming up in the music scene in the twenties, 0:07:15.325 --> 0:07:18.525 Bogan is also hanging out and performing in some pretty 0:07:18.605 --> 0:07:22.925 seedy juke joints, and these kinds of places, well, they 0:07:23.005 --> 0:07:28.245 welcome the dirty, nasty lyrics Bogan became known for. So 0:07:28.285 --> 0:07:30.645 heading into the nineteen thirties, a lot of the stuff 0:07:30.685 --> 0:07:34.765 that Bogan's writing start to take on filthy, risky topics 0:07:34.805 --> 0:07:38.725 like drinking and sex and prostitution. You know, she has 0:07:38.725 --> 0:07:40.805 that song Till the Cows Come Home, but she has 0:07:40.845 --> 0:07:44.285 other ones called Sloppy Drunk Blues and tricks Ain't walkin 0:07:44.405 --> 0:07:49.365 no More. And the thing about Bogan is that over 0:07:49.405 --> 0:07:52.125 the years she was known to have affairs with both 0:07:52.205 --> 0:07:57.805 men and women. Wow, a bisexual queen and her queerness 0:07:57.805 --> 0:08:01.005 starts being reflected in her music. Like she has this 0:08:01.045 --> 0:08:05.125 one song called b D Woman's Blues, and that b 0:08:05.285 --> 0:08:09.805 D apparently stands for either bull dagger or bull dyke, 0:08:10.885 --> 0:08:12.805 both terms that mean butch lesbian. 0:08:13.565 --> 0:08:14.285 And here's this. 0:08:14.285 --> 0:08:18.605 Song coming a time. Beady women ain't gonna need no men, 0:08:19.045 --> 0:08:22.005 coming a time. Beady women ain't gonna need no men. 0:08:22.525 --> 0:08:24.725 Oh the way treat us as a low down and 0:08:24.765 --> 0:08:29.085 dirty sin. Beaty women, you sure can't understand. Beaty women, 0:08:29.165 --> 0:08:32.205 you sure can't understand. They got a head like a 0:08:32.245 --> 0:08:35.045 sweet angel, and they walk just like a natural man. 0:08:39.085 --> 0:08:42.125 While it may seem that Bogan's just a smutty outlier here, 0:08:42.165 --> 0:08:45.885 she's actually not alone. There's a whole cohort of blues 0:08:45.925 --> 0:08:50.325 singers who were known for being sexually adventurous. I mean, 0:08:50.365 --> 0:08:53.285 if we're talking about women and sexuality and being pretty 0:08:53.285 --> 0:08:56.245 bold with your lyrics, we can't leave out Maul Rainey, 0:08:56.405 --> 0:09:00.845 the mother of the blues. You know, she also, like Bogan, 0:09:01.165 --> 0:09:04.645 bridged vaudeville and the blues, connecting this new musical style 0:09:04.765 --> 0:09:09.045 to the earlier sexualized space of the vaudeville houses. I mean, 0:09:09.125 --> 0:09:13.165 just imagine that there was provocative dancing and suggestive singing. 0:09:13.205 --> 0:09:14.285 That was just part of it. 0:09:15.725 --> 0:09:18.645 And the thing about mal Rainy is, you know, her sexuality. 0:09:18.765 --> 0:09:21.285 Some people think she could have been bisexual. Maybe she 0:09:21.365 --> 0:09:25.005 was a lesbian. She took on many female lovers despite 0:09:25.045 --> 0:09:27.845 being married to a man. There was even rumors that 0:09:27.885 --> 0:09:31.445 she had some kind of sexual or romantic relationship with 0:09:31.525 --> 0:09:36.645 fellow musician and her protege, Bessie Smith. Yeah, Ma Raini, 0:09:36.765 --> 0:09:39.645 she definitely loved women like In nineteen twenty five, the 0:09:39.725 --> 0:09:43.045 Chicago police arrested her at her home for hosting a 0:09:43.085 --> 0:09:52.125 so called lesbian party. It's records like this arrest that 0:09:52.165 --> 0:09:56.485 helped support theories that a number of Malrainy songs allude 0:09:56.525 --> 0:10:00.165 to her lesbian leanings, like these famous lines in nineteen 0:10:00.245 --> 0:10:03.725 twenty eight's Prove It on Me Blues. I went out 0:10:03.805 --> 0:10:06.165 last night with a crowd of my friends. It must 0:10:06.245 --> 0:10:08.765 have been women, because I don't like no men. Wear 0:10:08.845 --> 0:10:11.685 my clothes just like a fan, talk to the gals 0:10:11.725 --> 0:10:17.245 just like any old man. And a few years earlier, 0:10:17.365 --> 0:10:20.725 in nineteen twenty four, Ma Rainey recorded another song that 0:10:20.925 --> 0:10:24.365 hence at her queerness. In the lyrics, she describes a 0:10:24.405 --> 0:10:27.965 woman who is wearing men's shoes, and at the time, 0:10:28.045 --> 0:10:30.565 you know, there were men's shoes and most women wouldn't 0:10:30.605 --> 0:10:33.365 be caught dead in them unless she was a cross 0:10:33.485 --> 0:10:37.645 dressing or be gay. And that nineteen twenty four song 0:10:38.325 --> 0:10:42.885 that was also Shave Em Dry Blues, that's right, Lucille 0:10:42.885 --> 0:10:46.965 Bogan's infinous nineteen thirty five recording was actually a modified cover, 0:10:47.405 --> 0:10:50.485 or at least inspired by Ma Rainey's tune from more 0:10:50.565 --> 0:10:56.925 than a decade earlier. And actually, on that day, March fifth, 0:10:57.045 --> 0:11:01.485 nineteen thirty five, Bogan recorded two versions of Shave Them Dry. 0:11:01.645 --> 0:11:05.245 There's the super vulgar one you heard earlier, and then 0:11:05.245 --> 0:11:07.845 there's a cleaned up version that is way more tame 0:11:07.885 --> 0:11:11.405 and marketable. And that cleaned up version was the song 0:11:11.445 --> 0:11:15.325 released and distributed by Bogan's record label, The Banner, labeled 0:11:15.365 --> 0:11:20.605 of the American Record Corporation. And believe it or not, 0:11:21.365 --> 0:11:25.885 these naughty, slightly suggestive tunes weren't just some random dirty 0:11:25.885 --> 0:11:27.445 songs that slipped through the cracks. 0:11:27.485 --> 0:11:28.325 No no, no, no, no no. 0:11:28.845 --> 0:11:32.725 There was actually a whole genre of sexually suggestive, if 0:11:32.765 --> 0:11:37.285 not outright explicit blues music that actually, despite its erotic 0:11:37.325 --> 0:11:42.525 subject matter, held broad commercial appeal. It was called hocum blues. 0:11:43.085 --> 0:11:54.845 More on that after the soothing advertisements. Welcome back from 0:11:54.885 --> 0:11:58.605 the soothing advertisements. I'm going to introduce a new person. 0:11:59.845 --> 0:12:03.245 His name is Thomas A. Dorsey. These days, he's known 0:12:03.245 --> 0:12:06.365 as the father of gospel music, and he's inducted into 0:12:06.405 --> 0:12:10.405 both the Songwriters and the Gospel Hall of Fame. He's 0:12:10.445 --> 0:12:13.365 been recorded and covered by musicians like bb King to 0:12:13.405 --> 0:12:17.965 Little Richard, to Aretha Franklin, even Elvis Presley. And that's 0:12:18.005 --> 0:12:20.605 not necessarily because of his long career in gospel music. 0:12:20.885 --> 0:12:24.485 No No. Back in the late nineteen twenties, Thomas A. 0:12:24.565 --> 0:12:27.685 Dorsey was known as Georgia Tom and he was a 0:12:27.725 --> 0:12:34.885 pioneer of the genre known as hokum blues. And by 0:12:34.925 --> 0:12:37.445 the nineteen twenties, by the way, Dorsey was a well 0:12:37.605 --> 0:12:41.005 established performer. He was born in Villa Rica, Georgia, but 0:12:41.085 --> 0:12:43.685 his family moved to Atlanta when he was a child. 0:12:44.285 --> 0:12:47.045 There he began working part time at a local theater, 0:12:47.605 --> 0:12:51.005 which is where he learned to play the piano. According 0:12:51.005 --> 0:12:53.565 to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, by the time Dorsey 0:12:53.645 --> 0:12:56.605 was twelve, he was performing at the barrel houses in 0:12:56.685 --> 0:13:01.405 Brothels of Atlanta's Decatur Street. Some years later he moved 0:13:01.445 --> 0:13:04.245 to Chicago and it was there that he served for 0:13:04.245 --> 0:13:07.525 at least some time as none other than Ma Rainey's bandleader. 0:13:08.645 --> 0:13:11.125 He was also a piano player, a ranger, and vocal 0:13:11.205 --> 0:13:15.165 coach at Paramount Records. He just dove headfirst into Chicago's 0:13:15.205 --> 0:13:19.205 music scene. Then he meets a guy named Hudson Whittaker 0:13:19.565 --> 0:13:21.965 who went by the name of Tampa Red. He was 0:13:22.005 --> 0:13:24.725 a musician who played parties and did some street performing 0:13:24.725 --> 0:13:27.165 for money, and the two of them started playing together. 0:13:28.685 --> 0:13:31.365 While classic blue singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey 0:13:31.405 --> 0:13:34.725 performed at the vaudeville houses, the majority of blues musicians 0:13:34.765 --> 0:13:37.245 at the time tended to perform at late night spots 0:13:37.325 --> 0:13:42.045 like speakeasies, after hours cafes, and parties. And this was 0:13:42.045 --> 0:13:45.165 pretty cool, but according to Dorsey, it was actually possible 0:13:45.205 --> 0:13:49.005 to make a living performing at these parties. You know, 0:13:49.045 --> 0:13:51.765 when one party ended, the musicians could move on to 0:13:51.845 --> 0:13:56.965 the next gathering and just keep going. A lot of 0:13:56.965 --> 0:13:59.325 these places they offered pretty low rents to the people 0:13:59.365 --> 0:14:02.085 who were moving to the major cities every week. A 0:14:02.085 --> 0:14:04.525 lot of the people moving were black Southerners who were 0:14:04.565 --> 0:14:07.685 fleeing the Jim Crow South. This is part of what 0:14:07.725 --> 0:14:11.045 would come to be known as the Great Migration. And 0:14:11.125 --> 0:14:13.125 so since you had all of these black Southerners moving 0:14:13.245 --> 0:14:17.725 up north, there was a desire for some Southern type music. 0:14:18.205 --> 0:14:20.085 You know. So at these parties, the music. 0:14:19.765 --> 0:14:22.085 That people wanted to hear was stuff that you might 0:14:22.125 --> 0:14:24.965 hear at a weekend shin dig in the South. So 0:14:25.005 --> 0:14:27.325 this music came to be known as city blues. 0:14:28.125 --> 0:14:28.325 You know. 0:14:28.405 --> 0:14:30.165 It was something you could dance to, but it also 0:14:30.205 --> 0:14:33.805 had very lol lyrics. And the thing is, you might 0:14:33.845 --> 0:14:36.765 be wondering, Oh, I didn't think that in the rural South, 0:14:36.805 --> 0:14:41.325 in the countryside, that people would be singing suggestive songs. 0:14:42.005 --> 0:14:45.045 But apparently people had been doing that for a long time, 0:14:46.165 --> 0:14:49.085 in fact, more than a decade before Ma Rainey came 0:14:49.165 --> 0:14:53.205 up with shaveam Dry. In nineteen twelve. Black vaudeville performer 0:14:53.245 --> 0:14:56.165 Paul Carter put it this way to a news publication. 0:14:56.485 --> 0:15:00.285 He said, smutty sayings and suggestive dancing were already common 0:15:00.325 --> 0:15:03.605 in black vaudeville, and the audiences loved things with a 0:15:03.645 --> 0:15:04.365 double meaning. 0:15:06.925 --> 0:15:07.565 So yeah, this. 0:15:07.565 --> 0:15:10.405 Raunchy art form was already very popular and tons of 0:15:10.445 --> 0:15:14.005 fun and at night, with lots of drinking and dancing, 0:15:14.245 --> 0:15:20.085 it made sense to have some smut and vulgarity. But 0:15:20.165 --> 0:15:22.925 certainly this wasn't something you would record and distribute for money. 0:15:22.965 --> 0:15:26.445 Right, No, wrong, because now in. 0:15:26.365 --> 0:15:29.045 The twentieth century, with the growth of the music industry, 0:15:29.245 --> 0:15:31.205 there are a lot of people who were hungry to 0:15:31.285 --> 0:15:35.565 record music, particularly like when Ralph Pierre came down to Atlanta, 0:15:35.725 --> 0:15:37.965 he was really focused on what was then known as 0:15:38.125 --> 0:15:42.325 race records or in general black music. And then when 0:15:42.365 --> 0:15:45.205 we got to the nineteen twenties, people had record players 0:15:45.405 --> 0:15:48.925 and this boosted the popularity of genres like jazz, blues 0:15:49.365 --> 0:15:52.005 and what was then called hillbilly music what we'd call 0:15:52.045 --> 0:15:55.645 country today. So you know, some of these record producers 0:15:55.645 --> 0:15:57.725 they had this idea. They're like, well, if we take 0:15:57.765 --> 0:16:01.765 the city blues songs that are so popular, take out 0:16:01.805 --> 0:16:07.525 some of the inappropriate words, maybe have even more secure innuendos, voila, 0:16:07.725 --> 0:16:12.645 then we can make a hit, which brings us back 0:16:12.685 --> 0:16:16.245 to Dorsey and Whittaker in nineteen twenty eight. The two 0:16:16.285 --> 0:16:18.645 of them were trying to make a hit song, but 0:16:18.805 --> 0:16:23.365 Unfortunately they were having some writer's block. But then one 0:16:23.445 --> 0:16:28.325 day they're just hanging out and inspiration strikes. Basically what 0:16:28.445 --> 0:16:31.085 happened is that they were just sitting around trying to 0:16:31.085 --> 0:16:33.605 think up a song, and then a boy comes by 0:16:33.685 --> 0:16:36.325 and he's like, hey, everybody in the street is saying 0:16:36.365 --> 0:16:38.685 it's tight like that. Maybe you should make a song 0:16:38.725 --> 0:16:43.165 about that. And then Dorsey and Whitaker were like, that's 0:16:43.165 --> 0:16:46.165 a great idea. So they wrote a song called It's 0:16:46.165 --> 0:16:49.165 Tight Like That. Whittaker wrote the lyrics and Dorsey was 0:16:49.205 --> 0:16:51.645 in charge of the tune. And yes, the tune is 0:16:51.765 --> 0:16:54.365 very similar to this nineteen twenty five song called Shake 0:16:54.445 --> 0:16:56.605 that Thing by Papa Charlie Jackson. 0:16:56.725 --> 0:16:58.325 But whatever that was a hit. 0:16:58.685 --> 0:17:07.405 Dorsey made some tweaks whatever, and so in Tight Like That, 0:17:08.205 --> 0:17:14.125 the lyrics are suggestive, but not necessarily outright dirty, filthy gross. 0:17:14.765 --> 0:17:16.885 They actually use a lot of slang used by black 0:17:16.925 --> 0:17:20.325 people at the time, so they never directly said any 0:17:20.365 --> 0:17:24.845 of the bad words taboo topics. One term that you 0:17:24.925 --> 0:17:28.085 might hear at a late night dance club was beatle 0:17:28.165 --> 0:17:31.925 um bum, which Dorsey explained was a suggestive phrase that 0:17:32.005 --> 0:17:34.485 women would sing while dancing with their dudes. 0:17:35.125 --> 0:17:36.005 The lyrics are. 0:17:36.645 --> 0:17:39.685 Uncle Bill came home about half past ten, put the 0:17:39.725 --> 0:17:42.205 key in the hole, but he couldn't get in. Oh 0:17:42.285 --> 0:17:43.325 it's tight like that. 0:17:43.645 --> 0:17:44.765 Hmm, what could that mean? 0:17:45.645 --> 0:17:48.845 Beat up bum bum? Oh it's tight like that beatle 0:17:48.925 --> 0:17:51.005 um bum you hear me talking to you. 0:17:51.165 --> 0:17:52.405 I mean it's tight like that. 0:17:55.245 --> 0:17:58.965 So, you know, suggestive but not explicit, And as many 0:17:59.005 --> 0:18:01.325 songs in the hok and blues genre would do later, 0:18:02.285 --> 0:18:05.125 you could further modify it, like you could also just 0:18:05.125 --> 0:18:07.845 like not say tight instead. Sometimes it would be replaced 0:18:07.845 --> 0:18:11.045 with it or that thing, And so people who were 0:18:11.045 --> 0:18:14.045 listening to it, if they weren't good at like innuendo 0:18:14.205 --> 0:18:17.125 or didn't know the words, you couldn't be offended, like 0:18:17.205 --> 0:18:19.965 maybe in the song, you know, the key was just 0:18:20.005 --> 0:18:24.325 literally too fat for that lock. I don't know, And 0:18:24.365 --> 0:18:27.045 it's tight like that became a huge hit. By nineteen 0:18:27.085 --> 0:18:31.165 twenty nine, five hundred thousand records had been sold. The 0:18:31.205 --> 0:18:34.605 Songwriters Hall of Fame thinks that the song ultimately sold 0:18:34.645 --> 0:18:38.245 seven million recordings, which was a record for the blues era, 0:18:39.525 --> 0:18:43.125 and also Whittaker and Dorsey kept recording new versions with 0:18:43.245 --> 0:18:46.845 different lyrics or a new band name, like they did 0:18:46.885 --> 0:18:49.405 one version that they recorded with a jug band, and 0:18:49.405 --> 0:18:54.245 they called it Tampa Red's Hocum Jug Band. And as 0:18:54.285 --> 0:18:57.045 for the word hokum, they included it because of the 0:18:57.085 --> 0:19:00.645 words of roots in vaudeville, it was already a term 0:19:00.805 --> 0:19:04.365 used to describe a show or performance that bordered on vulgarity, 0:19:04.805 --> 0:19:08.605 sort of a lowke metic style like double entendre. This 0:19:08.725 --> 0:19:11.605 basically let their audience, at least the ones who were 0:19:11.645 --> 0:19:13.405 in the know, understand what. 0:19:13.405 --> 0:19:15.365 They were really getting at. 0:19:16.325 --> 0:19:20.525 And unsurprisingly, because of this song's success, other groups began 0:19:20.605 --> 0:19:23.965 recording covers of its tight like that, or just ripped 0:19:24.005 --> 0:19:27.005 the song off completely, and it was so popular that 0:19:27.045 --> 0:19:28.365 people were eating this shit up. 0:19:28.405 --> 0:19:30.405 They're like, yes, give me more, it's tight like that. 0:19:31.405 --> 0:19:35.725 Like even preachers recorded sermons that had similar names. 0:19:35.325 --> 0:19:37.925 Like this is crazy, But there was a dude who had. 0:19:37.805 --> 0:19:41.165 A sermon that was called these hard Times are tight 0:19:41.365 --> 0:19:41.605 like that. 0:19:46.365 --> 0:19:48.565 So the popularity. 0:19:48.045 --> 0:19:50.885 Of this song and others led to a rush of 0:19:50.925 --> 0:19:54.325 hocum blues hits in the twenties and thirties that had 0:19:54.365 --> 0:19:57.565 some really excellent titles like what is It that Tastes 0:19:57.645 --> 0:20:04.485 Like Gravy by Whittaker or Meatballs by Lil Johnson, our 0:20:04.565 --> 0:20:07.005 Bo Carter's Please Warm My Wiener. 0:20:09.125 --> 0:20:10.885 That last one not super subtle. 0:20:11.725 --> 0:20:13.565 And while a lot of people love these songs, a 0:20:13.565 --> 0:20:18.605 lot of people hated them. A lot of the criticism 0:20:18.725 --> 0:20:22.965 was aimed at the record companies. Like the famed ethnomusicologist 0:20:23.045 --> 0:20:27.325 Alan Lomax was like, Ah, the record companies quote encouraged 0:20:27.325 --> 0:20:31.365 their singers to produce cheap novelty blues, the sillier the better, 0:20:32.045 --> 0:20:34.885 which in his eyes, overshadowed quote the poignant and often 0:20:35.005 --> 0:20:38.045 profound poetry of the earlier country blues. 0:20:39.445 --> 0:20:40.605 But I think this is dumb. 0:20:40.485 --> 0:20:44.245 Because obviously vulgar and racy songs can be poetic and 0:20:44.325 --> 0:20:44.925 have meaning. 0:20:45.005 --> 0:20:46.925 Okay, these were very clever songs. 0:20:47.605 --> 0:20:50.325 Also, his criticism of the record companies takes away the 0:20:50.365 --> 0:20:52.885 agency of the black artists who were making the songs. 0:20:53.925 --> 0:20:56.325 Like the Hoke and Blues and these like dirty blues tunes. 0:20:56.365 --> 0:20:59.525 They were very subversive, you know, it was going against 0:20:59.565 --> 0:21:02.765 the white establishment that expected black people to behave a 0:21:02.765 --> 0:21:12.965 certain way stupid in low Max. And it's also kind 0:21:12.965 --> 0:21:15.325 of funny because like Thomas Dorsey, who wrote some of 0:21:15.365 --> 0:21:18.165 these dirty songs, he was actually a Baptist and in 0:21:18.205 --> 0:21:22.005 the twenties. While writing these popular blues tracks, he was 0:21:22.085 --> 0:21:26.165 also becoming involved in music of the church. He coined 0:21:26.205 --> 0:21:29.525 the term gospel music and would sell sheet music with 0:21:29.605 --> 0:21:31.005 gospel songs he had written. 0:21:32.285 --> 0:21:34.605 But unfortunately this is really sad. But in the nineteen. 0:21:34.365 --> 0:21:37.845 Thirties, his wife and his child died within twenty four 0:21:37.885 --> 0:21:40.685 hours of each other. That inspired him to write his 0:21:40.725 --> 0:21:43.965 most famous gospel song, which is take my Hand, Precious Lord. 0:21:44.485 --> 0:21:47.365 And in the decades after he became an influential music 0:21:47.365 --> 0:21:50.605 publisher and would eventually be recognized as the father of 0:21:50.725 --> 0:21:57.045 gospel music. And now Lucille Bogan's legacy, though it's taken 0:21:57.085 --> 0:22:00.045 a longer time to acknowledge, and maybe that's because her 0:22:00.125 --> 0:22:04.005 music wasn't as marketable, kind of like this show you 0:22:04.045 --> 0:22:05.725 know another one of her songs. 0:22:05.845 --> 0:22:07.365 Here are the lyrics. 0:22:08.125 --> 0:22:10.365 I told him, I got a cock, and it's got 0:22:10.405 --> 0:22:11.725 four damn good names. 0:22:12.085 --> 0:22:15.365 Rough top, rough cock, tough cock, cock. 0:22:15.165 --> 0:22:17.965 Without a bone. You can fuck my cock, suck my cock, 0:22:18.125 --> 0:22:23.045 or leave my cock alone. But also it might have 0:22:23.085 --> 0:22:25.845 taken longer to recognize her because when she first started 0:22:25.845 --> 0:22:29.205 recording it was under her real name, Lucille Bogan, But 0:22:29.365 --> 0:22:31.525 in nineteen thirty three, when she went to New York. 0:22:31.885 --> 0:22:35.685 She began recording as Bessie Jackson, and she managed to 0:22:35.725 --> 0:22:38.845 lay down over one hundred tracks of just two years. 0:22:40.325 --> 0:22:43.005 And it was in nineteen thirty five, during her final 0:22:43.045 --> 0:22:46.605 recording session that she recorded Till the Cows Come Home 0:22:46.685 --> 0:22:53.525 and those two takes of Shave Them Dry. Unfortunately, ARC 0:22:53.725 --> 0:22:57.285 didn't renew her contract, so she didn't record anymore after that. 0:22:58.285 --> 0:23:00.045 She died in August nineteen forty eight. 0:23:01.525 --> 0:23:04.765 Even though she never achieved the name recognition that she deserves, 0:23:05.965 --> 0:23:09.845 we got to appreciate her body blues. So at the 0:23:09.925 --> 0:23:11.725 end of this episode, to really put you in the 0:23:11.725 --> 0:23:15.325 mood for Valentine's Day, let's have another reading of her lyrics. 0:23:16.525 --> 0:23:19.645 Now your nuts hang down like a damn bell sapper, 0:23:20.125 --> 0:23:23.845 and your dick stands up like a steeple, your goddamn 0:23:23.925 --> 0:23:27.485 asshole stands open like a church door, and the crabs 0:23:27.525 --> 0:23:34.845 walk in like people haw shit shucks ooh. And as 0:23:34.845 --> 0:23:37.525 always we learn a lesson from American filth, and I 0:23:37.525 --> 0:23:40.925 think the lesson we learned today is that throughout the century, 0:23:40.965 --> 0:23:45.605 throughout the years, people want to fuck all right. Happy 0:23:45.645 --> 0:24:00.045 Valentine's Day everyone, American Field is a production of School 0:24:00.045 --> 0:24:03.245 of Humans and iHeart Podcast. I'm Gabby Watts. This episode 0:24:03.285 --> 0:24:06.325 was written by Amelia Brock. She's also the senior producer. 0:24:06.365 --> 0:24:10.205 Ore executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley, and Brandon Barr. 0:24:10.525 --> 0:24:13.685 You can follow the podcast on Instagram at American Felt Pod. 0:24:13.805 --> 0:24:17.205 Theme song is also by me and Jesse Niswanger. Please 0:24:17.285 --> 0:24:20.445