The home for Songs That Saved Your Life Radio on WKNY 107.9FM where Jami explores the very queer roots of rock n roll and plays a lot of great music!
There would be no rock & roll without the genre’s queer lineage.
Rock & roll history is queer history. The genre was born from the blues and blues history is also queer history. Today, we're stretching all the way back to the 1920's to the first big stars of the blues — two queer Black women named Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.
If you’re going to talk about the queer ancestry of rock & roll, then Smith and Rainey are the most essential stop. Called "The Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith was the highest paid Black entertainer of the classic blues era of the 1920s. Her mentor, Ma Rainey, was the first major celebrity of the blues, and she sang openly about queer life in tunes like “Bo-Weevil Blues,” “Sissy Blues” and “Prove It On Me.”
1928's “Prove It on Me Blues” is considered one of the earliest gay anthems in history.
Tune in for a deep dive into rock's fore-bearers.
Music in today's episode includes songs by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton, Janis Joplin, Lil Nas X, Lil Kim, Queen Latifah, and many more.
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