I wasn't thinking
my head was in the book
his hands were on her everywhere
I saw his face
I dropped my coffee
he's cheating on me with a
hoochie woman
you can keep your hoochie
you can keep the house
and the bank accounts
'cause boys I bring home the bacon
I went to work and the office girls
were all burning their poetry
It wasn't good but in the neighborhood
now they're all just hoochie women
you can keep your hootchie
you can keep the house
and the bank accounts
'cause boys I bring home the bacon
I said boy I bring home the bacon now
He called me up
and said she has needs
I said you'll find them on Barney's fourth floor
he said I need a loan
that's not a problem
you'd better keep this from your hoochie woman
you can keep your hoochie
you can keep the house
and the bank accounts
'cause boy I bring home the bacon
I said girls I bring home the bacon now
Tori Quotes
This is very simple in the world of chicks: some are hoochies, some are not, and some should never try to be. It's no different from the idea of sports. Now, I can go on my little rowing machine for four times a week, twenty-two minutes a time, and I can feel as if I flirt with the sporting world. Similar to the idea that a woman can put on something cuter for her man, for those moments, and flirt with garments that a hoochie woman might be pushing. But never for one moment should you get confused. My little rowing machine and I cannot consider ourselves athletes. Wearing the same garment does not a hoochie woman make. So if you are a true hoochie woman, may garments below the navel always be in your future. If you are not, then please don't throw away your cotton zippy jacket. [Tori Amos: Piece by Piece]
A key line in "Hoochie Woman" is: "I went to work and the office girls were all burning their poetry." Amos sips her latte thoughtfully...
I think that when you begin to think you're liberated, but in fact you're just an object -- completely objectified, an orifice -- then you walk into the profane.
But what exactly is a hoochie woman?
It's a scuzz. It's a woman who has lost any sense of self-respect and conscience.
In the song, a lady of this sort -- and it could be someone in a bar, or indeed at the office -- makes off with the narrator's man. Not, of course, one worth having. But still.
There's a belief that to get any attention, you have to take off your clothes and demean yourself.
A weary tone, and I get the feeling we're talking about the rock world now, though we might not be.
Just to get ahead, to succeed. Some very talented people have been talked into doing these kinds of stunts.
The song's final glorious irony is that the guy doesn't earn much, so he asks his wife if she can spare some cash to spend on his bag of washing.
That's the great part. That he can't make it work with the alpha female, so he chooses a woman who's an object, and he still needs help. And the wife, once she's left him, isn't bitter about the girl. In the end. In the "end," she's able to say, "Honey, if you have no poetry in your life, then you really are empty." [The Independent - April 9, 2005]
