SOURCE: “Wild Women Don't Get the Blues: A Blues Analysis of Gayl Jones’ Eva's Man,” in Obsidian II, Vol. IX, No. 1, Spring-Summer, 1994, pp. 26-46.

In the essay below, Johnson develops the thesis that Jones employs Blues structure and content in Eva's Man as a means of describing problems particular to African-American women.

When I was a little girl, only twelve years old I couldn't do nothing to save my doggone soul My mama told me the day I was born She said sing the blues, chile, sing from now on I'm a woman I'm a rushing wind I'm a woman Cut stone with a pen I'm a woman I'm ball of fire I'm a woman Make love to a crocodile Spelled W-O-M-A-N That means I'm grown 

—“I'm a Woman,” Koko Taylor

In amazement, I watched blues singer Koko Taylor perform the preceding song in a small nightclub several...