While listening to Ma Rainey’s, “Dream Blues,” it seems as if it starts off as violins playing profusely. Once the violins start playing, the singer starts to sing quickly thereafter with a very high and meaningful tone. She seems distressed if anything and somewhat troubled. During the first stanza, she stresses the word “night” by singing a little higher and louder than usual. When you listen further into the song, all of the other words that rhyme with “night” or words that contains “I’s” in them, are also stressed. The way she sings is a good example of how she's feeling "blue" which pertains to the type of song, the blues.

What I got out of the song is that this woman gets drunk one night and ends up with a man in her bed. They end up getting together and having sex, which she regrets. The line “Gonna get drunk tonight” shows that was not a meaningful night and that it was just a stupid mistake. Later on, it seems as if she finds out that she is pregnant. The line “Lord, I wonder what am I to do” seems as if she does not know what to do and that she is not ready to have a baby. She feels as if the baby is going to be “mistreated” and she just feels like crying. The last two lines, “Yes, I had a bad dream last night / Mama don’t mind dyin’” reassures that she regrets the whole night and what she has done will always be with her, in her mind.

This is what I interpreted the song to mean but I could be totally wrong as well...