Ma Rainey's "Prove It On Me Blues," 1928

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's Amazing Resistance Anthem

Adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz's "Singing the 'Bull Dyker's' Blues," The Advocate, July 18, 1989, pp. 48-49. Copyright by Katz.

Unique in pre-Stonewall American history is an assertive song of lesbian self-affirmation and defiance, "Prove It on Me Blues." Written, performed, and recorded in 1928 by the famous early blues singer Ma Rainey, this extraordinary song of resistance features a woman-loving woman who proclaims her sexual interest in females and challenges the world to "prove it on me."

Sung i in the first person by Rainey in the character of a collar-and-tie-wearing, man-disdaining butch, "Prove It on ~ Me Blues" is a rare and wonderful rebel anthem. (See sidebar for 8 lyrics.)

How did the amazing "Prove It on Me Blues" come to be written and recorded? The answer is found in Mother of the Blues by Sandra Lieb (University of Massachusetts Press, 1981), the major study of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and her work.

"There is strong evidence," writes Lieb, who interviewed a number of Rainey's coworkers, "to indicate that Ma Rainey ... was bisexual."

In 1925, just three years before she recorded "Prove It on Me Blues," Rainey was reportedly arrested when Chicago police raided a wild party, catching Ma and the chorines from her show in a state of undress. Blues singer Bessie Smith is said to have bailed Rainey out of jail, and the bisexual Smith is the only alleged lover of Rainey's who is specifically named by Lieb.

To what extent was Rainey, the person, identified with the character who sings "Prove It on Me Blues"? Surprisingly, the illustration and text of the record company's original 1928 ad for "Prove It on Me Blues" (reproduced by Lieb from the black newspaper the Chicago Defender) explicitly links the performer Rainey and the singer-narrator of "Prove It on Me Blues" strongly links Ma Rainey wtth the bull dyke character whose song she sang.

48 THE ADVOCATE on Me Blues." The ad pictures a large woman in a col-lar and tie, tailored suit jacket, and masculine hat and vest, talking to two slender women in femme drag; a policeman watches. The ad's text, which identifies the large woman in the illustration as Rainey, coyly asks, What's all this? Scandal? Maybe so, but you wouldn't have thought of it "Ma" Rainey. But look at that cop watching her! What does it all mean? But "Ma" just sings "Prove It on Me." As a performer, Rainey did sing as a variety of characters. In the greatest number of her 92 recorded songs, she ap-