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Blues Lyrics - Mance Lipscomb
Shake Shake Mama
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by
Mance Lipscomb
recording of probably 1960
from
Texas Sharecropper & Songster (Arhoolie 1001)
Oh, ain't gonna give you no more cherry ball
Oh, ain't gonna give you no more cherry ball
You gone drunk and showed your Santa Claus
Oh, a little bitty woman, hips just like a snake
Oh, a little bitty woman, her hip just like a snake
...baby, it really take
Oh, late last night my love come fallin' down
Me and my baby on our last go-'round
Oh, shake, shake mama, I'll buy you a diamond ring
Oh, shake, shake mama, I'll buy you a diamond ring
You don't shake, ain't gonna buy you a doggone thing
Oh, my clutch start to slippin', carb's won't even sing
Oh, my clutch start to slippin', my carb's won't even sing
Blues in the compression, fire my piston ring
Oh, rider, you ain't foolin' me
Look-y here, rider, you ain't foolin' me
You been slippin' to your old-time used-to-be
Oh, I like my babe but I don't like her teddy bear
Oh, I like my woman but I don't like her teddy bear
I'm gonna buy her a box-back, maybe it'll work
__________
Note 1: cherry ball is probably blues slang, fostered by the 1930 Memphis Minnie composition "Cherry Ball Blues" which begins "I ain't gonna give you none o' my cherry ball". James uses it to personify sex or (according to one's point of view) "dehumanize" women;
Note 2: one of the country blues' least known sexual euphemisms, "Santa Claus" may have an idiomatic basis in the Southern speech. Tossing a quarter dollar to an elderly Negro, a character of writer Faulkner remarks, "Buy yourself some Santa Claus";
Note 3: hips just like a snake, said of people who can twirl their bodies impressively;
Note 4: teddy bear, a woman's one-piece undergarment, worn in the twenties.
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