Farwell Daddy Blues Sparknotes

Post-slavery one theme was predominant in the changing period that followed, the freedom Black people gained. The blues especially was a vehicle to explore black artists' thoughts and feelings, as an avenue of freedom. As blues singers, women played into the expectations of being more in tune with their emotions and being able to provide the emotional release that black audiences sought, and creating a rapport knowing that women do and can provide catharsis. Women acted as messengers and preachers to the spiritual release provided by the expressive nature of the blues. In her first chapter of Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, Angela Davis points out that the blues was the predominant post-slavery Black musical form replacing the religious

The song begins with Rainey expressing that she is “wild about [her] daddy, I want him all the time / Wild about my daddy, I want him all the time” (Rainey 0:09). She specifically uses the word ‘wild’ to show the yearning and pining she does for him. ‘Wild’ is a loaded word that goes beyond being in love or in like with someone, it alludes to an infatuation and a sense of an uncontrollable desire, which is usually sexual. She repeats this again to reemphasize the point. In the recording, she lingers on the words ‘wild’ and ‘want’ hanging on to the words longer to exemplify a yearning for her Daddy. Rainey does the same thing when she brings up the singing snake in the woods. The snake’s “voice could ring,” which she repeats and sings the line in a dreamy quality leaning into his sweet and silky voice but she makes it a point to add at the end of the verse that he still “can sting” (Rainey 1:45-2:07). The snake is arguably a metaphor for her Daddy. Rainey’s desire is justifiable in his enticing qualities but the desire is dangerous, just as snakes are. She chooses to use the snake to be clear in her image of his deception as a warning to other women because while still desiring her Daddy she does not romanticize him. Rainey through her song is not shy about her desire and

Before Rainey introduces the snake into the narrative, she goes into the woods “feelin' sad and blue” and is met by a rabbit that expresses “‘Mama, I've got 'em too,’” referring to her blues (Rainey 1:21-1:43). She plays on the name of the genre being ‘the blues’ while also simultaneously relating to the blue of sadness. She uses the rabbit, a small unsuspecting creature, to mimic her feelings standing in as a metaphor for herself. If the snake is her Daddy and she is the rabbit, she chooses these animals to represent the dynamic between a man and a woman, representing a power imbalance in the danger of rabbits being prey for snakes. Additionally, there is a sensual nature to the ways that snakes devour rabbits whole and what that means to be consumed fully by a person. The audience is aware of the danger between the snake and a rabbit, but Rainey leaves the tension between the two unresolved to highlight the dejection in the imbalance and the unsuspecting tropes of a woman. She builds upon this idea of unfairness when she sings a farewell to her Daddy, “Oh, fare you well, daddy, hon, it's your turn now” (Rainey 0:56). She repeats the line again, but her voice says the line in a whining tone like she is sulking. She descends in the last part of the lines like a voice does when it is trying to communicate while