Billy Idol Book

A slim volume for some big voices: Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin. The first two giants of the classic blues era allow Hettie Jones to write mostly triumphant stories in a setting of overt racism. Mahalia Jackson's story is a little more complicated and I had the feeling that the famous gospel singer never quite got over childhood trauma. On the other hand, who would? It is amazing that this music has survived, evolved, and it is amazing what these individuals dealt with and defeated. But this isn't just the old, repeating African-American narrative, the black version of Horatio Alger: you know, first I was a slave then I escaped up North, now I drive a big car and wear gold chains instead of shackles... Hettie Jones is deeper than that and even here writing for young adults she doesn't stick to the formula. Things obviously don't go anywhere close to that way for Billie Holiday, but I had the feeling that that chapter was more or less a summary of Holiday's own book. The Aretha Franklin chapter, written in the heat of the moment, is short and maybe confusing. Aretha is expected to serve as a conclusion? Or as bait to interest (at the time) younger readers? Maybe the editors played with it so that the Aretha chapter comes across like, well now Black Women Singers have made it, no one is going to steal their music or deny them proper health care or whatever but Aretha can still sing the blues. Yeah, I wasn't sure what that chapter was really about.

My copy is a 1976 paperback and part of the fun was the ads for other books inside it. Apparently Dell had a whole series under the Laurel-Leaf imprint of progressive and minority biographies for young adults. Also an ad for "black experience" books... remember when they used to call it that?