1955 a study of Traynor and Gracie Mae
Nineteen Fifty-Five, by Alice Walker, I would like to think this is a story not about music, but more of Traynor’s determination to find “answers” to Gracie Mae’s songs. Traynor, I believe wasn’t appreciative of the success that he had received off of Gracie’s songs, and was using bribes as a way to get her to explain the song to him. ... At the time of Traynor’s first in counter with Gracie Mae, he was about sixteen years old, just a kid. Gracie was a woman in her later years; she was established, with a family. Traynor’s associate, the deacon took him to her house to make her an, offer for some of her songs that she had wrote and sang. Although it appears that the deacon has good intentions, to make Traynor a star, I get the impression that Traynor doesn’t want anything to do with becoming a star. As soon as the two of them walk in to the house the first thing that Traynor does is turn on the TV, almost as though he wasn’t interested in what the adults had to talk about. This becomes a little clearer, when the deacon tells Gracie Mae, “Traynor here just loves your songs. Don’t you, Traynor? ... Traynor then mumbles something that wasn’t quite a coherent sentence. ... Gracie excepts the offer, she doesn’t really think to much of it, she’s say “that song never did sell that good, so I was glad they was going to buy it up. ... The whole time Traynor is sitting there not saying a thing, which I believe is his way of not taking any interest to this. ... Once the songs become property of Traynor, the deacon tells Gracie that she will be getting royalties, which in turn will make everyone rush out to the record stores and buy up all her albums. ... Much time has now passed since Gracie Mae had seen or heard from the boy. That all changed when she got a phone call from one of her grand-kids telling her that Traynor was on TV singing her song. Now that following year Traynor showed up at Gracie’s house on Christmas, he is greeted at the door by one of the children who calls out it’s the white man who, then she pauses.