They're Red Hot

This song is about hot tamales... at least on the surface. It could be a metaphor for sex, with the "long and tall" girl who's got 'em for sale being a working girl. Tamales are a spicy Mexican food very popular in some parts of the American south, where they are often sold by roadsides. They contain spicy mean wrapped in cornmeal.

While Johnson is a legendary blues artist, this song is an example of hokum music, which was popular in the 1920s and 1930s and is generally played at a faster pace than blues, similar to ragtime.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers covered this on their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The Peppers recorded their version on a hill at 2 in the morning - if you listen closely you can hear cars go by. Their drummer Chad Smith copied John Bonham's technique that he used in the Led Zeppelin song "Moby Dick" of drumming without drumsticks.