Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

When the "Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith, recorded this Jimmy Cox vaudeville tune in May 1929, the roaring twenties were still raging. But Smith sang the cautionary tale of lost wealth and fair-weather friends with an unmistakable, heavy sorrow, backed by the mournful, sympathetic cornet of Ed Allen. Released in September, just weeks before the catastrophic Wall Street Crash, her booming, expressive vocal performance became the accidental, tragic anthem of the Great Depression. It cemented Smith's absolute dominance over the era's classic blues and resonated with a suddenly impoverished nation.