The Life of Lucille Bogan

Lucille Bogan

The life of Lucille Bogan was one filled with minor fame and notoriety.

Born in 1897 in Mississippi but raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Lucille Anderson as she was known then began singing at an early age.

Nobody could have guessed the influence and legacy that she would on day leave on the American subconscious and the effect on black music and culture that still echoes long after her death and even into the music of platinum selling artists today.

In 1915 she married a railway fireman by the name of Nazareth Lee Bogan and by 1916 had given birth to son whom they named Nazareth Jr.

Lucille Bogan is remembered as one of the greatest ‘Blueswomen’ of all time, her recording career was relatively short by todays standards, making records for only 12 years from 1923 until her retirement from music in 1935. She began her professional career recording vaudeville music in New York for a small label called Okeh Records.

Vaudeville was a popular variety show of the time, performed live to audience and often containing humorous songs to accompany the actors and dancers whilst on stage. Famous vaudevillians would often travel the country and earn a good living.

Reports say that Bogan enjoyed being part of the vaudeville scene but craved more of a personal expression.

At the age of 30 Bogan moved to Chicago where she recorded her breakout track, The Pawn Shop Blues with pianist Henry Callens. The vaudeville inspired track had some modest success and would be the stepping stone that led her into the style of blues that she would later become famous for.

She began recording for Paramount and Brunswick in 1928 and released Alley Boogie with pianist Charles Avery as well as They Ain't Walking No More, a song about prostitution which she later released under the name of Tricks Ain’T Walking No More.

Bogans songs were becoming more daring and explicit as she covered topics that the mainstream shied away from such as prostitution, drugs, alcoholism, homosexuality and premarital sex.

Her music was often criticised for glamourising antisocial behaviour in the conservative 1930s but Bogan was adamant that her music only reflected the troubles and struggles of the black community as well as that of all working class Americans.

Songs such as Women Won't Need No Men and B.D. -Woman's Blues" spoke openly about gay relationships, lesbianism and sexuality in a way that although considered corse and vulgar by many at the time, was brutally honest and genuine.

By the end of her career in 1935 she had recorded over 120 songs including the club hit, Shave‘Em Dry; which speaks graphically about sex and contains language and imagery that would still be shocking to many today over 80 years later.

Lucille Bogan was a pioneer and revolutionary. Her music and outspoken honesty in the face of discrimination and possible abuse at the hands of a society that openly oppressed black people, women and those who would now be accepted as part of the lbgtq community is inspirational.

She paved the way for black women to finally be able to speak openly about their thoughts and feelings and views on the world, to stand up and claim their place in society, 30 years before black people even had the right to vote. She spoke about sex and homosexuality without fear of retribution and vilification to a society that still criminalised lovemaking between gay couples. She spoke about the struggles of black people during segregation as a form of protest when just daring to speak out could result in arrest, prosecution or even death at the hands of a violent mob.

Her bravery, humour, imagination and creativity show her to be one of the often forgotten geniuses of a bygone age and a true star of blues music.

Lucille Bogan passed away in 1948 at the age of 51 but her music, soul and legacy will live forever.