White Bottom Blues
I done showed y’all my black bottom
You ought to learn that dance.
— Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, 1928
Girl: Give me, anywhere’s around, the lowest room.
Anywhere’s around, the lowest room.
Give me anywhere’s around the lowest room.
Chorus: — Ma done showed y’all her black bottom.
Is that the best you got to show? Ain’t no particlar
Bottom’s dream, oblivious as joy. — Ma, you helpin her?
— She’ll learn. — She stings not, neither do she stomp.
Girl: Humor me. He said I was his Great Depression. Hon,
I CRASHED! Worked my buttered butt to gleaming. Chump
Burlesque for pocket change, on my knees, Pa. Ha!
Abstract enough for boys in the back room?
They want a BRA & PANTIES matched. OFF’D? How’m I doin?
Man: [Spoken, as to Ma] Ah, do it. Do it, honey!
Look out now, you’s gettin kinda rough, girl! You bet’ be
Yourself, now, careful, now, not too strong, not too strong, honey!
Girl: Every Great Depression needs a Star-Spangled Banner.
Every misery, a thrill. I know a bomb, she’s burstin backstairs,
Got his rocket’s red glare. His flag, it’s still there.
What do I care? I FEEL GOOD, banged from way back.
Chorus: — She slums, but lonesome cruisin ain’t carousin, ain’t
What Ma would do. Ain’t assimilated. Mo’ appropriated.
Opportune. Asinine in the best of times, and in the worst,
Divin in, ostensible witness blues? — Ain’t that. — Worse —
— Let her be. — Ma? — Only so much some can learn.
Girl: I can learn. Look, a big white bottom, home and brave.
Chorus: — Humorous. Humorous. — Hush now. Won’t matter days.
Don’t worry years. — You know she’ll have the last word.
Girl: Lifted up, last, first, MADAM WHITE BOTTOM TO YOU.
Bottom’s up! How’m I doin, Ma? Ma: You’ll learn.
Some folks got to work that hard for someone else’s blues.
– Judith Hall
from The Promised Folly (Northwestern, 2003)