# Lucille Bogan almost exclusively focused on explicit sexual themes, like prostitution, adultery and … Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/04/01/lucille-bogan-almost-exclusively-focused-on-explicit-sexual-themes-like-prostitution-adultery-and-video/
- Published: 2018-04-01T00:02:25+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**01.04. – Happy Birthday !!! Hardcore might be the best way to describe the Blues
singing of Lucille Bogan. While many of the Classic Blues singers of the 1920s tackled
risqué and controversial issues in their songs, Bogan almost exclusively focused
on explicit sexual themes, like prostitution, adultery and lesbianism, and social
ills such as alcoholism, drug addiction and abusive relationships.**

Bogan was born April 1, 1897 in Mississippi but grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. 
In 1923 she made her first recordings for the Okeh label in Atlanta, Georgia. The
records apparently didn’t sell well because she didn’t record again until 1927 for
the Paramount and Brunswick labels after moving to Chicago.

Between 1933 and 935 she performed and recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson
and worked with pianist Walter Roland. Bogan’s recording career came to an end in
1935 and she eventually returned to Birmingham where she reverted to her real name
and performed in and managed the group Bogan’s Birmingham Busters but did not appear
on either of the group’s records. In the late 1930s or early l940s, Bogan moved 
to the West Coast. She died in Los Angeles in 1948 of coronary sclerosis.

Bessie Jackson was a pseudonym of Lucille Bogan, a classic female blues artist from
the ’20s and ’30s. Her outspoken lyrics deal with sexuality in a manner that manages
to raise eyebrows even within a genre that is about as nasty as recorded music ever
got prior to the emergence of artists such as 2 Live Crew or Ludacris. The name 
change seems to be quite different in her case than the usual pattern among blues
artists who recorded under other names simply to make an end run around pre-existing
recording contracts. Jackson/Bogan seemed to be looking for something more substantial,
in that she not only changed her name but her performance style as well, and never
recorded again under the name of Lucille Bogan once the Jackson persona had emerged.
This was despite having enjoyed a hit record in the so-called “race market” in 1927
with the song “Sweet Petunia” as Bogan, but perhaps this was a scent she was trying
to hide from.

This performer came out of the extremely active blues scene of Birmingham, AL, in
the ’20s. She was born Lucille Anderson in Mississippi, picking up Bogan as a married
name. She was the aunt of pianist and trumpet player Thomas “Big Music” Anderson.
Bogan made her first recordings of the tunes “Lonesome Daddy Blues” and “Pawnshop
Blues,” in 1923, in New York City for the OKeh label. Despite the blues references
in the titles, these were more vaudeville numbers. She moved to Chicago a year or
two later and developed a huge following in the Windy City, before relocating to
New York City in the early ’30s, where she began a long collaborative relationship
with pianist Walter Roland. This was the type of musical combination that many songwriters
and singers only dream about; he was a perfect foil, knew what to play on the piano
to bring out the best in her voice, and was such a sympathetic partner that it is
hard to know where her ideas start and his end, no matter what name she was using.
The pair made more than 100 records together before Bogan stopped recording in 1935.

One of the most infamous of the Jackson sides is the song “B.D. Woman’s Blues,” 
which 75 years later packs more of a punch than the lesbian-themed material of artists
such as Holly Near or the Indigo Girls. “B.D.” was short for “bull dykes,” after
all, and the blues singer lays it right on the line with the opening verse: “Comin’
a time/women ain’t gonna need no men.” Well, except for a good piano player such
as Walter Roland or some of her other hotshot accompanists such as guitarists Tampa
Red and Josh White, or banjo picker Papa Charlie Jackson. She herself gets an accordion
credit on one early recording, quite unusual for this genre. Certainly one of Bogan’s
greatest talents was as a songwriter, and she copyrighted dozens of titles, many
of them so original that other blues artists were forced to give credit where credit
was due instead of whipping up “matcher” imitations as was more than norm. She still
wrote songs during her later years living in California, and her final composition
was “Gonna Leave Town,” which turned out to be quite a prophetic title. By the time
Smokey Hogg cut the tune in 1949, Jackson really had left town, having passed away
the previous year from coronary sclerosis. While the material of some artists from
this period has become largely forgotten, this is hardly the case for her; Saffire:
The Uppity Blues Women have recorded several of her songs, as has bandmember Ann
Rabson on her solo projects, as well as the naughty novelty band the Asylum Street
Spankers.

![Картинки по запросу Lucille Bogan](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.
com/vi/8L_mjK8jLJM/hqdefault.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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