Wheatstraw was born William Bunch in Ripley, Tennessee but grew up in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, where his family relocated soon after his birth. Little is known of his early life, other than that he took up playing both the piano and guitar at a young age.
Bunch left Cotton Plant in 1927 and began living the life of an itinerant musician traveling throughout the Deep South. Like many African Americans of this time period, the great migration eventually drew his attention to the cities of the North. Places such as Chicago, Indianapolis and Detroit were favoured destinations, due to the wealth of employment in the factories located in these cities. St. Louis was another city that drew its share of uprooted individuals who sought a better life than that offered by the toil of sharecropping. It was in St. Louis that Bunch landed in 1929.
Having honed his musical talents while travelling, and influenced by the popularity of the Blues duet of pianist Leroy Carr and guitar player Scrapper Blackwell, Bunch found easy work in the clubs of both St. Louis and East St. Louis on the other side of the Mississippi River.
It was around this time Bunch decided to change his name to Peetie Wheatstraw. He also called himself "The Devil's Son-in-Law" and this title is under his name starting with his earliest recordings.
Wheatstraw's self-promotion swiftly paid off as he became a popular performer in East St. Louis, to the extent that he was asked to Chicago in 1930 to partake in recording sessions. He first entered the Vocalion Studios on August 13, 1930, and recorded a handful of numbers which included "Four O'Clock In The Morning" and "Tennessee Peaches Blues". Over the following decade, he would make several such treks, recording over 160 sides for the Vocalion, Decca and Bluebird labels.
Wheatstraw was known for his laid-back approach and adept singing and songwriting, though his instrumental talents were average at best. His songwriting appealed to working class minorities, due to their nature of the content—he often wrote about social issues such as unemployment and public assistance. There were also pieces about the immoral ways of loose women, and true to his own self-publicity, death and the supernatural. Almost all of his songs included his trademark "Ooh, well well", usually accentuated in the third verse, and this has been carried on by many subsequent Bluesmen, most noteworthy today being R.L. Burnside.
On his records Wheatstraw is occasionally heard playing guitar, but he usually took to the piano and required a guitarist to play with him—among his collaborators were Kokomo Arnold, Lonnie Johnson, Charlie Jordan, Charlie McCoy and Teddy Bunn, in addition to pianist Champion Jack Dupree. On some of his last dates, Peetie Wheatstraw recorded within a jazz inspired framework, collaborating with Lil Armstrong and trumpeter Jonah Jones.
Wheatstraw's influence was enormous during the 1930s. Perhaps the most obvious example of Wheatstraw's impact can be seen in the writings of Robert Johnson, often considered the most important Blues figure of the era. Many of Johnson's own recordings were actually re-workings of other popular artists of the time, and he drew heavily from Wheatstraw's repertoire.
Don't Hang My Clothes On No Barb Wire Line
Peetie Wheatstraw Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hung on no barb wire line
I don't want my clothes
Hung on no barb wire line
Well-well-well, I won't go crazy
But baby, I'll gradually lose my mind
Well-well-well, I want none-a the sugar
Well-well I don't want no sugar
Mama, sprinkled in my tea
Well, I pass all the business womens
They're all sweet enough for me
Well-well-well, I can't use no gravy
Mixed up in my rice
Well-well-well, I can't use no gravy, mama
Mixed up in my rice
Well-well-well, now the one I love, I b'lieve
She can mix it for me so nice
(piano)
Wee-mm, little girl got boggied
She throwed all a-my clothes outdo's
Well, now little girl got boggied
She throwed all a-my clothes outdo's
Well-well, right now, how I wonder
Mama, will a shoppin' bag hold my clothes?
Peetie Wheatstraw's song Don't Hang My Clothes on No Barb Wire Line is about a man who is pleading with his girlfriend not to hang his clothes on a barb wire line. He claims that it will drive him crazy and make him gradually lose his mind. This shows how much he cares about his appearance and he does not want his clothes to be ruined or have people see it hanging on a barbwire line.
In the second verse, Peetie Wheatstraw talks about how he does not want sugar in his tea; however, he does not mind the sweetness of the business women he passes by. This is an interesting contradiction as these women may not necessarily be sweet, but he compares it to the sugar he does not want in his tea. The third verse shows that he does not like gravy mixed up in his rice, but he would like it if his love mixed it for him nicely.
In the fourth verse, Peetie Wheatstraw sings about how his girlfriend has thrown all of his clothes outside. He wonders if a shopping bag would hold all of his clothes. This shows how women can sometimes make their partners feel vulnerable and helpless.
Overall, the song expresses how much Peetie cares about his appearance and how he wants his love to treat him with care and consideration.
Line by Line Meaning
I don't want my clothes
Hung on no barb wire line
Peetie doesn't want his clothes to be hung on a barb wire line.
I don't want my clothes
Hung on no barb wire line
Peetie doesn't want his clothes to be hung on a barb wire line.
Well-well-well, I won't go crazy
But baby, I'll gradually lose my mind
Even if Peetie doesn't go crazy due to his clothes being hung on the barb wire line, he will gradually lose his mind.
Well-well-well, I want none-a the sugar
Mama, sprinkled in my tea
Peetie doesn't want any sugar sprinkled in his tea.
Well-well I don't want no sugar
Mama, sprinkled in my tea
Peetie doesn't want any sugar sprinkled in his tea.
Well, I pass all the business womens
They're all sweet enough for me
Peetie thinks that all the business women he meets are sweet enough for him.
Well-well-well, I can't use no gravy
Mixed up in my rice
Peetie cannot use any gravy mixed up in his rice.
Well-well-well, I can't use no gravy, mama
Mixed up in my rice
Peetie cannot use any gravy mixed up in his rice.
Well-well-well, now the one I love, I b'lieve
She can mix it for me so nice
(piano)
Peetie believes that the one he loves can mix the gravy for him nicely.
Wee-mm, little girl got boggied
She throwed all a-my clothes outdo's
A little girl got angry and threw all of Peetie's clothes out.
Well, now little girl got boggied
She throwed all a-my clothes outdo's
A little girl got angry and threw all of Peetie's clothes out.
Well-well, right now, how I wonder
Mama, will a shoppin' bag hold my clothes?
Peetie wonders if a shopping bag will be enough to hold his clothes.
Contributed by Michael L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.