Chicken was relatively expensive when Willie Dixon wrote that song, it was mainly eaten, by the middle-classes. Cooking chicken was associated with middle-class married women. Dixon was known for sleeping with married women.
I found that using Google. It could be complete balderdash.
Ho Hum wrote:
If you think Jim Morrison being a drunk is somehow a strike against his "poetry", you obviously don't know much about poets.
Obviously you have never seen the movie.
Second half of the quote:
"Give me The Guess Who. They got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which MAKES them poetic."
drunkeness does not a poet make.
Yes. And he takes Christmas in his overalls.
Yes, Willie Dixon wrote the song ( I heard him play it at a show in 1972 or 73; Kenny's Castaways NYC, with a band that included Carey Bell and Luther Guitar Junior Johnson) and maybe Howlin Wolf's version might be the best, but Jim Morrison made it his song. To understand this you have to remember the Door's version came out in 1967. I am sure most of you have seen Morrison's iconic picture; shirtless and his hair all nice and styled. This was the antithesis of the American male role models of the past and so in the eyes of the older generation he was either gay or some kind of joke. Yet, as in the lyrics of "Back Door Man", the joke is on them, for as they go about their business, this (in their eyes) harmless "girlie-man" is having his way with their daughters and possibly their wives to boot. (As in the movie Shampoo where Warren Beatty's character while pretending to be gay hits the trifecta: wife, daughter, mistress)
he was the gizzard king
I meant that I can eat more chicken any man ever seen.
Morrison DIDN'T WRITE THE SONG DUMMIES! Chester Arthur Burnett aka HOWLIN'N WOLF a fine Chicago man wrote it! Lord I hate dumb white people!!! God damn I do and holy shi* I'm white too. Who'd a thunk it! F'n arrogant dumbasses!
ChicagoMan wrote:
Morrison DIDN'T WRITE THE SONG DUMMIES! Chester Arthur Burnett aka HOWLIN'N WOLF a fine Chicago man wrote it! Lord I hate dumb white people!!! God damn I do and holy shi* I'm white too. Who'd a thunk it! F'n arrogant dumbasses!
Yes, and to the point, therein lies the answer. Chicken used to be a luxury in the 1950's. So, when Howlin' Wolf boasts, you guys eat pork and beans, but I eat a whole lot of chicken, it was simply more posturing as the alpha-male, eating the hard to get, expensive, food.
Also, a boast of being a man of excess and enormous appetites, rather literally.
No surprise, really - listen to enough of this music from that era, and this kind of posturing is ubiquitous. Really, and I mean everywhere. I could list a ton of examples. Listen to The Doors cover of "Who Do You Love".
I think that is the most obvious interpretation, but like almost everything in rock lyrics, there's a not-so-subtle sexual reference lurking just beneath the surface alluded to, whether you want to go there or not.
In the final analysis, it's campy, it's fun, it's bawdy, and it's entertaining without being heady. A classic of the old roots of rock.
Bluesman and Fitzawesome's answers are both correct. Blues songs often contain lyrics about lecherousness, resiliance /defiance in the face of adversity, and sly humor. The men don't know, but the little girls understand.
colin saunders wrote:
he was the gizzard king
Now THAT is funny!
ChicagoMan wrote:
Morrison DIDN'T WRITE THE SONG DUMMIES! Chester Arthur Burnett aka HOWLIN'N WOLF a fine Chicago man wrote it! Lord I hate dumb white people!!! God damn I do and holy shi* I'm white too. Who'd a thunk it! F'n arrogant dumbasses!
Yeah F them honkies! White devils! F em
The Doors where gay L.A. guys.
Lenny Leonard wrote:
Ho Hum wrote:
If you think Jim Morrison being a drunk is somehow a strike against his "poetry", you obviously don't know much about poets.
Obviously you have never seen the movie.
Second half of the quote:
"Give me The Guess Who. They got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which MAKES them poetic."
drunkeness does not a poet make.
I love this board. Just because drinking with writers isn't writing doesn't mean Jim Morrison didn't keep your toes tapping and didn't get more ass than a Taco Bell toilet seat.
Also a vital tool in freshman college dorm sex, for the few of us here who experienced that.
Same old Story wrote:
The Doors where gay L.A. guys.
Yes one supposes you can find gay LA people behind doors. Nice grammar, by the way.
The name of the band is based upon the Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley you imbecile.
The Night Man wrote:
You have to remember that back then the term "eating chicken" was synonymous with "eating a muffin"...if you know what I mean.
This is it^. Back then they could not come out and directly say it like they do now. Now we don't seem to care what we expose our minors to.
JM was born and raised in Frisco and was a gay man.
This board has been going for 15 YEARS and this shi* has me WHEEZING. I love how my school tries to block all inappropriate websites or stuff that has swear words. Wait 'till they see this lmao. Anyways I love the seriousness AND humor. Great points were made. I hope someone sees this and replies. I'll be back in a few years to check.
Stand out there
Cop's wife cried, don't take him down
Rather be dead, six feets in the ground
When you come home you can eat pork and beans
I eats mo' chicken, any man seen
Howlin' Wolf I'm a Backdoor Man
There's an image going viral on social media lately that has Michael Jackson's charter plane meal requests and he wanted KFC for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So while obviously Jim Morrison died before Michael made it big, Morrison is not even the biggest gallophage in pop music, never mind the biggest one ever seen.
15 year old thread some of the replies are classic.