Black Widow Spider: Blues Song Guide

The closest verified match to this title is "Black Widow Spider Blues," recorded by West Coast blues giant Lowell Fulson and originally released in 1947 as the B-side of a 10-inch, 78 rpm single on the small Big Town label, paired with "Don't Be So Evil." Fulson - an Oklahoma-born, Texas-raised guitarist who relocated to Oakland and became one of the architects of the postwar West Coast blues sound - was a towering figure in California blues in the years before he found his biggest fame with "Reconsider Baby" and, much later, "Tramp." His late-1940s singles for small independent labels like Big Town capture him in his earliest commercially recorded period, cutting tight, guitar-driven sides steeped in Texas blues phrasing filtered through California's more polished club-band arrangements.

Spider imagery has deep roots in blues lyricism as a stand-in for a dangerous, irresistible lover or for ill fortune that bites when you least expect it - the black widow in particular, famous for devouring its mate, made for an obvious and much-used metaphor across decades of blues songwriting. Fulson's recording sits within that tradition, though note: while Fulson is broadly credited as a songwriter across his catalog, the specific authorship credit for "Black Widow Spider Blues" itself could not be independently confirmed from available discography sources, so treat the "written by" attribution with some caution even though the recording and artist are well documented.

The track has had a long life on reissue compilations - it surfaced again on a Catfish Records anthology of Fulson's 1946-1949 sides released in 2000, and it continues to circulate on streaming blues-revival playlists. Its theme of predatory danger dressed up as romance connects naturally to the fatalistic card-game imagery of "Blackjack" and anticipates the kind of tribute-driven, scene-specific storytelling explored on the "Blues for Antone" page, where a real blues institution rather than a metaphorical danger is the subject.

Fulson's early catalog, including this track, is available through legitimate reissue-label channels - Catfish Records' compilations are licensed for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music, and verified blues-reissue YouTube channels carry properly credited uploads.