Bessie Smith. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-09571.
In 1892, composer W.C. Handy found himself in St. Louis by accident. His band, the Lauzette Quartet, traveled from Tennessee to Chicago to play the World’s Fair, only to discover it had been postponed for a year. They drifted down to St. Louis, and though Handy managed to make a little money here and there playing the cornet, he hardly ate, caught lice, and bunked in a series of uncomfortable places, including in poolroom chairs, a horse stall, and on the cobblestones of the riverfront. During this rotten time, he managed to meet someone even more miserable than he was: a young woman, recently abandoned by her lover, who cried to him, heartsick: “My man’s got a heart like a stone cast into the sea.”
One hundred and eighteen years later, that poor girl’s lament is preserved like a beetle in amber. Handy wove it into the lyrics for St. Louis Blues, the song he wrote after surviving his rough trip to St. Louis. It’s been called both “the jazzman’s Hamlet,” and “the 20th century’s greatest hit,” and has been sung by everyone from Billie Holiday to the Flamin’ Groovies.
The most iconic version, though, may be the one sung by Bessie Smith, featuring a young Louis Armstrong on cornet. That's yet another St. Louis connection—though Armstrong’s always thought of as a New Orleans guy, he actually learned to read music here in St. Louis, while playing on the riverboats for Fate Marable’s band. Though St. Louis doesn’t always get the credit it deserves as a music city, we are at least celebrating it a little ourselves—finally!—with a new blues hall of fame, as well as the St. Louis Blues Week Festival, which kicks off August 26. Watch L/L for more detailed coverage of that, and in the meantime, watch Bessie Smith sing “The St. Louis Blues,” in real time.
