Behind the sun

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not to disillusion you, Wilson, but I've never encountered this idiom before - or never noticed it if I did. Thanks.

  It unreasonably reminds me of the Scandinavian folk tale called (by the great Andrew Lang?) "East o' Sun and West o' Moon."

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Behind the sun
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Jon,
It finally occurred to me where I could find a cite for this, a
traditional (i.e. Wilsonic for "probably predates 1914, the year that
my mother was born") BE slang term for "in the South, down South, down
home, over home," etc. So, ay wa-la:

Louisiana Blues
by
McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield

Chess Records, Inc.
Chicago, IL
October 23, 1950

I'm goin' to Louisiana
Baby, behind the sun

There exists an instrumental with the title, "Behind The Sun," that
may date back to 1947, but, unfortunately, I haven't yet found a cite
for it with a specific date, just stuff like, "between 1945 and 1953,
he recorded," etc.

By coincidence, Sonny "Long Gone" Thompson, the man who wrote and
originally recorded "Behind The Sun" was - he died in 1983 - an old
family friend.

-Wilson, still unable to resist dropping a name

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