'Rock' meaning 'wear' or 'sport'

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Thu Sep 11 12:53:16 UTC 2008


That's an old spiritual; a text appears in K. J. Hotzknecht, "Some Negro Song Variants from Louisville," _Journal of American Folklore_ 22 (1928): 563.

A version I heard as a child (1950s) had "RockING my soul in the bosom of Abraham."

I'm pretty sure, though, that the image is simply of an infant soothingly swayed while nestled against the patriarch's chest.

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:34:38 -0700
>From: "JAMES A. LANDAU Netscape. Just the Net You Need." <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
>Subject: Re: 'Rock' meaning 'wear' or 'sport'
>
>
>This may or may not be relevant:
>
>Sometime before fall 1965 on the record "Peter, Paul, and Mary in Concert" there was a song "Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham".
>

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