Mother Popcorn

[Scot LaFaive]

Can you clarify for us youngsters what exactly you mean by an "ass man?"

Scot

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 9:18 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Mother Popcorn
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>
> 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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> >
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