1001 canciones (9)

Como ya comentamos en otra entrada, Bessie Smith fue la cantante de blues más popular de su tiempo, entre la década de los '20 y los '30, y una de las voces que creó escuela siendo influencia de mitos como Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin o Mahalia Jackson.

 Esta canción; que debemos de escuchar antes de morir, es un blues en el que tres líneas principales resuelven la canción; por un lado una melodía principal de piano, la línea vocal de la voz de Bessie en unas tesituras bastante agudas y una sección de viento metal a modo de coros.

Bessie Smith - Need a Little Suger in My Bowl 

Tired of bein' lonely, tired of bein' blue
I wished I had some good man, to tell my troubles to
Seem like the whole world's wrong
Since my man's been gone

I need a little sugar in my bowl
I need a little hot dog on my roll
I can stand a bit of lovin', oh so bad
I feel so funny, I feel so sad

I need a little steam-heat on my floor
Maybe I can fix things up, so they'll go
What's the matter hard papa
Come on and save your mama's soul

'Cause I need a little sugar, in my bowl, doggone it
I need a some sugar in my bowl

I need a little sugar in my bowl
I need a little hot dog between my rolls

You gettin' different, I've been told
Move your finger, drop something in my bowl

I need a little steam-heat on my floor
Maybe I can fix things up, so they'll go

Get off your knees, I can't see what you're drivin' at
It's dark down there looks like a snake!
C'mon here and drop somethin' here in my bowl
Stop your foolin' and drop somethin' in my bowl

1001 canciones (2)

La siguiente canción que debemos escuchar antes de morirnos es de 1925 y su interprete, Bessie Smith,  fue considerada la cantante de blues más popular de los años 20 y 30 y la más influyente en los cantantes que la siguieron (Wikipedia).

 

Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues

 

I hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down
Hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down,
'cause my baby, he done left this town
Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
Feel tomorrow like I feel today,
I'll pack my trunk, make my getaway
St. Louis woman with her diamond rings
Pulls that man 'round by her apron strings,
't'want for powder and for store-bought hair
The man I love, would not gone nowhere,
got the St. Louis blues just as blue as I can be
That man got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me
Been to the gypsy to get my fortune told
To the gypsy, to get my fortune told,
'cause I'm most wild about my
jelly roll
Gypsy done told me, "Don't you wear no black"
Yes, she done told me, "Don't you wear no black,
go to St. Louis, you can win him back"
Help me to Cairo, make St. Louis by myself
Gone to Cairo, find my old friend Jeff
Goin' to pin myself close to his side,
if I
flag his train
, I sure can ride
I love that man like a schoolboy loves his pie
Like a Kentucky Colonel loves his mint and rye
I'll love my baby till the day I die
You ought to see that stovepipe brown of mine,
like he owns the diamond Joseph line
He'd make across-eyed old man go stone blind
Blacker than midnight, teeth like flags of truce
Blackest man in the whole St. Louis
Blacker the berry, sweeter is the juice
About a crap game, he knows a powerful lot,
but when work time comes, he's on the dot
Goin' to ask him for a cold ten spot,
what it takes to get it, he's certainly got
A black-headed gal make a freight train jump the track
Said a black-headed gal make a freight train jump the track