get one's habits on/get beside oneself

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:57:21 -0400, Barbara H Hudson
<bhhudson at AUXMAIL.IUP.EDU> wrote:

>Wilson Gray asked about "get/have one habits on" and "get beside
>oneself"
>
>      I have heard the first expression only in the lyrics of a song
>      by the Blues Brothers' called, "I Don't Know":
>
>      The woman I love has got devil in her jaw
>      Clothes she's wearing made out of the best of cloth
>      She can take em and wash 'em put 'em upside the wall
>      She can throw 'em out a window, pick 'em up a little before
>     they fall.
>      SOMETIMES I THINK YOU GOT YOUR HABITS ON
>      She said you shouldn't say that
>      I said what did I say to make you mad this time baby?
>      She said Umm...
>
>I have never understood what the singers were referring to, but I am
>getting a little better understaning of what they mean.

The original version of that song was composed and recorded in 1952 by
Willie Mabon (b. 1925 in Hollywood, Tenn., lived in Memphis and Chicago).

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:mz0qoa8arijp
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:78q4g44ttv2z~T1


--Ben Zimmer