"I Hear You Knocking"
Mystery Lady Blast From Past "I Hear You Knockin"
Composed by R.D.S. The Mystery Lady
September 28, 2021:
I wrote the following article for Daddy B. Nice's Corner in 2009. It appeared in the Queen Isabella Artist Guide because at that time the Mystery Lady was still hiding behind her cloak of mystery and also because Queen Isabella's version of "I Hear You Knockin'" was a little bit better produced than the demo quality of Mystery Lady's version.
But life and history have a way of turning things around in ways impossible to predict. Queen Isabella has since disappeared from the chitlin' circuit scene, along with her original YouTube video of the song. Meanwhile, Mystery Lady, who composed and recorded the first version of "I Hear You Knockin'" has gradually raised her profile, effectively taking ownership of the song from Queen Isabella. We even know her name (scroll down). Also, Mystery Lady was featured in a 2016 Daddy B. Nice feature for another song, "Wrong Drawers (He Caught Me with The Wrong Drawers On)," (scroll down this page), in which another mystery is cleared up. A deejay voice-over says Mystery Lady is from Illinois.
The ultimate irony of "I Hear You Knockin'" has to do with a statement I made in that piece in 2009:
Despite multiple releases by a variety of artists and producers, not one has ever achieved even modest success. By any--even chitlin' circuit-level--expectations, the song is an also-ran. And yet, it has a resonance with the audience that makes it a potential classic. "I Hear You Knockin'" won't go away, one or another of its many versions popping up here and there again and again.
I'm happy to report that history has rendered that remark FALSE.
That YouTube page featuring Mystery Lady's "I Hear You Knockin'" has accumulated the astounding number of 3,891,267 views. That's right: just short of 4 million page views. That makes it an equal of many of the top-rated southern soul songs of today
Read on....
It never fails. Every three months a letter comes into Daddy B. Nice's Mailbag regarding the song "I Hear You Knockin'".
Daddy B. Nice. . .
"I'm in need of your help again. I heard this song and it goes like this: "I hear you knocking baby but I can't let you in. I'm too busy making love to your best friend". . . So if you can help me out again I would truly appreciate it. . . I know a female sings it."
Daddy B. Nice. . .
"A local radio dj has been playing this song ("I Hear You Knockin'") regularly for at least the last 5 years. . . "
"Daddy B. Nice. . .
Do you know of any other females who sang "I Hear You Knocking" besides Queen Isabella? Maybe Nellie Tiger Travis? thanks!"
That last one--from Franklin in Key West, Florida--just came in.
Mind you. This "I Hear You Knockin'" is not to be confused with the much more well-known song "I Hear You Knockin'" written by legendary R&B producer Dave Bartholomew with Pearl King and recorded perhaps most famously by Fats Domino (although first by Smiley Lewis) and Dave Edmunds among hundreds of others. That song, the forerunner of the current song, has lyrics which go roughly like this:
"You went away and left me,
And now you come back,
Knocking on my door.
I hear you knocking,
But you can't come in. . . "
--And it was usually sung by a man.
The version of "I Hear You Knockin'" that enthralls Southern Soul fans is a basic twelve-bar blues like its predecessor but with lyrics that take a distinctly female perspective, a vengeful, in-your-face attitude that implies either a wronged woman or a temptress incarnate.
The song we're talking about was written, somewhat intriguingly, by R.D.S. The Mystery Lady. Here is what your Daddy B. Nice had to say about it in the Queen Isabella Artist Guide.
"The fan of Southern Soul doesn't really appreciate a singer like Queen Isabella and a song like "I Hear You Knocking"--a song, in other words, in the rough-and-tumble style of Barbara Carr and Peggy Scott-Adams--until he or she takes a vacation from the music and returns to listen to it fresh. That's when Queen Isabella's unpolished sound feels as essential to the ear and heart as fried potatoes to a hungry stomach. That back-alley-produced sound--directly descended from under-exposed R&B pioneers like Ann Rabson, Ruth Brown and, ultimately, Bessie Smith--is a rare and precious commodity."
Here's a rough summary of the lyrics:
"Baby, I hear you knocking,
But I can't stop to let you in.
You see right now I'm a little too busy.
I'm making love to your best friend. . .
We changed the locks on the door
Because we didn't want to be disturbed.
You said to me,
'Girl, you've got your nerve.'
But wait a minute.
There's a little bit more.
Right now, he's got me in a spin.
He's taking my body to places
You ain't never been. . .
He's making love to me
Over and over from my head to my feet.
Babe, he's taking me to places you never did. . .
Oh baby, you wouldn't believe
How this man keeps turning me on.
Babe, you'd better get away from the door.
He's about to bring something out in me
That you've never heard before. . . "
And so on. . .
This is what in New York they used to call a feminist anthem. This woman is putting some hurt on her man--the one outside the door, that is. She's also making some big trouble for both. With the previously clandestine lovers on the inside and presumably cuckolded husband on the outside, the woman throws down the gauntlet when she says, "I'm making love to your best friend," and the rant accelerates.
Think of the dilemma of the interloper (the husband's best friend) on the inside with the woman. Not only caught in the act but identified. No back-window exit now. Forced to confront, two old "bulls" fighting over one very-ready, very-rambunctious woman.
The Mystery Lady put out two albums, 1996's Midnight Run (Monaco) and 2000's Burning For Ya Love (Monaco). "I Hear You Knockin'" made its debut on the Midnight Run album. Subsequently, the song showed up on the Super Soul Club Hits compilation album (Mardi Gras, 2000).
Then came the version of "I Hear You Knockin'" by Queen Isabella from the Loving A Married Man album (Kon-Kord, 2001). (See Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Queen Isabella.)
Next up came a version of "I Hear You Knockin'" by Rasheeda from the Bruce Billups-produced
Southern Soul/Urban Mix album (Makecents, 2006). This album by Theodis Ealey's longtime collaborator was also a compilation CD featuring a variety of artists, and it still sounds so new it's amazing to think three years have already passed. Rasheeda, as far as I know, is not the rapper Rasheeda who has published four albums.
Next up, and most head-turning, since it's sung by a man, is "I Hear You Knockin'" by Bobby Warren from the Pioneers And Legends album (Kon-Kord, 2006). Bobby Warren has two albums out: I Slipped Up (Kon-Kord, 2005) and Pioneers and Legends (Kon-Kord, 2006).
The Bobby Warren version of "I Hear You Knockin,'" although I've only heard a sound sample, is in many ways the most interesting, if you're a devotee of this song. Not only is it sung by a man, but musically, it seems to push the song to another level.
Which brings up the paradox of "I Hear You Knockin'". Despite multiple releases by a variety of artists and producers, not one has ever achieved even modest success. By any--even chitlin' circuit-level--expectations, the song is an also-ran.
And yet, it has a resonance with the audience that makes it a potential classic. "I Hear You Knockin'" won't go away, one or another of its many versions popping up here and there again and again, gaining another handful of eager and curious recruits for what must be by now a rag-tag army of fans.
Which begs the ultimate question. Does the fault lie in the music? The melody is not much to write home about. The rhythm is fairly run-of-the-mill.
Or does it lie in the artists, none of whom has stirred the Southern Soul waters?
The lyrics--again by chitlin' circuit standards--are obviously superb.
What fascinates anyone who has heard Southern Soul's "I Hear You Knockin'" is that strong whiff of revenge that makes Clint Eastwood-style Westerns and action-thrillers so intoxicating.
The women singing "I Hear You Knockin'"--Mystery Lady, Queen Isabella, Rasheeda--are "inviters" of confrontation. They stir up some primordial response in women, and what stirs women is bound to stir men.
--Daddy B. Nice
--Daddy B. Nice
About Mystery Lady Blast From Past "I Hear You Knockin"
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