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.
You Can't Give It Away
Memphis Minnie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It'ain't good to eat, you know, it ain't good to smell
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
You can't even give it away
First time I met you had that meat in your hand
Ah, don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
You can't even give it away
Play it, Dennis, tell all about it
You got something you can't sell and you can't give away
You just as well to take it on back where you stay
Ah, don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
You can't even give it away
And don't let me catch you trying to give it to my man
If you do, I'm gonna raise a pain, I doggone can
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
You can't even give it away
Play it Dennis, tell all about it, boy
Look-a here, black gal, why don't you get off the line?
What you trying to sell, it ain't nobody buying
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
Don't nobody want it
You can't even give it away
The lyrics to Memphis Minnie's song "You Can't Give It Away" explore the theme of trying to sell or give away something that nobody wants. The verses depict an encounter between the singer and someone trying to sell a meat that nobody wants to buy or even take for free. Despite the attempts to find buyers or takers, the meat remains unwanted, to the extent that the singer threatens to raise a pain if the seller tries to give it to her man. The chorus repeats the message that the item is so undesirable that one can't even give it away.
The song's lyrics can be interpreted as a commentary on the economic realities of the Great Depression, during which Memphis Minnie was active as a blues artist. It reflects the struggles of people to make ends meet and sell whatever they had to survive, including goods that were of poor quality and had no value. The use of meat as a metaphor for something unwanted and unappetizing adds a layer of humor to the song and makes it more relatable to everyday life.
Line by Line Meaning
What is that you're going around here trying so sell?
What do you have that you're trying to sell?
It'ain't good to eat, you know, it ain't good to smell
It's not edible or pleasant-smelling
Don't nobody want it
No one is interested in it
You can't even give it away
It's so undesirable that even giving it away doesn't work
First time I met you had that meat in your hand
When I first met you, you were holding meat
Going to give it to some woman's man
You were planning to give it to another woman's partner
Ah, don't nobody want it
Again, no one is interested in it
You got something you can't sell and you can't give away
Your product is so bad that no one will buy or take it for free
You just as well to take it on back where you stay
Might as well bring it back to your own residence
And don't let me catch you trying to give it to my man
If you try to give it to my partner, there will be consequences
If you do, I'm gonna raise a pain, I doggone can
I will make sure to cause a fuss
Look-a here, black gal, why don't you get off the line?
Hey you, why don't you move away from the area?
What you trying to sell, it ain't nobody buying
No one wants your product
Contributed by Mila M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.