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Nov 28, 2015

IDA COX: The Uncrowned Queen of Blues is no Angle Child; She’s a Wild Woman Who’s Got Pure Indignation

by Sarah Lootah

Nov. 27, 2015

( Freeman, georgiaencyclopedia)

Now, you may be asking yourself who is Ida Cox? Well let me tell you that she was the “Uncrowned Queen of the Blues” for a reason. Ida Cox is well ahead of her time, as she serves as a symbol of a liberated autonomous African-American woman in the 1920s through her emphatic delivery and discomforting content that revolves around taboo topics of extramarital and ephemeral sexual relationships (Davis 1998, New York Times). Ida Cox, situated in the post emancipated American landscape, pioneered a new dialogue concerning African-American female sexuality and cultivated the black women’s blues era from the 1920s to 1930s along with the greats: Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey (Davenport 2003, pg. 92).

Although, the black women’s blues era coincided with the Harlem Renaissance, it was viewed by many as “low” culture that was taking a step back and antithetical to the movement, as these women presented depictions of sexuality in working-class African-American society; and therefore, blues women did not receive well deserved attention from writers and intellectuals of the time (Davis 1998, New York Times). However, Ida Cox not only sets herself apart from these influential blues singers through her musical career, as she recorded nearly 100 songs, but she also deserves to be recognised for her significant stance in the political and social scene. Cox was enabled by her unique social and political setting to use music as a medium to provide a distinctly female perspective on social issues and to disassemble the years of black female body appropriation and exploitation by initiating a new discourse on sexuality and sensuality to redefine it devoid of sinful connotations. Cox’s musical career also serves as an allegory of her coded resistance to the essentialist views of African-Americans as tools and commodities to exploit.

The early 20th century saw the development of a prominent generation gap that Blues music accentuated, as it allowed for expression through secular means (Goniprow, commons.trincoll). This promoted the view of Blues as Devil’s music, which reinforced blues women as sinful beings. Moreover, Blues held a stark distinction from popular music as it rendered realistic representations of love rather than romanticized etherealized versions of love that pervaded popular music culture (Davis, 1998, New York Times). In addition, contemporary 20’s ideals of gender roles, depicting women’s place and happiness at home and in marriage, was commonplace in popular culture. Ida Cox, however, used Blues music to distinctly diverge from the norm and presented women as sexual deviants who have “fourteen men now” (Ida Cox, “Chicago Monkey Man Blues”, 1924). She also comically states in “Chicago Monkey Man Blues”, which was used in part by Count Basie in “Going to Chicago Blues”, that “if monkey men were money, [she’d] be a Chicago millionaire” (Bogdanov, Woodstra, and Erlewine 2003, pg. 516). She cleverly adorns the essentialist view of African-American women as sexual bodies to redefine sexuality by shifting the rhetoric that being a sexual deviant is sinful to an act of autonomy through her presentation of taboo topics of extramarital relationships and ephemeral sexual relationships as liberating- themes that pervaded the blues (Davis, 1998, New York Times).

Moreover, Historically, sexuality and spirituality were defined by classical Western body-denouncing philosophies that established the accepted view in Christianity that sexuality and spirituality were opposing antagonistic aspects of the human being- a perspective that fosters the theological perspective of the body as inextricably sinful (Ellison and Douglas 2010, pg. 69). This ideology coupled with the expropriation and sexualization of the black female body by the white society, identified African-American women as sinful beings. However, Ida Cox resists this notion by redefining sexuality in her songs, which revolve around love, and ardently promoting radical feminist ideals of complete autonomy including over ones sexuality. In “One Hour Mama” when Cox sings, “I’m a one hour mama/ So no one minute papa/ Ain’t the kind of man for me”, she is taking back autonomy over her sexuality (Cox 1939). These lyrics that signify sex and sexuality coupled with her careful timing and specific phrasing are teasing and demanding simultaneously, which is also seen when she firmly and playfully states, “I don’t want no imitation/ My requirements ain’t no joke/ Cause I’ve got pure indignation”. Cox cleverly uses comical undertones to embed a coded resistance, and thus liberates African-American women from this encumbering essentialism that distills African-American females to just their bodies and depicts them as sinful and sexual beings.

(#IdaCox 2014, “One Hour Mama”, The Orchard Enterprise)

Similarly, in “Those Married Man Blues”, Ida Cox’s phrasing and its antiphonal communication with the cornet and trombone emphasizes the irony that “the law gave him to her, but gives himself to me/ the law gave him to her, but he gives himself to me” (Cox 1925). Furthermore, the use of AAB lyrics and the repetition reinforce the irony and embed the lyrics in your mind that “a married man will swear that he will love you all his life/ a married man will swear that he will love you all his life/ then go home and tell that same lie to his wife”. Cox employs this lyricism to instruct women that you shouldn’t trust what a man says because it’s the same lie he’s telling his wife. Cox’s clear delivery and repetitive structure make her easily understandable to the middle-class African-American women who she is trying to communicate to, who she is trying to liberate with her pragmatic advice. Cox is calling to women to start being independent in their sexuality and in their lives.

Additionally, Cox’s versatility in her sound from comical to gloomy is allegorical of her overarching resistance to essentialist and racial views of African-Americans. Exemplary of this is Cox’s song, “Worried in Mind Blues”, which was recorded in 1924-1925 and follows a ballad form that fits Appalachian-ballad blues (Davenport 2003, pg. 96). Ida Cox’s drawn-out phrasing, as she sings in a 12-bar blues scale with blues notes, synergizes with the whining of the instruments- notably the trombone- and creates a melancholic sound as she sings, “but I ran away with my husband’s pal/ but I ran away with my husband’s pal/ every time I turn my back he’s with another gal/ ” (Davenport 2003, pg. 96). The instrumentation feeds off of Cox’s tonality and creates an emotionally charged sound that signifies crying. This is similar to “Coffin Blues”, recorded in 1925. In “Coffin Blues”, Ida Cox’s singing is saturated with melancholy through her slow tempo and drawn out phrasing, as she sings, “I wish that I could fall here across your coffin dead”, which is complemented by the accompaniment of harmonium and cornet (Komara 2006, pg. 236). She also employs paralinguistic utterances such as moaning as a form of grieving. Particularly, the harmonium adds an extra dimension to the sound and funeral theme that Cox is conveying (Komara 2006, pg. 236). The stark contrast that these songs create in juxtaposition to her light-hearted “love” songs signify the complexity of people and establishes African-Americans as humans who are more than just a body or commodity.

(Fournier 2014, “Ida Cox- Coffin Blues”)

Cox also infuses a morbid tale with a light-hearted delivery to empower women in “So Soon This Morning Blues”, recorded in 1923, which is an action narrative about a woman murdering her man (Davenport 2003, pg. 97). After “my daddy said, he love a girl next door/ packed his trunk, said ‘I can’t use you no more’” the narrator kills him and turns herself in.

But I stopped my man from mistreating me this morning, this morning

I went to the courthouse, my hat in my hand,

“Good morin judge I killed my man;” this morning, this morning…

I am dead broke now, but I’m satisfied now this morning, this morning

I am dead broke now, but I’m satisfied now this morning, this morning…

This morbid story is metaphoric of women taking control over their bodies from the men who “use” them and stopping the mistreatment.

Similarity, Cox’s fluidity between genres- blues and jazz- reinforces the coded resistance that a person cannot be viewed through a single lens. Commonly, Ida Cox’s songs have 12-bar blues stanzas and AAB texts and are ornamented with blues notes that make Cox’s sound distinctly Classic Blues. This is seen in “Blues Ain’t Nothin’ Else But! “ (Cox 1924-1925) when Cox sings, “Oh the blues ain’t nothing but your lover on your mind/ Oh the blues ain’t nothing but your lover on your mind/ a man that keep you worrying and always crying…”. “Those Married Man Blues”, also, follows the 12-bar blue structure and AAB scheme as she sings, “people all ask me, why I love that man/ people all ask me, why I love that man/ he has a was of loving a single man can’t understand” (Cox 1925). However, in the song, “Come Right In” (Cox 1923), Cox shouts to Lovie to “spank that thing Lovie, spank it!” (Davenport 2003, pg. 98). By calling out to Lovie, Ida Cox showcases the piano and gives time for Lovie Austin to showcase her abilities. This connects to jazz ideals of egalitarianism and highlights Cox’s fluidity between genres.

(Blues 2015, “Come Right In- Lovie Austin and Ida Cox”)

Cox further separates herself from many Blues singers through her straightforward and deliberate phrasing and enunciation (Davenport 2003, pg. 94). For example, in “Ida Cox’s Lawdy, Lawdy Blues” (Cox 1923), Ida Cox precisely enunciates “door” when she sings, “I’d rather see my coffin come rolling in my door…”, rather than the common pronunciation “doe” (Davenport, 2003, pg. 93-94). Cox does this to show her individuality and that she will not fit within cookie cutter roles of what it means to be a blues singer or what it means to be a female African-American. In this way, she is taking a stand to liberate African-American women.

Ida Cox’s musical career also serves as an embodiment of her feminist ideals of autonomy. Cox at an early age showed her autonomy as she left her home and started performing in minstrels- the White and Clark Black and Tan Minstrels-, vaudeville houses, and working the theatre circuit in the 1910s (Oliver, oxfordmusiconline). By 1920, she was performing onstage companied by nationally renowned greats such as blues pianist Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver (Williams, 2014, pg. 33). In the early 1920’s, Cox worked the Theatre Owners’ Booking Association circuit (TOBA) and first introduced the blues on Indian Avenue with Edmonia Henderson at the Washington Theater (Williams, 2014, pg. 33). She toured most of the United States, managed her own career, and had her own touring companies: Raisin’ Cain and Darktown Scandals (Alexander, redhotjazz). Her lifestyle proves that she practiced what she preached, which adds to the authenticity of her work.

In addition, Ida Cox’s songs are predominantly self or co-composed, which allowed her to sing about original themes. This is true to her song, “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues” (Cox 1924). In this song she states that women can be independent of men, when she sings, “I have a disposition and a way of my own” (Ida Cox, 1924). Cox further sings, “wild women are the only kind that really get by” “wild women don’t have the blues”, which signify feminism and autonomy of one’s sexuality. The coda, “‘Cause wild women don’t worry, wild women don’t have their blues” serves as the mantra to this feminist anthem calling for African-American women to get “wild”.

You never get nothing by being an angel child

You better change your ways and get real wild

I wanna tell you something, I wouldn’t tell you a lie

Wild Women are the only kind that really get by

‘Cause wild women don’t worry, wild women don’t have their blues

This song resonated with generations of performers including female performers Cyndi Lauper, Dee Archer, Francine Reed, Saffire, Spanky and Our Gang, Barbara Dane, Sue Keller, Nancy Harrow, Cass Elliot with The Big 3, and Bessie Smith and male performers Lyle Lovett, Clarke Peters, Dennis Rowland, The Vipers, and The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (Sliwicki 2011, pg. 66). The song’s message transcends time as it continues to be lived through the adaptations and has transformed from an anthem liberating black women to one liberating all women.

(Esteve7xer, 2011, “ida cox wild women don’t have the blues.wmv”)

While Cox’s “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues” signifies sexual autonomy and liberation, “Pink Slip Blues” (Cox 1940) and “Last Mile Blues” (Cox 1940) deal with the hardships of unemployment and capital punishment respectively (African American Registry). Contrary to the tendency of blues scholars and critics to argue that blues does not lend itself to social commentary as it provides personal perspectives of the performer or composer, many of Ida Cox’s songs prove otherwise (Davis 1998, New York). In the work of Samuel Charters’ 1963 study, The Poetry of Blues, Charter comments:

There is little social protest in the blues. There is often a note of anger and frustration; sometimes the poverty and the rootlessness in which the singer has lived his life is evident in a word or a phase, but there is little open protest at the social conditions under which a Negro in the United States is forced to live. (Davis 1998, New York)

However, Cox is not simply complaining in “Pink Slip Blues”, as she sings, “Uncle Sam started chopping, cutting thousands off the W.P.A”, and “After four long years, Uncle Sam done put me on the shelf” (Cox 1940, “Pink Slip Blues”). She is calling out Uncle Sam- the governance. Being put on the shelf likens African-Americans to commodities and tools. This is metaphoric of the exploitation of African-Americans and shows their expendability. In “Last Mile Blues”, Cox highlights the injustice in the judicial system when she sings, “He refused folks to talk until it was too late”. These songs employ a female view of social issues (African American Registry). This is highly significant in juxtaposition to the feminist movements in the 1920’s and women’s suffrage. Ida Cox is showing that although women have gained the right to vote, there is still much more to go. Furthermore, she is taking a stance in her autonomy and showing other women that they too should expect more from their male counterparts and expands the message further to African-Americans as a whole who should be expecting more from their white counterparts.

( Buriedinvinyl, 2013, “Last Mile Blues- Ida Cox” )

Cox proved that she was a formidable blues singer and was accompanied by many respectable and influential blues musicians. Cox did duets with banjoist Papa Charlie Jackson, and was accompanied by cornetist Dave Nelson and Jesse Crump on reed organ on a couple of recordings (Bogdanov, Woodstra, and Erlewine 2003, pg. 133). Cox was also assisted by five Count Basie sidemen- trumpeter Shad Collins, trombonist Dickie Wells, tenor man Buddy Tate, bassist Walter Page and drummer Jo Jones- and pianist James P. Johnson in her pinnacle performance at the 1938 Spirituals to Swing Concert at Carnegie Hall (Bogdanov, Woodstra, and Erlewine 2003, pg. 2003). Furthermore, she was assisted by the “All Star Band” trumpeter Hot Lips Page, trombonist J.C. Higginbotham, clarinetist Edmond Hall, either James P. Johnson or Fletcher Henderson on piano, guitarist Charlie Christian, bassist Artie Bernstein, and Lionel Hampton on drums in her final record “Blues of Rampart Street” in 1961 (Bogdanov, Woodstra, and Erlewine 2003, pg. 133).

(Mediaparoxysm, 2013)

Her significance in the political scene is also seen in Ida Cox’s pinnacle performance at John Hammond’s concert “From Spirituals to Swing” at Carnegie Hall in 1939, where Ida Cox performed to a racially integrated audience that included whites who where just “beginning to appreciate [and recognize] the artistry and significance” of African-American music (Freeman 2013). This was an unheard of phenomenon during the era of Jim Crow Laws. In her performance, Cox was assisted by five Count Basie sidemen- trumpeter Shad Collins, trombonist Dickie Wells, tenor man Buddy Tate, bassist Walter Page and drummer Jo Jones- and pianist James P. Johnson (Bogdanov, Woodstra, and Erlewine 2003, pg. 2003). This was highly significant, as it presented a contrast to the hyperracial distortions of African Americans in music during the 19th century, which had been- for the most part- presented to white audiences in the form of the cakewalk, the “coon” song, and Blackface minstrels (Dugan and Hammond 1974, pg. 191). Ida Cox, herself, in her early career almost exclusively performed in concert halls to an all white audience through the Theatre Owners’ Booking Association circuit, when she worked in Blackface minstrelsies and vaudeville shows (Whalan, 2010, pg. 146). The concert, however, served as platform that allowed Cox to authentically- as herself- convey her message of free sexuality and sensuality in a transracial environment, as well as confront the female and black stereotypes that were imposed on her to her aggressors: the white society and more specifically white women. Furthermore, Ida Cox’s performance at this concert can be seen as a prelude to the shift in social views that would lead to the Civil Rights Movement and foreshadows the role of music within the movement.

(sideshowworld)

Ida Cox’s significance rests in the longevity of her messages and their relevance to contemporary societies. Furthermore, Cox participated in the deconstruction of hyperracial views and sexualized denigration of African-Americans not only in her performance at Carnegie Hall, “From Spirituals to Swing”, but also by opening up a dialogue on social issues and black female sexuality. This dialogue, through Cox’s music, acted as a counter narrative to the predominately white male perspective and expropriation of the African-American female body to effectively liberate women by providing a black female perspective and generating a more socially conscious society. Moreover, The amalgamation of the Jim Crow Laws and emancipated American Landscape are integral to the cultivation of the setting in which Ida Cox would flourish as a pioneer blues singer and composer. The social revolution of the black culture and identity liberated Cox and allowed her to express her personal experiences and effectively reach large audiences of both blacks and whites. These venues of her performances gave her the ability to deliver her message to segregated audiences and finally to an integrated audience at Carnegie Hall and leave the impactful legacy of her blues music to an enumerable amount of people in her era as well as those to come and situate Ida Cox as an integral figure in the social and political landscape of the early 20th century.

Works Cited

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Blues, Isabelle. 2015. “Come Right In – Love Austin and Ida Cox. Online video clip. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IOtfV4Vx24.

Bogdanov, Vladimir, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine. 2003. All Music Guide to the Blues. San Francisco: Backbeat Books.

Buriedinvinyl. 2013. “Last Mile Blues- Ida Cox”. Online video clip. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOHs_sudqNc.

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Cox, Ida. 1924. “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues”. Vol. 2 1924-1925. Document Records. DOCD-5323.

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Davenport, Doris. 2003. African American Music in Appalachia: A Candle for Queen Ida. Black Music Research Journal 23 (1-2): 91-102. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3593210.pdf?acceptTC=true.

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Esteve7xer. 2011. “ida cox wild women don’t have the blues.wmv”. Online video clip. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ709JHDLhc.

Fournier, Nico. 2014. “Ida Cox- Coffin Blues”. Online video clip. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfwY-d7lACA.

Freeman, Greg. 2013. “Ida Cox (1896-1967)”. Georgia: University of Georgia Press. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/ida-cox-1896-1967.

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Komara, Edward. 2006. Encyclopedia of the Blues. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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Oliver, Paul. "Cox, Ida." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed October 18, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/41375.

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Sliwicki, Susan. 2011. "Flashback: Wild Women Don't have the Blues." Goldmine, 08, 66. http://search.proquest.com/docview/902664037?accountid=14505.

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#IdaCox. 2014. “One Hour Mama”. The Orchard Enterprises. Online video clip. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKn6pcxZtR4.

#ethnomusicology #idacox #africanamericanmusic