W.C. Handy's "Beale Street Blues"

W.C. Handy's "Beale Street Blues"

I recently traveled to New York City for my end of the year vacation. For me, usually the most fun things are those that take me by surprise. Well, “Beale Street Blues.” While walking the streets after dinner one night I came across loud music playing in a bar. I walked in and, to my surprise a blues and jazz band were playing away. Never before have I heard so much energy in music other than Beethoven. W.C. Handy’s band was so good that night I had to go find out what these songs they were playing were. Thankfully, Handy was a personable, light-hearted guy who had an unforgettable loud laugh. He told me they started with his recent hit “St. Louis Blues” a song he told me was actually written with tango music in mind. But this song was definitely my favorite of the night and left not one person at the bar in their seats. Lucky for me, there were many a fine young woman and, frankly, I didn’t complain with the racy style of dancing Handy’s song evoked. Another song that was playing in my head as I walked out into the chill New York City air was Handy’s newest song, “Beale Street Blues.” Handy told me that, like many of his songs, “Beale Street Blues” “is a hybrid of the blues style with the popular ballad style of the day.” After telling me that, with the song, he tried to capture the festive musical air always imbued in Beale Street in his hometown in Tennessee, thinking that the song was probably inspired by negro life in the south and, noticing there were mostly black people at the bar we were at, I asked him why the band he played with was all white, he responded with, "I was under the impression that these Negro musicians would jump at the chance to patronize one of their own publishers. They didn't... The Negro musicians simply played the hits of the day...They followed the parade. Many white bands and orchestra leaders, on the other hand, were on the alert for novelties. They were therefore the ones most ready to introduce our numbers." But, "Negro vaudeville artists...wanted songs that would not conflict with white acts on the bill. The result was that these performers became our most effective pluggers." 

Once my interview was through I thanked Handy and went out into the night. As I was skipping home, tapping my foot to the jazz songs stuck in my head, casually thinking about how strange it was the African American musicians in New York aren’t following Handy like disciples to play this great music, a pretty girl with a group of her friends swooped by me. I stopped thinking about it and followed.

Here's a recording from 1916 of "Beale Street Blues"