I’ve been listening to Kid Man Blues by Big Maceo from 1945. It’s not clear to me from the lyrics what a kid man is. It could be a young lover, or it could be a lover who fathered one or more children (i.e. “a man who gave me kids”).
Bertha “Chippie” Hill recorded a song titled Kid Man Blues in 1925, and Alice Moore recorded a song by the same name in 1930. I haven’t heard these, and don’t know whether they’re the same song as the Big Maceo version (I suspect not).
Could you link to some lyrics or something? Might be easier to figure out in context…
Here are the lyrics as I can make them out. Some of the words are hard to understand:
I had a woman, I had a woman,
Had a mouth full of shiny gold,
I had a woman,
Had a mouth full of shiny gold,
This woman made trouble everywhere she go.
She had a man on a main, (I’m not confident about the last few words here)
And a kid man on a kid, (same comment as above)
She had a man on a main,
And a kid man on her kid,
She had so many men,
Until she couldn’t keep it in. (I’m not sure about the last couple of words in this line)
I left that woman one morning,
Just about the break of day,
I left that woman one morning,
Just about the break of day,
You know I packed my suitcase,
Made my getaway.
Here I am in Chicago, and I’m doing very well,
Here I am in Chicago, and I’m doing very well,
If I don’t find the woman I love,
I’ll just live alone by myself.
Baby, you’re gonna weep and moan, fall down on your knees,
Gonna weep and moan, fall down on your knees,
You’re gonna tell the whole world,
How you mistreated me.
Hmm. Maybe it just means a young guy?
I couldn’t find an answer directly, but I did find another instance of the phrase.
From Big Feeling Blues
If you’re lookin’ for a brown, come get this chocolate cream
I’m a big kid-man - just out of my teens
From this example, it sounds like it means young guy (as Marley23 suggested).
Yeah, I agree with Marley and CaveMike on this. At first (when I thought it was a man singing) I thought of “Kid Man” like Robert Johnson’s “friend-boy” or “friend-girl,” a friend who is a boy or girl, a kid who is a man… The “Big Feeling Blues” lyrics only seem to cement that.
BTW, here’s a link (that works sometimes…) to a cool blues site where I’ve debated the meaning of RJ’s “She’s got an Elgin Movement” meaning.
An Aust ralian act ress