Throughout the tapestry of music history, certain figures stand out not just for their talent but for their sheer courage and resilience. Count Jackie Shane among them– a groundbreaking black trans woman who made a mark on the music scene in the 1950’s and 60’s. In our latest podcast episode, we delve into the life and legacy of Jackie Shane, a trailblazer whose story is as compelling as her music.
“Any Other Way” William Bell – Published by Bais Music (BMI) & Irving Music (BMI)
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast– dreaming, screaming and streaming to you through the Pantheon Podcast network. My name is Brad Page, host of the show, and each episode here, I pick one of my favorite songs, and we kind of do the audio equivalent of taking out the magnifying glass and getting a close-up look at the song, uncovering all the elements that make it a great song.
So let’s get this out of the way right at the outset: If you’re one of those folks who gets all bent out of shape about things being “Woke”, well, I gotta tell you, this is our wokiest episode yet. June is Pride Month, and as an old straight white guy, I am perfectly happy to stand with our LGBTQ+ friends. And on this episode, we are going to celebrate a groundbreaking figure in the history of the gay and trans community, who is largely unknown but no less important. This is Jackie Shane and a song called “Any Other Way”.
Jackie Shane was born in May 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee. She was born in a boy’s body, but from the beginning, her mind, heart and soul was a black woman. At four years old, she was putting on high heels and dresses, trying on her mom’s makeup. She lived with her mother and grandparents, and they were all supportive of Jackie.
She started singing in church when she was eight, and joined the glee club in junior high. By the time she was 13, she considered herself a woman in a man’s body and started wearing makeup to school. This couldn’t have been easy… this was the 1950’s, after all. But Jackie was confident and stubborn and determined to be herself. She learned to play drums and had her first professional gigs, playing with a trio– herself a piano player and a guitarist. Jackie would play drums standing up and singing lead. Her first recording was in 1957, playing drums on a track called “I Miss You” by Lillian Offit. Lillian’s singing isn’t anything special and the guitar is out of tune, but Jackie’s simple drum beat swings.
Jackie kept busy playing drums on more recording sessions for Excello Records, and playing a ton of live shows in and around Nashville, playing with Big Mabel, Gatemouth Brown, Little Willie John, Joe Tex and more. Around 1958, on the advice from Joe Tex, she left Nashville. She spent time touring with a carnival. The carnival eventually made its way to Canada, where Jackie split with the carnival and made her way to Montreal. It was a smart move. Being black in the South in the ‘50’s was hard enough, being openly gay… but in Canada she felt free.
Not that things weren’t hard… or weird. She was dodging the mob and at one point, was essentially kidnapped by a gangster who thought he was going to make her a star. She talked her way out of that one.
In Montreal, Jackie met a trumpet player named Frank Motley, and she joined his band, the Motley Crew. No, not that Motley Crue. The band would rotate between gigs in Montreal, Toronto, Boston and Washington DC. When they would play in Boston, they were one of the hottest tickets in town. And Jackie was the star of the show. She’d work the audience until they went wild. Tables would be turned over. It was a whole scene.
Jackie had star power, but she wasn’t outrageous. She was subtle. She did her hair and wore makeup, but she didn’t dress outlandish. Her clothes were stylish but androgynous. Her performance style was subtle, too. One musician described her as “gliding like silk”. Focused, controlled, refined in command. She could be mesmerizing.
And this was Jackie offstage, too. This was not an act. She was not a drag queen or what they used to call a “female impersonator”. On stage or off, she was graceful, dignified and always open, honest and authentic about who she was.
In 1960, while playing the clubs in Washington DC, Frank Motley booked some studio time. After laying down a handful of his tracks, he asked Jackie to sing a few numbers. Jackie felt like she was being put on the spot. She wasn’t prepared to record anything, but reluctantly, she cut a few tracks, including a version of Barrett Strong’s “Money”. These recordings remained unreleased for years, until 1966– six years later, “Money” was released as a single on the Stop label out of Boston.
Meanwhile, Motley, Jackie and the band continued to work their circuit, building quite a following in Montreal and Toronto, as well as DC and Boston. It was while they were in Boston in 1962 that Jackie recorded the song that would be her signature tune. It was originally written and recorded by Stax recording artist William Bell. Here’s a bit of his version.
“Any Other Way” was a brand new song; t this time, it probably had only been out a few weeks before Jackie picked up on it. In fact, the band had likely only played it a handful of times before they recorded it for this session. And the clock was ticking in the studio. Time was tight, and she only had time to record one take– and she nailed it.
The song begins with a short introduction led by the horns. This is unique to Jackie Shane’s version; the original William Bell version doesn’t have this part, but it’s a major hook in Jackie’s version. The tempo is also just a little bit slower, giving a little more sultry feel to Jackie’s recording.
Everything here is very restrained; the horns pull back, the drummer is playing lightly, tapping his stick on the rim of the snare drum. It’s a classic technique. And Jackie turns in a tasteful vocal. No histrionics here, just a smooth, classy vocal.
Now, some people have pointed out that line, “Tell her that I’m happy, tell her that I’m gay”, and tried to assign some meaning to that. But that line was already in William Bell’s original version of the song. The intent of that lyric seems pretty clear. It’s not to say Jackie was unaware of the interpretation, but let’s not read too much into that. Let’s listen to Jackie’s vocal.
That ends the first verse. And another blast of the horns sets us up for verse number two. There’s even some snare drum fills in here.
I like Jackie’s little laugh before that last line.
You can hear Jackie pop the microphone there. That’s due to what we call “plosives”. That’s when a blast of air from your mouth, from the pronunciation of certain letters, causes the microphone to distort for a split second. That’s the kind of thing you would redo, especially today. But remember, Jackie had only one take, one chance to get it done. There was no time for do-overs.
And those horns return to bring us into the third and final verse. It’s a short song, two and a half minutes– just three verses, no bridge. Here’s that last verse.
And we’ll ride out over that horn riff through to the fade.
Jackie Shane – “Any Other Way”.
Jackie continued to work up through the end of the 1960’s with Frank Motley and the Motley crew, but also with other musicians, too. In fact, George Clinton and Funkadelic wanted to work with her, but she said no. They were just a little too far out, even for Jackie Shane.
One night, Frank Motley showed up to a gig drunk and the promoter called off the show. That was too much for Jackie. She decided she’d had enough. When she told Motley that she was leaving, he lost it– pulled a knife on her and threatened her. But she stood her ground and demanded that she got paid for the gig.
She played her last shows, and in December 1971, she walked off stage after her final performance in Toronto, and left the music business forever.
She essentially disappeared. She lived out the rest of her life in private, spending time caring for her mother, who passed in 1997. She had accomplished what she wanted, and she was content to stay out of the limelight. At the age of 78, Jackie Shane passed away in her sleep in February 2019.
Jackie only recorded a handful of tracks, and there is virtually no film or video of her performances. The only one I know of is an appearance on the local Nashville TV show “Night Train” in 1965. It’s a tight, fun performance, though Jackie is pretty reserved; she did not like doing TV and I believe this was her one and only TV performance. You can find it on YouTube if you look for it.
There is one album available, a live recording called “Jackie Shane Live”. It’s been reissued and you can find that one. And if you really want to dig deeper, there is a 2-CD set called “Any Other Way” that includes an excellent booklet outlining Jackie’s story. It was written by Rob Bowman, and I borrowed liberally from that book to put this episode together. So my thanks to Rob and to the Numero Group for putting out that collection.
Jackie Shane was a trailblazer. She was courageous and brave and strong. She had to be to be out in the world as a black trans woman in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I can’t even imagine. So, if paying tribute to someone with the strength, courage, and dignity of Jackie Shane makes me “woke”, well, I’m more than happy to be woke.
Thanks for joining me here on the Pantheon Network for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. New episodes come out on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll meet you back here then. You can catch up on all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or find the episodes on your favorite Podcast app.
If you’d like to support the show, just go tell a friend about it. Your word-of-mouth support is the best promotion I could ask for. So thanks for that.
And thanks for listening to this episode on Jackie Shane and “Any Other Way”.
REFERENCES:
Jackie Shane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Shane
Frank Motley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Motley
Excello Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excello_Records
Rob Bowman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Bowman_(music_writer)
Numero Group
https://numerogroup.com/
Any Other Way (Album)
https://numerogroup.com/products/jackie-shane-any-other-way
Night Train TV Show
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Train_(TV_series)
William Bell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bell_(singer)