Lucille Bogan

Many of Bogan's songs have been recorded by later blues and jazz musicians. Many of her songs were sexually explicit, and she is generally considered to have been a "dirty blues" musician. In 2022, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

• Name — Lucille Bogan • Birth Name — Lucile Anderson • Alias — Bessie Jackson • Born — 1 April 1897 • Birthplace — Birmingham, Alabama or Amory, Mississippi, U.S. (disputed) • Died — 10 August 1948 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Genre — Classic female blues, dirty blues • Occupation — Singer, songwriter • Years Active — 1923–1935

She was born Lucile Anderson, the daughter of Gussie and Wylie Anderson. According to some sources, she was born in Amory, Mississippi, but according to her entry in the 1900 census her birthplace was Birmingham, Alabama. In 1914, she married Nazareth Lee Bogan, a railwayman, and gave birth to a son, Nazareth Jr., in either 1915 or 1916. She later divorced Bogan and married James Spencer. She first recorded vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with the pianist Henry Callens. Later that year she recorded "Pawn Shop Blues" in Atlanta, Georgia; this 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. By 1930, her songs tended to concern drinking and sex, such as "Sloppy Drunk Blues" (written and first recorded by Bogan but released first by Leroy Carr in 1930 then by Bogan the following year, later recorded by others) and "Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More" (later recorded by Memphis Minnie). She also recorded the original version of "Black Angel Blues", which (as "Sweet Little Angel") was covered by B. B. King and many others. With her experience in some of the rowdier juke joints of the 1920s, many of Bogan's songs, most of which she wrote herself, have thinly veiled humorous sexual references. The theme of prostitution, in particular, featured prominently in several of her recordings. One of these was "Groceries on the Shelf (Piggly Wiggly)", which was originally written and recorded by Charlie "Specks" McFadden. Piggly Wiggly is the name of a supermarket chain operating in the South and the Midwest, which pioneered self-service grocery sales. Bogan used this self-service notion in her amended lyrics to the song, part of which ran, "My name is Piggly Wiggly and I swear you can help yourself, And you've got to have your greenback, and it don't take nothin' else". In 1933, she returned to New York, and, apparently to conceal her identity, began recording as Bessie Jackson for the Banner label of ARC. She was usually accompanied on piano by Walter Roland, with whom she recorded over 100 songs between 1933 and 1935, including some of her biggest commercial successes, "Seaboard Blues", "Troubled Mind", and "Superstitious Blues". Her other songs include "Stew Meat Blues", "Coffee Grindin' Blues", "My Georgia Grind" (accompanied on piano by Charles Avery), "Honeycomb Man", "Mr. Screw Worm in Trouble", and "Bo Hog Blues". Her final recordings with Roland and Josh White include two takes of "Shave 'Em Dry", recorded in New York on Tuesday, March 5, 1935. The unexpurgated alternate take is notorious for its explicit sexual references, a unique record of the lyrics sung in after-hours adult clubs. According to Keith Briggs' liner notes for Document Records Complete Recordings, these were recorded either for the fun of the recording engineers, or for "clandestine distribution as a 'Party Record. Briggs notes that Bogan seems to be unfamiliar with the lyrics, reading them as she sings them, potentially surprised by them herself. Another of her songs, "B.D. Woman's Blues", takes the position of a "bull dyke" ("B.D."), with the lyrics "Comin' a time, B.D. women, they ain't gonna need no men", "They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural man" and "They can lay their jive just like a natural man." She appears not to have recorded after 1935. She managed her son's jazz group, Bogan's Birmingham Busters, for a time, before moving to Los Angeles shortly before her death from coronary sclerosis in 1948. She is interred at the Lincoln Memorial Park, in Carson, California. In 2016 the Killer Blues Project placed a headstone for Lucille Bogan. In 2022, she was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. The citation noted that "Bogan recorded some of the most memorable blues songs of the pre-World War II era, including some that were landmarks in blues and some that continue to sensationalize her reputation decades after her death".

List of singles, with A-side and B-side, showing year released and label • A-side — B-side — Year — Label • "Chirpin' the Blues" — "Triflin' Blues (Daddy Don't You Trifle on Me)" — 1923 — Okeh • "Lonesome Daddy Blues" — "Don't Mean You No Good Blues" • "The Pawn Shop Blues" — "Grievious Blues" (by Fannie Goosby) • "Levee Blues" — "Sweet Patunia" — 1927 — Paramount • "Jim Tampa Blues" — "Kind Stella Blues" • "Doggone Wicked Blues" — "Oklahoma Man Blues" • "Women Won't Need No Men" — "War Time Man Blues" • "Craving Whiskey Blues" — "Nice and Kind Blues" • "Pay Roll Blues" — "New Way Blues" — 1929 — Brunswick • "Coffee Grindin' Blues" — "Pot Hound Blues" • "My Georgia Grind" — "Whiskey Selling Woman" — 1930 • "They Ain't Walking No More" — "Dirty Treatin' Blues" • "Black Angel Blues" — "Tricks Ain't Walking No More" — 1931 • "Crawlin' Lizard Blues" — "Struttin' My Stuff" • "Sloppy Drunk Blues" — "Alley Boogie"

List of singles, with A-side and B-side, showing year released and label • A-side — B-side — Year — Label • "Seaboard Blues" — "Troubled Mind" — 1933 — Banner, Conqueror, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo • "House Top Blues" — "T N & O Blues" • "Roll and Rattler" — "Groceries on the Shelf" • "Superstitious Blues" — "My Baby Come Back" • "Mean Twister" (with Walter Scott) — "Baking Powder Blues" (with Walter Scott) • "New Muscle Shoals Blues" — "Red Cross Man" • "Sweet Man, Sweet Man" — "Down in Boogie Alley" — 1934 • "Drinking Blues" — "Boogan Ways Blues" • "Reckless Woman" — "Tired as I Can Be" • "Pig Iron Sally" — "My Man Is Boogan Me" • "Changed Ways Blues" — "I Hate That Train Called the M and O" • "Walkin' Blues" — "Forty-Two Hundred Blues" • "Stew Meat Blues" — "Skin Game Blues" — 1935 • "Barbecue Bess" — "Shave 'Em Dry" • "That's What My Baby Likes" — "Man Stealer Blues" • "Jump Steady Daddy" — "B.D. Woman's Blues" • "You Got to Die Some Day" — "Lonesome Midnight Blues" — 1936

List of compilation albums, with selected details • Title — Details • Alabama Blues (1930–1935) (with Walter Roland) — * Released: 1968 * Label: Roots • (1927–1935) (with Walter Roland) — * Released: 1969 * Label: Yazoo • (1923–1935) — * Released: 1989 * Label: RST • Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 1 — * Released: 2 June, 1993 * Label: Document • Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 2 — * Released: 2 June, 1993 * Label: Document • Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 3 — * Released: 2 June, 1993 * Label: Document • Reckless Woman, 1927–1935 — * Released: 2000 * Label: EPM Musique • The Essential (with Walter Roland) — * Released: 2002 * Label: Classic Blues • Shave 'Em Dry: The Best of Lucille Bogan — * Released: May 4, 2004 * Label: Columbia

Lucille Bogan is classed in the genre classic female blues. Recorded with the occupation jazz singer. Recorded as singer, songwriter and musician. Recorded at birth as Lucille Anderson.