Mother Popcorn

[Wilson Gray]

Interesting, Ben.

But, James Brown an "ass-man"? Who knew? He had no such reputation,
back in the day, it being such a well-known fact that any famous man,
from Presidents on down, brings P, that JB was doing it, too,
engendered no particular interest.
–––
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



On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 9:50 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â 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. Â ... 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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