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

[George Thompson]

Thanks.  I thought that that would be the case, but I wanted to be sure that it was by a native speaker of BE.

""deep killer" was one of the transcriptions I saw by Google.  I've always heard "'ticular" (not, actually, "particular",) but I wouldn't go to the stake maintaining that as the truth.

My daughter, Elizabeth Sarah, is named in honor of Bessie Smith.

GAT


George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 10:01 pm
Subject: Re: antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU


> 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: <, where one can also find various
> other "high yellow"s in the concordance.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org