" tree-top tall" (was: Re: "sugar daddy")

[Wilson Gray]

"Turn your damper down" means "take the pressure to perform sexually
off me." Interestingly enough, failure to perform is not usually an
embarrassment for the man, since the superior sexuality of the woman
is the reason for it. A more recent, ca. 1952, R&B song, called Take
All of Me, has the verses:

Hey, stop! Wait a minute, baby!
Whatcha tryna to do to me?!
You know I'm not able to take it!
I'm not like I used to be!
My baby's tryna take all of me
My baby's tryna take all of me
My baby's tryna take all of me
An' I'm weak, weak, so weak!

aby, hol' it!
Don't roll it!
Tåke it easy, baby,
An' control it!
My baby's tryna take all of me,
Etc.

That is, the point of the song is that his girl friend is simply too
much woman for him. An' it sho' ain't nothin' wrong wit' dat! As
another song says,

My baby's got the best washin'-machine
The best washin'-machine in town!
Unnnh! Unnnh!
Ooh-wee! What a machine!

"Tree-top tall" means "taller than the average person," probably used
merely as filler, here. Traditionally, a woman has to be fat in order
to be "phat(t)." Height is not particularly relevant as a measure of
sex appeal. As Sir Mix-A-Lot notes, in Baby Got Back, "If she's
36-24-36, she'd best be only five-foot-three," or words to that
effect.

-Wilson


On 6/22/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: " tree-top tall" (was: Re: "sugar daddy")
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks for the responses.  But I'm still unclear about the meaning of =
> the song's lyrics ("Hey, Mama, tree-top-tall, won't you kindly turn your =
> damper down.")  What does "tree top tall" mean?  And by asking his woman =
> to turn her damper down,=20
> what exactly is the singer referring to? To amorousness? To anger?  To =
> something else?
> =20
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Margaret Lee
> Sent: Thu 6/22/2006 3:34 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: " tree-top tall" (was: Re: "sugar daddy")
>
>
>
> I grew up in a home with wood/coal-burning stoves and am very familiar =
> with damper as well as coal -scuttle. One of my childhood chores was to =
> fill the scuttle with coal from the storage bin in the backyard and =
> bring it into the house.
>
>   Margaret Lee
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   "... turn your _temper_ down"? I think that that's an eggcorn. The
> standard phrase is "turn your _damper_ down." Of course, I come from a
> different school, wherein people still _damp_ their enthusiasm, etc.,
> instead of _dampening_ it.
>
> For the enlightenment of those too young or too wealthy to be familiar
> with the use of , e.g. wood- or coal-burning stoves for heating and
> cooking, the damper was a device built into a stovepipe so that the
> rate of flow of air through the stove could be controlled. Turning the
> damper down "damped" the air flow by partially blocking the stovepipe,
> thereby lowering the rate at which the fuel burned, thereby lowering
> the stove's caloric output. Turning the damper up increased the rate
> of air flow by unblocking the stovepipe, thereby increasing the rate
> at which the fuel burned, thereby increasing the stove's caloric
> output. "Up" and "down" were jargon. Turning the damper "down"
> actually moved the damper toward the vertical, whereas turning the
> damper "up" moved it toward the horizontal. Or vice versa, according
> to the damper's placement in the stovepipe.
>
> BTW, is the term, "coal-scuttle," familiar to anyone else, here?
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 6/21/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
> > Subject: " tree-top tall" (was: Re: "sugar daddy")
> > =
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > I remember a song from the 1950s or '60's, with the lyrics: "Hey, =
> Mama, =3D
> > tree-top tall, won't you kindly turn your temper down." I've always =
> =3D
> > assumed that "tree-top tall" here somehow refers to anger. Evidently =
> =3D
> > "tree-top tall" has had one more than one meaning in American English.
> > =3D20
> > Gerald Cohen
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
> > Sent: Tue 6/20/2006 8:59 PM
> > Subject: Re: "sugar daddy"
> >
> >
> >
> > FWIW, according to my mother, when she was in high school,
> > ca.1923-1927, the ideal boy friend was defined in chickspeak as "a
> > _sweet papa_, tree-top tall."
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
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