Born in Forest, Mississippi and living and working in throughout the South and Midwest as a migrant worker for a time, he and his family returned to Mississippi in 1926. He sang gospel, then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. He visited Chicago as member of the Harmonizing Four in 1939 and stayed there to work as a solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label.
He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s and toured throughout the country, specifically Black establishments in the South, with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James. He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup.
Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s, however, after further battles over royalties. He returned to recording with Fire Records and Delmark Records and touring in the 1960s, sometimes labeled "The Father of Rock and Roll", a title which he accepted with some bemusement. Throughout this time Crudup worked as a laborer to augment the small wages he received as a singer and non-existent royalties. Crudup returned to Mississippi after a dispute with Melrose over royalties, then went into bootlegging, and later moved to Virginia where he had lived and worked as a musician and laborer. In the early 1970's, two local Virginia activists, Celia Santiago and Margaret Carter, both assisted him in attempting to gain Royalties he felt he were due, to little gain.
From the mid 60's Crudup returned to bootlegging and working as an agricultural laborer, chiefly in Virginia, where he lived with his family including three sons and several of his own siblings. On the Eastern Shore of Virginia, while he lived in relative poverty as a field laborer, he occasionally sang and supplied moonshine to a number of drinking establishments, including one called the Dew Drop Inn, in Accomack County for some time prior to his eventual death, due to complications from heart disease and diabetes. (There was some confusion as to his actual date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his siblings.) He passed away in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia, also on the Eastern Shore in 1976.
Behind Closed Doors
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
No, I don't want my baby standin' behind a closed door
Now when the door is closed, no one but the Lord above to know
When I first met you, baby, you was behind a closed door
When I first met you, baby, you was behind a closed door
You know I was beggin' and beggin' you, make me a pallet
On your floor
Darling, you know I love you, I love you for myself
I don't want you, baby, standing behind closed doors
In Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's song "Behind Closed Doors", the singer is expressing his desire for his lover not to hide things from him. He doesn't want her to stand behind closed doors, suggesting secrecy and concealment. The singer reminisces about the time he first met his lover, when she was behind a closed door. He remembers begging her to let him stay with her by making a pallet on her floor. His love for her is clear, as he expresses his fear of her finding someone else. He insists that he loves her for himself and doesn't want her to be in a situation where she feels like she needs to hide or keep secrets from him.
The repetition of the phrase "behind closed doors" creates a feeling of confinement and isolation. The singer feels like something is being kept from him and he wants to be let in on the secret. The image of making a pallet on the floor suggests a sense of being at someone's mercy, vulnerable and exposed. The singer's insistence that he loves her for himself reveals his possessiveness, but also his deep attachment to her.
Line by Line Meaning
Now, I don't want my baby standin' behind closed doors
I don't want my baby to be away from me and hiding somewhere behind a locked door.
No, I don't want my baby standin' behind a closed door
It's not that the door being closed matters, but I don't want my love hidden away behind it.
Now when the door is closed, no one but the Lord above to know
When the door is closed, no one on this earth can know what's going on behind that door except for the Lord above.
When I first met you, baby, you was behind a closed door
When we first met, you were somehow not very approachable, I couldn't reach you easily.
When I first met you, baby, you was behind a closed door
When we met, you were somehow not very open, and maybe even shy; I had to make some effort to break through.
You know I was beggin' and beggin' you, make me a pallet
On your floor
I was very persistent in trying to make you realize my love and convinced you to make some room for me in your life.
Darling, you know I love you, I love you for myself
I love you, and I want you for myself, and I don't want to share you with anyone else.
Don't want you to fool around and find somebody else
I don't want you to look for love somewhere else, I want us to be together.
I don't want you, baby, standing behind closed doors
I don't want you to be hiding, whether behind a door, or emotionally or physically, I want you to be close to me and our love to thrive out in the open.
Contributed by Mia K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.