Howlin’ Wolfs visie op man/vrouw-verhoudingen. Ietwat gekleurd, dat wel. De Wolfman is zeven keer getrouwd geweest en dus niet de eerste aan wie je denkt waneer je als man een advies wilt over de omgang met vrouwen. Het verhaal over de ontstaansgeschiedenis van deze song is te mooi om kapot te checken. Hubert Sumlin, de vaste gitarist van Howlin’ Wolf, vertelt daarover het volgende:
According to Sumlin, when Wolf arrived home in West Milford, Arkansas, from a lengthy tour, Helen sent him to the corner store, ostensibly to buy groceries so she could cook him a welcome-home feast. While he was gone, she ransacked the tour bus for evidence that her man had been fooling around on the road.
“She sent him to the store to get some food, about a half block up the road,” Sumlin recalled. “Some potatoes, tomatoes, and all this stuff. Well, somebody left her underwear in this bus. Some woman. And Helen went out and searched the bus before he gets back. One of the boys in his band messed up, you know. She found these things in the bus and she thought it was Wolf.
“She did shoot him, too, full of buckshot. They picked shots out of him for a whole week. She got him from behind. He looked up in the window and she pulled the trigger. By the time he turned his back, oh boy, he was full of buckshot. Man if he’d been a little closer, she coulda killed him!”
Killing Floor zou later onder de titel The Lemon Song schaamteloos gejat worden door Led Zeppelin.
I should’a quit you, long time ago
I should’a quit you, baby, long time ago
I should’a quit you, and went on to Mexico
If I ha’da followed, my first mind
If I ha’da followed, my first mind
I’d’a been gone, since my second time
I should’a went on, when my friend come from Mexico at me
I should’a went on, when my friend come from Mexico at me
I was foolin’ with ya baby, I let ya put me on the killin’ floor
Lord knows, I should’a been gone
Lord knows, I should’a been gone
And I wouldn’t’ve been here, down on the killin’ floor
Uitgelichte afbeelding: By Photographer-Doug Fulton – eBay itemrontback, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29072932
