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Angela Davis offers many well thought out and clearly supported arguments in her book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. While these arguments are valid, they oftentimes do not take into consideration all facets possible for interpretation. Because times now are very different from the early twentieth century, it is hard to gain a completely accurate insight as to how life, as a complex mixture of politics, family life and tradition, truly existed at that time with a restricted interpretation of a song. Therefore it is necessary to allow for different interpretations of that music, which oftentimes Davis does not do. While the interpretations Davis makes are by no means false, she oftentimes adopts a one-sided view of the song in order to present her interpretation as completely correct.
This is evident in Davis’ analysis of Gertrude Rainey’s “Weeping Woman Blues” which begins by stating “The lyrics emphasize movement and agency rather than immobility and passivity” (Davis, 75). This statement serves as the thesis for her argument in interpreting “Weeping Woman Blues” and at no time does she present the possibility for any other interpretation. ... While Davis is correct in saying that this song disrupts the notion of a “stay-at-home” woman through its lyrics (Davis, 75), she neglects to take into consideration the song’s delivery. ... This, coupled with the slides present in the song such as in verse 2 on “money”, verse 3 on “back”, and verse 4 on “like” (Rainey, Volume II), demonstrate Rainey is in no hurry to finish singing the song, possibly indicating she is in no hurry to follow through with the plans she sings about.
Davis discusses these plans of leaving and interprets their presence in the song as an indication that Rainey is determined to follow through with them. However, several facts point to the possibility that this interpretation does not take into consideration all the possibilities and that Rainey might not be as determined as Davis presents her. First of all, Rainey, in contrast to the “Tin Pan Alley” songs, wrote the words to this song, which indicates that the message she is conveying can be seen as her own choice. ... In this verse (verse three), the background instrumentation changes and all instruments, except a lone piano giving downbeats, drop out. ... She had not yet convinced herself that she could free herself from the constraints of society, (as represented by the piano’s downbeat), in order to make that trip nor had she convinced herself that the man was worth all the trouble.
Approximate Word count = 2003
Approximate Pages = 8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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