Why are you trying to unravel meanings for a song that seems to consist of floaters? Is it a semi-scholarly undertaking, or purely for your own amusement?
-Melissa

I know Melissa, that you asked Richie, and not me. But since Richie asked questions about this song, I've been interested in trying to "unravel" meanings for that song. I like to do that for other songs and rhymes. I like doing it and I think that it's important for professional "scholars" to seek out and respectfully consider the imput of "regular people"-particularly those people who may have a feel for, connection with, or understanding of the culture from which the song composer came.

That said, I thought about the red apple juice/woman's fluids connection, but maybe its just my sensibilities that make me automatically reject that theory as being too yucky. In other words, that theory might be right, but it doesn't feel right to me, and maybe that's because I don't a cultural context where the connection of red apple juice that you drink with a woman's menses wouldn't be considered yucky. I'm assuming that this song came out of an African American culture of the late nineteenth or early 20th century. I've never lived in that culture, but am assuming that folks then might also find that connection to be "distasteful" [sorry for the images that pun might cause}.

**

I don't believe that "laid in the shade" means that the singer {a man} killed his woman and buried her. I continue to atand by my previously stated belief that "laid in the shade" refers to the woman being able to relax {lay down} in the shade [meaing outside in a yard] instead of working backbreaking jobs outside or indoors.
"I got it made in the shade" and "I got it made in the shade where the sun don't shine" are familiar [to me] phrases that may be of African American origin. For people who are used to working long hours outside with the harsh sun shining down on them {or can relate to their ancestors being forced to do that-for instance because they were picking rows and rows of cotton all the live long day} to be able to lay in the shade was a real luxury. Therefore, "I got it made in the shade" or "laid in the shade" as in the song whose meaning we're trying to "unravel", could refer to this relaxed, worry-free state of being, even if the person wasn't actually laying or planning to lay outside in a shady spot.

All that to say that I very much reject the theory that the singer plans to kill his woman and send her body back to her mama. Recall that this song was probably composed by an African American man during a time when a lot of Black people were moving from the South for work in the big cities of the North or the Midwest. People who left home and landed jobs would "send for" other members of their families and for their women to come join them. But if these relatives-and particularly if these lovers/spouses-didn't do well, they could be threatened with or actually be sent back home by the ones who paid the money for them to get to that location in the first place. I know there are other blues songs whose lyrics refer to sending for a woman or another family member and/or sending them back home to mama. My mind just won't let me come up with examples right now, but I know that such examples are out there.

**

With regard to the "Sugar Baby"song that I posted on 14 Mar 08 - 11:48 PM:

It seems to me that the composer was asking himself these questions and then in the next verse answering the questions he raised.

Who'll call me honey?
Who'll call me honey and who'll sing this song?
Who'll rock the cradle when you're gone?
Who'll rock the cradle when you're gone?

I'll rock that cradle
I'll rock that cradle and I'll sing this song
I'll rock the cradle when you're gone
I'll rock the cradle when you're gone

-snip-

Who'll call me honey- The singer realizes that if and when he sends his woman back home to her mama, he not only won't have anyone to call him honey, but he will also have to take care of the kids all by his lone self. I can image the woman saying to the man that knows he won't send her back home because he won't have anybody to call him honey {and-perhaps-she was also alluding to the fact that if she leaves, the man wouldn't have another woman to give him honey-that image is much more acceptable to me than the earlier theory about red apple juice}. Also, I can image that woman using the argument that her man wouldn't send her back home because if he did, who would take care of their children {encapsulated in the question "who would rock the cradle"}. The man knocks down that theory by saying that he'd take care of the children when he sends her back home...As I said in another post to this thread, I think that rock the cradle could mean something sexual. However, in thinking about it further, I'm even more convinced that in the context of this song the "taking care of the kids" meaning fits better than the "having sex" meaning.

I hasten to say that I'm not a prude, really, I'm not! :o)

**

And that mental exercise of trying to unravel that song's meaning was what I consider fun!

Thanks again for providing the opportunity, Richie!