Re: [Harp-L] Another man done goneZombor writes:

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

So how does Chuck fulfil his intention on 'parking way out' on a town?
RD

>>> Jon Harl <jonharl@xxxxxx> 1/11/2010 11:45 >>>
Kokomo is a town in Indiana.


On Oct 31, 2010, at 5:31 PM, Rick Dempster wrote:

> I have often chased up the meanings of obscure American-isms. Don't know how many times I've asked a US national about the word 'boondock'.
> None of them could get beyond "Hey, it means like, you know, out there in the sticks...the boondocks...." 
> So I looked in some dictionaries; it's from the Phillipino Tagalog  word, 'bundok' which means 'mountain'. The  US occupied the Phillipines following the war there in 1899, and  the
> word seems to have travelled back with the servicemen. Obviously the meaning has been bent somewhat, but the connection is clear enough.
> Took me quite a while to work out the meaning of 'kitty (or 'catty') corner' too: diagonally opposite, is what it means....yes?
> Howsabout: "You better 'stay out of black bottoms, they got your bathwaters on" ????? Black bottoms I worked out that one a long time ago, but 'bathwater'??
> The 'bathwater' image comes up quite a bit in country and blues. I asked an expat US muso here (the late lamented steel man, Pete Linden) about it.
> He said, after a bit of thought, that he thought it related to the days when people had to stoke up the fire to heat up their bathwater. So it appears it just means
> 'to get heated up', thus, ready for a fight etc.Funny how 
> What about 'Kokomo'? Still don't have an answer for that one, and it comes up quite a lot in American song:
> "No particular place to go, so we parked way out on the Kokomo"....from C.E.Berry....'Kokomo Arnold'.....is it a place?  a state of mind?"  ....anyone?
> I could go on, cobbers, but I'll call it quits for now,
> RD
> 
>>>> "John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx> 30/10/2010 10:47 >>>
> Zombor writes:
> If it was "another man has gone" I would understand. But what is  
> "done gone"? Is it some american expression?
> 
> It's African-American vernacular sometimes referred to as "ebonics."   
> Because of the cultural and geographic origins of blues music  (post  
> emancipation but pre-integration U.S.) African-American and rural  
> U.S. Southern-American vernacular and idiomatic expressions are  
> common in blues lyrics. Most  American born English speakers have  
> sufficient  exposure to African-American vernacular that they are  
> able to understand the slang expressions used in blues lyrics without  
> difficulty, but non-American English speakers or those for whom  
> English is a second language may find it more difficult to understand  
> such phrases and vocabulary in proper context.
> 
> JP
> 
>