Hurricane Katrina: Backwater Blues with Bessie Smith

[RememberSoCal]

why of all places in the us did new orleans have to flood? so much history...

[JamesPriceJohnson]

dont forget about james p johnson

[bizintin]

A wonderful, inspiring, heart breaking video. Interesting have the art and photographs together. Thanks to all for this, especially Ms Bessie Smith.

[LaRocheFoucauld]

Too bad the video editor got so obsessed with funky transitions and overlays; there are some good pictures in there.

I love Bessie Smith! She was truly "The Empress of the Blues."

[TheJackjackjack111]

During Katrina actor Sean Penn personally rescued more people in a motorboat than the scoundrels who committed treason by exposing their own spy during that operative's ongoing service-the only people I can think of in history to act in such a horrible manner.Tank You,President Obama,for making them pack their things and go!The same type of people who turned Bessie away from a "White Only" hospital to die...May their house fall down,so they can't live there no more!Thank You Incedibly4Posting!

[RainbowGL08]

Tomorrow we're going to write a test about the backwater blues

[vavanzado]

i sing this song in choir

[TheZerao]

Blues ;)

[LeSoleilBris]

it's one of my favorite songs

[mehkai25]

i love this video it is so sad it will make me wany to cry

[stepgranpep]

It's my understanding that this song was written as a reaction to the common practice in the Southern states of alleviating the pressure of flooding rivers by opening the dikes in the districts inhabited by African Americans, not in reaction to one particular event. It's actually a pretty common theme in blues music.

[bennbug]

sky turns dark as night!!!

[Zaier]

yeah great song , but i prefer the version from big bill broonzy

[LeSoleilBris]

I love blues and also her!

[cheeselump]

the song is actually about a flood that happened in Nashville, Tennessee On Christmas morning 1926. The background of the song is analyzed in the Journal 'Popular Music' in their January 2006 edition. It's pretty neat actually.

[9jem]

bessie smith had the most sinister voice a fantastic track with a graet piano player who plays a mean but grwat piano

[giantsboy96]

the piano player's name is clarence williams i think

[9mej]

thank you for your infomation

[KawhackitaRag]

no, sorry, this is James P. Johnson at the piano here. Good guess though.

This is considered not only one of Bessie's finest recordings, but also one of the very finest of James P. Johnson's numerous fine blues accompaniments.

Personally, I prefer those of Jimmy Blythe and Clarence Johnson, but I agree that James P's accompaniments are very good.

It was recorded on February 17, 1927.

[giantsboy96]

oh thanks

[AlcoLOLic]

Ah, I like this Song

[KendrixTermina]

I admire these black women with their cool, deep voices...

[MichaelKevinWalsh]

Fantastic! Wonderful video!

[atree3]

thanks

trying to look at little michael but doesn't download.

maybe later

[geralddanilewicz]

she wrote it after a she had a gig in a flooded ohio town and the crowd asked her to sing a song about a flooded she said she didnt now any but that she would write own once she got home and she did its not about the new orleans flood though thats a nice idea

[atree3]

wow. Can I use you in the future. Hate giving wrong info . .

thanks

[pepeydylan]

Bessie es sin duda la mejor cantante de blues.

Por favor rescatenla del olvido su voz es increible.Por cierto,si estas viendo esta tambien te recomiendo los videos de Billie Holiday(Strange fruit) y de Janis Joplin(cualquiera).A mi opinion cada una de ellas es la reina de su respectivo genero ¿Me equivoco?

[chach868]

basie plays this incredibly!

[Danuishi]

new orleans sucks

[japchindog]

Nice rendition, but the opening text is inaccurate. Bessie Smith recorded Backwater Blues on February 17, 1927, and the levee break that caused the New Orleans flood that year occurred two months later in April 1927. This song was written about a flood in Nashville, TN on December 26, 1926.

However, being in the right place at the right time made this song a commercial success, and as they say, the rest is history.

[atree3]

thank you so much for the clarification.

Hopefully I will fix this someday

[atree3]

thanks so much for the clarification

hopefully some day I will correct this

[jordanlj1]

very nice, thank you

[YRB80]

fantastic! did you put this together yourself? i get chills watching this

[marfab10]

yes I did. Hope you got over your chills . . .

[Danuishi]

you got chills over something that could've been completely prevented...they told them niggers to get their asses outta there...good riddance!!!LOL

[IMAREALBROTHA]

you really should watch what you post. it does not make sense for me to argue with you but i will say this, people die and have died over the very words that you choose. you should never write the n word on the net keep it to yourself.

[Danuishi]

Look... I know what i said was cruel but it wasn't even me who said it, it was my brother.

and although it's cruel but it's kinda true and i don't wanna hurt or wish anyone to be hurt but c'mon they told them, "GET THE HELL OUT OF THER!"

but they didn't listen.

[thentian]

Kinda true, but... it's always the poor folk (who we in the west calls "low-income") who gets hit the hardest by natural disasters, isn't it? Even in America, not everybody owns a car. So you try to catch a bus, but no buses show up so maybe you decide to put your trust in God or someone (maybe the US Army, eh?) to bail you, and maybe it won't be so bad after all...

[Danuishi]

you don't understand, do you?

The U.S. army people gave them a chance to get in one of those buses or cars to let them get out but most of the people said no because that was heir land...

[waxcomb]

Isn't the point of democracy to reflect the values of a country's citizens in legeslation? And if that means people value being able to stay home and expect help afterwards, isn't it the governments obligation to provide this? Isn't that the point of "freedom"?

[Danuishi]

Ok, the government's obligation IS to help them... and they did by giving them a choice...

Either get out of that state or suffer the consequence of dying, poverty, and homeless. that, or be a hero for surviving this phenomenon.

[waxcomb]

I think you've missed the point. The point of a free country is that that it should be the other way around, the people have the power. Unless of course the US is not actually free, which it sounds like is what you're trying to point out to me...