[Ads-l] Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Margaret Lee wrote:
>  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.

Thanks, Margaret Lee. It looks like the reference "Juba to Jive"
points to the information provided by "WF, DAS" which is an
abbreviation for "Dictionary of American Slang" (1967) by Harold
Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner. I will try to track down the
specifics listed in the 1967 reference.

[ref] 1994, Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang,
Edited by Clarence Major, Quote Page 504, Viking: Penguin Group, New
York. (Verified with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Wham bam (1880s-1990s) quick, impersonal sexual intercourse. (WF, DAS,
p. 573.) SNU. See "Wham bam (thank you ma'am)."

Wham bam [thank you ma'am] (1880s-1990s) quick, impersonal sexual
intercourse followed by a perfunctory word of gratitude; used more as
a description of such an event than by the participants. (WF, DAS, p.
573.) SNU.
[End excerpt]

"SNU" is an abbreviation for "Southern and northern use".

Garson

>     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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