Tag: Claude Demetrius

Jerry Lee Lewis – Mean Woman Blues

After all of the talk of The Shining yesterday I watched a few more scenes of the movie and then ran across this Jerry Lee Lewis live cut on YouTube. I pulled it up on Spotify and Jerry Lee entertained me while I painted our upstairs bathroom as fast as my arms would go. I combined painting while playing air drums. This could be an Olympic event!

Yes, today I will have to clean some paint on the base boards and on the ceiling…but it was worth it.

The album is called Live At The Star Club Hamburg released in 1964. This album is one of the best live rock albums I’ve ever listened to. The Star Club in Hamburg was one of the most important music venues of the era, having acts like The Beatles just a few years before. It was known for a crowd that demanded high-energy rock and roll, making it the perfect stage for Lewis. The audience was full of businessmen, dock workers, crooks, prostitutes, mobsters, and college kids. They all wanted hard-driving music.

The song was written by Claude Demetrius in 1957. It became famous through its association with several artists, such as Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. Per secondhandsongs it’s been covered 126 times. I heard it first by Elvis but I love this live version by Jerry Lee. In this live version, he was backed up by The Nashville Teens, an English rock band, formed in Surrey in 1962.

If you have time check out the entire live album. You can’t go wrong with Jerry Lee. To show you what the critics thought… magazines such as Rolling Stone, Mojo, Digital Dream Door, Goldmine, and the NME all have this live album listed among the best live albums of all time.

The Killer Live below has the entire Star Club album on it. Click play on Spotify and enjoy your Sunday.

Mean Woman Blues

Hmm, I got a woman mean as she can beYeah, I got a woman mean as she can beSometimes I think she’s almost mean as me

Well, I ain’t braggin’, it’s understoodEverything I do, well, I sure do it goodWell, I got a woman mean as she can beOh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me, yeah

Well, she’s got ruby lips, shapely hipsBoy, she’d makes ol’ Jerry flipI got a woman mean as she can beOh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me, yeah

Well, I like a little coffee, like a little teaJerry, Jerry, it’s the thing for meI got a woman mean as she can beOh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me

Oh, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha-ha, ooh a-haHmm, uhm, uhmEasy now, ahh ooh, brr ha-ha-ha-haYeah, and let’s go one time

Hey, I got a woman mean as she can beYeah, got a little woman as mean as she can beWell, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me

…

Wanda Jackson – Hard Headed Woman

I can’t comment on the title…or I’d be in trouble. I will say this…this is a different song than the song written by Cat Stevens on Tea For The Tillerman.

This song was first recorded and released by Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires in 1958. A great straight-up no-frills rock and roll song. Elvis’s version was part of the soundtrack for his 1958 motion picture King Creole and was included on the record album of the same name. The song was also released as a single and in 1958 peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts and went to number two for two weeks on the R&B chart.

The song was written by Claude Demetrius, who also composed songs like “Mean Woman Blues” and “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman,” and the Christmas classic “Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me.).” When “Hard Headed Woman” first came out in 1958, the BBC restricted when it could be played on the air because of the biblical references in the lyrics.

Wanda Jackson did date Elvis in 1955. He gave her a ring to hold on to and Wanda still has it. They toured together building up their fanbase. Wanda released this song that was on the Live at Town Hall Party 1958.

Wanda Jackson: “I had never heard of him when we met, but we had a lot in common. We were two happy-go-lucky kids.”

This is Wanda’s appearance on California’s Town Hall Party TV show, calling the tune “one of the most beautiful love songs that’s ever been written.” Accompanied in the clip by guitarist Joe Maphis, Jackson recorded her sizzling version in Nashville in the fall of 1960. Among the musicians on those sessions was young guitar whiz Roy Clark.

Hard Headed Woman

Well, a hard headed woman a soft hearted man
Been the cause of trouble ever since the world began
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man

Now Adam said to Eve listen here to me
Don’t you let me catch you messin’ round that apple tree
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man

Now Samson told Delilah loud and clear
Keep your cotton pickin’ fingers out of my curly hair
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man

Well, I heard about a king who’s doing swell
Till he started playin’ with that evil Jezabel
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man