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Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters: Music Matters

Autor Lynnée Denise
en Limba Engleză Hardback – 12 sep 2023
Finalist, 2024 Lesbian Memoir/Biography, Lambda Literary Award for Arts and Culture
Winner — Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award, 45th Annual American Book Awards, Before Columbus Foundation


A queer, Black “biography in essays” about the performer who gave us “Hound Dog,” “Ball and Chain,” and other songs that changed the course of American music.

Born in Alabama in 1926, raised in the church, appropriated by white performers, buried in an indigent’s grave—Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton's life events epitomize the blues—but Lynnée Denise pushes past the stereotypes to read Thornton’s life through a Black, queer, feminist lens and reveal an artist who was an innovator across her four-decade-long career.
Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters “samples” elements of Thornton’s art—and, occasionally, the author’s own story—to create “a biography in essays” that explores the life of its subject as a DJ might dig through a crate of records. Denise connects Thornton’s vaudevillesque performances in Sammy Green’s Hot Harlem Revue to the vocal improvisations that made “Hound Dog” a hit for Peacock Records (and later for Elvis Presley), injecting music criticism into what’s often framed as a cautionary tale of record-industry racism. She interprets Thornton’s performing in men’s suits as both a sly, Little Richard–like queering of the Chitlin Circuit and a simple preference for pants over dresses that didn’t have a pocket for her harmonica. Most radical of all, she refers to her subject by her given name rather than "Big Mama," a nickname bestowed upon her by a white man. It's a deliberate and crucial act of reclamation, because in the name of Willie Mae Thornton is the sound of Black musical resilience.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781477321188
ISBN-10: 1477321187
Pagini: 240
Dimensiuni: 127 x 203 x 38 mm
Greutate: 0.37 kg
Editura: University of Texas Press
Colecția University of Texas Press
Seria Music Matters


Notă biografică

Lynnée Denise is an artist, writer, and DJ. She was the Sterling Brown ’22 Distinguished Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College, and she is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Visual Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Cuprins

  • Introduction
  • Mothering the Blues
  • The Black South Matters
  • Sisters of the Dirty Blues
  • White Boy Magic and the Making of Genre
  • Grown Little Girls, Tomboy Women, and Black Radio
  • Don’t Ask Me No More about Elvis
  • California Love / California Dreamin’
  • Willie Mae inna England
  • Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine
  • Mixtapes, White Biographers, and Black Blues People
  • Saved by the Amazing Grace of Mahalia Jackson
  • A Jailed Sassy Mama
  • The ’80s Blackness of Willie Mae’s Blues
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • Sources and References

Recenzii

Denise offers a desperately-needed corrective in this volume about the art, life, and legacy of Thornton, whose song “Hound Dog” (later recorded by Elvis) changed the course of American music. A standout installment in the University of Texas Press’s always great Music Matters series.

The enigmatically intelligent and scholarly productive thinker, Lynnée Denise, who has made strides in Black realms of music for well over a decade is now presenting a new book. Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters gives an honest and incredibly bright examination of the relevance of Big Mama Thornton.

Denise uses shrewd music criticism and a Black, queer, feminist lens, to reintroduce Thornton as a performer who transcended gender norms . . . Denise’s thoughtful reimagination of Thornton’s career pays tribute to a woman that embodied Black creation and resilience.

Impressive research and thoughtful commentary illuminate the life and career of Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton (1926–84) in this eloquent volume...What emerges is a portrait of an extraordinary woman who influenced later blues, rock, and pop music performers such as Janis Joplin...An engaging and well-written must-read with generous resources for further study.

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was a Black, queer blues woman often recognized for her song, “Hound Dog,” but she was so much more. In the latest volume of the Music Matters series, Lynnée Denise rediscovers and reclaims Thornton’s life and legacy, a gift to us all.

Denise reintroduces Thornton as a performer who transcended genres and gender norms.

Denise effectively delivers perhaps her most salient point: Who is authorized to convey the story of these Black musicians?

The enigmatically intelligent and scholarly productive thinker Lynnée Denise, affectionately known as Big Mama Thornton, has made strides in Black realms of music for well over a decade, and is now presenting a new book. The exploration of the life and times of this enigmatic blues visionary gives the artist its due. Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters is a well-written examination of and homage to Black music enthusiasts should collect and enjoy.

Descriere

A queer, Black “biography in essays” about the performer who gave us “Hound Dog,” “Ball and Chain,” and other songs that changed the course of American music.