Mother Popcorn

[Wilson Gray]

A playa, a playboy, a seducer, a casanova, a user of women, an
assmaster, a swordsman, a don juan.

There's also a possibility that it means someone who has a preference
for women with broad hips, large arses, and meaty, meaty thighs, but I
doubt it. Saying that a black man is an "ass-man" in that sense is
like going out of one's way to point out that Playboy and Penthouse
centerfold girls pose nude. Why point out what everyone already knows?
Cf., e.g. Baby Got Back, by "Sir Mix-a-Lot":

Turn around
Stick it out
Even *white* boys got to shout
"Baby got back!"

Besides, the standard phrase is "fine-behin' man," if this
predilection needs to be referenced, not "ass-man."

-Wilson
–––
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 10:23 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Scot LaFaive <slafaive at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Mother Popcorn
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Mother Popcorn
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>
>> 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.
>> =E2=80=93=E2=80=93=E2=80=93
>> 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:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender: =C2 Â =C2 Â =C2 Â American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=
>>
>> > Poster: =C2 Â =C2 Â =C2 Â Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>> > Subject: =C2 Â =C2 Â =C2 Re: Mother Popcorn
>> Â >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>> >
>> > 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, t=
> he
>> 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 firs=
> t
>> > 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. =C2 ... When "The Popcorn" clicked, though, the Godfa=
> ther
>> Â > 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 1=
> 3,
>> he
>> > hybridized the words of "You Got To Have A Mother For Me" with the basi=
> c
>> groove
>> > of "The Popcorn," and came up with "Mother Popcorn," one of the most
>> monstrously
>> > funky records ever made.
>> > ---
>> >
>> >
>> > --Ben Zimmer
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
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