FW: drylongso

[Frank Abate]

Another occurrence is in Robert Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen", Take 1,
recorded in 1936:

When a woman gets in trouble, everybody throws her down
Lookin' for her good friend, none can be found
You better come on in my kitchen, it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors
Winter time's comin', it's gon' be slow
You can't make the winter, babe, that's dry long so
You better come on in my kitchen, 'cause it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors


The transcription above and what follows is from this URL:

http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/artistswithsongs/robert_johnson_1b.htm#top

 1 - the phrase "dry long so" is a dialectic description of being poor. In
the context of the Robert Johnson song it relates to not having enough food
and clothing and other essential things to last through the winter;
2 - possibly: "dry long so", meaning pointlessly, without a cause.
__________
This phrase can be found in:
Robert Johnson, Come On In My Kitchen (Take 1), Skip James, Hard Time
Killing Floor

************************

Frank Abate


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Barnhart
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 10:25 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: drylongso


In Clarence Major's Juba to Jive shows the form "dry long so" and
glosses it "plainly; without ornamentation or frills."

The following example is given: "Every day was the same.  We was going
dry long so."  It is designated as Souther use.

Cited printed sources include: Zora Neale Hurston, _Dust Track on a
Road_ (1942) and _Their Eyes Were Watching God_ (1937); Ambrose E.
Gonzales, _The Black Border: Gullah Stories of the Carolina Coast_
(1922).

There is a variant "dry so long."

Regards,
David Barnhart

David K. Barnhart, Editor
The Barnhart Dictionary Companion [quarterly]
barnhart at highlands.com
www.highlands.com/Lexik

"Necessity obliges us to neologize."
Thomas Jefferson-August 16, 1813