The best song poems, I believe, can live on the pages as well as in the ear. “Backwater blues done caused me to pack up my things and go, / Backwater blues done caused me to pack up my things and go, / 'Cause my house fell down and I can't live there no more.” This is a song poem. The “a” rhyme glues the three-line stanza together. There is one integral line throughout the stanza. ![]() The third line either comments or reverses the first two lines. The first line sets the scene, the second line repeats the first for emphasis. The first two lines are of almost equal length. Terrible images came across the television screen and recently with global warming and continuous flooding and natural disasters this poem survives the test of time and can speak to a variety of incidents and international dislocated peoples. Most of us don’t remember the great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, but when I read this poem a few years ago during a gathering on the behalf of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the same issues resounded-neighborhoods destroyed, slow government response, the African American neighborhoods were hit the hardest. Of course, we Americans have historical amnesia. The despair is deep, is deeply personal, but it is also metaphorical and speaks to the despair of an entire community. This personal depression by extension is about the depression of an entire people, marginalized in the back waters, stricken with poverty, homelessness, suffering social injustice, discrimination, and now hit with this catastrophic natural disaster. The scene is set with the terrific storm by the female speaker, so depressed that she can’t even get out of the door. I think in the best identity poems that the self represents something much larger than the self. But the second strophe, the second stanza, we turn inward, and it’s about personal disaster: I woke up this morning can’t even get out of my door, I woke up this morning can’t even get out of my door. I mean, first, it sets up a terrible storm when it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night, when it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night. There was evidence of lynchings and unspeakable killings and terrible acts against the black community. They relocated the white folks in an expedient manner but corralled the black folks into abysmal camps. There were reports that officials behaved in a discriminatory fashion. Nonetheless, when she recorded it in 1927 “Backwater Blues” became an anthem for the great Mississippi River Flood. The blues artists who wrote and sang in this era there are famous names in this era such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howling Wolf, and of course, Bessie Smith, who is one of my favorites.īessie actually wrote “Backwater Blues” for the Cumberland River flood that hit Nashville on Christmas morning 1926. This incident gave birth to an important blues era, now known as the Delta Blues era. Entire black neighborhoods were wiped out. Almost a million people became homeless for a time. Almost half a million homes were destroyed. About a thousand people lost their lives. The Mississippi River flood of 1927 was horrific. Commentaryīessie Smith recorded “Backwater Blues” in 1927, and it became an anthem for one of the most devastating national disasters in US history. There ain’t no place for a poor old girl to go ’Cause my house fell down and I can’t live there no more ![]() Then looked down on the house were I used to liveīackwater blues done call me to pack my things and go Then I went and stood upon some high old lonesome hill There’s thousands of people ain’t got no place to go When it thunders and lightnin’ and the wind begins to blow When it thunders and lightnin’ and when the wind begins to blow I packed all my clothes, throwed them in and they rowed me along Then they rowed a little boat about five miles ’cross the pond There's been enough trouble to make a poor girl wonder where she want to go I woke up this mornin’, can’t even get out of my door Then trouble's takin' place in the lowlands at night When it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night Backwater Blues When it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |