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.
Low Down Man Blues
Memphis Minnie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What that Chickasaw has done, done for me
I'm might tell everybody
What that Chickasaw has done, done for me
She done stole my man away
And blow that doggone smoke on me
She's a low down dirty dog
I ain't no woman, like to ride that Chickasaw
Ain't no woman, like to ride that Chickasaw
Because everywhere she stop
She's stealing some woman good man off
She's a low down dirty dog
I told the depot agent this mornin'
I don't think he treat me right
Told the depot agent this mornin'
I don't think he treat me right
He done sold my man a ticket
And I know that Chickasaw leavin' town tonight
He's a low down dirty dog
I walk down the railroad track
That Chickasaw even wouldn't let me ride the blind
I walk down the railroad track
That Chickasaw wouldn't even let me ride the blind
And she stop picking up men, all up and down the line
She's a low down dirty dog
Hmm, Chickasaw don't pay no woman, no mind
Hmm, that Chickasaw don't pay no woman, no mind
And she stops pickin' up men, all up and down the line
The song "Low Down Dirty Thing" by Memphis Minnie is a bitter lament about a woman known as Chickasaw who has stolen the singer's man. Through the lyrics, the singer vows to expose Chickasaw's treachery to everyone. The repeated refrain of "She's a low down dirty dog" emphasizes the singer's anger and frustration.
The first two stanzas describe how Chickasaw has taken the singer's man and blown smoke in her face, signifying a lack of respect for the singer as a person. The third and fourth stanzas see the singer at the train station, where she accuses the depot agent of selling her man a ticket to leave town with Chickasaw. The last stanza highlights Chickasaw's disregard for other women and the way she picks up men all along the railroad line without any thought for the women who might be affected by her actions.
Overall, "Low Down Dirty Thing" speaks to the pain and betrayal that can result from infidelity and the anger and bitterness that can come from being wronged by someone else.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm might tell everybody
What that Chickasaw has done, done for me
I'm thinking about telling everyone what that Chickasaw has done to me; she has stolen my man and blown that smoke on me.
She's a low down dirty dog
That Chickasaw is a deceitful and contemptible person.
I ain't no woman, like to ride that Chickasaw
Ain't no woman, like to ride that Chickasaw
Because everywhere she stop
She's stealing some woman good man off
I don't want to associate with that Chickasaw because she has a reputation of snatching someone's man wherever she goes.
She's a low down dirty dog
That Chickasaw is a deceitful and contemptible person.
I told the depot agent this mornin'
I don't think he treat me right
Told the depot agent this mornin'
I don't think he treat me right
He done sold my man a ticket
And I know that Chickasaw leavin' town tonight
I informed the depot agent that he didn't do right by me as he sold my man a ticket to leave town with that Chickasaw.
He's a low down dirty dog
That man is a deceitful and contemptible person.
I walk down the railroad track
That Chickasaw wouldn't even let me ride the blind
I walk down the railroad track
That Chickasaw wouldn't even let me ride the blind
And she stop picking up men, all up and down the line
I had to walk down the railroad track as that Chickasaw refused to let me ride the blind, and she keeps taking good men from all up and down the line.
She's a low down dirty dog
That Chickasaw is a deceitful and contemptible person.
Hmm, Chickasaw don't pay no woman, no mind
Hmm, that Chickasaw don't pay no woman, no mind
And she stops pickin' up men, all up and down the line
That Chickasaw doesn't care for any woman, and she keeps taking men from all up and down the line.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: MINNIE MCCOY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind