"Mop" in Caldonia (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

It's just an exclamation used to mark the beat, probably originally a
variation on "bop," or the other way around, though possibly not,
since "bop" may be a clip of "be-bop." Or not. IAC, it's completely
without meaning.

I remember Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five very well, since they were
featured in dozens of Sepiatone movies made for the cinematic version
of the chitlin circuit. Therre wasn't anything similar for Charlie
Yardbird and le grand Dizzy. I know when (be-)bop was hip, but I have
no useful idea as to when or how the term came about. Other people
have ideas about this, but I have no more faith in
their ideas than I have in my own.
WRT to movies, you never knew what chitlin-circuit flick you might
see. Would you believe, e.g. Roy Acuff's "Night Train to Memphis" and
various shorts by the Sons of the Pioneers and Bob Wills and the Texas
Playboys? These were in addition to the usual Westerns featuring Ken
Maynard and "Tarzan," The Wonder Horse, Whip Wilson, Lash Larue, and
other giants of the field.

-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 Thu, May 21, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â "Mop" in Caldonia (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> In the song "Caldonia", in some versions, the lyrics go: Â "What makes
> your big head so hard"? and the audience responds "MOP!"
>
> What does "mop" mean?
>
> This:
>
> http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2009_05_20.html#017150
>
>
> is the origin of the question.
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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