"Sock It to Me"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 15, 2005, at 11:11 PM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Sock It to Me"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> I asked:
>> How 'bout Mose Allison?
>
>
> Wilson responded:
>>>>
> As a black man who sings like a white man? I didn't realize that he was
> black, though I have no problem accepting that he is, by virtue of the
> one-drop rule.
> <<<
>
> 'tother way round: as a white man who sings like a black man. Well,
> that's
> to my ear, which is rather tin in that range, or at least much less
> experienced than yours in the range of southern dialects of all colors.
>
> -- Mark
>

What I go by is what I think when I first hear a record by a person. I
blush to admit it, but when I first heard Chuck Berry, I thought that
he was some white, rock-a-billy stud, an amazing error, considering
that Chuck and I both grew up in St. Louis, we both lived there at the
beginning of his career, and he still maintains a home there. I thought
the same thing about Ray Sharpe, that he was white, despite the fact
that he was a fellow black native of East Texas. He was a one-hit
wonder with the rock-a-billy classic, "(They Call My Baby
Patty?/Betty?, But Her Real Name, Her Real Name Is) Linda Lu."  WRT
him, I was half-right. Rock-a-billy *was* his bag. He made a modest
living playing against type, like that black country-singer whose name
escapes me.

I thought that Bobby Darrin was black, behind "Splish-Splash," his
first hit, helped by the fact that the song was first broken to
black-oriented stations. Afterward, it was, "You guys thought that I
was black, but I'm really white! Now, I can cross back and start making
some real money!" I thought that Roy "The Houston Flash" Head, a
one-hit wonder with "Treat Her Right," was black until I saw him on
American Bandstand. Likewise WRT Tony Joe White, another one-hit wonder
with "Polk-Salad Annie."

People like Johnny Mathis (Ebony, etc.) and Mose Allison (Downbeat,
etc.) were already so well-known that I didn't have a chance to listen
to them with an open mind. This was also true of Elvis. I read an
article about him in the paper touting him as the newest Great White
Hope, so to speak, before I ever heard him sing. When I eventually did
hear "Heartbreak Hotel," I was quite impressed. He more than lived up
to the hype. But, since I already knew that he was white, there was
nothing about his singing to make me think that he sounded black. And I
still think that Elvis was always Elvis and not just some white guy who
sang like a black guy, regardless of what the Colonel is supposed, ex
post facto, to have said.

-Wilson