THE USE OF
FOOD AS A SEXUAL METAPHOR IN THE BLUES
The blues as a musical genre is
rife with double entendre, as
is its subsequent incarnation, rhythm
and blues. Cars, machinery,
housework, and all manner of crawling,
slithering, and galloping
creatures are common fodder for sexual
innuendo. By far, however,
the most prevalent of these metaphors
is food and its
preparation. Even such
innocuous-sounding songs as “I Like Bread
and Butter” (Bryant) and “Shortnin’
Bread” (Johnson, 261) had
their roots in sexual themes. The
meanings implied in most food—
related metaphors are far too obvious
to necessitate elucidation.
There are, however, related areas
which invite scrutiny. One area
of interest with any linguistic symbol
relates to the reasons
behind its usage. How these metaphors
developed over time, and
the classifications into which they
tend to fall are also
subjects worthy of note.
All forms of popular music,
particularly folk music, have some
degree of sexual double entendre, but
it appears to be far more
prevalant in the blues and R&B.
One explanation can be found in
the very nature of slavery.
African-Americans were forced to
resort to codes and symbolic language
in order to avoid
recriminations from plantation owners
(Dundes, 258), particularly
in relationship to sexual matters. The
European-American’s taboos
and fears relating to African-American
male sexuality made it
extremely dangerous to discuss sex in
the their presence
(Johnson, 259). It is no surprise
then, that many of the early
singers of risque songs were women.
They were considered
provocative, whereas an African-American
man singing the same
lyrics would be far too threatening to
the European-Americans
(Cook, 188 and Walton, 35).
Many writers attribute the penchant
for risque lyrics to the
places where blues first was
popularized - juke joints,
roadhouses and brothels. In Sporting
House, a history of New
Orleans jazz, Stephen Longstreet
contends that the blues was
originally known as “whorehouse music
(Longstreet, 218)”.
There is no doubt that there was a
demand for risque songs
which prompted the musicians to
satisfy it with an ample
supply. There is some controversy as
to what extent the record
companies were aware of or encouraged
bawdy lyrics. It is
hypothesized that censorship by the
record producers was an
important element in creating
intentional ambiguity:
In order to meet the demands of the market the record
companies appear to have
evolved a double standard in
which they accepted, and
may have invited, sexually
suggestive material but
suppressed direct speech which
might be interpreted as
obscene. . .Curtailing the range
of expression. . .
inevitably. . .provoked the use of double-
entendre phrases.
(Oliver,
Screening the Blues, 250)
From a historical perspective, the
blues has long been linked
with sexuality ( and sinning in
general). Within the African-
American church-going community of the
South, blues has
traditionally been viewed as the
devil’s music, the antithesis of
gospel. Emma Williams, the mother of
singer Mary Johnson,
typifies this attitude:
When she was singin’ them blues I told her - she was
pavin’ her way to hell.
(Oliver,
Screening the Blues, 46)
In an interview for Guitar Player
magazine, Johnny Shines is
quoted as saying:
When I was a kid, a person heard you singing the
blues and recognized your voice,
you couldn’t go
down their house, around
their daughters.
(Obrecht, 16)
With the large migration from the
delta to the cities in the
early years of the twentieth century
(Harrison, 64) caine the
increased use of bawdy lyrics. The
relative freedom of city life
caused “. . .a higher proportion of
stanzas concerned with humor
and sex (Titon, 55).”
In a system he develops in the book
Shining Trumpets, Rudy
Blesh classifies this early city music
as the “sophisticated
blues.” His opinion of the prevelance
of bawdy lyrics is
decidedly negative:
we find stilted and coy phrasing in an
affectedly harsh voice,
pruriently suggestive
phrases by which the most
un-Victorian listener would
not be amused. (Blesh, 142)
In contrast, Paul Garon feels that these
“pruriently
suggestive phrases”, as Blesh calls
them, were being used to
smash the former oppressive morality
by openly confronting
sexuality (Garon, 71). Others feel it
was simply cathartic.
According to Edith Wilson, “ Singing
lewd or raunchy blues
provided a form of release of pent—up
feelings which were
repressed by social norms that
prohibited open discussion of sex
(quoted in Harrison, 109).”
The advent of rhythm and blues in
the late forties and early
fifties introduced the sexual double
entendre to the general
public. The popularity of humorous
puns in R&B made it a fertile
ground for the blossoming of sexual
metaphor. These songs had
been played for years in private
parlors and at house rent
parties, but wide distribution to the
general population
stimulated controversy:
The liveliness and raw earthiness
of R&B had been
tolerated until the music was
discovered by white
teenagers and mom and dad
sudden~y noticed that the
words were a bit explicit..,
a fierce campaign to
stamp out “suggestive”
records swept the country in
1954. R&B records were
the only target of the
crusade. (Grendyson)
In spite of the aforementioned
religious, cultural and social
opposition, sexual double entendre is
still common, as is
evidenced by Love Lee’s 1994
recording, “ Good Candy,” and the
1994 release of The Uptown Horns
Review with Albert Collins, “
Sugar Melts When It’s Wet.”
Sugar and sweets are one of the
more prevalent sexual
metaphors in the blues. From the
following standard “sugar”
references to more complex bakery and
dessert double entendres,
the true meanings are indesputable:
You so
sweet you whet my appetite (twice)
You
make me hungry I just want to get a bite
You
resist me baby but I’ll get you yet
There’s
one thing I know: sugar melts when it’s wet
Oh,
baby, you make my sweet tooth ache
(The Uptown Horns Review with Albert Collins
“Sugar Melts When it’s Wet”)
Sugar in
the gourd, cain’t get it out
Way to
get sugar - roll it all about
(Peg Leg Howell, “Turkey Buzzard Blues”
Oliver, Songsters and Saints, 28)
She
loves me every morning and every evening
She got sugar-coated love
(Lazy Lester, “Sugar-coated Love”)
I need
a little sugar in my bowl
I need
a little hot dog between my rolls
.Move
your fingers, drop something in my bowl
(Bessie Smith, “I Need a Little Sugar in my
Bowl”)
Tell me,
mama, where’d you get your sugar from?
(Blind Boy Fuller, “My Brownskin
Sugar Plum”)
Honey is relevant in the context
of sweetness:
If you don’t like
that honey
I ain’t gonna
buy yo’ dough
(Mississippi Fred McDowell, “Good
Mornin’ Little Schoolgirl”)
Sweet
honey, sweet honey hole (twice)
Said it
even take honey
Satisfy my
soul
I want my honey every morning
Late at
night
But if I
don’t get my honey
Don’t
believe I’m treated just right
(Blind Boy Fuller, “Sweet Honey Hole”)
Honey is not an exclusively female
reference:
He
treats me so mean
Just comes
to me sometimes (twice)
But the way
he spreads his honey
He will
make me lose my mind
Just
because I’m down
He wants to
drive me away (twice)
‘Cause he
knows he’s a good honey dripper
And I need
him every day
(Edith Johnson, “Honey Dripper
Blues”
Oliver, Screening the Blues, 218)
Honey is frequently used in tandem
with the metaphor of the
bee or beehive:
You’ve
been stealin’ my honey,
Your
fingerprints is all over my hive (twice)
My honey
may be sweet to you buddy,
But you
know you ain’t treatin’ me right
You sneak
off in a corner,
Steal my
honey right from my home (twice)
And when I
get back in the mornin’
There ain’t
no honey left in the comb
(Peter Clayton, “Honey Stealin’ Blues,
Oliver, Screening the
Blues, 218)
I hear alot
of buzzing
Sound like
my little honeybee (twice)
She been
all around the world makin’ honey
But now she
is coming back home to me
(Muddy Waters, “Honey Bee”)
Similarly, candy is frequently
employed:
Mama, I’ve
got some stick candy, I’ve got jelly beans
I’ve got the best stick of candy
baby
that you’ve
ever seen
Mama if you
want this big stick of candy
You can
have it all by yourself
I’ll save
it for you baby
Won’t give it to nobody else
(Love Lee, “Good Candy”)
He’s
sweeter than chocolate candy,
He’ 5
confect ionary
(Billie Holiday,
“Sugar”)
Mississippi John Hurt’s “Candy Man”
may be referring to Lii
Johnson, a popular early singer known
for her bawdy lyrics:
All
heard what sister Johnson said
She always takes a candy stick to bed
(Mississippi John Hurt, “Candy Man”)
Hey,
Mr. Bullfrog, I’m gonna tell you all
I
can’t stand your jelly-rolling here
You
can go out in the backyard,
I’ll
make you a pallet there
(Jenny
Pope, “Bullfrog Blues” Garon, 147)
Who’s gonna do your sweet jelly-rollin’
Sweet jelly rollin’ when I’m gone?
Who’s gonna do your old-fashioned lovin’
Old-fashioned lovin’ from now on?
(Whistling Rufus, “Who’s Gonna Do Your
Sweet Jelly
Rollin’? Oliver, Screening
the
Blues, 195)
Other baked goods and sweets
show up randomly:
I
saw another man eatin’ of my chocolate cake
(Emery
Glen, “Backdoor Blues” White, 96)
Cherry, cherry pie, oh so good...
Give
me, give me some cherry pie
(Marvin and Johnny,
“Cherry Pie”)
I’m
your ice cream man
Stop
me when I’m passing by
Now,
I’ll cool you off little girl
Guarantee
I’ll satisfy
I’ve
got cream sandwiches, dixie cups,
Popsicles, and push-ups
(John
Brim, “Ice Cream Man”)
I
like my baby’s puddin’
I
like it best of all (twice)
Gonna watch my baby both night and day
So
she won’t give my puddin’ away
Her
puddin’ is all my baby owns
So there ain’t no meat
for Henry Jones
(Wynonie Harris, “I Like My Baby’s Pudding”)
As with all oral traditions,
there are certain phrases and
even entire songs that are used
so often they are difficult to
trace back to any original
source. Many songs with different
titles and/or different
musicians are actually the same song, as
are “Custard Pie Blues” by Sonny
Terry, “Tater Pie” by Sonny
Terry, “I Want Some of Your Pie”
by Blind Boy Fuller and Sonny
Terry, and You Got to Give Me
Some of it” by Buddy Moss. By sheer
quantity, Sonny Terry seems to
be the originator. But much of the
blues is public domain, with
authorship often “traditional.” As
Lawrence W. Levine explains in
Black Culture and Consciousness:
Black singers felt
absolutely free to take blues sung by
others-friends,
professional. performers, singers on
records—and alter them
in any way they liked... (blues)
remained communal
property... no single person “owned”
a blues song. (Levine, 229)
So it is not unusual to find:
I’m gonna
tell you somethin’ baby
Ain’t gonna
tell you no lie
I want some
of your tater pie
(Sonny Terry, “Tater
Pie”)
Baby, I’m
not jokin’
Ain’t gonna
tell you no lie
I want a
piece of your custard pie
(Blind Boy Fuller, “1 Want Some of Your Pie”)
I’m gonna
tell you true
Ain’t gonna
tell you no lie
I’m crazy
about your custard pie
(Buddy Moss, “You Got to Give Me Some of it”)
Along the lines of baking, all types of breads show up in
blues lyrics, as in this Hi Henry
Brown tale about a wayward
preacher:
If you want
to hear a preacher curse,
Bake bread,
sweet mama and save him the crust
Oooh, if
you want to hear a preacher curse,
Says,
bake bread sweet mama and save him the
crust
(Hi Henry Brown, “Preacher Blues”
Oliver, Screening the Blues, 48)
Or in Smokey Babe’s “Biscuit Bakin’
Woman”:
Well,
you bake those biscuit, bake ‘em nice and brown
Love that
woman, she can really go to town
Well, now,
I can tell by the way she roll her dough
She can
bake those biscuits once mo’
(Smokey Babe, “Biscuit Bakin’ Woman”
Oster, 357)
J.L. Dillard, in the Lexicon of
Black English states:
As a symbol, the biscuit is
almost equally important. At
least in the days immediately
after slavery, it was more
likely to be on the table of
the Black than pastry, and
it is a good metaphorical
reference to sex of a fairly
steady and good quality. If
it is not up to that caliber
it is cornbread. (Dillard,
26)
One example that supports Dillard’s
interpretation can be
found in the John Lee Hooker song,
“Catfish”:
Got somethin’
to tell you
Oh, Lord, baby
Baby, you know
that ain’t right
You cook
cornbread for your husband
Biscuits for
your man
Biscuits for
your man
(John Lee Hooker, “Catfish”)
After “jelly roll”, the second most
common sexual reference is
meat, particularly in regards to
pigmeat, butchers, and meat
cutting. One concept is that of having
meat on your bones, reflecting
the African-American cultural
perspective which has more of an
appreciation for voluptuous figures
than the traditional European-
American values do:
It ain’t the
meat it’s the motion
Makes your
daddy want to rock
It ain’t the
meat it’s the motion
It’s the
movement that gives it the sock
You find some
girls who are big and fat
Some fellahs
don’t like to see ‘em like that
But I like to see ‘em big and tall
The bigger
they come the harder they fall
(“It Ain’t the Meat” Risque rhythm)
“Big Fat Mama With Meat Shakin’ off
Her Bones” is one of the
“traditional” songs recorded in various
styles by Roosevelt
Halts, Houston Stackhouse, Arzo
Youngblood (Evans, 237), Ida Cox
(Melnich, 271), Leadbelly, Mississippi
Fred McDowell, and Tommy
Johnson, whose version is excerpted here:
Cryin’ big fat mama
Meat shakin’
off her bones
Every time the
meat shake
It’s a skinny woman lose a home
(“Big Fat Mama” Evans, 237)
Men, too, take pride in fat meat:
Fat meat
Is really very
fine
‘Cause you
don’t see nobody
Runnin’ away
from mine
Fat meat is
soft
Fat meat is nice
If you try it
once
You bound to
try it twice
Fat meat
Is all that
you will crave
You’ll follow
me around baby,
Beggin’ me
just like a slave
(Big Jim Wynn, “Fat Meat”)
Juba
to Jive defines pigmeat as, “. . .female whore; young
girl.” (Clarence, 349). Bo Carter’s song,
“Pigmeat is What I
Crave” typifies such usage. Likewise, Blind
Lemon Jefferson
sings:
I’m crazy ‘bout my
light bread
And my
pigmeat on the side
(Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Bakershop
Blues” Charters, 183)
Ardella Bragg chides:
Look heah,
papa, you don’t treat pigmeat the way you
should
Ooh, don’t
treat pigmeat the way you should
If you don’t
believe it’s pigmeat ask in the neighborhood
I ain’t so
good-lookin’, I ain’t got no great long hair
Ooh, I ain’t
got no great long hair
But I don’t have to worry, I know it’s pigmeat anywhere
(Ardella Bragg, “Pigmeat Blues” Oliver,
Blues Fell This Morning, 126)
Pigmeat is another term that can be
used for either gender. In
Leadbelly’s “Pigmeat Papa”, which is
lyrically similar to Ardella
Bragg’s “Pigmeat Blues”, he calls
himself “pure pigmeat.” Other
classic examples of the masculine
usage are:
His fine
feathers are rolled so sweet
How I love
his young pigmeat
(Bessie Smith, “Kitchen Man” Oliver, 178)
Girls they
call me Big Bad Pete
But they’s
crazy ‘bout this little pigmeat so
Freeze to me,
mama, before I go home
(Barbeque Bob, “Freeze to Me, Mama” Oliver,
Blues off the Record, 78)
In regards to women, references to
ham hocks, pork chops, and
hams abound:
When it comes
to good lovin’
Don’t forget to buy me some pork chops
aaahaaah
every day of my life
I got to have
me some...
Every day I
need some of them
Sweet-smellin’ pork chops
(The Dorsets, “Pork Chops”)
She got a
fine T-bone
Oh, what a
lovely roast
Her hams are
delicious
And the chops
I love the most
As I sat down to dinner
Just the
other day
The butcher
came in and caught his wife
Givin’ his
chops away
Well, he
swung with his cleaver,
He grabbed
a butcher knife
Got outta
that shop in one big hop
And ran for
my life
When I got
up from the table
Through the
wall I made a door
Grabbed my
hat and I ain’t been back
To get
those chops no more
(Mr. Sad Head “Butcher Boy”)
The term, “hambone” ( not to be
confused with its usage in a
popular “patting Juba” song) is used
in an exclusively male
context:
I’m going to Tishamingo
To have my
hambone boiled
These
Atlanta women
Done let my
hambone spoil
(Peg Leg Howell, “Tishamingo Blues” Dillard, 26)
Ed Bell has a similar complaint, although
different locales:
I got to go
to Cincinnatti
Just to
have my hambone boiled
Womens in
Alabama
Gonna let
my hambone spoil
(Ed Bell, “Hambone
Blues” Sackheim, 294)
The vivid image of the man as a
butcher cutting the
woman’s meat has been seen by some as
being sadistic
objectification (Foib, 151). The more
practical interpretation is
that meat was an uncommon delicacy, as
was pastry. Regardless of
its basis, the metaphor is common:
Mama, I got a
hot dog and it ain’t cold
It’s just
right to fit your roll
. .
.I don’t mean a weenie!
(Roosevelt Sykes, “Dirty Mother
for You’1
Oliver, Screening the Blues, 234)
Now I ain’t
no butcher
No
butcher’s son
I can do
your cutting
Till the
butcher man comes
(Ba Carter, “All Around Men,” Sackheim, 170)
Hey,
everybody! did the news get around
About a guy
named Butcher Pete
01’ Pete just flew into this town
And he’s
choppin’ up all the women’s meat
He’s
hackin’ and whackin’ and smackin’ (3 times)
He whacks,
smacks, choppin’ that meat
Sam’s got the best hot dog here in town
I
like the way he serves it
He
goes round and round
Baby, with his hot dog
(Lii
Johnson, “Sam-the hot Dog Man”)
Chicken and fish also
appear in songs, although these
references are not as
numerous and far more obscure. The word
“chick” is assumed to come
from “chicken dinner,” a euphemism for
a woman:
Little girl, little girl, you sure can cook
Little girl, little girl, you got me
hooked
Cook that chicken - save me the head
(Mighty Joe Young, “Chicken Heads)
Minstralry used songs with
titles such as, “Chicken, You Can’t
Roost Too High for Me” to
perpetuate the racist stereotype of
African-Americans as chicken
thieves (Russell, 16). Subsequently,
blues singers adapted these
same songs, and with a slight change
of vocal tone and attitude
added a provocative ambiguity (Oliver,
Sinners and Saints, 100).
Audiences were left to make their own
inferences about the nature
of the much sought-after chickens:
Oh
chicken, oh chicken, you can fry them nice and brown
Oh
chicken, oh chicken, you can waltz the gravy around
Oh
chicken, oh chicken, I don’t mean no fault in that
Fine chickens grow in this town
And the wings can’t get too fat
Oh, when I come to this neighborhood
Chickens know just what I mean
(Stovepipe no. 1, “ A Chicken Can Waltz
The
Gravy Around” Oliver, Sinners and
Saints, 100)
References to fishing as
an allusion to catching a mate are
quite common:
If
you go fishin’
I’m a-goin’ a-fishin’ too
You bet yo’ life
Yo’ sweet little wife
Can catch as many fish as you
(trad. Levine, 280)
If
you don’t like my ocean
Don’t fish in my sea
(trad. Cook, 188)
The use of fish as food in any
context less innocent than a
fish fry is extremely uncommon in the
blues and R&B. Seafood is
traditionally seen as symbolic of
cunnilingus, not a popular
subject in the blues. One rare
exception is Peetie Wheatstraw’s
“I Want Some Seafood:”
I want
some fish, ooh, well, well,
And you
know just what I mean
I want
fish, fish, mama
I wants it
all the time
The peoples
call it seafood, ooh
Well, well,
up and down the line
(Peetie Wheatstraw, “I Want Some
Seafood” Garon, 70)
One example of shellfish is found
in “Kitchen Man”:
Oh how that
boy does open clams
(Bessie Smith, Oliver,
Screening the
Blues, 178)
Fruits and vegetables are not ignored
the blues by any means:
Don’t your
plums look mellow
Hangin’ up
on your tree (twice)
Don’t your
house seem lonesome
When your
baby pack up and leave
Lord, I
ain’t got nobody
Talk baby
talk to me (twice)
Lord, your
peaches look so mellow dear
Climb up in your