[Harp-L] The Language of the Blues

["Mox Gowland" <mox1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Glenn Weiser wrote:
>There's a cool new book on blues lingo out. Details are below.
Full disclosure: I'm quoted in the entry for Harp.
Debra DeSalvo - ''The Language of the Blues''<

>... explain not only the meaning of terms like "hobo", not to mention "voodoo", "crossroads", "balling the jack", "cool", "honey dripper", "killing floor", "juke", and
over 100 more both common & obscure, but their origins, evolution, and current usage. Debra then adds historical data and lists of songs that use the language.<

I'm a little confused, because the description that follows as it is almost identical  to a book first published by Soul Bag in France in 1985/6. 
It contains all these terms and up to 1800 others 
The title was "Talkin That Talk - Le langage du Blues et du Jazz".
It's author - J.P. Levet - set out to create a French dictionary of American blues and jazz lyrics that would explain the true (if sometimes crude and mainly politically incorrect) meaning behind the songs.

For example (here I'm translating back into English) this commentary from Leroi Jones:
"They take there head in both hands, they say 'ooh! I love Bessie Smith' and they can't even see that Bessie Smith is singing at them ' Hey look at my ass, my big black ass"

I do hope that the work of  Debra DeSalvo is in the same vein. I look forward to reading it.
(BTW, sorry Glenn but your not mentioned in the '86 version :-< )

à+
Mox