Davis, Angela. “1 Used to Be Your Sweet Mama’ Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. New Yor Random House, 1999 I USED TO BE YOUR SWEET MAMA Ioeotoey, Sexvacity, axa Domesricity Youve had our chor ond proved unfit nd hae [used toe your rast mame, see pope But now I'm to sour econ be. So now 1m gone bere me Like most forms of popular misc, Aican-American blues ie talk about lve. Wha is distinctive abou the blues, however, particle in ‘elton tooer American popolr musical forms ofthe 1920 and 1930s, 's thei intelectual independence and representational freedom. One of the most obvious ways in which blues hie devised fom that es ‘tabled popular musical eltre was their provocative and perasie sexual including homotexal imagery? By const, the popular song formulas ofthe period demanded sa tthich blues meaning is manipulated and tansformed—semetimes even26 Blues Legacien and lack Femini ‘nto its oppaste—in blues perfomance. Blues make abundant ise of hhumer, satire, and irony, reveling their histori to in slave muse, ‘wherein indirect methods of epresion were the ony can by which the ‘opptesion of slavery could be denounced. In ths ses, the Bes genre's diet descendant of wok song, which een relied inden and ‘eon to highlight the inhumanity of slave ome so tha thei target were ‘sure to mitundentand the intended meaning’® Besie Smith sings a number of srs whose ics may be interpreted ‘ssacceptingcmational and physical abuse a alendant hazards for women involved in sexual partnerships. Bat lowe attention ther mal presen faton of thes songs perms the listener thal they contain impli