Those dirty ole blues men
 

I was once at a blues concert, with a crowd largely made up of enthusiastic youngsters. When the band finished a cover version of the Mississippi John Hurt song, Candy Man Blues, my friend indicated a bunch of cheering girls and said, “I wonder if they realise he was singing about his prick.”
If you are in any doubt about that interpretation, here’s the original song, and Exhibit A, the pertinent lyrics:


That set me wondering about other blues lyrics, for example, BB King’s line, "I’ve got a sweet little angel, I love the way she spreads her wings” or the following gem, originally by Memphis Minnie. Did she really have a paid driver about whom she felt possessive, or should we read between the lines, even if it means finding something less innocent?



So, have I become some dirty-minded perv, or is there more to these old blues songs than meets the eye? If anyone else has been troubled by suggestive lyrics, I’d be interested to hear other examples - if only to be reassured that I’m not alone.

Wynonie Harris' "Keep on Churnin' (Till the Butter Comes)" is my favorite example, it's hilarious to imagine the sort of reactions this would have gotten in '52.



Keep on churnin' till the butter comes
Keep on churnin' till the butter comes
Keep on pumpin' make the butter flow
Wipe off the paddle and churn some more
Little boy blue, come blow your horn
The cow's in the meadow, sheep's in the corn
Tend the sheep, leave him be
Bring the finest brown cow straight to me
[Chorus]
[Interlude]
[Chorus]
How now, brown cow, keep on eatin' your hay
Go in your shed, be sure you're fed
Go in your shed, be sure you're fed
Daddy needs butter for his shortening bread
[Chorus]
[Interlude]
[Chorus]
Who now, moo cow, keep on swishing your tail
Don't kick over the pail
First comes the milk, then comes the cream
Takes good butter to make your daddy scream
[Chorus]
I wanted some butter one day
A fine brown cow came my way
It kept on pumpin'
Butter came jumpin'
I'll milk you, cow, 'till my pail is full
Look out, heifer … here comes your bull

"Winin' Boy Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton is one of the raunchiest blues songs I've ever heard (and I've heard a lot of 'em.)

I'm the winin' boy, don't deny my name.
Oooooh the winin' boy, don't deny my name.
I'm the winin' boy, don't deny my name.
I can pick it up and shake it like Stavin Chains.
I'm the winin' boy, don't deny my name.

I had that girl, I had her in the grass.
I had that bitch, had her in the grass,
yes baby.
I had that bitch, had her in the grass,
one day she got scared and a snake ran up her big ass.
Yes I'm the winin' boy, don't deny my name.

I had that bitch, had her on the stump.
I had that bitch, had her on the stump.
I had that bitch and had her on the stump,
I ****ed her 'til her pussy stunk.
I'm the winin' boy, don't deny my name.

Nickles worth of beefsteak and a dimes worth of lard.
Nickles worth of beefsteak and a dimes worth of lard,
yes baby.
Nickles worth of beefsteak, a dimes worth of lard,
I'm gonna salivate your pussy 'til my peter get hard.
I'm the winin' boy, don't deny my ****in' name.


And some of the women were just as dirty (or even dirtier) as the men. Here's a raunchy number from 1935 by Lucille Bogan called "Shave 'Em Dry"...


I got nipples on my titties, big as the end of my thumb
I got somethin' between my legs'll make a dead man come
Oh daddy, baby won't you shave 'em dry?
Now, draw it out!
Want you to grind me baby, grind me until I cry

Say I ****ed all night, and all the night before baby
And I feel just like I wanna, **** some more
Oh great God daddy
Grind me honey and shave me dry
And when you hear me holler baby, want you to shave it dry

I got nipples on my titties, big as the end of my thumb
Daddy you say that's the kind of 'em you want, and you can make 'em come
Oh, daddy shave me dry
And I'll give you somethin' baby, swear it'll make you cry

I'm gon' turn back my mattress, and let you oil my springs
I want you to grind me daddy, 'til the bell do ring
Oh daddy, want you to shave 'em dry
Oh great God daddy, if you can't shave 'em baby won't you try?

Now if ****in' was the thing, that would take me to heaven
I'd be ****in' in the studio, till the clock strike eleven
Oh daddy, daddy shave 'em dry
I would **** you baby, honey I'd make you cry

Now your nuts hang down like a damn bell sapper
And your dick stands up like a steeple
Your Goddam ass-hole stands open like a church door
And the crabs walks in like people
Ow, ****!

Ooh! Baby, won't you shave 'em dry

A big sow gets fat from eatin' corn
And a pig gets fat from suckin'
Reason you see this whore, fat like I am
Great God, I got fat from ****in'
Eeeeh! Shave 'em dry

My back is made of whalebone
And my cock is made of brass
And my ****in' is made for workin' men's two dollars
Great God, round to kiss my ass
Oh! Whoo, daddy, shave 'em dry

Both of these little gems of fine filth can be found on the "Copulatin' Blues" compilation album featuring various dirty blues songs recorded from 1929 to 1940...


Various Artists - Copulatin' Blues (1976)

That's a great song, EPOCH - good chugging beat, and if there's any ambiguity about the lyrics, Wynonie Harris irons it out in the last few lines; very neat.

That Copulatin' Blues album is a pretty conclusive response for this thread, Psy-Fi. Luckily nobody says " 'nuff said" on MB any more - but with that album you'd be entitled to.

I haven't had time to explore all the tracks yet - I wonder if it has this song on it:-



Nina Simone has sung this song plenty of times, but she leaves out some of Bessie Smith's best lines, like "I want a little hot dog between my rolls." I thought you had more nerve, Nina!

^ Yes, that Bessie Smith song is on that compilation.

I got interested in those types of blues tunes back in the 70's after I first heard "What's That Smells Like Fish" by Blind Boy Fuller. A friend of mine turned me onto his music via Hot Tuna and their song "Keep On Truckin'" which has some of the lyrics from Blind Boy Fuller's song mixed in.

I also have this fantastic 5 record LP set from Jass Records...

https://i.imgur.com/fWH3UeN.jpg

"Bring It Home to Grandma", "Ram Rod Blues", "Caught Us Doin' It", "I Want Some of Your Pie", "Loose Like That", "I'm a Mighty Tight Woman", "Please Warm My Weiner", "Take It Easy, Greasy", "Honey Dipper Blues", Just a few of the many suggestive titles included in the set.

Them Dirty Blues - Various Artists | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic


And this great compilation of jump blues and r&b songs from the 1950's...

https://i.imgur.com/H0ErDdi.jpg

"Big Ten Inch Record", "Big Long Slidin' Thing", "It Ain't the Meat", "Rocket 69", "(I Love to Play Your Piano) Let Me Bang Your Box" to name a few of the included audio gems.

Risque Rhythm: Nasty 50s R&B - Various Artists | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic

^ "Them Dirty Blues" looks like a really great box set to have! That's a lot of material, some of which I'm exploring today. Thanks for the info and the links.

I chose this song this morning,.. .. because I couldn't remember any doublé entendre lyrics in the Laundromat Blueses that I knew:-

.....

Are there really three completely different blues songs about laundromats? Who would've thought it.

(P.S. Congrats on the Hunter S Thompson make over, Psy-Fi. Nice.)

Toothache blues, one of my favourite raunchy blues songs.

^ That's the first raunchy duet I've heard, which makes it a nice song, even if the dentist/cavity metaphor for sex sounds like it comes from a schoolboy's joke.

I don't have any new blues to contribute, so I'm going to move on to that '80s sub-sub-genre, Songs About "Horses" ;)

Dylan: New Pony
Cohen: Ballad of the Absent Mare
Byrds: Chestnut Mare

Not blues, but still very fitting.

^ Nice one, grindy! I wonder what obsure corner of the musical universe you were in to dig up such a gem.
It's also one of the most explicit songs that we've had in this thread so far - and there can be no misunderstanding because, according to the five seconds research I did, "pussy" has been in use as slang since the 1600s.

Yeah, it's basically a single entendre.
I found it through a cover version by Robert Crumb's band.
Pretty cool version as well.

Gotta get some Andre Williams into this thread. Like Wynonie Harris, he's more rhythm & blues than straight-up blues...

I'm running
Yes before it's too late
Trying to get away
From that jail bait

It's a rough temptation
But a common invitation
And a good association
But a quick elimination
That will take you out of circulation
Yes I'm talking about that younger generation

So take my advice fellas
For goodness sake
15, 16, 17 that's jail bait

Now they swear that they're in love
That you and her got stars above
And she's lookin' mighty good
Just like a young girl should

We try to tell ya no
And let that young girl go
But you, you know it all
You have yourself a ball

And now that it's too late
As you look from cell number eight
I tried to tell you old mate

17 and a half is still jail bait

So tomorrow's the date
For the trial of jail bait
And this you watch and see
The young girl will go free
And you'll get one to three

So out the door she walks
To another man she talks
Before you can count
From one to eight
Another man in for
Jail bait

Please mister judge
If you just let me go this time
I won't mess with them young girls no more
I swear I'm not gonna bother them no more Mister Judge
I ain't gonna bother none fifteen
I ain't gonna bother none sixteen
I ain't gonna bother none seventeen
I ain't gonna mess with none eighteen
I'm gonna leave them twenty-year-old ones alone too
Gonna get me a girl about forty-two
If you just believe what I say and let me go Mister Judge
Please Mister Judge I ain't gonna bother them young girls no more
Gimme a break Mister Judge
Please Mister Judge



:cool:

Well,you got your answer and also schooled some of us in the process,:)

^ :laughing: That song is so politically incorrect - it's great! In some liner notes I once saw a song described as "a slow-drag whorehouse number". Don't really know what it means, but I feel it might apply to the leisurely rhythm of Jail Bait.

^ Many thanks for your positive feedback, whipsy, and welcome to MB! :wave:
Sometimes posting in these threads feels like chucking stones into a pond so it's really nice to hear that someone at least has got something out of it. Any contributions of your own to make?

Meanwhile, here's Dana Gillespie's better-than-the-original cover of a Clarence Williams song, from an album that she rather wittily called Blue Job :-

Lisnaholic,hahhahha I love it.


I have no contriutions,I'm a student.

^ Glad you liked it, whipsy ! If you are a student of music, you have come to a great place: you can learn by asking, or by exploring some of the various threads. In the Editor's Choice section, for instance, there's an index of albums, put together at a time when members aspired to make MB a well-organised resource.

I think I speak for many members when I say that enthusiasm counts for more than expertise here.:)

Lots of old blues were deliciously bawdy, lots of double entendres and the like. Not all heterosexual either. Ma Rainey 's "Prove It On Me Blues" ,lines like "went out last night with a crowd of my friends must have been women cause I don't like no men"" on the album AC/DC Blues, a collection of old blues songs about gay and lesbian relationships.
And of course all the blues tunes referring to "jellyroll" or "jelly".
John Jackson- "girl named Irene, got good jelly but she's stingy with me" and his song Diddy Wah Diddy" with the line " I got put right out of church because I diddy wah diddied too much."
And have heard that the word "jazz" itself (or "jass") was at one time slang in certain subcuktures for sexual inrercourse. May well be. Do know that jazz was denounced as immoral and decadent by the prudes and moralists when it first came on the scene. Of course that was in large part because it was seen as black music, the same as rock and roll was.

Wow, I have to dig deep to find any blues threads. I'll guess I'll have to start one one of these days.

Anyway, here's my contribution

Blues has always been associated with sex, get down and dirty on the Saturday night to the devils music, then repent on Sunday.

Some great tunes been posted there guys.

I very clearly remember hearing "Jailbait" on the radio when I was a kid. This would have been around 1960-62 in the Washington, DC area. No one can believe that this tune would've been played on commercial radio at that time, but I definitely remember it.

What about 'You can squeeze my lemon till the juice run down my leg' first sang by Robert Johnson and then by Led Zeppelin.

The blues is know for its attachment to sex, its the Saturday night in the Juke Joint getting down.