[Ads-l] Is this blues sound _off the wall_? 😜

[Paul A Johnston, Jr]

Wilson,

One of my favorite harp instrumentals, and one of the first I learned how to play.  Never knew what it meant, though personally I used to use it meaning "Unusually amazing".  This sense was passed on to a few music freak friends of mine, but no further than that.

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2017 10:41:30 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Is this blues sound _off the wall_? 😜

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Is this blues sound _off the wall_? =?UTF-8?Q?=F0=9F=98=9C?=
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DCnjJMLJC5Os

Cited and dated in HDAS, which notes that "current meanings are not
attested before 1953." This is in line with my personal experience,
differing only to the extent that, before the blues instrumental cited was
released, ca. January, 1953, I was unaware that the phrase had any meaning
other than its literal one. After the record=E2=80=99s release, the phrase =
acquired
pejorative meanings like "lame, square, unhip," though the recording itself
was as well-liked in StL as it was anywhere else. As to whether there is
other than coincidence involved here, deponent sayeth not.

Cited, but undated, in Green=E2=80=99s; cited as recently as =E2=80=9906 in=
 the UD.

--=20
-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

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org