get one's habits on/get beside oneself

[Wilson Gray]

Except for the line in song by Willie Mabon, I've never heard it used
except by other black Texans. It reminds me of the somewhat similar
situation with the hide-and-(go)-seek chant, "Last Night, Night
Before." It again seems to be the case that a particular expression is
known or used primarily by black Texans and black Tennesseans. As the
blues line goes,

"T" for "Texas" and "T" for "Tennessee"

I had no idea that The Blues Brothers had covered "I Don't Know." Their
versions of particular pieces of black music wouldn't be such a
travesty, if they showed any ability to understand BE. In their cover
of "Rubber Biscuit," they left out the words, "Woody Woody Pecker
Pecker."

Given that the song is 99.44% gibberish, I'd think that the name of a
well-known cartoon character would leap out, even to a white hearer.

The verse from "I Don't Know" actually reads:

The woman I love _she_ got _dimples_ in her _jaws_ (i.e. BE for
"cheeks")
_The_ clothes she's wearing _is_ made out of the best of cloths
(pronounced as "claws")
Etc.

OTOH, is there really any reason to require of The Blues Brothers a
better ear for BE than that exhibited by an African-American
dialectologist who, dealing with this same song by this same singer,
transcribed - in a scholarly paper, no less - the phrase, "all the
women you got," as "all the women you guide" and transcribed Muddy
Waters' phrase, "ax-handled pistol," as "ax and a pistol"?

In any case, thank you for the effort.

-Wilson Gray

On Jul 24, 2005, at 4:34 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: get one's habits on/get beside oneself
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> 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
>