Mother Popcorn

[Scot LaFaive]

Okay, so "popcorn" means something, "got to have a mother for me" means
something, but "mother popcorn" is just James Brown funkifying the language.

Scot

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 8:50 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <
bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Mother Popcorn
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 9:45 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 9:25 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Can anyone illuminate me on what James Brown means by "(mother) popcorn"
> in
> >> his song "Mother Popcorn?" I can only assume it isn't Orville
> Redenbacher.
> >
> > Well, the "popcorn" was a popular dance amongst the colored, when the
> > side was new. I was still young enough to be partying back, at the
> > time that the 45 dropped. However, it was never my impression that
> > "*Mother* Popcorn" had any special meaning, except, possibly, to JB
> > himself. At the time, I vaguely wondered only whether the popularity
> > of the popcorn had inspired JB to write the song or whether the
> > popularity of the song had inspired JB or someone else to devise a
> > dance to go along with it, a la the "twist."
>
> Some more info...
>
> ---
> http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/25/popcorn.html
> The first hint of Popcornitude turned up in January of 1968, with the
> release of
> an inconspicuous instrumental single called "Bringing Up The Guitar"...
> Brown
> started doing a little dance to "Bringing Up The Guitar" on stage, and it
> caught on. He called the dance the Popcorn, and in late August, 1968, the
> band
> re-recorded the instrumental as "The Popcorn" (credited to James Brown
> Plays &
> Directs). In fact, he wasn't playing, though he can be heard yelping a
> little;
> this time, Ellis switched to organ, and Maceo Parker contributed a smoking,
> curlicuing tenor sax part. It's not quite as crisp or funky as the first
> version, but when it was released in May 1969, it clicked, going to #11 on
> the
> R&B chart.
> Now, let's backtrack a little. In January of '69, he'd recorded a song
> called
> "You Got To Have A Mother For Me," the first blatant lyrical indication of
> what
> an ass-man he is.  ... When "The Popcorn" clicked, though, the Godfather
> moved-fast. (This, please note, was in a year when he released 13 singles
> and 4
> albums, and that's just counting the ones under his own name.) On May 13,
> he
> hybridized the words of "You Got To Have A Mother For Me" with the basic
> groove
> of "The Popcorn," and came up with "Mother Popcorn," one of the most
> monstrously
> funky records ever made.
> ---
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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