Language
BLUES Vocabulary - Bluesology
Introduction:
American Blues has established colorful language of its own, responding to the heartfelt music. Most terms come from the rural African-American experience or the melting pot of New Orleans with all kind of ethnic and linguistic elements.
The language of African-Americans was - with regard to their position inside then society - oftenly coded, as though cryptic, and always two-faced. Whites simply shouldn´t and also couldn´t understand it. Every time, when white audience adopt another part of African-American music with its slogans, black musicians started to use some new allegories.
In Blues slang there were naturally plenty of innuendo of sex, crime, jail, underworld, alcohol a later even drugs there - and these lyrics naturally corresponded with the reality of life and position of then Bluesmen in the society. Let´s not forget: Blues and Jazz were styles of music - particullary at the beggining - engaged mainly in whore-houses, barrelhouses, juke joints and frequently with the origin in penitentiaries. And sexuality, even always hidden in metaphors and insinuations, was always one of determinant components of Blues argot, although comparing to recent television and commercial production it seems to be just tame and innocent.
This glossary neceserilly contains only some of the basic terms. In majority they are more than one hundred years old and today already almost archetypal phrases. Some of them are more recent, from the sphere of musicians jargon. But without understanding to these expressions, the listener can´t fully enjoy the exotic, specific African-American way of thinking and breezy folk poetry of the Blues.
That´s why I have considered useful to help the lovers of Blues - but also Jazz and Rock, simply American music with basic terminological orientation. If you pay some attention to Bluesology at least few minutes, you can get interesting knowledges from the American history. And I believe you´ll have even some fun, because Blues it´s not only - as it sometimes comes down in a simlified way - the bitterness and sorow, but also keen sence of humor and allegoric, but piercing irony!
Warning:Following content ain´t absolutely convenient for extremly crazy protectors of animals, human rights and minorities, for furious exponents of the political correctness, for falsificators of the history or for prudish hypocritical squares. This is the Real Life, the Real Blues. You better move on to the web sites of good messages carriers, bells of happiness and catchers of butterflies on a glade, you won´t meet the actual life there for sure!
Part 1 - A-G
- Alligator - also 'Gator or Gate. 1. Originally dance from Florida that involves squirming on the dance floor. 2. Slang term for "musician", later also music devotee. Louis Armstrong was often called not only 'Satchmo' (Satchel Mouth), but also 'Gate Mouth'(Alligator Mouth). Piece of authentic dialog: Cat 1: See ya later, alligator ! Cat 2: After while, crocodile... Adopted in mid fifties by white musicians and also audience of Rock and Roll (e.g. Bill Haley and his Comets: See you later Alligator, Robert Guidry - 1956 Harman Music Ltd.).
- Back Door Man / Friend - the secret lover who sneaks inside or out of the back door mostly in the twilight or by night before the man of the house gets home (e.g. Howlin´Wolf: Back Door Man).
- Black cat bone - part of Hoodoo magic (see!). Every black cat has within its body one bone that will either grant the owner invisibility or can be used to bring back a lost lover. To secure this bone, a black cat must be thrown alive into a cauldron of boiling water at midnight preferably when the moon is full. The animal dies in agony, and the practitioner boils the carcass until the meat falls off the bones. Some say that the special bone will be the top one left when the water boils away, others say it can only be found by placing each bone in turn beneath the tongue while an assistant stands by to notify the practitioner that he has become invisible, and still others swear that if all the bones are thrown into a stream that runs north the desired bone will be one that floats on the water and heads south. Once found, the black cat bone is carried in a Mojo bag (see!) is bringing back a lost lover. The oil or fat of the cat was also used for anointing gambler's charms…(e.g. Muddy Waters: Hoochie Coochie Man).
- Boogie-Woogie - a Blues style most associated with the piano that uses a steady eight beat ostinato in the left hand. From the ragtime and stride piano. traditions of New Orleans and Kansas City, popularized in late-1920s in Chicago, it evolved into a very Texas musical form.
- Bottleneck - a piece of metal or glass tubing on a guitarist's fretting finger to produce sliding tones (originally bottleneck of broken whiskey bottle).
- Barrelhouse - colloquialism describing the 'low' saloons at the turn of the century (19th) that served whiskey straight out of the barrel. Originally, "Barrelhouse Music" was the type of piano music (also called 'Fast Western') played in those cabarets.
- Blow - a jazzmen / bluesmen term for playing wind instrument or harp. Ex: That cat really "blows."
- C.C. Rider - the "easy rider", also known as "See See Rider" "C C Rider" or simply "rider" is a blues cliché for the sexual partner. A prostitute's boyfriend or anyone who gets a free ride in exchange for sex. He doesn't work or pay for sex. (e. g. Big Bill Broonzy, C. C. Rider - later also Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis etc.)
- Cajun - musical style and generally culture in very original ethnic mixture. Cajun music is the music of the descendants of French-speaking Catholics from Acadiana in Canada. Then influences of Creol music from Carribic and certainly Africa were mixed- up to it. French language, violin and accordeon is characteristic. Original basis of the Zydeco music (see).
- Canned Heat - Sterno. Jellied alcohol that could heat your food or get you very drunk.
- Captain - The big boss man. The plantation owner or prison guard. In old work songs and prison blues. Ex.: Leadbelly - Take this hammer, Midnight Special
- Cats - bluesmen, jazzmen, or people who love that music. Ex: Man, them "cats" are really blowin' up a storm.
- Cold in hand - having no money, stay flat (Ex: Bukka White- District Attorney Blues)
- Cool - 1. jazz style originated (1950s) on West Coast. Describes a restrained intellectual, rather than emotional, approach to music. 2. Now a widely used superlative. Ex: That´s cool! or He's one "cool" cat.
- Crossroad - symbol of the journey, the decision, has the magical legend. In rural african folklore, the intersection of two roads was often regarded as an evil place, the site of black magic. The crossroads ritual is currently best known in popular American culture through the recent acceptance of a spurious legend that the famous 1930s blues singer Robert Johnson claimed that he had learned how to play guitar by selling his soul to the devil
- Delta - Fertile flat land in western Mississippi that was the heart of the slavery and cotton eras.
- Diddly-bo - a single-string instrument played with a bottleneck and often constructed on the side of a house, which serves as the resonator. These people living on Delta had no money for real musical instruments back then. Diddly-bo probably has something to do with the name of Bo-Diddly, famous Amerian-African ingenuin rock&roll pioneer. He tells everybody he doesn´t know, what his nick rally means.
- Doggone - blast, damnation, darned, dash it, oh fuck! Damned, lost or crazy. E.g. Doggon soul- Big Joe Turner :Shake Rattle and Roll.
- Dry so long - being poor, not having enough food and clothing and other essential things to last through the winter. E.g. Robert Johnson-Come On In My Kitchen.
- Dust My Broom - Break up with a woman. Start an new life by cleaning out the old, “shaking her off“. There might also be a sexual connotation. E.g. Robert Johnson, Elmore James - Dust My Broom.
- Eagle (flies on Friday) – payday in USA. Eagle was on every 1 Dollar coin. But…on Friday after getting paycheck, one could go to pub, enjoy music, alcohol, dancing and sex. So there might also be another sexual connotation (E.g. B.B. King- Call It Stormy Monday Blues.)
- Fall In - Arrive on the scene Ex: "I 'fell in' with 'Duke' at the Apollo Theater last night."
- Flagging (a train, a ride) - to signal for a train or ride to stop, to hitch a ride.
- Gas - a performance or anything else that really moves you. Ex: The way he plays is a real gas.
- Gig - a paying job. The musician's engagement probably derives immediately from the gig that is a dance or party, but gig, gigi or giggy also are old slang terms for the vulva; the first has been dated to the seventeenth century. Ex: I've got a gig next Monday night.
- Goin' up/down the line - a "line" is a railroad track or route, then "goin' up the line" means traveling north and "goin' down the line" traveling south. Ex: Little Walter – Up The Line, B.B. King – Everyday I Have the Blues.
- Golden leaf (or Hard-cutting mez) - the best marihuana (Weed, Rope, Pot, Tea, Stash, Ganja etc.)
- Goofer/Goofy Dust - dust picked up from a grave, preferably that of a child, which is sprinkled on a victims pillow or in its clothes in order to put a spell on the victim or bring him/her death. E.g. Bessie Smith – Lady Luck Blues.
- Grind (grinding, coffee grinder) - metaphor for lover or love making. Many metaphors used in the blues were derived from the process of cooking and other closely related culinary terms. The shade of color of a black person also played a role: "honey " was used for a light-skinned person and "coffee" for a deeper shade thus resulting in terms like "honey dripper" and "coffee grinder" as methaphors for a lover. Grinding (coffee in a grinder or wheat in a mill) therefore means having regular sex.
- Groove - Musician's term for rhythm. The background rhythmic feel of a piece of music (often groove-funk-acid jazz).
- Groovy - very chic, great or high - groovy clothes, groovy afternoon, feeling groovy. Musically denotes something, that really swings. Ex: Man, dig that groovy beat.
TO BE CONTINUED SOON…
