Meanwhile the verses delineate the singer’s gripes with the addressee. For instance, he presented himself as being a “high-class” person. However, she is able to perceive that in reality he is not. And it is also revealed that he has caused her a considerable degree of emotional anguish. Ultimately, what her sentiments boil down to is concluding that he was never really for her in the first place. Rather he was just looking to use her in order to acquire “a home”.

Or on a more-amorous level, said statement indicates that she will not let him sleep with her. Song’s NarrativeĪnd basically, what is transpiring is that Big Mama is kicking the addressee out of her house. And keeping within the titular theme of the song, she uses canine-related metaphors in the chorus to detail how he is responding. For instance, he is “snooping around her door”, meaning that he is still trying to get into her home (or perhaps more specifically her pants). And in doing so he is ‘wagging his tail’, which has been interpreted as trying to convince the singer to let him have sex with her. But she is not ‘going to feed him no more’, meaning that she is not going to give in to his pleading. As pointed out in this article’s facts section, there are actually multiple different versions of this song. The first was by a singer named Big Mama Thornton. Lyrically the chorus of her rendition is laced with sexual innuendos. Indeed the titular “hound dog” is actually an unflattering appellation she is ascribing onto the addressee, that being her unfaithful lover. It is similar to how even in more-modern times women may refer to a promiscuous man as a dog. Well even as far back as the 1950s, such a slang term was in use in the African-American community.

Hound Dog & Bean by B.G. Thomas