more Harlemese (1940)

[Wilson Gray]

Damn, Jim! That's heavy! Behind that, I'd best make like Ezzard and
hit the desert! I'm not sure that I could have pulled that out.

(Back in the day, "Jim" was the successor to "Jack" as the name by
which any male could be addressed, regardless of his actual name.
"That's heavy" is used in its old BE meaning of "That's an amazing
exhibition of knowledge or intelligence." "Make like Ezzard ..." is
roughly equivalent to James brown's famous, "[There was a time when
[Ben] used to dance! There was a time when [Ben] used to prance! There
was a dance they called the jerk!] Now, everybody ree-lax and watch
[Ben] work!" I.e., step aside and let the man kick some interpretive
ass! In the old Security Agency,"pull [something] out" was jargon for
"render intercepted Russian voice communications into English.")

"Jim, Dog," by the tenor saxophonist, Gene Ammons, ca.1957, albumized
in 1958, is possibly the earliest use of "dog" as "close friend,
buddy." However, since the piece is an instrumental bereft of any
words to explicate the meaning of its title, this is a WAG.

-Wilson


On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 10:17 AM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      more Harlemese (1940)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here's an excerpt from one of Dan Burley's "Back Door Stuff" columns
> entitled "A Harlem Cat Digs the World Sitchuashun" (introduced as a
> "discussion of world affairs by a Harlem Cat, in the new Harlemese").
> Note that Congressmen are "the Squares in Their Chairs".
>
> ---
> New York Amsterdam News, Feb. 15, 1940, p. 1
> ...
> Jive is beat, ole man, unless you dig the swing. The Apple's twirling,
> Jack, a deuce o' boxcars around the chimer, an' the Cat that's
> unhipped is like the chicken, ain't stickin' ole man, ain't stickin'.
> Latch onto this hard mess, stud hoss, an' you'll dig what I'm laying
> down: Them Bulls in the China Closet across the heavy drink are
> knocking the cutglass out an' spoiling the scenic effect while the
> Squares in Their Chairs in the Mighty Dome are shootin' for the side
> pocket and scratchin' every time.
> ...
> The translation: My lingo is useless unless you understand. The earth
> is spinning once every 24 hours and the person who doesn't know what's
> going on is as minus perception as a chicken is minus money. Listen to
> this discussion (hard mess), my friend, (stud hoss) and you'll
> understand my viewpoint. The Nazis, (bulls in the China Closet) across
> the ocean are breaking up everything, while our Congressmen (Squares
> in Their Chairs) in Washington (Mighty Dome) are doing everything
> wrong (shooting for the side pocket and scratching every time).
> ---
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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