Re: [Harp-L] "signifyin"

[Mojo Red <harplicks@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Reach, but all that signifyin' ain't about
nuthin'

Yeah, I grew up in Detroit (back in the day) and
had a lot of black friends. I learned about
"playin' the dozens" the hard way... mostly by be
playing dumb whitey until I learned how to hold my
own. "You throw that fooball almost as well as my
grandad... and he's been dead for 5 years."

It was all a form of boasting and taken in fun...
that is until the subject of someone's mama was
played. Then it got serious real fast. 

Harp content: I got more than a dozen harps and
none of them been run over by no truck, and I can
play em' better than you can play the dozens.

Harpin' in Colorado,
--Ken M.

--- Reach Mann <imreach@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> . . . from A Myth Of Origins, by Henry Louis
> Gates Jr.
> 
> "Black vernacular practice of signifacation,
> particularly oral practices involving double
> voiced
> trickery through indirection that can involve
> innuendo, needling, and ridiculing.
> Harp content- "Hey man, you call that a harp, I
> had
> one I found on the freeway got run over by a
> truck
> lookin better then that junker. And you think
> you're a
> bad boy harp player, my granny on a venalator
> could
> out draw you on her death bed. Hey, I was tootin
> a few
> tunes with your Momma the other day while you
> were at
> that harp lesson and she.....
> Reach 
> 
> 
> 
>        
>
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