Lizzie Douglas was born on June 3, 1897 in Algiers, Louisiana. She was the eldest from her 13 other siblings. Her parents Abe and Gertrude Douglas nicknamed her the Kid during her early childhood. At the age of 7 she and her family moved to Walls, Mississippi, which was just south of Memphis. The following year after she moved, she received her first guitar for Christmas. She began to practice and learn how to play both the banjo and the guitar and it was seen that she had a great talent as a musician. When she first began performing she did not use her first name Lizzie, but played under the name Kid Douglas. When she was 13 years old she ran away from her home to live on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. She would play on street corners for most of her teenage years and would eventually go home when she ran out of money. She began to get noticed singing and playing guitar on the street corners. This brought an opportunity for her to tour, travel, and play with the Ringling Brothers Circus. Eventually she came back to Beale Street and got consumed in the blues scene. At the time, women, whiskey, and cocaine were high in demand with the people and places she would be around. She made her money by playing guitar, singing, and prostitution, which was not uncommon at the time. Most of the female performers were prostitutes because of financial desperation. It was said “She received $12 for her services-an outrageous fee for the time.” (Memphis Minnie Biography,1). She was known as a woman that was very strong and that could take care of herself.
She had been married three times in her life; first with Will Weldon sometime in the 1920s, then Joe McCoy (1929–1934), and finally to Earnest Lawlars (a.k.a. Little Son Joe), in 1939. She and McCoy would perform together during their marriage. During this time, a talent scout from Columbia Records discovered her. When she and McCoy went to record in New York, she decided to change her name to Memphis Minnie. During the next few years she and McCoy released many singles and duets. She released the song “Bumble Bee” in 1930, which ended up being one of her favorite songs, and led her to a recording contract with the label Vocalion. Under this label, they continued to produce recording for two years, one of them being “I’m Talking About You”, which was one of her more popular songs. They soon decided to leave Vocalion and move to Chicago. She and McCoy introduced country blues to the urban environment and became very well known.
Memphis Minnie continued to have success throughout the years recording under many different labels like Decca Records and Chess Records. Some believe her fame was the reason for her divorce with McCoy due to jealousy and resentment towards her. She remarried after to Earnest Lawlars (a.k.a. Little Son Joe) and began recording material with him. She became very well known in the blues industry and ended up being one of the most famous blues performers of all time, competing with both men and women.
She continued to record throughout the 50’s, but her health began to become a problem for her. She retired from her musical career and ended up going back to Memphis. “Periodically, she would appear on Memphis radio stations to encourage young blues musicians. As the Garons wrote in Women With Guitar, 'She never laid her guitar down, until she could literally no longer pick it up.'” She suffered a stroke in 1960, which caused her to be bound by wheelchair. The following year her husband, Earnest “Little Son Joe” Lawlars died. She had another stroke a short while after and eventually ended up in the Jell Nursing Home. She could no longer survive on her social security income so magazines wrote about her and readers sent her money for assistance. On August 6, 1973 she died of a stroke. She was buried in an unmarked grave at the New Hope Cemetery in Memphis. A headstone paid for by Bonnie Raitt was erected by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund on October 13, 1996 with 35 family members in attendance including her sister, numerous nieces (including Laverne Baker) and nephews. Her headstone is marked:
Lizzie "Kid" Douglas Lawlers
aka Memphis Minnie
The inscription on the back of her gravestone reads:
"The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie's songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we will hear them as if they were our own."
After her death some of her old work began to surface and some of her songs were featured on blues compilations. She was one of the first 20 blues artists that were inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.
Black Cat Blues
Memphis Minnie Lyrics
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He catches every rat run across my floor
Now everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
I wouldn't sell that cat to save your soul
If it wasn't for that cat, I wouldn't know what I would do
Now everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
I wouldn't sell that cat to save your soul
I been had this old cat, now, for three, four years
Didn't nobody want him till I brought him here
Now everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
I wouldn't sell that cat to save your soul
(spoken: Catch a rat!)
Before I got that cat, rats had holes all in my walls
Since I brought her home you can't find no holes at all
Now everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
I wouldn't sell that cat to save your soul
You have seen a-lots of cats and you going to see a-lots more
I got one I carries everywhere I go
Now everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
I wouldn't sell that cat to save your soul
(spoken: Aw, play it now
Catch a rat!)
The lyrics to Memphis Minnie's "Black Cat Blues" tell the story of a proud cat owner who has a black cat that sits in her back door and catches all the rats that run across her floor. The cat is so good at catching rats that everybody wants to buy it from her. However, the owner wouldn't sell the cat to anyone to save their soul. The owner explains that she wouldn't know what to do without the cat because the rats would cut up all of her clothes and shoes. According to the owner, she's had the cat for three to four years and nobody wanted the cat until she brought it home.
The lyrics may be interpreted as a commentary on the value of hard work and loyalty. The cat is symbolic of an honest and hardworking person who does a good job and is therefore in high demand. The owner's refusal to sell the cat to anyone suggests that loyalty and hard work are not for sale, and that true loyalty cannot be bought or sold. By celebrating the cat's value and refusing to sell it, the lyrics suggest that hard work and loyalty are qualities to be cherished rather than commodified.
Line by Line Meaning
I got a big black cat who sits in my back door
I have a guarding cat that stays at my back door.
He catches every rat run across my floor
The cat is successful in catching rats that enter my room.
Now everybody wants to buy my kitty
People around me are approaching me to buy my cat.
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
My cat is in high demand and everyone is offering to buy it.
Everybody wants to buy my kitty
My cat is in high demand and everyone is offering to buy it.
I wouldn't sell that cat to save your soul
My cat is invaluable to me, and I wouldn't part with it even if it meant saving someone's life.
If it wasn't for that cat, I wouldn't know what I would do
Without this cat, I would not have been able to control the rat infestation.
Rats cutting up all of my clothes and shoes
Rats were causing damage to my belongings by tearing them apart.
I been had this old cat, now, for three, four years
I have owned this cat for three to four years now.
Didn't nobody want him till I brought him here
Nobody was interested in buying or owning this cat until I brought it home.
Before I got that cat, rats had holes all in my walls
Prior to owning this cat, rats had access to my room through small holes in the wall.
Since I brought her home you can't find no holes at all
After I brought this cat home, there has been no evidence of rats entering my room through the wall.
You have seen a-lots of cats and you going to see a-lots more
You might have seen many cats and will see many more, but this cat is unique.
I got one I carries everywhere I go
This cat is so dear to me that I carry it with me wherever I go.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: MCCOY MINNIE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind