Talk:Bald Headed Woman

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Role of Jimmy Page

According to The Who's Official Website and various rock magazines, Jimmy Page has been credited for lead guitar work on the B-side of Bald Headed Woman.

References:

http://www.jimmypage.co.uk/biography.htm

http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/page_jimmy/4682556/lyric.jhtml

http://www.thewho.com/index.php?module=discography&discography_item_id=90

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.186.96.124 (talk) 11:54, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Meaning of the term "bald-headed woman"

I'm surprised the article doesn't address this. The term was an informal, derogatory prison slang for an imprisoned male pressed into homosexual service, long outdated now but used in the early half of the 20th century, when these lyrics were likely written. Pointing this out in the article helps give context to the lyrics. Perhaps the problem is that a definitive source can't be located? That's a challenge among we wikipedians: articles that cannot be completed because it's hard to scare up the obscure study in a university archive (or some place similar) that validates an otherwise unsourced, oral tradition. It would be great if it could be added, though. ShelbyMarion (talk) 20:14, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

Rockist

This article currently only covers rock bands who had hits with the song and ignores the slew of American blues musicians who played and recorded it during the first half of the 20th century. Shall we, as they say, put some brothers up on this wall? Morganfitzp (talk) 17:46, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

This is probably partly due to it being recorded under other names than the one in this article (who am I kidding, it's mostly racism) but I digress.

The earliest widely-available recording I am aware of is 'Black Gal' / '(I Don't Want No) Jet Black Woman', as performed by a Dan Barnes and unnamed field-working inmates of Parchman Farm by Alan Lomax in 1948. In this context, it's a work song, with a call-and-response cadence. The Kinks version even preserves wood-chopping within its initial drum pattern. See: https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/parchman-farm-1947-and-1948/parchman-248/black-gal

- Earlier commentary by ShelbyMarion might point in the right direction re; lyrical meaning (stanzas about the singer's 'long-haired woman' speak to anxiety about separation from partners during detention and while a literal bulldog wouldn't weigh 500, an overseer might!) but a historian with specific knowledge of work songs in the prison farm system would have to confirm and/or elaborate. As with other african-american work songs, it became part of blues canon as it was performed outside the prison context, which is how it eventually ends up being associated with The Who moreso than cotton plantations. Ceeessjay (talk) 01:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)