Individual Photo Post #1

After reading Mahon’s piece, “’Big Mama’ Thornton’s Voice,” I felt frustrated for Thornton due to her troubling circumstances. Her identity as a black woman “made it difficult to hear and see [her] in all of her resonant dimensions…” (Mahon, 1). As we previously witnessed in Twenty Feet from Stardom, female black artists were less appreciated and acquired little success since male artists overlooked black women’s influence on rock and roll. Thornton’s song “Hound Dog” was recreated by Elvis Presley and became the “best-known” and “best-selling” version of the song (9). I can’t imagine the anger Thornton felt becoming the “stepping stone to someone else’s success while struggling to establish a viable career of her own” (Mahon, 9).

I was enlightened to read about Thornton’s relationship with Joplin who “invited Thornton to open for her on a couple dates, something Presley never did” (Mahon, 13). The two of them shared success with each other and Thornton even gave Joplin consent to make ‘Ball and Chain.’ It was inspiring to read that Joplin gave Thornton credit for the song which she appreciated after being uncredited by Presley. Thornton was certainly not the only one who had another artist take their work and make greater benefits from it. In the end, Thornton never addressed her feelings toward Presley and she simply went on with it internally driving her to work her way up the ladder. I loved the connection that I found between this story and the WWR where women of all colors are encouraged to have a voice and express their feelings and share their personal stories (6). The goal of this program is to “create an open structure through which unexpected, transformative and even healing conversations might emerge” (Habell-Pallán, 4). It is important to note the significance of having a voice and expressing feelings of frustration and annoyance. The WWR also poses the point that the project is a collective effort and we “all come from different locations within the university and community” (Habell-Pallán, 5). As a result, it is important to remember that even though we don’t all come from the same place we all have the same chance to make big changes and have opinions in the world and in music.

Another example of a Presley and Thornton scenario where the cover of the song was created by a white artist is Cherelle/Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Robert Palmer. The original song, “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” was created by Cherelle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmMwpi1iUUw but was later covered by Palmer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YO0WyOGHjU who hit number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The original version only hit number 79 on the Billboard Hot 100 which I’m sure was incredibly frustrating for Cherelle who’s version was beautiful to many people even though it was labeled as “unpopular” due to its ranking.

Works Cited:

Maureen Mahon, “Listening for Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton’s Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll,” Women and Music, 15, 2011, 1-17. (PDF)

Michelle Habell-Pallán, Angelica Macklin and Sonnet Retman, “Notes on Women Who Rock: Making Scenes, Building Communities: Participatory Research, Community Engagement, and Archival Practice.” NANO (New American Notes Online) special issue, “Digital Humanities, Public Humanities.” July 2014. (PDF)

Samuel’s Individual Blog Post Stream A #1

By Samuel Juarez-Solis

I found “Big Mama” Thornton’s story of limited success and thefts of style and the song called Hound Dog by Elvis Presley to be very troubling. Mahon notes Thornton was very frustrated “at being a stepping stone to [Elvis’s] success while struggling to establish a viable career of her own” (9). I feel like Thornton never got to properly voice her frustrations with Elvis. Mahon mentions that Thornton never published an autobiography which I think would have been an amazing platform to alleviate her frustrations (3). Similarly, I feel that the WWR Digital Oral History Archive project is also an amazing platform to voice frustrations and for individuals “to preserve and tell different stories about their work and lives” (Habell-Pallán 6). The WWR project allows for the “vantages, voices, queries and findings of African American women and other women of color” to be crystallized and can serve as evidence towards any future music industry injustice (Habell-Pallán 12). Furthermore, I found it inspiring that Thornton gave Janice Joplin the “right and the permission to make ‘Ball and Chain,’” even after the uncredited theft of Hound Dog (Mahon 13). Thornton was very proud of Joplin’s rendition of her song and I’m happy that Joplin gave due credit to Thornton and even “invited Thornton to open for her on a couple of dates” (Mahon 13).

The relationship between Joplin and Thornton reminds me of the relationship between the bands Queen and Metallica. Queen made a riveting fast pace song called Stone Cold Crazy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0kTkxhyWNo). Metallica would later receive acceptance from Queen to cover the song and they made an even edgier version that was able to cinch a coveted Grammy award (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j89-cyVEYD4). Similar to Joplin, Metallica would give credit to Queen and both bands would perform the song together at concerts.

Music covers or samples can be a great thing as long as the original creators are given credit and (if allowable) can give permission.

Works Cited:

Mahon, Maureen. “Listening for Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton’s Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll,” Women and Music,15, 2011, 1-17. (PDF)

Habell-Pallán, Michelle et al. “Notes on Women Who Rock: Making Scenes, Building Communities: Participatory Research, Community Engagement, and Archival Practice.” NANO(New American Notes Online) special issue, “Digital Humanities, Public Humanities.” July 2014. (PDF)