"Jane and Hoyle bring back the fading world of flappers and the Jazz Age with stunning focus, charm and expertise. Delightful repartee, historical anecdotes and (of course) musicianship whisk the audience back to the wicked twenties — a time of short skirts, bobbed hair, casual sex, drinking, jazz music, and bad behavior. I Want To Be Bad is a cracker of a show – my students loved it and I consider it essential viewing."
— Tim Crofton, theatre director, United World College, Montezuma, NM
"Their affinity with the music and spirit of the ’20’s is totally contagious!"
— Deborah Blanche, Chautauqua actress
These songs are revealing artifacts of one of the most dramatic cultural shifts in America’s history. Emboldened by the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, The New Women, popularly known as “flappers,” took advantage of the upheavals caused by the World War and Prohibition to radically change their roles in American society. They challenged conventions about costume, behavior, employment, sexuality, and expression.
The 1920s were dubbed The Jazz Age by the popular writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald. His wife, Zelda, was a style-setting flapper. Both of them wrote extensively about flappers in fiction and in essays.
Jazz was the music of the day, and jazz dances like the Charleston and the Black Bottom were all the rage. Many of the most creative and popular performing artists were African-American.
Blues women began recording in 1921. Although they performed primarily for black audiences, white people also bought their records and attended their shows. So it was that many young women, both white and black, were exposed to the frank commentary on female sexuality and the challenges facing women, as well as the rich palette of emotions communicated by these African-American women who were the very embodiment of female power and pride.
White performers adopted parts of the style and the substance of their black theatrical and musical colleagues. The influence can be heard in the work of most of the women singers of the Jazz Age.
The majority of these songs were composed by men. A great many of the young men in theatre, literature, and journalism were enthusiastic about the New Women. They liked their clothes, their hairstyles, their manners, and their attitudes, and a few even understood women’s deeper frustrations and ambitions. The Tin Pan Alley writers tailored songs to fit the personalities and the voices of the flapper singers. Our arrangements are based on recordings, with many additions and changes to the sheet music made by the singers.
The blues women sang songs by male songwriters, many of whom were black, and they also wrote many of their own songs. Their intensely personal expression anticipates “confessional” songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Carole King by several decades.
Scholarship about flappers is limited. A good deal has been written about early blues singers, but the handful of more generalized books about flappers hardly refer to the women singers of the 1920s, and they devote little attention to women of color.
Additional information about
I Want to Be Bad: The Flapper and Her Song
including Voss & Osborne biography
Information about Jane & Hoyle’s other Chautauqua program:
All In, Down and Out: The Great Depression in Song and Story
Rooster Rag
(1917 - Muriel Pollock - 1895 - 1971)
Pollock composed shows, songs, and piano solos, made hot duo-piano records and was staff organist for NBC radio. view original sheet music
There’ll Be Some Changes Made
(1921 - music by W. Benton Overstreet, lyrics by Billy Higgins)
Introduced by Ethel Waters (1900 - 1977)
Waters was among the first black women to make hit records. A breakthrough artist on Broadway, in film, and on television. hear original recording
I Want to Be Bad
(1928 - B.G. DeSylva, Lew Brown & Ray Henderson) Introduced by Helen Kane (1904 - 1966)
hear Annette Hanshaw’s original recording
Downhearted Blues
(1922 - written and recorded by Alberta Hunter - 1895 - 1984)
Hunter recorded this blues on her first recording session. Bessie Smith made a version on her own first record.
hear original recording
There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears
(1927 - Fred Fisher) introduced by Libby Holman (1904-1973)
Holman lived a fascinating life, causing several scandals.
hear Bing Crosby’s original recording
Masculine Women! Feminine Men!
(1926 - music by James V. Monaco - lyrics by Edgar Leslie)
hear original recording
My Special Friend (Is Back in Town)
(1926 - music by J.C. Johnson, lyrics by Andy Razaf)
Introduced by Ethel Waters (1900 - 1977)
hear original recording
Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues
(1925 - written and recorded by Ida Cox - 1889 - 1967)
hear original recording
Ten Cents a Dance
(1930 - music by Richard Rodgers - lyrics by Lorenz Hart) introduced by Ruth Etting (1923 - 1978)
So Is Your Old Lady
(1926 - music by Joe Burke, lyrics by Al Dubin) Introduced by Ruth Etting Etting became a star with the start of nationwide network radio in 1926. Her career ended in 1938, after her estranged husband, the gangster known as Moe the Gimp, shot her pianist.
I’ve Got What It Takes (But It Breaks My Heart to Give It Away)
(1929 - Clarence Williams & H. Jenkins) Introduced by Bessie Smith (1895 - 1937) hear original recording
