Lucille Bogan

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Biography

Lucille Bogan (April 1, 1897 - August 10, 1948) was an American singer, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. Bogan sang straight-talking blues about drinking (“Sloppy Drunk Blues”), prostitution (“Tricks Ain’t Walking No More”), gambling, lesbianism and other facets of what her generation called ‘the life’. The critic and sexologist Ernest Borneman grouped her with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith in the “the big three of the blues”.

She was born Lucille Anderson in Amory, Mississippi, United States, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1914, she married Nazareth Lee Bogan, a railwayman, and gave birth to a son, Nazareth Jr., in either 1915 or 1916. Lucille later divorced Nazareth and married James Spencer, who was 22 years younger than herself.
She first recorded vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with pianist Henry Callens. Later that year she recorded “Pawn Shop Blues” in Atlanta, Georgia, which was the first time a black blues singer had been recorded outside New York or Chicago. In 1927 she began recording for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin, where she recorded her first big success, “Sweet Petunia”, which was covered by Blind Blake. She also recorded for Brunswick Records, backed by Tampa Red and Cow Cow Davenport.
By 1930 her recordings had begun to concentrate on drinking and sex, with songs such as “Sloppy Drunk Blues” (covered by Leroy Carr and others) and “Tricks Ain’t Walkin’ No More” (later recorded by Memphis Minnie).
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