Memento Mori

There are few better illustrations of the sometimes curious vestiges of fame than Lil Johnson, a female blues singer who recorded in the 1920's and 1930's. Johnson's specialty was hokum, a popular form of early blues based on thinly veiled sexual metaphors.  (It's not hard to find elements of hokum in the majority of blues songs from that golden era.) Johnson was one of the more risque practitioners, whose popular recordings included "Press My Button (Ring My Bell)," "Get 'Em From the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)," and "Anybody Want to Buy My Cabbage?"

A diligent search on the web reveals almost nothing about Johnson's life.  Blues historians can't ascertain when or where she was born, anything about her family or what happened to her after she quit recording in 1937.  All we have is her music--and as I sit here listening to her sing "You'll Never Miss Your Jelly Till Your Jelly Roller's Gone," I wonder where she came from and where she went and how she saw her career.  Perhaps she thought that, but for the twists of fortune, she might have had the success of Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith, or at least Ida Cox or Victoria Spivey. But I can only imagine.

This from "You're Just a Cream Puff":

You're like an automobile:
You wanna go fast.
But before you get started
You run out of gas.

R.I.P Lil Johnson.  Ars longa, vita brevis.