At first I didn't quite know what I would do with the book, other than read it over and over again. My distrust of history then was still strong, and I wanted to concentrate on the story for its own sake, rather than on the manuscript's scientific, cultural, anthropological, or 'historical' value. I was drawn to the author himself.
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READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
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See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
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🦋 Wigs and rats'll get you killed
So I'm pretty mystified by this Lightnin' Hopkins lyric. Leaving aside the obsession with women who wear wigs, what's up with the rats? Am I hearing this wrong?
(I am definitely hearing at least some of it wrong -- "ain't her own line", "all over mine", "I went to swing out" are all approximations.)
Update: I found a more authoritative version of the lyrics at the African-American Registry. "Rats" is correct. (The verse starting "I woke up this morning" is not present in the recording I've been listening to, from Hello Central.)
Update: Aha! Just figured it out! Thanks, unknown browser who came to this site by searching for "are wigs made of rat hair?" -- This is obviously what Hopkins meant by "rats": "wigs (putatively) made from rat hair."
Update III: Another idea comes by way of Martha M. -- "rats" are the structures used to support outlandish early-20th-C hairdos. The OED says,
5. Something resembling a rat in shape.
a. U.S. A hair-pad with tapering ends.
1869 Mrs. WhitneyWe Girls v. (1874) 98 She can't buy coils and braids and two-dollar rats. 1888Century Mag. 769 The crescent shaped pillows on which it [hair] was put up, the startling names of which were 'rats' and 'mice'.
New Short-Haired Woman
Lightin' Hopkins
I don't want no woman
If her hair ain't longer'n mine
I don't want no woman
If her hair ain't no longer'n mine
Yes you know she ain't good for nothing but trouble
She'll keep you buying wigs all the time
Yes, you know I carried my woman to the hair dresser
And this is what the hair dresser said
I stuck that straightener in, and
Wig fell off her head
I told her no!
Boy, if her hair ain't no longer'n mine
Yes, you know she ain't good for nothing but trouble
She'll keep you buying rats all the time
(Wigs and rats 'll get you killed)
Yes, you know I woke up this morning, peoples, poor Sam
'Bout the break of day
You know I even found a rat
On the pillow where she used to lay
You know I don't want no woman
If her hair ain't no longer'n mine
Yes, you know she ain't good for nothing but trouble
She'll keep you buying rats all the time
You know I went to get on the good side of my woman
Said Come and let's go and have some fun
You know I went to make a swing out when a rat fell from her head
Like one from a burning barn
But I just told her, I don't want no woman
if her hair ain't no longer'n mine
yes, you know she ain't good for nothing but trouble
she'll keep you buying rats all the time.....
Cut the rats out, rat, caught you buyin' wigs now, play it a long time.
posted afternoon of Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 ➳ More posts about The Blues ➳ More posts about Music ➳ More posts about Songs
Perhaps what I have to say will settle this long time...(since 2005) question \ issue regarding the lyrics to this song......I am from Houston Texas and saw Lightnin Hopkins play live many times....Mr Hopkins had a very thick southern accent which made for squeezing intended words into his songs that much more difficult. The stanza from his original version of "Short Haired Woman" that many people think is "buying rats all the time"......is actually him singing "burying rats all the time".....if you combine his deeply southern and thick accent you can imagine right away and with complete concordance that he had to tweak the word burying in order to fit the music....and besides it was no big issue with him...because in a normal tavern or bar conversation Hopkins would sound like he was saying "buying" when he was actually saying "burying" anyway.....I hope this helps put the "buying rats" questions to rest....as you are not the first person to bring this up...and even Hopkins himself was bewildered why people would ask him questions about the "buyin' rats" thing...causing him to re-do a subsequent version of the song....of course now deceased we can never ask Hopkins face to face what actual english word he intended in that stanza...but I attended many of his local bar sessions...and I can unequivocally state for the record that his intention was to note that if you have a short haired woman...you will be burying rats all the time...because rats will nest in her wig...and he genuinely disliked black woman who shaved their heads in order to wear wigs.
