Bessie Smith Empress Of The Blues Rhetorical Devices

Bessie Smith, also known as the Empress of the Blues, was born, according to the 1900 census, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892; a date that provided her mother. Bessie Smith was the daughter of Laura (born Owens) and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher. He died before his daughter could remember him. By the time Bessie was nine, she had lost her mother and her brother as well. Her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings. In 1904, her brother, Clarence, left for joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. Bessie was to young to join and her brother left without telling her. In 1912, he returned to Chattanooga and arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give Smith an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also

Bessie Smith sang this song on February 16, 1923 when she was still single. The theme of the song is immediately set from the first line, “Gee but it's hard to love someone when that someone don't love you.” There it already makes sense. This is a song about a woman who feels that nobody will love her and that it’s hard to love someone. The song goes on by saying, “Once I was crazy 'bout a man he mistreated me all the time the next man I get has got to promise to be mine, all mine.” First she has a husband that mistreats her, like the lyrics say, and then she has another one and lies that she is the only one and that he’s going to be all hers. Wow, talk about a love song. This song was meant to be relaxing, but at the same time depressing because of the lyrics. This piece was important for introducing a solo. It looks to me that since Bessie is singing and the piano is playing, that it is a solo because only the rhythm section is playing. In this instance it's the piano. I don’t mean like a group solo, more like for a