Hi Henry Brown - SKIN MAN BLUES
Recorded in 1932
In 1992, Chris Smith wrote that Hi' Henry Brown "was an unmistakeable musician... with a vinegary voice, and - in song, at least - a correspondingly sour disposition, which he turned on pimps, prostitutes, preachers, and even the passengers on the Titanic; (1). In the case of the prostitutes I would suggest he has the wrong slant on what Brown is singing about. In fact this side is more of a protest against mistreatment of black women and the general situation (in 1932) where many were paid such a low wage (or "nothin' at all") that they were forced on to the streets -a sad and very familiar scenario down through the ages in all societies.
Hi' Henry Brown, like his namesake Henry Brown the better-known blues pianist, was a resident of St. Louis for at least some of his adult life. Apart from possibly being originally from Pace, Miss. little else is known about him. In the largest migration of blacks from the South which "began about 1910 and rose to great heights between 1916 and 1919." (2), most headed for the "industrial cities of the North and Middle West." (3). Five of the 10 cities listed as the "most important" are in the latter area and the increase in the black population of St. Louis between 1910 and 1920, which was 58.9%, was only surpassed by that of Indianapolis with 59% for the same period. (4). And like Indianapolis, St. Louis spawned a thriving blues community in the late 1920s and '30s, including Hi Henry Brown.
Although these industrial centres gained a growing trade union movement within the factories and (in St. Louis) along the levee, they were largely exclusive of black membership.The A.F.L. (American Federation of Labor), the U.S. counterpart of Britain's T.U.C., had made few gains "in the area of interracial organising" in the 1930s. What progress was made was inspired (?) by "a sense of competition with its rebellious stepchild, the Congress of Industrial Organisations". (5). The C.I.O. was to break away "from the parent body in 1935". (6). But prior to this event "At last some black communities threw their support behind union activities for the first time, impressed with the relative openness of C.I.O. policies and with the uncompromisingly egalitarian rhetoric of the Communist Party". (7). One of the "several dramatic, successful organising drives that made full use of black women's leadership abilities (included) the St. Louis nutpickers strike against "Boss Funsten" in 1933". (8). Jesse Morgan Hill Funsten (b. 1891) went by the nickname of "Boss"..." (9). and came up against "Connie Smith and 3,000 nut pickers, 85 percent of whom were Black women, (who) organised the Food Workers' Industrial Union, a C.I.O. affiliate in St. Louis". (10). Surprisingly, the all-powerful, white "Boss Funsten" didn't get his own way on this occasion, when battling' with his multi-racial unskilled workers. In a divide and rule attempt he "failed to break the interracial strike by offering white operators more money if they returned to work, marking a departure in management's traditionally successful manipulations of the racial caste system." (11). This was probably in part due to the growing support by workers (at that time) for the FW.I.U. and also because the white women tempted by Funsten were sure to be very aware of being a small minority, representing only 15% of the nut picker workforce.
But 'Hi' Henry Brown was way ahead of this strike action. In the previous year of 1932 he recorded what can only be deemed a thinly-veiled protest in the form of his "Nut Factory Blues" which featured his superb, harsh vocal and almost supernatural twin-guitar accompaniment with Charlie Jordan, who was also a St. Louis inhabitant.
"Down on Deep Morgan, just about Sixteenth Street;
Way down on Deep Morgan, just about Sixteenth Street.
Well, they tendin' their business where the women do meet."
"Down in the basement when they work so hard;
Well, it's down in the basement when they work so hard.
Well, it's out on the corner, they husbands ain't got no job." (12)
Sixteenth Street ran alongside the tracks of the freight yard just east of the sprawling St. Louis Union Station northward, crossing Morgan Street (Deep Morgan) and Franklin Avenue which headed from west to east (along with Market and Biddle Streets) down to the levee on the Mississippi River near the Eads Bridge.
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