Expert: Mike Caldwell - 7/30/2011

Question
Hi Mike, the lyrics are so Jim Crow -- "shoot him for he run now" etc.  Is it a song about white racists releasing an African American man into the southern jungle forest and then hunting him down?  The chase begins with a shotgun blast -- giving the victim a head start.  "Twine time" at the end when they finally catch their prey and string him up, lynch style.  Is this the right interpretation?  Do you have any sources about Jim Crow rhythm and blues songs?  thanks, lavont

Answer
As for your interpretation of those lyrics - you very well could be correct.  I've never come across a formal explanation myself.  It would be ironic that a song with such upbeat music would have such a grim subtext in its lyrics, but then again, it wouldn't be the first or last time someone wrote a song that way.  Some other verses might imply that the "hunters" are treating it like a special event ("Put on your red dress" and later, "Put on your high heel shoes").  

Jim Crow material in R&B?  Not really.  In blues?  Absolutely.  In fact, there's a book called "Jim Crow's Counterculture: The Blues and Black Southerners" by R.A. Lawson.  Leadbelly even had a song called "Jim Crow Blues", and obviously there were other artists of the era who sang about the subject as well.
Clearly, R&B artists were quite often inspired by their blues ancestors, and inevitably some of that old blues material (and topics) would be adopted by the musical descendants.