Search - Lucille Bogan :: Reckless Woman: 1927-1935

Blues the way it should be: Static reverb, bare-bones obscur

Brad Hoevel | Saginaw | 05/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although I cannot claim to be a blues afficianado, I can claim a deep seated appreciation and respect for the music. From Lucille Bogan you should expect something along the lines of Charlie Patton or Robert Johnson. The closest female singer (that I've heard) to Lucille would have to be Ella Fitzgerald. Certainly, comparisons can be drawn, only Lucille Bogan isn't nearly as 'neat'. The grit of both her lyrics and her sound make her much more akin to the old bluesmen mentioned above than she is to the smoother Jazz sounds of the songstress with which I compared her.



Here, Lucille Bogan is accompanied on PIANO (NOT guitar, unfortunately) by Roland Jackson. Beware: the sound quality here is full of static; many afficianodos (myself included) love the fuzzed sound and wouldn't have it any other way. After all, that is closest to how it sounded for the original recording process. Some editions have been remastered and the sound removed. Give each a listen to see which one you prefer.



Finally, a little background info about the artist, and then a listing of available CD's by Lucille Bogan (this edition is out of print and getting hard to find)



Lucille Bogan crafted her sound in Alabama in the 1920's. Eventually, she headed north to record in New York and Chicago. She has been noted by many, especially female recording artists as a major influence. Many of her songs, B.D. Blues (BD-short for bull dyke), have lesbian-sugestive lyrics.



The Cd for this review is from a fantastic collection of early blues recordings. This collection, issued by EMP Musique, have gone out of print and are getting to be extremely hard to find. They are of the upmost quality, and if you can track some down, I highly suggest doing so. If not, and you still want to listen to Lucille Bogan, your best bet would be thisShave 'Em Dry: The Best of Lucille Bogan; from Columbia records, this is the only CD that is widely in print and readily available in the United States. If you want something a little better, then try to track down one of theseComplete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 or Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3 (1934-1935), issued by Document, who have a blues series comperable to EMP Musiques



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