A skilled trade would mean more to me than a guitar. Some of these guys think they're pretty cute because they can play a guitar, but singing blues and playing a guitar is like molding in a factory except that it's less dependable - Guitar Pete Franklin, from liner notes of "The Blues of Guitar Pete Franklin" Bluesville 1068, Indianapolis 1961
I'm lookin' for a woman that ain't never been kissed Maybe we can get along an' I won't have to use my fist
I don't think that song is about beating his woman. I think it's about beating himself. In fact, I've always wondered if the real lyrics were "I'm lookin' for a woman knows just how I like to be kissed, etc." Makes more sense to me, anyway.
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Puttin' on my Carrhartts, I gotta work out in the field.
Kokomo Arnold SLOP JAR BLUES Now, I could cut your throat, mama, and drink your blood like wine. Says I could cut your throat, mama, and drink your blood like wine. 'Cause you's a old dirty buzzard and you sure done lost your mind.
Monette Moore TREATED WRONG BLUES I'm gonna cut your throat, babe, drink your blood like wine. I'm gonna cut your throat, babe, drink your blood like wine. I'll let these women know that you're a man of mine.
Monette Moore BULLET WOUND BLUES When he cries out loud that he is dyin', When he cries out loud that he is dyin', I'll pierce his heart and drink his blood like wine.
hello friend, the one that i found most startling (& i'm sure this has everything to do w/ it being the 1st example of this sort of thing i ever came across in a song) was robert johnson singing, "i'm going to beat my woman, till i get satisfied." & initially i too, had some trouble w/ 'southern can is mine', but have grown to love it over the years. a good song's, a good song. funny how some forms of violence in song mean nothing to us, & others make an uncomfortable impression. & to show i'm not completely desensitized by those haunting country blues images - i recently got into wynonie harris (not country blues, i know) & again, i was caught off guard when he sang in his song, 'bloodshot eyes' - "go find the guy who beat you up & ask him to take you back." great tune & performance, by the way. chris
I'm lookin' for a woman that ain't never been kissed Maybe we can get along an' I won't have to use my fist
I don't think that song is about beating his woman. I think it's about beating himself. In fact, I've always wondered if the real lyrics were "I'm lookin' for a woman knows just how I like to be kissed, etc." Makes more sense to me, anyway.
Well, that's certainly a... ahh... more pleasant way of thinking about it. Definitely never even occurred to me. I somehow doubt that's what Broonzy was referring to, but... Who knows?
I'm with Andrew about casual misogyny bothering me more than the over the top stuff. A to Z almost seems like a mockery of itself (it still makes me sick though). But John Hurt playfully singing "One o' these mornin's gonna wake up crazy, gonna grab my gun, gonna kill my baby"... That just doesn't sit right with me. (I always sing "Gonna pack my bag, gonna leave my baby").
There are all kinds of blues lyrics that I'm not okay with singing. Violent and otherwise.
But I remember being a terrified little boy listening to my stepfather beating my mother....
So some lyrics are absolutely out of the question.
"If you whup her when she need it, the judge will not let you explain." -- Sonnyboy Williamson/ Rice Miller from "A Woman is the Glory of a Man."
I've never really understood what he was trying to tell us about in this song.
Then there's that line from "Ain't Nobody's Business": "If someday I go crazy buy me a shotgun shoot my baby, etc"
I always sing "load up my shotgun" (already having the firearm in my closet...never fired it myself though, it was my grandpa's) and then before the chorus interject "Somebody better stop me because I don't wanna go to jail.
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Puttin' on my Carrhartts, I gotta work out in the field.
I am glad to hear that "Southern Can Is Mine" bothers a few men as well as many women. A friend of mine, who performs under the name "Madame Pamita" made an "answer song" to it -- "My Southern Can is Mine." You can find it on Youtube.
Another one that always disappointed me was Will Shade and MJB with "I Beat My Woman With a Singletree."
However, the MJB had the perfect answer-song for that: "She Stabbed Me with the Ice Pick." every time i hear that one, i call out, "You deserved it!"
Then there is Geeshie Wiley, not misogynistic, because she is a woman about to kill a man, but very violent in "Skinny Leg Blues" with "I'm gonna cut your throat, baby, gonna look down in your face..."
And, although it is meant as hokum humour, i really cannot stand Georgia Tom Dorsey's "Terrible Operation Blues" --
Get up on this table, pull off that gown Raise up that right leg, let that left one down Pull off them stockings, that silk underwear The doctor's got to cut you, mama, don't know where You got two or three tumors, shaped like a cube Two or three leaks in your inner tube Bring on that ether, bring on that gas The doctor's got to cut you, mama, yas, yas, yas The doctor knows to fix it, the doctor knows just what to do
And this piece of double entendre in "Oh Ambulance Man" by the MJB goes very badly astray as well. One presumes the reference is to having sex with a woman while she is having her period in order to ease her cramps, but it is just too gruesome.
Hey, daddy, hey, daddy, don't let me die in vain You see I'm wounded, wounded and bleeding, can't you ease my pain? Mister amb'lance man, will you rush me to a doctor, please I has no while a-rushing, your daddy can ease your pain with ease Can't you see I'm cut in the stomach? That's the reason I ease your pains with ease
Well, so much for those ...
« Last Edit: December 08, 2019, 01:11:08 PM by catyron »
Hi all, It seems like most of the lyrics cited here center on violence as opposed to sexism or misogyny, per se. A thread that focused on violence in blues lyrics can be found at https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=5969.msg47584#msg47584 . The main difference in blues lyrics and Old-time lyrics is that in blues, they say what they're going to do and in Old-Time music they tell you about it after they've done it, usually with no motivation for the violence having been given. All best, Johnm