She's Making Whoopee In Hell Tonight

While Lonnie Johnson disliked the "blues" label, "She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight" is a fine example of that genre.  Recorded in 1930, the complex guitar playing and it's dark, chilling lyrics, make for a truly wicked little song.  The next time someone claims that nobody ever sung about "bad things" before 1965, point them to this little ditty.

You been gone all day, set to make whoopee tonight 

I'm gonna take my razor and cut your late hours, 

I will be serving you right 

The undertaker's been here and gone, I gave him your height and size 

Undertaker's been here and gone, I gave him your height and size 

You'll be making whoopee with the devil in hell tomorrow night  

Of course to claim that this song, is no different than modern murder songs, would be wrong as well.  Lonnie Johnson seems to take no real joy in the act.  He's become her slave, and the only way to free himself from her cruelty is to kill her.  He'll be happy to see her dead, but killing her with his razor seems to be a means to an end.  Still the act of using a razor makes me think, he really wants her to suffer, like the way she's made him suffer.  Nasty, brutal stuff.

Told you, next time you go out, please carry your black dress along 

'Cause a coffin will be your present and hell will be your brand new home 

Another way that "Whoopee" differs from songs like "I Used to Love Her", is that in some, albeit, twisted way fear of female power plays into it.  She's not simply disposable trash that's killed because her lover has tired of her, she's killed because she holds power over him.

You made me love you, just got me for your slave

He can't simply leave her.  The only way he can free himself is to kill her.  While the view of a woman as a dangerous enslaver of men, is not exactly feminist, the image brings a complexity to the song, that so many new songs lack.

Another Look: Used to Love Her (Him).

L7's great take on the GNR song.

Original Post

Used to Love Her

Random Guns N' Roses Talk 

I used to love GNR a lot.  I was thirteen, so think about your basic Justin Bieber fangirl and replace it with Axl Rose.  Then I discovered Bikini Kill and feminism.  I started wearing  combat boots, writing bad poetry and moved on.

Too bad.  Appitie for Destruction was a great album.  That being said, Axl Rose is an ass.  They could have made a lot of great albums, instead they made one great album, two sort of good albums, one dull covers album, and one bargin bin laughing stock.  

Talk Over

I hesitated before deciding to discuss the Guns' N Roses song, Used to Love Her.  Listening to it makes me feel guilty, the same way that liking the work that Tina Turner did with Ike more than her solo output makes me feel guilty.  While Axl Rose has never killed anyone, there's more than enough evidence out there that he has physically abused his partners.   

What makes this song any different than the other killing women type songs?  Besides the fact it's sung by a man who is an abuser?    The woman in Used to Love Her is disposable.

The women in Deila's Gone and 99 to Life are killed for withholding their very powerful affection.  The poor Knoxvile Girl is possibly killed for an unplanned pregnancy.  The woman in "Used to Love Her"? "She bitched so much, she drove [him] nuts." She became an annoyance, so the man simply killed her and buried her in his backyard.   And he's "happier this way".

The killers in Deila, Knoxvile and 99 pay for their crimes.  All suffer from remorse.  Haunted by ghosts and devils around their beds.   They all go to prison.  Axl Rose's killer is untouched by the law.

Yet the song, in my opinion is pretty damn funny.

I'd knew I'd miss her
so I had to keep her
she's buried right in my backyard

I still can't help but feel conflicted.  I give a lot of other songs a pass.  But not this one.  Is it fair?  Maybe not, but I'm sure that's human nature.