When we were growing up, my dad would often exclaim to my sisters, brother and me, “You got the world in a jug with the stopper in your hand.” He most often said this when he noticed us indulging in some pleasurable event: be it watching our favorite television show or savoring every bite of our favorite food. We would laugh every time my dad said this. We did not know he was quoting a blues lyric, we thought this line was another example of our dad’s creative wit—there was no one that could make us laugh more than dad. But, as creative and witty as dad was, this jug line was not original to him. This was a line from the song, “Downhearted Blues” a song originally recorded by blues woman Alberta Hunter and later covered by Queen of Blues Bessie Smith in 1923. Indeed, as suggested by my father’s use of the line, this line would come to have signfiyn’ meaning within black culture and for black people. It would be this jug line that indeed made Downhearted Blues a mega hit within the black community.
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Feminism and Religion 