Interview with W.C. Handy

I like naturalness, you know what I mean

That's the thing I liked about Louis, if he likes a thing

He's just gon' put himself into it

What was your first encounter with Louis?

I heard him when he used to run on the steamboat

From New Orleans to St. Louis

That would probably be the SS Capital, I suppose

That's right, that's when the blues were new

There's always some motivating force that directs my attention

To composing some particular number

Then one day at noon, I heard a minister speaking to a crowd on Broadway

And he was chiding them for adulterating goods and merchandise, and food

They're adulterating everything, but I said they're adulterating loving

Because I'd wanna write, this little thing that Louis did, "Careless Love"

As we used to play that down in Alabama (yes indeed)

I went back to the office, caught a train to Chicago

Where Louis played with Erskine Tate's orchestra (at the Vendome Theatre)

Vendome, and I sat down and wrote "Loveless Love"

And used the terms that people were using then

In the days of milkless milk and silkless silk

I orchestrated it, and carried it in to Tate, Tate played it

And I sent it off and had it printed

And printed these words to "Loveless Love" that Louis sang

Well that's why I did "Loveless Love" and "Aunt Hagar's Blues"

And Louis used to draw large crowds every night

Singing just whatever number that he wanted to sing

But I had some very pleasant experiences with him in Chicago

With the Vendome Theatre

Do you feel that at that time, the public realised what a great artist Louis was?

They came there to hear him play and sing

They realised, that it was something different

But they went to hear Louis sing, and I don't mind telling you

There was something in that voice that they appreciated, the pride of race

And I think that was the feeling about Louis

And the Vendome Theatre when I went afterwards