They Buried Her In An Unmarked Grave

Bessie Smith

"Bessie's Blues still fill me with a strange longing. I don't know exactly what for. Blackness? A culture that will wholly embrace me? Belonging? Who knows. But every time I listen to Bessie Smith, I'm drawn backwards, downwards, into myself." - Jackie Kay

Jackie Kay's tender and imaginary biography of Bessie Smith is abridged on Radio 4 this week. Bessie Smith entered my consciousness through a Dory Previn song, which is a tribute to Janis Joplin. I know, it's complicated. I'll explain it.

In 1937 Bessie Smith was buried in an unmarked grave because Jack Gee, her violent, estranged husband, who after her death grew rich on the royalties of her songs, was too greedy to pay for a headstone.

Jackie Kay said of this: "For 33 years after she died, Bessie Smith was nobody. She was a victim of America's epic tradition of forgetting its black people. Forgetting their existence. Wiping out their significance."

Janis Joplin

After Columbia Records released her back catalogue in 1970, the renewed interest prompted a public call to give poor Bessie a headstone. Juanita Green, who used to clean Bessie's House before becoming a leading member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, was the first to offer financial support. The second, was Janis Joplin. This act of generosity made page 54 of the August 9th 1970 edition of the New York Times under the title "Bessie Smith Grave, Unmarked since '37, Finally Gets a Stone". Two months later, the New York Times' front page carried the headline "Janis Joplin Dies; Rock Star was 27".

Fast forward to 1977, a living room in an old house in Kidderminster, my mom standing over a record player, weeping. Mom, tired at just over 30 years old, newly separated, three kids. She's playing Dory Previn's 1971 confessional album "Mythical Kings and Iguanas".

I can picture the scene like it was yesterday. Lost in her thoughts, mom let me stand in a corner and watch her, as the tears rolled down her cheeks. And on came this track, "A Stone for Bessie Smith". I still sing it to myself today. Mom spent a lot of time listening to that album in 1977. I never asked her why. And now I know why I don't need to ask her.

So Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, Dory Previn, thanks for being there for my mom when she needed you.

A Stone for Bessie Smith, from Dory Previn, Mythical Kings and Iguanas, 1971

Isn't it amazing
Shakes you to the bone
She bought a stone
For Bessie smith
She bought Bessie smith
A stone
She got it for
Her grave-site
On a temporary loan
But she forgot
She had not paid
For her own
She forgot she had not paid
She forgot she had not paid
After all the contracts
And arrangements had been made
She went to Bessie's grave
And marked it with a stone
But she still
Had to pay for her own

Should Runners Wear Masks?

Yesterday morning, I went on Good Morning Britain to discuss whether runners should wear masks outdoors. Leading primary care academic, Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, challenged the World Health Organisation, who say that wearing masks when running is unnecessary. My view is that we should enforce all social distancing rules but allow runners to choose whether to wear masks.

Should runners wear masks?What do you think?

Music

Here's a playlist I made to show my respect to Bessie, Janis and Dory

Reading

If Eliot Higgins were a professional journalist, he'd have a mantlepiece full of Pulitzer prizes to recognised his many globally significant scoops. His recently published "We are Bellingcat" tells the story of how he and a small community of online investigators proved that the hive mind can still be a force for good. I was so in awe that I tracked Eliot down for a conversation on a future episode of Persons of Interest. He nonchalantly shared his experiences of being attacked by the Kremlin and a whole load of other macabre tales that will make you shudder.

 

Remembering Charles Kennedy

There is a lovely biography of Charles Kennedy on BBC Alba this week. He is missed by friends and loved ones but also by the institution of Parliament. Charles made a difference, and I can't help thinking how he would have made an enormous impact on the Brexit debate, but that, as they say, really is history. I remember the day we paid tribute to him in Parliament. My dear friend Sarah Kennedy and young son Donald in the visitors' gallery, looking down on colleagues and opponents, as we paid tribute to a unique parliamentarian. I miss him.