I got the inspiration to write this article about Beale Street in Memphis Tennessee while listening to my wife playing some tunes from her all time favorite artist, Joni Mitchell. What does Joni Mitchell have to do with the blues or Beale Street, you may ask? Not as much as she has with jazz or folk music, but there are some strong influences in some of her songs. One tune in particular is "Furry Sings the Blues," written for her meeting back in the seventies with old time Memphis blues player Furry Lewis and her experiences of Beale Street and its music scene at the time.

Briefly, for the folks not familiar with the history of the famous Beale Street: It is a street that runs almost two miles in downtown Memphis, Tennessee from the Mississippi River to East Street. It is a significant location in African-American history and the history of the blues.

In 1909 a talented and gifted musician by the name of W.C. Handy and his band moved to Memphis and established themselves on Beale Street. This move would change the course of music history. Handy wrote many popular tunes, including a campaign song for then Mayoral Candidate E. H. Crump. The song "Mr. Crump" would later be entitled "Memphis Blues" and become huge, and history would go on to view W.C. Handy as the Father of the Blues. That’s why mentioning this famous street makes a valid post. Beale Street is not just some ordinary street in the United States. It is the most important street in the history of blues music!

Handy also wrote the classic song "Beale Street Blues" in 1916, influencing the change of the street’s name from Beale Avenue to Beale Street. For many decades afterwards, many famous blues and jazz players made their name on Beale Street and helped develop the style that would become known as The Memphis Blues.

Okay, back to Furry Lewis and Joni Mitchell. — When the request was made, Furry agreed to meet with Mitchell. She had a keen interest in his past. After all, he was one of the original slide guitar players in W.C. Handy’s band, and had played on Beale Street at that time. He not only had a first hand knowledge of the history of the blues, Furry was part of it! He greeted her with the same kind of down-home kindness with which he would treat any visitor. They discussed the old times and Joni observed his current surroundings and the vibe of the neighborhood. I’m sure she left with some incredible insight, and richer for the experience. Furry would not feel the same way. He point blank told her that he didn’t like her.

When Mitchell released her Hejira album in 1976 with the song "Furry Sings the Blues," he hated the song and "that woman," as he would put it, "that sang it." From what I understand, the song was inspired by this meeting, but mostly it was a commentary on the landscape of Beale Street, which was getting very run down by that time, in the seventies. The song paints a bleak picture of the state of affairs she had witnessed; it was more about that mood than anything else. She only mentioned his name and a few aspects, but the song was never totally about him. However, many people close to Furry would disagree. Furry thought he should have received some kind of a royalty for her singing about him.