A 150-minute journey to mostly the 1920's & 1930's, featuring gay & lesbian artists and songs about homosexuality.

Click for Script, Gallery & References
and
Special Section, "Bull Dyker's Blues"

Part 1 - 60:15
Ma Rainey - Prove It On Me Blues (1928)
Waymon "Sloppy" Henry - Say I Do It (1928)
Ma Rainey - Sissy Blues (1925)
Connie McLean's Rhythm Boys - Sissy Man Blues (1936)
Louis Powell - Sissy (1938)
George Hannah with Meade Lux Lewis - Freakish Man Blues (1930)
George Hannah with Meade Lux Lewis - The Boy in the Boat (1931)
Harlem Hamfats - Garbage Man (The Call of the Freaks) (1936)
Speckled Red Perryman - Dirty Dozens (1929)
Lucille Bogan - Women Don't Need No Men (1927)
Bessie Jackson - BD Woman (1935)
Hokum Boys - Somebody's Been Using That Thing (1930)
Alberta Hunter - Downhearted Blues (1922)
Alberta Hunter - Someone Will Take Your Place (1923)
Jimmy Johnson & His Orchestra - Go Harlem (1931)
Dick Barrow - Down at the Cabin Inn (1936)
Dick Barrow - Rent Party Blues (1950)
Gladys Bentley - Notoriety Papa / He Went to the Girl Next Door (1945)
Gladys Bentley - Worried Blues (1928)

Part 2 - 57:31
Bessie Smith - T'ain't Nobody's Business If I Do (1923)
Bessie Smith - A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1927)
Ruby Smith on Bessie's affair with Lillian Simpson (1971)
Ruby Smith on Buffet Flats (1971)
Bessie Smith - Soft Pedal Blues (1925)
Bessie Smith - Foolish Man Blues (1927)
Bessie Smith - Empty Bed Blues (1928)
Rufus & Ben Quillian - It's Dirty But Good (1930)
James P Johnson - The Dream (1945)
Guildford Peachtree Payne - Peachtree Man Blues (1923)
Billy Mitchell - Two Old Maids in a Folding Bed (1936)
Porter Grainger - Nothin' But a Double Barrel Shotgun (1927)
Alberta Jones - It Must Be Hard (1926)
Ethel Waters - My Handy Man (1928)
Ethel Waters - Am I Blue (1929)
Ethel Waters - Stormy Weather (1933)
Ethel Waters - Dinah (1925)

Part 3 - 36:04
Memphis Willie B - Bad Girls Blues (1961)
Pearl Bailey & Jackie Mabley - Saturday Night Fish Fry (1949)
Petite Swanson - Lawdy Miss Clawdy / My Jockey Knows How to Ride (1947)
Bert "Snake Root" Hatton - Freakish Rider Blues (1927)
Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon - Operation Blues (1929)
Tampa Red & Frankie Jaxon - My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll (1929)
Mary Dixon - All Around Mama (1929)
Bertha Idaho - Down on Pennsylvania Avenue (1929)
Billy Banks & His Rhythmakers - Mean Old Bed Bug Blues (1932)
Billy Banks & His Rhythmakers- Oh, Peter (1932)

 

If this show nudges you to want to collect some of the music
you could find no better place to start than with this CD.

And, a bonus page featuring Harlem's drag
scene at the famous Hamilton Lodge Balls

Sepia Gloria Swanson & Sepia Mae West

Other QMH Blues Shows
October 2007: 1925 - 1970
Feb 2013: Gladys Bentley