Pushing on a String; Big Enchilada; Play It Again, Sam

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:28 PM -0400 4/24/01, George Thompson wrote:
>Barry posts the following:
>>  --------------------------------------------------------
>>  IT AIN'T WHATCHA GOT, BUT WHATCHA DO WITH IT
>>
>>    From NEW YORK magazine in the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, pages 28-
>>  29 ad for Helen Harper sweaters:
>>
>>  "It ain't whatcha got but whatcha do with it."
>>      HELEN HARPER
>
>There was a moderately popular song during the Swing Era called "Taint
>What You Do, It's The Way That You Do It."  Some quick checking shows
>that Mildred Bailey recorded it in February of 1939 -- and wasn't
>necessarily the first -- and that it was written by "S Oliver and T
>Young", no doubt Sy Oliver and (probably) Trummy Young.
>
On a related topic, recall "It Ain't the Meat, It's the Motion", a
classic blues covered nicely by Maria Muldaur with the Jim Kweskin
Jug Band lo these 30 years ago--

It ain't the meat, it's the motion,
That makes your baby want to rock.
It ain't the meat, it's the motion,
It's the movement that gives it the sock.

and so on, with the usual double entendres.  An internet search
indicates that the song was written by Glover and Nathan, with whom
I'm not otherwise acquainted, and I have no idea when.  '30's,
perhaps?

larry