Reachin' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police in Commercial Blues Recordings to 1943

The Lyrics in African American Popular Music

Proceedings of Metz (September, 29th-30th 2000)

Le texte dans la musique populaire afro-americaine

Actes du colloque international de Metz (29-30 septembre 2000)

Robert Springer (Ed.)

Publie avec Ie concours du Centre d'Etudes de la Traduction de l'Universite de Metz (CET)

PETER LANG Bern· Berlin· Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main· New York· Oxford· Wien Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme

The lyrics in African American popular music = Le texte dans la muslque populalre afro-americalne / publ. avec Ie concours du Centre d'Etudes de la Traduction de l'Unlverslte de Metz (CET). Robert Springer (ed.). - Bern; Berlin; Bruxelles ; Frankfurt am Main; New York; Oxford; Wien : Lang, 2001 ISBN 3-906766-61-6

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Printed in Germany Reachin' Pete and Johnny Nab: The Police in Commercial Blues Recordings to 1943

Chris SMITH

References to the police in prewar commercial blues are not so rare as to be remarkable and yet the topic remains curiously under-discussed in studies of blues lyrics; Blues Fell This Morning, still the major work of the genre, contains a chapter entitled «Going to Take a Rap», but agents of law enforcement, like the policeman-Who arrests Ramblin' Thomas for «vag» (meaning vagrancy) in «No Job Blues»,l appear in that chapter only incidentally, and the word «police» does not appear in the book's index? The reasons for this probably include lack of space and, at the time of the first edition, lack of access to the relevant records. Consider ing the literature more generally, however, it seems to me that John and Alan Lomax's energetic promotion of Lead Belly as the icon and nonpareil of blues singers may have had an unintended consequence for scholarship. For many commentators from outside the culture, the typical - almost the stereotypical- African American encounter with law enfor cement became incarceration, viewed as a condition, rather than as part of a social process. As a result, blues about arrest and blues about quotid ian contact with the police have been much less considered than blues about trial and imprisonment. The most extensive discussion, in Paul Garon's polemical Blues and the Poetic Spirit,3 indicts the police as an

RAMBLIN' THOMAS: «No Job Blues», Chicago, c. February 1928, Paramount 12609; reissued on Document DOCD-5107. Transcribed in Paul OLIVER: Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, second edition, 1990), p. 195. 2 OLIVER: op cit. 3 Paul GARON: Blues and the Poetic Spirit (San Francisco: City Lights, second edition, 1996). 60 Chris Smith Reachin' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police... 61 agency of social repression, but is chiefly concerned to make Freudian /~The scope of this paper is confined to commercial recordings made linkages between police in the blues, the controlling superego, and the up to 1943, for reasons having to do with the history of both recording father figure, viewed as either sexually repressive, as when Sleepy John and policing. Commercial recording came to a virtual halt for two years Estes sings: (;from July 1942, as a result of a prohibition (<

4 THE DELTA Boys: «You Shouldn't Do That», Chicago, 24 September 1941 7 Robert M.W. DIXON and John GODRlCH: Recording the Blues (London: Studio I Bluebird B8852; reissued on Document DOCD-5016. Vista, 1970). 5 PEETIE WHEATSTRAW: «Crazy with the Blues», Chicago, 26 March 1937, Decca 8 W. Marvin DULANEY: Black Police in America (Bloomington and Indianapolis: 7348; reissued on Document DOCD-5244. Indiana University Press, 1996) passim. 6 For details of these recordings, see Robert M.W. DIXON, John GODRlCH, & 9 The frequent recorded announcements by field workers that the recordings are Howard W. RYE: Blues and Gospel Records 1890-1943 (Oxford: Clarendon being made for the Library of Congress seem to imply some prior explanation to Press, fourth edition, 1997). Other disco graphical citations in this essay are from the artists. the same source. The composer credit for «Police Blues» was supplied by 10 Bruce HARRAH-CONFORTH: notes to Heritage HT 304, «Nobody Knows My Howard Rye (personal communication). Name: Blues from South Carolina and Georgia». Reachin ' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police ... 63 r-\ Chris Smith I 62 fired on several times. Despite its grim subject matter, the song is deli '\ their very nature, public statements which have an extended life, and it T vered in a jovial vocal style, somewhat influenced by Fats Waller and 1) seems reasonable to assume that the artists took this into account when accompanied by equally lively, and sub-Wallerian, piano playing. ' t~Q"mposing their lyrics. This paper examines the nature of, and the rea- Along with Houston and San Antonio, Galveston was one of the few sons for, the compromises that blues singers both made and did not make Southern cities to retain African American policemen after the failure of when singing about encounters with the police. Reconstruction, but these officers were not allowed to arrest white peo As a starting point, let us consider «House Raid Blues», recorded in ple or to patrol in white neighbourhoods. They have been well described San Antonio in 1937 by Andy Boy, from Galveston, Texas: as «quasi-police officers»12 and their marginal status was consistent with Now it was 'fore day in the morning when the shack got raided, the central purpose of the policing of African Americans in the South lp The women got scared, started to tippin' under the bed; t~e enforcement of legal segregation and its concomitant social oppres~ Policemen starts to whippin' all the darkies 'cross the head, My gal got scared, said, "Don't kili Andy Boy dead"; SlO~. ~dy Boy's song is simultaneously an explicit, and a disguised, I said, "Now, don't you worry, 'cause I ain't gon' be here long. depIctIon of the violence associated with that enforcement. His extrovert So long, so long." performance style, the location of police violence in the context of a Now, my partner, his name was Charley Shiro, party, and the reference to the victims of that violence as «darkies» are Jumped out the window, like to tore down the door; all mechanisms to deflect the attention of potentially hostile listeners He's long gone, from Kentucky, from the nitty gritty of the song, which is the beating and shooting of He's long gone, got away lucky, people out for a good time. No doubt parties did sometimes become a He left so keen, he left like a submarine. nuisance to neighbours, but Andy Boy's point is that the response was He couldn't hardly be seen. out of all proportion to the nuisance. Now, it was early one mornin', we all was havin' fun, It ~ay The law jumped up, an' he said, "Now don't nobody run"; be argued that few white people would have been likely to I was playin' the blues, about down in Liverpool, hear thIS, or most other, blues records in 1937. However, if the wrong Just whippin' that ivory, boys, like a fool; white people did chance to hear them, the consequences could have been Then my hand got sore, somebody said, "The law is at the door, very serious indeed. It is this, I suggest, which accounts for the way that Andy Boy, let's go!" encounters between African Americans and Southern police officers are Then out the window I did hop, commonly set in stereotypical milieus. Thus Jim Jackson, from Followed closely by a cop; Memphis, takes care to explain that, «Now, people, we're down at the Then around the corner I did run, crap game», before telling a tale of confrontation and evasion in «Bye I heard the shots from some law's gun; Said, "It ain't no use to shootin', 'cause lain 't gon' be here long. Bye, Policeman»: ' So long, so long."]] Me and some old boys started a big crap game, right out in front of my door, It is apparent from the text that Andy Boy is depicting severe and Along come a policeman, said, "Stop that game there, boys, I'm gonna get you, sure"; indiscriminate violence on the part of police officers breaking up a So we started a game the very next day, right in the same place, rowdy party: their immediate action is to start «whippin'» all the darkies Along come a policeman and runned us away; «'cross the head» and, when Andy Boy decides to make a getaway, he is Lord, I was pickin' em up, layin' em down, Curvin' in and curvin' round,

Andy Boy: «House Raid Blues», San Antonio, 24 February 1937, Bluebird 11 12 DULANEY: op cit., p. 30. B6858; reissued on Document DOCD-5394. tJ·, Chris Smith Reachin ' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police ... 65 64

"Bye, bye, Mister Officer." voiced by Julius Daniels from Charlotte, North Carolina, are uncommon. Yes, I was pickin' em up, layin' em down, As well as setting their observations in contexts which would encourage Curvin' in and curvin' round, white listeners to focus on stereotypes of African American behaviour as "Bye, bye, policeman." shiftless and/or laughable, Southern blues singers would disguise their He says, "Stop there, boy, I'm the law, I command you!" protests by the alteration or omission of contentious words. Georgian I say, "I ain't thinkin' about that law you tryin' to hand me!" Peg Leg Howell uses both context and substitution in the same song, varying the explicitness of his complaint with its closeness to home. In He says, "Stop there, boy, I'm the law, I'll shoot you, Bill!" «Skin Game Blues», he sings: I turned around and looked at him, said, "Reckon you will!,,13 Says, I gambled all over Missouri, gambled all through Spain, babe, Again, there is a tension between the comic surface ~ inclu~i~g t~e us~ Police come to arrest me, babe, and they did not know my name. of minstrel show dialect on the significantly defiant lme «I am t thl?km But closer to home, he finds it necessary to make an ironic substitution: about that law you tryin' to hand me!» - and the more sober reahty of the subject matter. The crap game which is pl~yed «the very ~ext da~, Gambled all over Missouri, gambled through Tennessee, babe, Soon as I reached old Georgia, the niggers carried a handcuff to me. 15 right in the same place» is a rejection, not Just of the pohcema~ s specific prohibition, but of his authority,. as the ~gent .of white Howell is evidently employing the n-word as a precaution against the an supremacy, to determine the limits of Afncan A~en~an hves. The ger of white listeners. At the same time, however, he is hijacking it from picture of Jackson doing a high speed skedaddle is l~tended. to be white ownership, and redirecting its message of hatred and contempt comical, but he reminds his listeners, too, that the pursumg pohc.eman towards the Georgia police. (The police force in Atlanta, where Howell has the sanction of deadly force and can apply it casually, and Without lived, was notorious for bias; in the early years of the Twentieth Century, fear of the consequences. . one-third of the population, but two-thirds of those arrested, were In Southern blues recordings, then, explicit complamts of harassment African American.)16 such as An instance of omission occurs in «"Mooch" Richardson's Low Down Barrelhouse Blues Part 2». Jim Richardson, who recorded in Standing on the corner, talking with my brown, (x~~ Up stepped this policeman, taked both of us down, Memphis in 1928, appears to have been from Helena, Arkansas. This song is an assemblage of floating verses, and in one of them, he seems to realise that he is about to enter dangerous territory, and beats a hasty Jim JACKSON: «Bye, Bye, Policeman», Memphis, 7 September 1928, Victor 13 retreat: V38505; reissued on Document DOCD-5115. . 14 Julius DANIELS: «My Mamma Was a SailOr», Atlanta, 19 February 1927: Victor 20658. reissued on Document DOCD-5160. An earlier version of thiS verse appea;s in Julia MOODY: «Police Blues», New York City, 18 September 1925, Columbia 14103-D; reissued on Document DOCD-5418. M~ody appears to be taking the role of a deserted woman, driven to survive by prostitutIOn: I walked to the corner, 31st and State, (x2) Compare also Big Bill BROONZY'S «Police Station Blues», infra, and note 23 I was so worried, till I stayed too late. Just standing on the corner, I didn't mean no harm, (x2) thereto. Along come the policeman, and took me by my arm. 15 Peg Leg HOWELL: «Skin Game Blues», Atlanta, 9 November 1927, Columbia Carried me to the station, said I was full of booze, (x2) 14473-D; reissued on Document MBCD-2004. That's why I'm worried, got those police blues. 16 DULANEY, op cit. p. 39. Chris Smith Reachin ' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police ... 67 66

When I get to Helena, give me Reachin' ... [guitar completes the line] ambiguity, since the job that Reachin' Pete is good at is the harassment When I get to Helena you can give me Reach' ... [guitar completes the line] of African Americans. She gives an example: «After he locked her up, , 17 He's the tallest man that ever walked down on Cherry Street. he turned and went her bail» seems to hint at the arbitrary arrest of women and their release in return for sexual favours. If «Reachin' Pete's On its own, this verse is - as intended - somewhat enigmatic. In order to all right», it is surely only by comparison with «his buddy, old Buzzell». clarify its meaning, it is necessary to travel forward in time to 1935, and Pete and Buzzell were a long way from Minnie's recording session, north to Chicago, where Memphis Minnie sang: but the straight talking nature of this lyric is characteristic of references When you go to Helena, stop on Cherry Street, (x2) to the police in recordings by blues singers from the Northern states, And just ask anybody, to show you Reachin' Pete. even when discussing events much closer to home. There are still exam He is the tallest man, walks on Cherry Street, (x2) ples of Northern blues which set the encounter with law enforcement in And he's the baddest cop, ever walked that beat. such contexts as parties and crap games. For instance, the rent party Met me one Sunday morning, just about the break of day, (x2) which is the supposed setting of «Hometown Skiffle», a Paramount I was drinkin' my moonshine, he made me throw my knife away. record intended to serve as a sampler of the company's top artists, is interrupted at the end of Part II by a loud knocking: Then he taken my partner, carried her to the jail, (x2) After he locked her up, he turned and went her bail. Who is that? Reachin' Pete's all right, but his buddy, old Buzzell, (x2) I8 Police officers. Open this door, 'fore I kick it down. Every time he meets you, he ready for a-plenty hell. Uh-oh, folks, clear out, clear out; it must be Johnny Nab. Uh, uh, uh, broke up the It is evident that Reachin' Pete Was sung about by African Americans in hometown skiffle. See you in jail, see you in jail20 Helena well before Memphis Minnie made her recording; it is also clear The difference is that, in Northern blues, such settings are not used as that while Richardson, living in Helena, felt that self-censorship would comic or stereotypical disguises for the singers' commentaries on police be prudent, Minnie, by 1935 resident in Chicago, had no such worries. actions. They are simply the real (or quasi-real) life contexts in which the She cheerfully admits that Pete had grounds to stop her, in that she was police intervene. I have only been able to locate one instance where the drinking moonshine and carrying a weapon; but equally she has no subject of a Northern recording is disguised, and the concealment occurs, compunction in describing him as «the baddest cop, ever walked that not in the text, but on the record label. Papa Charlie Jackson's account of beat». It may be that Memphis Minnie is using «bad» to mean «good», in the well-known African American reversal,19 but if so, she is employing a raid on a Prohibition-era moonshine party, and its aftermath, begins: I was playing for a party, one night just about twelve o'clock, (x2) Someone knocked on the door and said he was a police cop,. 17 «Mooch» RICHARDSON: «"Mooch" Richardson's Low Down Barrelhouse Blues Part 2», Memphis, 13 February 1928, OKeh 8611; reissued on Document DOCD-5169. 18 MEMPIDS MINNIE: «Reachin'» Pete, Chicago, 27 May 1935, Decca 7102; reissued on Blues Documents BDCD-6008. An alternative take of this Dictionary of African American Slang (New York: Viking Penguin, 1994) states performance exists (not issued on 78 rpm disc but on Document DOCD-5150), that it has been in use «1700s-1990s» and is of African origin. but there is no difference in the lyrics. 20 Descriptive Novelty: Featuring Blind Lemon JEFFERSON, BLJND BLAKE, Will EZELL, Charlie SPAND, THE HOKUM BoYs, Papa Charlie JACKSON: «Hometown 19 This usage goes back at least as far as 1897 (lE. LIGHTER et al: Random House Historical Dictionary ofAmerican Slang Vol. 1 A-G [New York: Random House, Skiffle-Part II», Chicago, c. October 1929, Paramount 12886; reissued (with 1994]), and probably much further. Clarence MAJOR: From Juba to Jive: A artist credit to Paramount All Stars) on Document DOCD-5277. 68 Chris Smith Reachin' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police ... 69 and continues with a vivid description of waiting for the wagon to come, Gonna write a letter to my mother, "Mama, please send for me, (x2) 'Cause I'm down here in this old station, you don't know how they're treatin' being taken to Maxwell Street police station and being «put in cell 202», me.,,23 where We played cards all night, boys, how we did roll them bones, (x2) The reverse of «Police Station Blues», the ironically titled «They Can't There wasn't no use of worry in' , we knew we couldn't get back home, Do That», tells of being arrested for bootlegging, and is even more before the judge gives everyone a break next day, warning them that explicit about police mistreatment of prisoners: You gotta stay away from them moonshine parties, and don't come before me no Then they taked me to the jail, before they put me in the cell, 21 Hit me so hard until both of us fell, more. Then the people all tried to tell me, boy, that they can't do that This song is called «Self Experience», and of course, once the record is Know that's wrong, though! - boy, but they did do that. 24 played, its enigmatic title functions as a proclamation that «this is a true Clearly, the police in Chicago, like their counterparts in the South, had story».22 Papa Charlie's tone is one of resignation, as he waits for the no scruples either about using unnecessary violence against African system to go through its paces, but Big Bill Broonzy, also taken to the Americans, or about making arbitrary arrests. ill the wider social fabric, Maxwell Street station, objects to his arrest for loitering, and the condi racism was as pervasive in the North as in. the South, and segregation, tions of his imprisonment, in a far from stoical manner: though not established de jure, was pervasively de facto, and at worst I was standing on the comer, I did not mean no harm, manifested in bloody race riots, which were sometimes abetted, and even I was standing on the comer, ah, just only lookin' round, participated in, by white police officers,zs Why, then, did Northern blues Lord, and the police come up and arrest me, lord, and he carried me down. singers feel that there was less need to disguise their complaints against Lord, he taken me to the station, and he left me there all alone, (x2) the police? I got to thinking about my four women, lord, and my wife at home. Part of the answer is to be found in the differing historical roots of Lord down in Maxwell Street station, water run there all night long, (x2) policing in the South and the North. Policing in the North, for all its You ~otta sleep on a plank, now, boys, put your head on your own right arm. faults of racism, violence and corruption, had its basis in the «British model» developed by Sir Robert Peel, in that police forces were established as a response to, and an attempt to combat, urban crime. Southern police forces, on the other hand, found their impetus in the desire to control relations between the races, and their ancestry in the 21 Papa Charlie JACKSON: «Self Experience», Chicago, 28 May 1930, Paramount 12956' reissued on Document DOCD-5089. 22 Comp~re this interview with an African American policeman, conducted on 1 23 Sammy SAMPSON (pseudonym for Big Bill BROONZY): «Police Station Blues», February 1932: «I remember once that we got orders that all saloons had to be New York City, 16 September 1930, Banner 32931, Oriole 8123, Perfect 199 and closed at 12 P.M. Two brothers on my beat had a saloon. One night I came past Romeo 5123; reissued on Document DOCD-5050. The reference to his «four about a quarter to two and they were open. There were about fifteen customers in women» may be an oblique admission that the arrest was for pimping, despite his the place and the two brothers. So I arrested them and called the wagon. Next day claim to have been «standin' on the comer, just only lookin' 'round». in court the two brothers were fined fifteen dollars and costs and each customer 24 Sammy SAMPSON (pseudonym for Big Bill BROONZY): «They Can't Do That». was fined one dollar. But that night when I went back to work I found I was Discographical details ibid. transferred. The next day I went back and looked up the records and found that 25 DULANEY: op. cit., p. 223, citing inter alia Elliot M. RUDWICK: Race Riot at East all of the fines had been suspended». Harold F. GOSNELL: Negro Politicians: The St. Louis, July 2, 19171 (Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1970) and Carl SANDBURG: Rise of Negro Politics in Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935; The Chicago Race Riots, July 1919 (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, third impression, 1967), p. 210. 1969). 70 Chris Smith Reachin ' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police ... 71

26 slave patro1. As former slave Frank Gill, of Mobile, Alabama said to a proportion to the total African American presence in the city; indeed the WPA interviewer in the thirties, «You see de City policeman walkin' his ratio declined in the twenties.3] Their appointments were a manifestation beat? Well, dat's de way de patty-rollin' was.»27 As a logical of tokenism, and a product of the spoils system; the civil service system consequence, Southern police forces were almost exclusively all white. was bypassed by the making of temporary appointments to fill vacancies, African American police officers were appointed in the upper Southern which were then quietly converted into permanent appointments. 32 The cities of Louisville (1923) and Baltimore (1937) and, as has been noted, interaction between machine politics and organised crime - notably they hung on in some Texan cities after the failure of Reconstruction; but bootlegging, prostitution and the numbers game - meant that corruption it was not until 1941 that the appointment of African American officers was pervasive and that African American officers were in an especially in Charlotte, North Carolina blazed a trail for change in other Southern difficult position, caught between conflicting demands; as was observed cities?S in 1935, «If he was a strict disciplinarian, he would run into trouble with African Americans in Chicago and other Northern cities might have some of his superior officers, with some of the colored politicians, and agreed perforce with Big Bill Broonzy's pithy observation that «white with the leaders of the Negro underworld. If he was lax in noticing people don't break the law, they make it»/9 but they could at least violations of the law, he would encounter difficulties with the strict conceive of a police force which served, rather than oppressed, their white officers and with the colored churches and reformers.»33 community. One of the reasons this vision was possible was that African Despite all the restrictions and difficulties faced by African American Americans in the North had the vote, which meant that the political officers, their existence seems to have encouraged the belief that, since machine had to pay some attention, however reluctantly, to their African Americans were, to this extent, involved in the running of civil opinions. Whether the levers were held by Republicans or Democrats, society, the wider public had a corresponding right to comment on the the machine did ensure that African American police officers were to be way that their communities were policed. Nor was the voicing of such seen on the streets. (Aurally, Johnny Nab, who broke up the party at the comments monopolised by the press, the churches and civic leaders; end of «Hometown Skiffle», was African American.io those lower down the social scale, like blues singers and criminals, made The political importance of this may be seen in the Chicago police their opinions known as well. Charley Jordan combined both occupa department's practice of recording the race of its employees. (It was the tions. ~e was a bootlegger in St. Louis when not making music; shot in only city department to do so.) As a result, it can easily be calculated that the spine as a result of his hazardous occupation, he had to get around on 34 the number of African Americans in the force up to 1943 was never in crutches. His «Raiding Squad Blues» is in part a parody of Victoria Spivey's «T-B Blues»/5 but his use of the phrase «when I was on my feet» is not just a lazy borrowing of Spivey's reference to the time when 26 DULANEY: op. cit., p. 1, citing Patrick V. MuRPHY and Hubert WILLIAMS: The Development of Urban Police in Current History 70 (June 1976), and Hubert she was well. It seems, rather, to refer to the time before he was disabled: WILLIAMS and Patrick V. MuRPHY: The Evolving Strategy of PoliCing: A Minority View in Perspectives on Policing 13 (January 1990). 31 GOSNELL: op. cit., p. 253. 27 DULANEY: ibid., citing Gladys Marie FRY: Night Riders in Black Folk History 32 DULANEY: op. cit., pp. 19-20. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975). 33 GOSNELL: op. cit., p. 269 and compare note 22. The officer quoted there conclu 28 DULANEY: op. cit., p. 118. des his story: «I learned my business right there. I learned that a policeman 29 Yannick BRUYNOGHE and Big Bill BROONZY: «In Chicago with Big Bill & cannot afford to do his duty.» Friends: [ii] Truth about the Blues» in LIVING BLUES 55 (Winter 1982), p. 20. 34 Sheldon HARRIS: Blues Who's Who: A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers 30 I have suggested (Chris SMITH: notes to Document DOCD-5277, «Rare Para (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1979). mount Blues») that he was probably played by Paramount's African American 35 Victoria SPIVEY: «T-B Blues», St. Louis, 27 April 1927, OKeh 8494; reissued on A&R man, 1. Mayo Williams. Document DOCD-5316. Chris Smith Reachin ' Pete and Johnny Nab: the Police ... 73 72

she is voicing as a member of the criminal subculture, like Charley When I was on my feet, I couldn't walk down the streets, Jordan. If so, it is all the more significant that she (or rather, the quasi For the police looking at me from my head to my feets, anonymous «Smith» who gets the composer credit)39 considered that But oh, now, these raids is killing me, See, I want my body buried, lordy, down in Tennessee. even people on the wrong side of the law were entitled to proper treatment by it. Later in the song, Jordan widens his complaint, from the harassment of Having established that there is a difference in Northern and Southern himself to the mass arrest of everyone present at a speakeasy: blues singers' responses to their respective police systems, and having When the raid began, the people began to squall, identified some reasons for this difference, it would be wrong to leave The Sergeant said, "No need of squalling, the Captain said to bring you all.,,36 the impression that, because the Northern blues singers' criticisms are Even more outspoken was Rosa Henderson. Henderson was based in open and unconcealed, they are somehow braver or more politically New York during her recording and performing career, so despite her aware than those of the Southerners. The Southern singers were living claim that, «I'm expressing my opinion just the way I feel», it seems under a system where outspokenness exposed them to great risks, and likely that she is playing a character in «Chicago Policeman Blues». the various disguises with which they cloak their complaints are Nevertheless, this song is remarkable for its explicit, and racially indis- evidence of a careful calculation of those risks, and of ways to evade them while still speaking out. All these songs, Northern or Southern, criminate, criticisms: ultimately ask for an answer to the rhetorical question that Mississippi Policemen in Chicago, they can't police at all, (x2) John Hurt posed at the beginning of «Stack O'Lee Blues»: They only wear that uniform of blue just for a stall. Police officer, how can it be, Most every cop in town, black and white, all have a grudge, (x2) You can arrest everybody but cruel Stack O'Lee?40 If you don't know, you'd better learn to say, "Good morning, judge." The singers would all agree with the Atlanta preacher, Rev. J.M. Gates, I've got the blues, Chicago policemen blues, (x2) They wouldn't give a pick of you, for Peter or Paul, when he tells policemen that: They send you away for absolutely nothing at all, You ought to be a protection of men and women of the city. I've got the blues, Chicago policemen blues. Not the black man or the white man or the copper colored man, or the brown man, I've got the blues, Chicago policemen blues, (x2) 41 I'm expressing my opinion just the way I feel, But you ought to be a protection of the city wherein you are hired. Pigs are 'bout the only things supposed to squeal, 37 Not all the Southern blues singers went in for caution and indirection, I've got the blues, Chicago policemen blues. either. Memphis Minnie's brother-in-law, Charlie McCoy, was from The pigs in the last verse are informers,38 not policemen, and in attacking Jackson, Mississippi. He recorded «Blue Heaven Blues» in Memphis, . them, Henderson seems to be identifying the character whose opinions Tennessee early in 1930, and although he soon moved to Chicago, he

39 Robert MACLEOD: personal communication. 36 Charley JORDAN: «Raidin' Squad Blues», Chicago, c. mid-June 1930, Vocalion 1528; reissued on Document DOCD-5097. 40 Mississippi John HURT: «Stack O'Lee Blues», New York, 28 December 1928, OKeh 8654; reissued on Document DOCD-5003. 37 Rosa HENDERSON: «Chicago Policeman Blues», New York City, 14 May 1926, Vocalion 1021; reissued on Document DOCD-5404. 41 Rev. 1.M. GATES: «Men and Women Talk Too Much», Atlanta, 7 February 1940, Bluebird B8382 and Montgomery Ward M8771; reissued on Document DOCD- 38 Compare the entry for <

But after I found it was only a ten, was still living in Jackson at the end of the year, for he record~d there on I jumped up and began to grin.45 16 December.42 There is an element of disguise ~n the song's tl~le, for the term «blue heaven» as ironic slang for a pohce car or p~hce wag~n It is worth noting, finally, that there is a persistent motif of being, or cannot be traced anywhere else;43 but, as with Papa C~arhe ~acks~n s intending to be, elsewhere in the Southern singers' lyrics about the poli «Self-Experience», one spin of the record makes e-:erythmg plam. Gl,,:en ce (<

Ch: I'm gonna leave this town, dear babe, I'm gonna leave this town. When he driv [sic] up, he questioned our names, He caught me, but it wasn't my aim; I tried to hide up under the bed, I could hide everything, now, but my head. Says, "Crawl out, boy, you need not try to h~~e, Get in this blue heaven, and let's take a nde ; I got in the blue heaven and it rolled mighty good, I'd 'vejumped out of there, man, if! could.

When he got me to the City Hall, I began to scream and I began to squ~ll; I got unruly when he got me in the JaIl, Chief got a strop and he began to whale; Wasn't but the one thing worried my mind, I didn't know what was gonna be my fine; 45 Charles McCoy [sic]: «Blue Heaven Blues», Memphis, late February 1930, Brunswick 7165; reissued on Blues Documents BDCD-6018. <> in Frederic 42 GODRICH, DIXON & RYE: op. cit. G. CASSIDY & Joan Houston HALL: ed., Dictionary of American Regional Norm COHEN: personal communication. 43 English, Vol. III, 1-0 (Cambridge, MA and London: Belknap Press, 1996). 44 DULANEY: op. cit., p. 118.