· “I forgot one little thing, he says pleasantly. I forgot to tell you Traynor and I would like to buy up all of those records you made of the song. I tell you we sure do love it.”
· “Didn't I give you five hundred dollars? he asked. What white man—and don't even need to mention colored— would give you more? We buy up all your records of that particular song: first, you git royalties.”
· Traynor sang Gracie Mae’s song on Channel 5
o “it wasn't just the song the people in the audience was screeching and screaming over, it was that nasty little jerk he was doing from the waist down.”
o “Everywhere I went I heard Traynor singing my song, and all the little white girls just eating it up. I never had so many ponytails switched across my line of vision in my life. They was so proud. He was a genius.”
· Traynor sings Gracie Mae Still’s song and makes it famous
o black musicians are exploited by the white-dominated entertainment industry!!!
o “These suckers is making forty thousand a day off a my song and now they gonna comeback and try to swindle me out of the original thousand.”
· Traynor gives Gracie Mae a car
· “The only reason that dumb boy of ours is going to show me his mansion is because he intends to present us with a new house.” --> “You're getting spoiled, he says. And the way he says spoiled sounds funny. He slurs it”
· Traynor doesn’t actually understand the song though so it can’t be explained
o “They want what you got but they don't want you. They want what I got only it ain't mine. That's what makes 'em so hungry for me when I sing. They getting the flavor of something but they ain't getting the thing itself”
· Traynor is showering Gracie Mae with gifts because he felt badly for profiting off her talent.
· Traynor invites Gracie Mae up to sing
o “So there I am singing my own song, my own way. And I give it all I got and enjoy every minute of it. When I finish Traynor is standing up clapping and clapping and beaming at first me and then the audience like I'm his mama for true. The audience claps politely for about two seconds. Traynor looks disgusted.”
· In the morning, they find Traynor is dead