Topic: Review of Memphis Minnie in the Chicago Defender 1942 by Langston Hughes

[Mr.OMuck]

http://www.ralphmag.org/CB/memphis-minnie.html

[LB]

Interesting read there. Is being dung-colored a good thing? Interesting how a low boy ice-box is her stage... hehe. Sounds like a classy place thanks for posting that.

[Bunker Hill]

It's been a favourite for reprint over the years here's the entry in Robert Ford's Blues Bibliography

Hughes, Langston."Here to Yonder." Chicago Defender (9 Jan 1943): 14. Reprinted in PL Jazz Yearbook 1947, pp. 150-152. London: PL Editions Poetry, 1947. Reprinted in Living Blues no. 19 (Jan/Feb 1975): 7. Reprinted in Write Me a Few of Your Lines, ed. S. Tracy, pp. 321-322 (Item A2216). Reprinted in Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues, ed. P. Guralnick; et al, pp. 202-203

[dj]

A good portion of the article was printed in Paul and Beth Garon's Memphis Minnie bio Woman With Guitar.  Interestingly enough, the Garons quote Jump Jackson alleging that Hughes got his report second hand: "What would he know?  He wouldn't probably go in that joint.  He wouldn't rub shoulders with them.  [laughs]"  Jackson also quotes Minnie on working from on top of the icebox: "...I can't take this.  I'm gonna fall and break my neck here."