This Is Not the Stove to Brown Your Bread
The Cost of Ambition: A Blues Tale by Blind Willie McTell
Lyrics
Damn this high and still going up
Expressing frustration about being high and the situation escalating.
I'm gonna get mine no matter what it cost
Determined to achieve personal goals regardless of the cost.
I'm the man and I'm the boss
Asserting dominance and control as the man in charge.
I'm gonna get what I want no matter what it cost
Reiterating the commitment to get what is wanted at any expense.
I just sent a man to the crazy house
Claiming to have sent someone to a mental institution.
He was big and fat like you
Mocking someone for their physical appearance and taking their money.
I taken all his money and thrown it away
Boasting about taking someone's money and disregarding their well-being.
And he didn't have on a real good shoe
Noticing the person didn't have good shoes, emphasizing their disregard for others.
Now woman, woman, you think a man like me would be that big a fool about you?
Questioning if a woman believes the speaker would be foolish for her.
Yes.
Confirming the woman's belief in the speaker's potential foolishness.
You better see a doctor something is wrong with your head, this is not the stove to brown your bread.
Suggesting the woman needs psychiatric help and emphasizing the relationship's inappropriate nature.
Now if yous lookin for me to give you my money when you said, mama I'm not goin that way.
Refusing to give money, asserting independence in financial matters.
Now you told me that your love goes on and on,
Referencing the woman's claim about everlasting love.
Yes and if you ain't got no money, I turn my love off and I'm gone.
Indicating that love is conditional on having money.
You better see a doctor something is wrong with your head, this is not the stove to brown your bread.
Repeating the need for the woman to seek professional help.
Now to get my money moma this how you got to be
Describing extreme measures required to obtain money from the speaker.
With both your legs cut off above the knee.
Using vivid imagery to illustrate the difficulty of getting money from the speaker.
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Blank line; no explicit content.
No hair no eyes, no teeth in your head, gone show me--- that your great grandmama dead
Describing a deteriorated physical condition as proof of ancestral demise.
Now before we married you said that I was the best
Highlighting a shift in behavior from initial admiration to discontent.
A week after that you act like two birds in one nest.
Depicting a decline in the relationship with time.
6 months after that I could see you with a frown.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the partner's attitude.
If I didn't take all my money and bring you half of it down.
Stating the consequence of not providing financial support.
They call you a boy and that's your name.
Referring to the woman as a boy, possibly mocking her or indicating a lack of maturity.
But believer me mama I got a catalac frame.
Asserting possession of valuable assets despite the criticism.
You better see a doctor something is wrong with your head, this is not the stove to brown your bread
Reiterating the need for the woman to seek psychiatric help.
This is not the stove to brown your bread.
Emphasizing again that the situation is not suitable for domestic harmony.
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