Salkewicz - 1950s

One of my favorite songs from the 1950's is Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton's song "Ball and chain".  The classic blues riff that accompanies her overwhelmingly powerful voice is brought into a new light by the juxtaposition of the female lead in a male-dominated genre.  In an already marginalized musical category, Willie Mae takes it one step further by talking about the male-female relationship from the perspective of the woman.  Not to say that this hasn't or doesn't happen, But the preferred guitar and piano pairing for the blues rings differently alongside the penetrating vocal abilities of "Big Mama".  Even the song title is subversive, as normally you hear Married Men referring to their wives as "The old Ball and Chain" but in the case of a woman like Willie Mae, It seems the man is holding her down, which speaks to a larger fact of the times in a male-dominated industry while also asking the audience to appreciate the female experience by her performance "Big Mama Lookin' out at the rain", Its pretty clear whose in the drivers seat for this one.