There are two slightly different versions of “Baby, What You Want Me To Do?”. There is the live version above in which you get to see Ms. James in all of her glory.
Then there is the version below.
This version has a spoken intro, and adds hilarious lyrics such as
Momma cooked a chicken, Thought it was a duck
Put it on the table with his legs cocked up
I love you, Love you baby, Love you baby
You’ve got me running, You’ve got me hiding
You’ve got me running, hiding, hiding, running
Baby, where you want it
Let it roll
You’ve got me where you want me now
Baby, what you want me to do
The beauty of this song is that as much as the lyrics jump around, the song still makes sense and sounds great. The erratic lyrics mirror the erratic emotions of a person in a relationship who can’t figure out why their lover has changed. Our heroine Etta is so fed up, that she lets her man know that he doesn’t even have to leave because she will.
“Baby, What You Want Me to Do” is available at Amazon.com.
i think this album…”The Late Show” also has more dialogue by Etta introducing Johnny Otis’ son playing the guitar….she is as high as a kite on this album and never better as a performer…..she calls Otis’ son “Johnny Otis’ baby boy……….love it…first heard it on KGOU blues show 106.3/105.7 FM college radio station
Hi, I had recently left behind a CD which was a copy of another album. It had “This is Soul” written on it from a friend. It was all Etta James songs… and I cannot find the title of this CD anywhere online… nor half of the songs that were on it! How do so many recordings of such a famous person go forever lost as not to be on the internet??
One of the songs ended with Etta saying ” he’s mine. Leave Him alone.. don’t touch him, leave him alone.
another (might’ve been the same one was comparing an old husband to her new man who cooks her steaks when her husband only cooked her beans. what is this song?? no where to be found on the internet. I have spent hours days and months looking for these lost Etta James song. My only hope is to go back to New Mexico where I left behind this CD to find it! Please help
There’s a song credited to Irma Thomas called “You can have my husband but don’t take my man” with lyrics you are describing. It ends with the phrase you mention.
A live version of “Baby what you want me to do” was on an album called “The Late Show” that featured Eddie Cleanhead Vinson but I don’t know what album the studio recording came from.