I love my cherry ball1 better than I love myself
I loves cherry ball better than I love myself
She get so she don't love me, she won't love nobody else
Cherry ball quit me, she quit me in a calm, good way
Cherry ball quit me, she quit me in a calm, good way
But what to take to get her, I carries it every day2
I love my cherry, oh, better than I love myself
My cherry ball, better than I love myself
She get so she don't love me, love nobody else
Sure as that spider hangin' on the wall
Sure as that spider hangin' on the wall
I advised that old cherry ball, "Keep fallin' on call"3
I'll catch the Southern4 if you take the Santa Fe5
I'll take the Southern and if you'll take the Santa Fe
I'm gonna ride and ramble, tell cherry to come back to me
__________
Note 1: cherry ball is probably blues slang, fostered by the 1930 Memphis Minnie composition "Cherry Ball Blues" which begins "I ain't gonna give you none o' my cherry ball". James uses it to personify sex or (according to one's point of view) "dehumanize" women.
Note 2: carrying his boast a step further, James once qualified this couplet with the remark "If I wanted her, you understand";
Note 3: the advice is to submit sexually on cue;
Notes 4 and 5: the Southern and Santa Fe are railroad lines