antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/10/07, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> Wilson Gray asks
> >
> > FWIW, I've never heard "high yellow" spoken by anyone of whatever
> > race, creed, color, nationality, or sexual orientation. Is there any
> > evidence that this has ever been used in the wild by anyone, even in
> > the past?
>
> This may not meet the "in the wild" requirement, but Bessie Smith sings "I aint no high
> yellow, I'm a most particular brown" in Young Woman Blues.  (As I remember it, and
> not attempting to capture her pronunciation.)
>
> Hunting in Google for the lyricist of this song, (if known), I see that the transcription of
> the words I hear as "most particular" varies greatly.
> The CD of her complete works that would give the lyricist isn't where it should be.  A crisis
> I will deal with another time.

I have that song on "The Complete Recordings, Vol. 3", where the
songwriting credit is given to Bessie Smith herself. Confirmed here:

http://www.redhotjazz.com/bessie.html

FWIW, Michael Taft's concordance of pre-war blues lyrics gives the
line as "I ain't no high yellow : I'm a *deep killer* brown". I'm
guessing the use of asterisks around "deep killer" indicates a
disputed transcription, though "deep killer" sounds plausible to me
from a quick listen.

See: <http://www.dylan61.se/taft.htm>, where one can also find various
other "high yellow"s in the concordance.


--Ben Zimmer

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