IM Bessie Smith, September 26, 1937

[The Sanity Inspector]

'It's a long, old road' as Bessie Smith puts it, 'but it's
good to find an end.' And so, she wearily, doggedly informs us, 'I
picked up my bag, baby, and I tried it again'. Her song ends on a
very bitter and revealing note. 'You can't trust nobody, you might as
well be alone/Found my long-lost friend, and I might as well stayed at
home!' Still, she was driven to find that long-lost friend, to grasp
again, with fearful hope, the unwilling, unloving, human hand.
-- James Baldwin, 'Four AM', in _Show_, October 1964

--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
--The Jam

[Melodie !]

Post by The Sanity Inspector
'It's a long, old road' as Bessie Smith puts it, 'but it's
good to find an end.' And so, she wearily, doggedly informs us, 'I
picked up my bag, baby, and I tried it again'. Her song ends on a
very bitter and revealing note. 'You can't trust nobody, you might as
well be alone/Found my long-lost friend, and I might as well stayed at
home!' Still, she was driven to find that long-lost friend, to grasp
again, with fearful hope, the unwilling, unloving, human hand.
-- James Baldwin, 'Four AM', in _Show_, October 1964

______________________

This was no actress, no imitator of women's woes; there was no
pretense. It was the real thing.
~ Carl van Vechten, in John S. Wilson, 'The Blues' in Show Business
Illustrated (October 17 1961)

Melodie !
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