[Ads-l] Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am
Margaret Lee
0000006730deb3bf-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sun May 10 10:35:26 UTC 2020
Clarence Major's _Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang_ traces 'wham bam, thank you, mam' as a sexual term back to the 1880's.
--Margaret Lee
On Sunday, May 10, 2020, 04:08:59 AM EDT, Stanton McCandlish <smccandlish at gmail.com> wrote:
Wikipedia on "Suffragette City" says: 'The "sexually charged" famous hook
"wham bam, thank you, ma'am!" previously appeared as the title of a song on
jazz bassist Charles Mingus's 1961 album Oh Yeah, as well as a 1967 song by
the Small Faces.' Cites: Doggett, Peter (2012). *The Man Who Sold the
World: David Bowie and the 1970s*. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN
978-0-06-202466-4. So, Black Oak Arkansas gets way less popularization
credit than I had in mind. :-)
On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 5:35 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> I also recall that David Bowie included the phrase in the lyrics of
> Suffragette City.
>
> YouTube Video
> Release Date: April 1972
> Song: Suffragette City
> Singer/Songwriter: David Bowie
> Location: 2:50 of 3:26
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLnPd7lzT4g
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Oooh-how, Sufragette City, oooh-how, Sufragette
> Ohhh, wham bam thank you ma'am
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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