Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on the 15th day of April in 1894. Bessie started her career as a street musician in her hometown, Chattanooga. In 1912 Smith joined a traveling show as a singer and dancer. Bessie developed a good friendship with her soon to be mentor Ma Rainey. By the 1920's Smith had joined the T.O.B.A circuit and had became one of the most popular blues singers in vaudeville. During most of the 20's she had recorded with a lot of Jazz musicians, like Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins, Smith's and Armstrong's rendition of St. Louis Blues is considered to be one of the greatest pieces of the 20's. By 1931 Smith had become a favorite among both blacks and whites. The rise of sound movies and radio plus with the beginning of the Great Depression made it hard for Smith's type of blues to survive and she was soon dropped. By 1937 Bessie was about to make a comeback as a swing musician but a tragic car accident cut that short. While she was riding with her "lover" Richard Morgan their car rear-ended a slow moving truck that flipped the car over crushing Bessie's ribs and left arm soon leading to her bleeding to death before anyone could get her to a hospital but rumors say that she still could have been alive when they arrived at the hospital but she was turned down because it was a white hospital.
One of the most famous songs of the 20's.
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Mississippi River, what a fix you left me in, Old Mississippi River, what a fix you left me in, Mudholes of water clear up to my chin |
I can see that you and me will have a terrible fallin' out,
No-one at the barbers' ball will know what it's all about!
They'll hear a shot, and see you duck, and when the smoke has cleared away,
Then the band will crawl from behind the stand, and then you'll hear me say;
No-one at the barbers' ball will know what it's all about!
They'll hear a shot, and see you duck, and when the smoke has cleared away,
Then the band will crawl from behind the stand, and then you'll hear me say;