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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Garth Cartwright

‘The biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see’: why no one sang the blues like Big Mama Thornton

Big Mama Thornton Big Mama Elvis Presley Janis Joplin Duke Ellington Mike Stoller Chris Strachwitz James Moore Otis Richard Penniman
American R&B singer and songwriter Big Mama Thornton in concert, c. 1965.
American R&B singer and songwriter Big Mama Thornton in concert, c. 1965. Photograph: Val Wilmer/Redferns

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton exuded uncompromising intensity. Her voice conveyed struggle and defiance, fury and hurt, like few others. Standing at 6ft 2in, with an imposing physique and a razor-scarred face, she was a Black, gay multi-instrumentalist who refused to let a racist society or a rapacious industry confine her.

Thornton should be ranked alongside the likes of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, but instead she is little more than a footnote in the histories of Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin as the original voice behind songs they would make famous. A new documentary, Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me, aims to right this wrong.

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