Back Door Man

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“Back Door Man”
Single by Howlin' Wolf
A-side "Wang Dang Doodle"
B-side "Back Door Man"
Released 1961
Recorded 1960
Chicago
Genre Chicago blues
Label Chess (Cat. No. 1777)
Writer(s) Willie Dixon
“Back Door Man”
Song by The Doors
Album The Doors
Released January 4, 1967
Recorded August 1966
Genre Psychedelic rock, Blues-rock
Length 3:32
Label Elektra
Composer Willie Dixon
Producer Paul A. Rothchild
The Doors track listing
"Light My Fire"
(6)		 “Back Door Man”
(7)		 "I Looked at You"
(8)


"Back Door Man" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon for Howlin' Wolf, released on Chess Records as a B-side to "Wang Dang Doodle" in 1961 (catalog no. 1777). The song is considered a classic of Chicago blues.

Contents

[edit] Lyrics

In southern culture, the phrase "back-door man" refers to a man having an affair with a married woman, using the back door as an exit before the husband comes home.[1] "When everybody trying to sleep, I'm somewhere making my backdoor creep. / Every morning the rooster crow, something tell me I got to go / I am a back door man", Wolf sings. The promiscuous "back-door man" is a standard theme found in many blues, including those by Charley Patton, Lightnin' Hopkins, Blind Willie McTell and Sara Martin; "every sensible woman got a back-door man," Martin wrote in "Strange Loving Blues" (1925).[2] Robert Plant references the Dixon song in Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (1969): "Shake for me girl, I want to be your back-door man."[3] The phrase "back-door man" dates from the 1920s, but the term became a double entendre in the 1960s, also meaning "one who practices anal intercourse."[4]

[edit] Music

The single was recorded with Howlin' Wolf (vocals), Otis Spann (piano), Hubert Sumlin and another (guitar), Willie Dixon (bass), and Fred Below (drums) in Chicago in 1960. The chord progression in the refrain of the song, similar to those found in Bo Diddley's "I'm A Man" (1955), John Lee Hooker's "I'm Mad (Again)" (1957), and Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man" (1954), dates back to work songs sung during the construction of train tracks.[5]

[edit] Cover versions

The song became an early standard cover song of The Doors, along with Dixon's songs "Little Red Rooster" and "Close to You". The Doors recorded it for their debut album, The Doors (1967). The "door" of the song, like the name of the band, suggests a Blakean symbol of perception, with an awareness of the 1960s Queer-culture double entendre giving the expression an additional layer of meaning.[6] The Doors' drummer John Densmore described the song as "deeply sexual and got everyone moving."[7] The song also appears on The Doors' live album Absolutely Live (1970).

The song has also been covered by the Grateful Dead, Shadows of Knight, Bob Weir, Harmonica Slim & Hosea Leavy, Sam Gopal, T-Model Ford, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Soul Asylum fronted by Iggy Pop at the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Frank Marino, of the band Mahogany Rush, recorded it on Mahognay Rush Live. Another "Back Door Man" with entirely different lyrics was recorded by Johnny Cymbal (using the name "Derek") in 1969. The sentiments are approximately the same.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Segrest, James; & Hoffman, Mark (2005). Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf. Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 174. ISBN 1560256834
  2. ^ Oliver, Paul (1990). Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues. Cambridge University Press. p. 87. ISBN 0521377935
  3. ^ "Whole Lotta Love". Rolling Stone. December 9, 2004. Retrieved on February 16, 2008.
  4. ^ Green, Jonathon (2006). Cassell's Dictionary of Slang. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. p. 48. ISBN 0304366366
  5. ^ Scott, Richard J. (2003).Chord Progressions for Songwriters. iUniverse. p. 110. ISBN 0595263844
  6. ^ Smith, Patricia Juliana (1999). The Queer Sixties. Routledge. p. 177. ISBN 0415921686
  7. ^ Densmore, John (1991). Riders on the Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and the Doors. Dell Publishing. p. 77. ISBN 0385304471

[edit] External links

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