Ragged but Right, pt. 3 (jig)

[Jonathan Lighter]

> by the Greenbriar Boys.

Whose greatest song, IMO, was John Herald's "Alligator Man."

For those who don't know (and there must be some),  relative lack of
detail and reliance on cliches was a hallmark of 19th C. writing,
often incl. journalism.

JL

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 11:21 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt. 3 (jig)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Feb 2, 2012, at 10:46 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 10:29 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>>>
>>>    We have some blues; we have "The Memphis Blues," "The Jo-Go Blues,"
>>> also the "Baby Seal Blues," and we gave the gigs [sic, i. e., African
>>> Americans (note by Abbott & Seroff)] all the blues they want and you can
>>> just see them walking dogie [sic] when our band is playing.
>>>
>>>    "Notes from J. C. O'Brien's Famous Georgia Minstrels", *Indianapolis
>>> Freeman*, October 24, 1914
>>>
>>>    "Walking Dogie" appears to have been a grass-roots African American
>>> dance step specifically identified with emerging blues and jazz.  **  This
>>> was two years prior to the publication of Shelton Brooks' monumental "dance
>>> craze" hit, "Walking the Dog."  *Ragged but Right, *p. 212;  & fn. 17, p.
>>> 407
>>
>> ...and almost 50 years before the monumental Rufus Thomas hit of the
>> same name. (Actually, I think the Shelton Brooks song is properly
>> known as "Walkin' the Dog").
>>
>> --bgz
>>
> And still later there was the no doubt unrelated bluegrass song (and album) of that name ("Ragged but Right", that is) by the Greenbriar Boys.
>
> LH
>
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