Back Door Man (Howlin' Wolf's Lyrics)

I am a back door man.
I am a back door man.
Well the men don't know,
but the little girls understand.

When everybody's sound asleep,
I'm somewhere making my midnight creep.
Yes in the morning, the rooster crow.
Something tell me, I got to go.

I am a back door man.
I am a back door man.
Well the men don't know,
but little girls understand.

They take me to the doctor
Shot full o' holes.
Nurse cried, please save the soul.
Killed him for murder, first degree.
Judge's wife cried. Let the man go free.

I am a back door man.
I am a back door man.
Well the men don't know,
but little girls understand.

Stand out there. Cop's wife cried.
Don't take him down. Rather be dead.
Six feets in the ground.
When you come home
you can eat pork and beans.
I eats mo' chicken any man seen

I am a back door man.
I am a back door man.
Well the men don't know,
but the little girls understand.



Back Door Man, written by Willie Dixon, is just the kind of gutsy and earthy blues tune Jim favored singing. Possibly the most interesting aspect of this rendition of the tune is Jim's choice of verses to use and to omit. Jim's version is one which uses a verse borrowed from Howlin' Wolf's cover of the song: "You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans. I eat more chicken (than) any man's ever seen." Jim also chooses to leave out one of Willie Dixon's original verses, depicting the Back Door Man shot full of holes, accused of first degree murder, of being "in six feet of ground."

Jim's Back Door Man is a youthful one who celebrates the passion of gratifying "illicit" love without paying the consequences. In effect, this is a song about the kinds of experiences which ultimately lead to the blues, rather than the blues experience itself.

(Appropriate, after all, to Jim's youth, beauty and passion, but he would ultimately gain as much experience living the blues in the following 4 years as many take 30 or 40 years to acquire.)


Copyright 2003 by The Doors, Chuck Crisafulli/Waiting-forthe-Sun.net