The sexual imagery is every bit as extreme as the smuttiest outbursts of Jelly Roll Morton's 1938 Library of Congress sessions. Stash Records made an obscene take available to an appreciative new generation in 1976 on their Copulatin' Blues collection. The two unissued takes could never have been put before the public in the '30s because of the outrageously pornographic lyrics, but were most likely quite popular on the private party circuit. The first, a cover of a song by Ma Rainey, is a straightforward blues garnished with traditional references to interpersonal relationships and straight-edged razor blades. "Shave 'Em Dry" exists here in three versions. "Barbecue Bess" is a lusty conflation of flesh (sexual pleasures) and meat (carnivorous dining), both delectable topics for insatiable appetites. Woman's Blues" is about "Bull Dykes" women who exclusively prefer the company of other women and display what are considered to be masculine characteristics.
Whenever she expressed herself in front of a recording microphone, this singer reflected on who she was, the kind of a world she lived in, and the sort of people who inhabited it. The underlying message is as clear and concise as a crossbow: "Do Not Mess with Me." In many ways, the blues is often used like a diary. "Pig Iron Sally," like the train songs rooted in the industrialized territory where she lived and worked, is the testimony of a woman who protects herself by claiming to be filled with Evil. Because this particular train separated her from the man that she loved, the emotions expressed here are undiluted and powerfully direct. and O." is one of several Bogan songs inspired by locomotives. "You Got to Die Some Day" has a familiar ring to it, and might well be the source for a line in Eddie Durham and Jimmy Rushing's "Sent for You Yesterday," a major hit for Count Basie and other big-band leaders during the late 1930s. It was during this period that Bogan chose to record under the name of Bessie Jackson. The third and final volume of Lucille Bogan's complete works as presented by Document in 1994 allows the listener to savor 23 recordings made between July 1934 and March 1935, with pianist Walter Roland, and guitarists Bob Campbell and Josh White.