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Alligator
/ 'Gator
A dance from Florida that involves squirming on the dance floor.
Amplification
The act of increasing the magnitude of a signal without altering any
of its other qualities, or the use of a device (amplifier) that does
this. Specifically important in the transition from acoustic blues,
where amplification was rarely used in live performance, to electric
blues, where performers began using amplifiers, particularly with guitars
and harmonicas, to increase the volume and power of their performance.
Musical-instrument amplifiers are also frequently used to alter the
tone of the instrument's signal ("distortion").
Axe
Gang
A group of manual laborers, under the supervision of a foreman, using
axes to chop wood, either to clear a piece of land, or for fuel. While
axe gangs could be composed of free laborers, those whose work songs
were recorded by the folklorists of the early 20th century were frequently
composed of prisoners.
Back
Door Man
A clandestine lover who must sneak out the back door as the as the husband/wife
comes in the front door.
Balling
the Jack
A railroad work term that quickly became a metaphor for lovemaking.
It was also the name of a popular dance step in the 1940's.
Barrelhouse
A colloquial term, originating around the late 1800s, used specifically
to refer to a bar that served liquor (especially whiskey) straight from
the barrel, but more widely understood to mean any rough and rowdy drinking
establishment. "Barrelhouse piano" is a distinct style that
arose out of such establishments and is characterized by the highly
percussive and loud style that was necessary to encourage dancing in
such venues.
Beale
Street
"I didn't think of Memphis as Memphis. I thought of Beale Street
as Memphis" ~ BB King
Located in Memphis,
Tennessee, Beale Street was the central street in what was considered
by many in the early 20th century to be the capital of black America.
The Beale Street district, despite being the product of a strictly segregated
city, was at the time a self-sustaining neighborhood that offered African
Americans a comparative degree of freedom rarely found elsewhere. Beale
Street's wide-open atmosphere and the crowds it generated attracted
droves of musicians from throughout the region, making it synonymous
with the blues. Reform in the 1940s and urban renewal in the late 1960s
slowed the Beale Street neighborhood; however, it has recently begun
a successful revival as a tourist-oriented entertainment district.
Biscuit
/ Biscuit Roller
Among metaphors themes used in blues music, culinary themes are especially
comon. A desirable young girl was called a biscuit and a good lover
was called a biscuit roller.
Black
Cat Bone
A mystical charm that is actually a bone from a black cat that has been
ritually processed. Carried for good luck or to bring back the wayward
lover. Costly and valued, its scarcity was largely due to the elaborate
ceremony which was required for its preparation. 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 kettle of boiling water at midnight.
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 (uncommon in most of North America), 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 and anointed with Van Van Oil to bring
back the lost lover. The oil or fat of the cat is bottled for use as
a candle dressing and for anointing gambler's charms.
Black
Gypsy (Woman)
During the 1920s, the entire Gypsy cold-reading patter, including the
"dark spirit hovering over you" portion was transmitted verbatim
to urban African-Americans by contact with Gypsy fortune tellers. Hoodoo
workers who adopted this routine -- in those days at least -- also tended
to dress themselves in some of the then-typical Gypsy garb, such as
hoop earrings and head scarves. They called themselves "Black Gypsies."
Acoustic rural blues songs from the period prior to the Second World
War often contain references to hoodoo that shed light on how it was
practiced in earlier times. In "Black Gypsy Blues" by Walter
"Furry" Lewis, recorded at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee,
on September 22, 1929, the singer compares his difficult but seemingly
omniscient lover to a Black Gypsy reader (and also manages to include
two once-popular dances -- the Eagle Rock and the Sally Long -- and
a railroad line -- the New York Central -- in his grab-bag of imagery).
It is interesting to note that Furry Lewis' use of the negative term
"Black Gypsy" for his soon-to-be-ex-lover is almost exactly
contemporaneous with Will Shade's use of the highly positive term "fortune
telling woman" in The Memphis Jug Band's 1930 recording of a blues
about the well-respected Spiritualist reader Aunt Caroline Dye.
Blues
Musical form that came from rural African-American experience. Characterized
by a 12-bar, bent-note melody in which bad luck and trouble are always
present. W.C. Handy was the first trained musician to capture the sounds
of Blues on paper. In 1909, Handy penned the first written Blues song
"Mr. Crump Blues" in the Pee Wee's Saloon on Beale Street
in Memphis, Tennesse.
Boll Weevil
An insect that eats cotton. This pest was responsible for crop failures
that plagued the South.
Boogie
Chillun
The word boogie has several meanings: to move quickly, to get going,
to dance to (rock) music and to party. Chillun refers to children.
Boogie-Woogie
Boogie-woogie refers to a particular style of jazz/blues piano, typically
played at a rapid tempo, in which the left hand maintains a repeated
rhythmic and melodic pattern in the bass and the right hand handles
improvised variations in the treble. Arising most likely in the Midwest
around the beginning of the 20th century, it spread widely in blues
circles during the 1920s, gaining its name for posterity with the 1928
recording "Pinetop's Boogie-Woogie," by Clarence "Pine
Top" Smith. Through the 1930s and 1940s, elements of boogie-woogie,
particularly its repetitive blues bass lines, became integral components
of big-band jazz, and would in later years form an important foundation
of jump blues and early rock 'n' roll.
Bourbon
Street
Named for the dynasty that ruled France when New Orleans, Louisiana,
was founded in the early 1700s, Bourbon Street has ever since been one
of the major streets of the city's "French Quarter." With
increasing tourists and military visitation during the 1920s and 1930s,
Bourbon Street began establishing its current reputation as an all-hours
destination for food, drink, and entertainment, and its clubs have thus
served as an important musical "school" for city musicians
of many genres, particularly blues and early R&B.
British
Blues
More than a mere geographical distinction, the early British blues of
the late 1950s and early 1960s paid strict adherence to replicating
American blues genres, with an admiration for its originators bordering
on reverence. But by the time of the blues revival of the mid-1960s,
British guitarists-mainly led by Eric Clapton-were starting to bend
the form to create their own amalgam. Wedding the string-bending fervor
of the BB, Albert, and Freddie King styles to the extreme volume produced
by large amplifiers, British blues largely coalesced into blues-rock,
with formerly traditional blues artists like the Rolling Stones and
Clapton becoming rock stars. The British style has perhaps the closest
ties to rock music as opposed to rock 'n' roll, a distinct stylistic
descendant of the 1950s. It is this constant shift between preserving
older styles and mainstreaming it into the pop marketplace that is the
hallmark of British blues—(Erlewine, et al., eds. All Music Guide
to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1999.)
Back to Top
Call
and Response
A musical term referring to the alternation between two musical voices
in a work, particularly that between a solo singer (the "call")
and a group chorus (the "response"). In the blues, the call
and response structure may have derived in part from work and gospel
songs, and is particularly prominent in Delta blues and styles arising
from it, in which the solo performer often uses his guitar to respond
to, and sometimes even complete, his vocal line.
Canned Heat
A particularly lethal drink which was obtained by extracting the alcohol
from solidified methylated spirits which was sold as a fuel for outdoor
cooking. (Sterno). Canned heat could be bought from street dealers who
had made a business out of this process. A similar drink was obtained
by drawing off contaminated alcohol from proprietory brands of boot
polish.
Captain
A term of address conventionally demanded of black employees by Southern
white bosses. "Captain" frequently appeared in work songs,
referring either specifically or generally to the white foreman or prison
warden.
C.C. Rider
A prostitute's boyfriend or anyone who gets a free ride in exchange
for sex. Also see:"Easy Rider".
Chicago
Blues
What is now referred to as the classic Chicago blues style was developed
in the late 1940s and early 1950s, taking Delta blues, fully amplifying
it, and putting it into a small-band context. Adding drums, bass, and
piano (and sometimes saxophones) to the basic string band and harmonica
aggregation, the style created the now standard blues band lineup. The
form was (and is) flexible to accommodate singers, guitarists, pianists,
and harmonica players as featured performers in front of the standard
instrumentation. Later permutations of the style took place in the late
1950s and early 1960s, with new blood taking their cue from the lead-guitar
work of BB King and T-Bone Walker, creating the popular West Side subgenre
(which usually featured a horn section appended to the basic rhythm
section). Although the form has also embraced rock beats, it has generally
stayed within the guidelines developed in the 1950s and early 1960s.—(Erlewine,
et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat
Books, 1999.)
Chicken Shack
A food establishment where a party could also be found.
Coffee
Grinder / Grinding
A 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 sex, see also
balling the jack.
Cold
In Hand
Having no money.
Crepe(r)
A meaningless symbol of mourning. The woman in question would post it
on the door to declare the death of her feelings for a man.
Creeper
A clandestine lover who sneaks around town. The Midnight Creeper.
Country
Blues
Country blues is a catchall term that delineates the depth and breadth
of the first flowering of guitar-driven blues, embracing solo, duo,
and string band performers. The term also provides a convenient general
heading for all the multiple regional styles and variations (Piedmont,
Atlanta, Memphis, Texas, acoustic Chicago, Delta, ragtime, folk, songster,
etc.) of the form. It is primarily—but not exclusively—a genre
filled with acoustic guitarists, embracing a multiplicity of techniques
from elaborate fingerpicking to the early roots of slide playing. But
some country-blues performers like Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker
later switched over to electric guitars without having to drastically
change or alter their styles.—(Erlewine, et al., eds. All Music
Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1999.)
Delta
Fertile flat land in western Mississippi that was the heart of the slavery
and cotton eras.
Delta
Blues
The Delta blues style comes from a region in the southern part of Mississippi,
a place romantically referred to as "the land where the blues was
born." In its earliest form, the style became the first black guitar-dominated
music to make it onto phonograph records back in the late 1920s. Although
many original Delta blues performers worked in a string-band context
for live appearances, very few of them recorded in this manner. Consequently,
the recordings from the late 1920s through mid-1930s consist primarily
of performers working in a solo, self-accompanied context. The form
is dominated by fiery slide guitar and passionate vocalizing, with the
deepest of feelings being applied directly to the music. Its lyrics
are passionate as well, and in some instances remain the highest flowering
of blues songwriting as stark poetry. The form continues to the present
time with new performers working in the older solo artist traditions
and style.—(Erlewine, et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues.
2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1999.)
Doney
/ Doe
A "no good doney" is a woman of low character.
Dozens
An insult game usually about your mother.
Dry
Long So
The phrase "dry long so" is a dialectic description of being
poor. It also means pointlessly, or without a cause.
Dust
My Broom
Break up with a lover. Start an new life by cleaning out the old.
Eagle Rock
Popular dance from the 1920's - performed with the arms outstretched
with wings and the body rocking from side to side.
Easy
Rider
The easy rider, also known as "see see" rider or "c c"
rider (see also Rider), is a blues metaphor for the sexual partner.
Originally it referred to the guitar hung on the back of the traveling
bluesman. The word easy has different meanings for the female and male
lover: applied to a woman it is an expression of admiration but applied
to a male it usually carries the meaning of reckless and unfaithful.
Electric
Blues
Electric blues is an eclectic genre that embraces just about every kind
of blues that can be played on an amplified instrument. Its principal
component is that of the electric guitar, but its amplified aspect can
extend to the bass (usually a solid body Fender type model, but sometimes
merely an old "slappin''' acoustic with a pickup attached), harmonica,
and keyboard instruments. Stylistically, the form is a wide-open field,
accessible to just about every permutation possible— embracing
the old, the new, and sometimes the futuristic. Some forms of it copy
the older styles of urban blues (primarily the Chicago, Texas, and Louisiana
variants), usually in a small-combo format, while others head into funk
and soul territory. Yet electric blues is elastic enough to include
artists who pay homage to those vintage styles of playing while simultaneously
recasting them in contemporary fashion. It is lastly a genre that provides
a convenient umbrella for original artists of late 1940s and early 1950s
derivation that seemingly resist neat classifications.—(Erlewine,
et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat
Books, 1999.)
Faror
A Mississippi blues synonym for girl friend. It's pronounced like "pharaoh".
Fat
Mouth
A flatterer, a buffoonish loudmouth who tries to woo a woman with praise.
Field
Hollers
Field hollers are a class of rural African American vocal performance
performed by an individual (as opposed to a group) while engaged in
manual labor, and unaccompanied by any instrument. Folklorists documenting
the music in the early portions of the 20th century first used the term,
although field hollers were in existence before that time. Field hollers
are generally slower and much less rigid in musical form than group
work songs, combine lyrical phrases common to the community with individual
interpretations and improvisations, and are most often lamenting or
sorrowful in subject matter. Because they established and expanded a
musical tradition of individual expression and common lyrical phrases,
field hollers are considered an important antecedent of the blues form.
Flagging (a train, a ride)
To hitch a ride or to signal someone to stop. Hitchhike or jump a passing
freight train.
Gandy
Dancers
Railroad workers who straightened track to a call and response work
song.
Georgia
Crawl
This is a Georgia dance, a rather sexy one like a lot of blues dances
were.
Goin' Up The Line / Goin' Down The Gline
A "line" is a railroad route, therefore "goin' up the
line" probably means traveling north on a train and "goin'
down the line" traveling south; derivative of being sold down the
river. This expression came about from slaves who were sold into the
Deep South, or "sold down the river".
Goofer
/ Goofy Dust
Powdered earth gathered from a grave, preferably that of a child, which
is sprinkled on a victims pillow, around its home or in its clothes
in order to cast a spell on the victim or bring death (voodoo). See
also hot foot powder. In the blues song "Black Dust Blues,"
composed by Selma Davis and Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and recorded
by Ma Rainey in 1928 for Paramount, the singer, who has been "fixed"
by a rival with a powder thrown on her door step, develops a classic
case of goofering: she has "trouble with [her] feet" and ends
up "walking on all fours."
Great
Migration, The
The Great Migration was a mass movement during the first half of the
20th century, during which millions of African Americans from primarily
rural locations in the Southern United States moved to urban locations,
particularly in the North. The migration occurred in two major waves,
each centered around the World Wars, during which a great need for industrial
workers arose in Northern (and later Western) cities. Although this
promise of reliable employment attracted many, as did the hope for living
conditions that were better and less oppressive than those in the South,
it was not always found. However, the cultural impact of the Great Migration
upon those who moved, and the cities to which they moved, was and continues
to be dramatic.
Griot
A griot is a West African performer who perpetuates the oral traditions
of a family, village, or leader by singing histories and tales. Griots
typically perform alone, accompanying themselves on a stringed instrument,
and are considered by many musicologists a critical African root of
the solo acoustic blues that developed among African American communities
during the early 20th century.
Gris-Gris
A magical spell or voodoo technique. The word "gris-gris"
looks French (and in French it would mean "grey-grey"), but
it is simply a Frenchified spelling of the Central African word gree-gree
(also sometimes seplled gri-gri). Gree-gree means "fetish"
or "charm," thus a gris-gris or gree-gree bag is a charm bag.
In the Caribbean, an almost-identical African-derived bag is called
a wanga or oanga bag, from the African word wanga, which also means
"charm" or "spell" -- but that word is uncommon
in the USA.
Hands
A collection of voodoo charms worn or carried for protection and luck
also known as "mojo hand".. A song lyric that describes the
taboo of ever touching mojo occurs in "Take Your Hands Off My Mojo,"
recorded in New York on February 17, 1932 by Leola B. Wilson and Wesley
Wilson (a husband and wife duo also known as Coot Grant and Kid Wesley
Wilson, Kid and Coot, and, singly, as Leola B. Pettigraw and Socks Wilson).
Harp
In blues circles, the term "harp" is used interchangeably
with "harmonica." Harmonicas are also occasionally referred
to in jest as "Mississippi Saxophones."
High Yeller (yellow)
A black person with a light(er) skin complexion. Brown skin is another
skin color related term often used in blues songs. See also skin color.
Highway
51
Running from La Place, Louisiana to Hurley, Wisconsin, Highway 51 is
now largely supplanted by Interstate 55. However, prior to that road's
construction, 51 was a frequent metaphor in blues songs, particularly
from the Mississippi Delta region, the eastern edge of which it borders
as it connects Jackson to Memphis. Mentions of 51 frequently connoted
"rambling," both around the Delta region and beyond, as well
as joining the Great Migration northwards for a new life.
Hobo
A fare dodger on a freight train. The word derived from hoe-boy. When
there wasn't enough food on the farm to feed everybody, the younger
men hit the tracks hoping to find day work along the way. Each took
his own hoe in order to be more employable. A hoe was also a cheap weapon.
A homeless and usually penniless vagabond or a migratory worker.
Hokum
The word's origin probably comes from hocus-pocus and bunkum (derived
form Buncombe county, N.C., from a remark made by its congressman, who
defended an irrelevant speech by claiming that he was speaking to Buncombe,
meaning insincere or foolish talk). Also, a sub genre in urban blues
which was popular in the late 20's/early 30's. It is characterized by
danceable rhythms and clever lyrics which heavily relied on double entendres.
Hokum's most important artist was Tampa Red (It's Tight Like That, 1928).
The term means pretentious nonsense.
HooDoo
A mix of African spirituality, Voodoo, and Christianity. Folk magic
of the rural South.
1 - hoodoo or voodoo, a body of practices of sympathetic magic traditional
especially among blacks in the southern U.S. Hoodoo is the preffered
word by black people for voodoo. For more information about hoodoo/voodoo
see also voodoo.;2 - something that brings bad luck; 3 - Hoodoo is an
American term, originating in the 19th century or earlier, for African-American
folk magic. Hoodoo is not a religion nor a denomination of a religion,
although it incorporates elements from African and European religions
in terms of its core beliefs. Hoodoo consists of a large body of African
folkloric magic with a considerable admixture of American Indian botanical
knowledge and European folklore. Other names for hoodoo include "conjuration,"
"witchcraft," and "rootwork." The first two are
simply English words for the practice of magic; the last is a recognition
of the preeminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and
the casting of spells.Hoodoo is used as a noun to name both the system
of magic ("He used hoodoo on her") and its practitioners ("Doctor
Buzzard was a great hoodoo in his day"). It is also an adjective
("he needed help from a hoodoo woman") and a verb ("she
hoodoo'ed that man until he couldn't love no one but her"). 4-
A traditional hoodoo doctor was often a nomadic sort who traveled from
town to town peddling his services, but many also set up shop in their
communities. Hoodoo is not reserved solely for the specialist. Many
of the spells and practices are within the realm of "folk remedies"
and are well known in some African-American and/or Southern cultural
contexts such as described in Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's blues
song: "Hoodoo Lady Blues"
Hoochie
Coochie Man
A slang term referring to both a type of suggestive dance, as well a
class of conjurer or folk doctor in the voodoo tradition. In the Willie
Dixon song "Hoochie Coochie Man," made famous by Muddy Waters,
the latter is the definition being used. However, the sexual suggestiveness
of the song itself has led to an expanded definition, in which the hoochie
coochie man is someone with sexual prowess and appeal as powerful as
the magic of a voodoo conjurer.
Honeydripper
A superlover. The one you love or hope to love.
Hot
Foot Powder
Hot Foot Powder and Hot Foot Oil are old Southern hoodoo formulas that
are used to rid oneself or one's home of unwanted people, to send enemies
packing and to keep peace in the home by eliminating troublemakers.
Similar formulas, known as Drive Away Oil or Get Away Oil contain virtually
the same ingredients, namely a proprietary blend of Guinea Red Pepper,
sulfur, and essential oils that include Black Pepper and other herbal
extracts. The scent is hot and spicy. The malevolent use of Hot Foot
Powder in the South during the 1930s is attested to by no less an authority
than the Mississippi Delta blues singer Robert Johnson. In his haunting
anthem, "Hellhound on My Trail," Johnson attributes his doomed
and restless life to the fact that a woman has barred him from his family
home by sprinkling Hot Foot Powder around the door. Whether or not this
was literally the case, it is a fact that Johnson never settled long
in one locale.
House
Party
Also known as "rent parties," an informal gathering at a private
residence for drinking, eating, live music, and occasionally gambling,
where the resident charges money for some or all of the above. Like
juke joints in the South, house parties in the North are credited with
being key incubators of the blues, particularly the electrified Delta
style of Muddy Waters and other performers newly arrived to the city
whose styles were at first considered too "country" to attract
a club audience.
Improvisation
Musically, the act of composing, performing, or otherwise playing without
prior planning or consulting specific notation such as sheet music.
In jazz and blues, for example, familiar forms may be utilized throughout
a song, but the singer may alter the lyrics to better suit their mood,
and the instrumentalists may take solos of a length and direction that
is entirely determined by them.
Jelly
/ Jelly Roll
A metaphor for the female genitalia. Jelly is used as a term for female.
Among metaphors used in blues music, culinary themes are especially
comon. The term jelly roll simply arose from the motions of sexual intercourse.
A male lover admired his "jelly bean" and prided himself on
being a "good jelly-roll baker" and the female lover the way
she could "jello";
Jim
Crow
A term arguably arising from a minstrel performer of the early 19th
century, Jim Crow more generally refers to the laws and regulations
that arose in the South following post-Civil War Reconstruction. Through
the mandated segregation established by these laws, African Americans
were systemically prevented from achieving economic, political, and
cultural power and equality. Used to refer to both the oppressive laws
(e.g., a law enforcing separate train cars for whites and blacks), as
well as the general time period during which they were predominate (from
approximately the mid-1870s through the 1960s.)
Jinx
The bearer of bad luck. A mojo hand would be worn for protection from
a jinx.
Jitterbug
A popular dance of the 1940's - which was danced to boogie woogie music).
Jitterbuggin sometimes referred to a sense of panic or extreme nervousness,
to be nervous or act in a nervous way "had a bad case of the jitters
before his performance." It also referred to any irregular random
movement or continuous fast repetitive movements
Jive
A slang term with multiple connotations. Rose to common usage in the
late 1930s among African Americans in reference to swing and jump blues
music-"that's some great jive they're playing"-as well
as the dance styles that accompanied this music. Also used to refer,
sometimes dismissively, to the lingo used by fans and musicians of this
music-"Don't listen to him, man, he's just talkin' jive."
Jivin'
Jive was a style of jazz played by big bands popular in the 1930's with
flowing rhythms but less complex than later styles of jazz [synonyms:
swing, swing music]. Jivin' means to dance to jive music. The word also
refers to smooth talking, especially the talk of jazz musicians and
enthusiasts. The word also referred to a marijuana cigarette or to sexual
intercourse.
Johnny Conqueroo
When Willie Dixon / Muddy Waters sings in "Hoochie Coochie Man"
that he has "a John(ny) the Choncheroe/Conqueroo," he means
a (High) John the Conqueror root - the hard, woody tuber of Ipomoea
jalapa, a relative of the common sweet potato. In magical practice,
the root is not ingested, probably because it is an extremely powerful
laxative. Instead it is used whole, carried on the person as a pocket
piece or as an ingredient in a mojo bag, especially one designed to
draw money, bring luck at games of chance, or enhance personal sexual
power.
Jug
Band
With a likely origin in Louisville, Kentucky, in the early part of the
20th century, jug bands employed an array of homemade and found instruments
such as kazoo, washtub bass, and whiskey bottle, as well as banjo, harmonica,
or guitar. Particularly fashionable in Memphis, jug bands played up-tempo
popular, vaudeville, and blues numbers for both black and white audiences,
and accompanied blues musicians from that era, many of whom were also
members of the ensembles, both live and on recordings. Some jug band
performers remained active in the region until the 1970s, most notably
Gus Cannon.
Juju
African musical genre and another term for a fetish, charm, or amulet
of West African people. Juju as well as gris-gris are the African terms
for the more commonly used mojo or mojo hand, see also "Mojo".
Juke
Joint
An informal type of drinking establishment that arose along the rural
back roads of the South among and to serve the regional African American
population (as opposed to "honky tonks," similar establishments
that served the white population). The term "juke" has its
likely origins in West Africa, where similar terms mean "wicked."
Juke joints are thus understood to be potentially rough and rowdy, with
drinking, eating, live music, and occasionally gambling, and were (and
continue to be) key incubators of the blues, even if now more frequently
heard on a "jukebox" than from a live performer.
Jump
Blues
Jump blues refers to an up-tempo, jazz-tinged style of blues that first
came to prominence in the mid- to late 1940s. Usually featuring a vocalist
in front of a large, horn-driven orchestra or medium-sized combo with
multiple horns, the style is earmarked by a driving rhythm, intensely
shouted vocals, and honking tenor saxophone solos-all of those very
elements a precursor to rock 'n' roll. The lyrics are almost always
celebratory in nature, full of braggadocio and swagger. With less reliance
on guitar work (the instrument usually being confined to rhythm section
status) than other styles, jump blues was the bridge between the older
styles of blues— primarily those in a small band context-and the
big-band jazz sound of the 1940s.—(Erlewine, et al., eds. All Music
Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1999.)
Laissez
les bon temps rouler
Popular Cajun phrase in New Orleans that means "Let the good
times roll."
Killing
Floor
Literally, the location in a slaughterhouse where animals are killed
prior to processing. Particularly in the Chicago Stockyards area (more
info, picture) many black newcomers from the South found jobs during
the 20's, 30's and 40's working on the killing floors. Metaphorically
being on the "killing floor" means being in trouble with little
way out or being so depressed (primarily by the loss of a lover) that
he (generally) feels as if he is going to die, having hit rock bottom
and with nothing left to lose.(See Skip James' "Hard Time Killing
Floor Blues," and Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor").
Levee
Camps
Levee camps arose throughout the post-Civil War South as large numbers
of manual laborers (typically African American) were gathered, sometimes
by force, to build and maintain systems of earthen levees that held
rivers in their channels, thus making more farmland available and (theoretically)
minimizing the hazards of annual flooding. Frequent locations of group
work-song singing and solo field hollers, they were notoriously difficult
and violent places to make a living. They were natural destinations,
as well, for traveling musicians, who sought the money of workers enjoying
their fleeting and hard-earned pay.
Louisiana
Blues
A looser, more laid-back, and percussive version of the Jimmy Reed side
of the Chicago sound, Louisiana blues has several distinctive stylistic
elements to distinguish it from other genres. The guitar work is simple
but effective, heavily influenced by the boogie patterns used on Jimmy
Reed singles, with liberal doses of Lightnin' Hopkins and Muddy Waters
thrown in for good measure. Unlike the heavy backbeat of the Chicago
style, its rhythm can be best described as "plodding," making
even up-tempo tunes sound like slow blues simply played a bit faster.
The production techniques on most of the recordings utilize massive
amounts of echo, giving the performances a darkened sound and feel,
thus coining the genre's alternate description as "swamp blues."—(Erlewine,
et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat
Books, 1999.)
Louisiana
Voodoo
Also known as New Orleans Voodoo, originated from the ancestral
religions of the African diaspora. It is a cultural form of the Voodoo
religions which historically developed within the French- and Creole-speaking
African-American population of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is one
of many incarnations of African-based religions rooted in the West African
Dahomean Vodou tradition and the Central African traditions found in
Haitian Vodou. Many popular songs of the Delta Blues tradition (circa
1900 to 1941) referenced voodoo or its derivative Hoodoo explicitly.
For instance, Robert Johnson sang of "hot foot powder sprinkled
all round my door" and Muddy Water(s) referenced "the gypsy
woman", "seventh son", and the "mojo hand".
Bobby Bare sings the intriguing story of Marie LaVoe (Leveau), New Orleans
voodoo queen of the mid-1800's.
Lucille
B.B. King's guitar. Named after a woman whose love caused a man to burn
the club he was playing in at the time.
Maxwell
Street
From the early 1900s until its relocation in the mid-1990s, the weekend
open-air market along Chicago's Maxwell Street was a frequently changing
urban milieu where one could find everything from used and new merchandise,
to food, religion, and live music. It was a particularly important location
for new immigrants to the city seeking employment, entertainment, and
the familiarity of customs and people from "back home."
Memphis
Blues
A strain of country blues all its own, Memphis blues gives the rise
of two distinct forms: the jug band (playing and singing a humorous,
jazz-style of blues played on homemade instruments) and the beginnings
of assigning parts to guitarists for solo (lead) and rhythm, a tradition
that is now part and parcel of all modern day blues-and rock 'n' roll-bands.
The earliest version of the genre was heavily tied to the local medicine
show and vaudeville traditions, lasting well into the late 1930s. The
later, post-World War II version of this genre featured explosive, distorted
electric-guitar work, thunderous drumming, and fierce, declamatory vocals.—(Erlewine,
et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat
Books, 1999.)
Mojo
A magic spell, hex, or charm used against someone else, either as a
love spell, hex or charm or a bad luck spell, hex or charm. It's blues
function as a sexual euphemism seems to have arisen with Blind Lemon
Jefferson's 1928 song "Low-down Mojo". Also, a charm; amulet;
conjuring object; a good-luck charm used by gamblers and lovers. Believed
to possess magical power, mojo was the staple amulet of African-American
hoodoo practice, a flannel bag containing one or more magical items.
Made with great care, these bags contained personal fragments and natural
objects: hair from the armpits or pubic region, fingernail pairings,
pieces of skin were considered especially effective in love charms,
as were fragments of underclothing, of a menstrual cloth and other closely
personal effects. Combined with parts of night creatures, bats or toads,
and with ashes and feathers from sources selected for a symbolic significance
relative to the purpose for which they had been prepared. They were
all tied up into small conjure bags or put into an innocuous-looking
receptacle and either carried to exert their power upon the victim when
contact was made with him or buried beneath his doorstep, hidden in
his bed or hearth. The word is thought to be a corruption of the English
word "magic". Other names for it include conjure bag, hand,
lucky hand, mojo bag, mojo hand, root bag, toby, juju and gris-gris
bag. In the Memphis region, a special kind of mojo, worn only by women,
is called a nation sack. The word "conjure", as in "conjure
work" (casting spells) and "conjure woman" (a female
herbalist-magician), is an old alternative to "hoodoo". The
word "hand" in this context may derive from the use of a rare
orchid root called Lucky Hand root as an ingredient in mojo bags for
gamblers, or from the use of finger and hand bones of the dead in mojo
bags made for various purposes.
Monkey
An addiction or addict. As in "monkey on my back".
Also, a monkey on one's back: a persistent or annoying encumbrance or
problem.
Monkey
Man
African-American slang for a West Indian (a man who is easy to deceive)
or used for a very black African American or an "outside"
lover.
Moonshine
Illegally distilled (corn) whiskey. Basic process of making moonshine:
a mixture - called the mash - of sugar fruit, potatoes, grains etc.
is allowed to ferment. When ready it is strained and the liquid is pumped
into a broiler which is then heated. When the mash liquid is boiling
the vapor rises and is forced through condensing cell turning it into
a liquid or moonshine. This is collected into jugs or bottled and (sometimes)
allowed to age. Moonshine became a prominent part of American life with
the onset of the Civil War, when the federal Government imposed excise
taxes on whiskey and tobacco in an effort to finance the Union army.
After the war ended, the taxes were simply kept in place. After the
Civil War the Revenue Bureau of the Treasury Department was formed.
Under Commisioner Green B. Raum (1876-1883) the bureau became a police
force, hunting down moonshiners in their home enviornments and exercising
national authority with no regard of state lines. The whiskey tax was
raised to $1.10 per gallon in 1894. The result was a lively market in
untaxed liquor as more and more distillers decided the only way they
could make a profit was to sell their drink illegally. The government
estimated at the time that between 5 and 10 million gallons of illegal
liquor were produced and sold annually in the years just before the
twentieth century started.
Nation
Sack
A mojo hand, conjure bag, toby, root bag or in plain English a lucky
charm, one that is only carried by women. During the 1930s its use,
by that name at least, seems to have been restricted to the region immediately
around Memphis, Tennessee. The "nation sack" is a particular
kind of mojo hand that is of special interest to blues fans because
it is mentioned in what may be Robert Johnson's finest song, "Come
On In My Kitchen."
New
Orleans Blues
Primarily (but not exclusively) piano and horn-driven, New Orleans blues
is enlivened by Caribbean rhythms, an unrelenting party atmosphere,
and the "second-line" strut of the Dixieland music so indigenous
to the area. There's a cheerful, friendly element to the style that
infuses the music with a good-time feel, no matter how somber the lyrical
text. The music itself uses a distinctively "lazy" feel, with
all of its somewhat complex rhythms falling just a hair behind the beat.
But the vocals can run the full emotional gamut from laid-back crooning
to full-throated gospel shouting, making for some interesting juxtapositions,
both in style and execution.—(Erlewine, et al., eds. All Music
Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1999.)
Oral
Culture
Conventionally, oral culture is understood to mean any and all traditions
that are sustained within and between generations strictly through the
spoken (as opposed to written) word, such as stories, tales, and songs.
Panama
Limited
With the exception of a few years during the depression, the "Panama
Limited" was, during the first half of the 20th century, the most
luxurious of the Illinois Central's trains running the route from New
Orleans to Chicago. The Illinois Central was a very popular manner in
which to head North during the Great Migration.
Parchman
Farm
Formally known as the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the Parchman Farm
was opened in 1904 and, until federally mandated reform in the 1970s,
was geared primarily towards the profitable production of cotton using
convict labor. With little emphasis upon rehabilitation, it had a solid
reputation for deplorable and brutal living and working conditions.
A frequent image in blues songs from the surrounding Delta, both among
musicians who did time there and those who did not, it was also a frequent
destination in the mid-20th century for folklorists recording work songs
and related traditions in an effort to trace the development of the
blues.
Piano
Blues
Piano blues runs through the entire history of the music itself, embracing
everything from ragtime, barrelhouse, boogie woogie, and smooth West
Coast jazz stylings to the hard-rocking rhythms of Chicago blues.—(Erlewine,
et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat
Books, 1999.)
Piedmont
Blues
Piedmont Blues refers to a regional substyle characteristic of black
musicians of the southeastern United States. Geographically, the Piedmont
means the foothills of the Appalachians west of the tidewater region
and Atlantic coastal plain stretching roughly from Richmond, VA, to
Atlanta, GA. Musically, Piedmont blues describes the shared style of
musicians from Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia, as well as others
from as far as Florida, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. It refers
to a wide assortment of aesthetic values, performance techniques, and
shared repertoire rooted in common geographical, historical, and sociological
circumstances; to put it more simply, Piedmont blues means a constellation
of musical preferences typical of the Piedmont region. The Piedmont
guitar style employs a complex fingerpicking method in which a regular,
alternating-thumb bass pattern supports a melody on treble strings.
The guitar style is highly syncopated and connects closely with an earlier
string-band tradition, integrating ragtime, blues, and country dance
songs. It's excellent party music with a full, rock-solid sound.—(Erlewine,
et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat
Books, 1999.)
Policy
Game
A daily lottery in which participants bet that certain combination numbers
will be drawn from a lottery wheel, also reffered to as numbers game
and playing the numbers. Policy was an illegal lottery first introduced
in Chicago in 1885 by an operator nick-named Policy Sam. It soon spread
around the country and, despite anti-policy laws, which started appearing
on the books as early as 1901, it flourished everywhere in America until
legal numbers games such as state lotteries supplanted it. Eventually
the use of the term "policy" for this type of game came to
imply an African-American clientele, for among Italian-Americans a similar
illegal lottery was called "the numbers," while Cuban-Americans
in New York referred to their lottery as "bolita." From the
1920s through the 1950s, both the subject of policy gaming itself and
the numerical combinations found in the dream books made their way into
a number of blues songs. In the most clever of these compositions, a
series of dream book numbers would be substituted for crucial key words.
Jim Jackson and Bumble Bee Slim (Amos Easton) both wrote songs of this
type called "Policy Dream Blues," and other blues artists
who used policy number imagery in their lyrics were Bo Carter (Armentier
Chatmon), Kokomo Arnold, Yodelling Kid Brown, Albert Clemens (Adam Wilcox),
Elvira Johnson, and Peetie Wheatstraw. Typical of the genre is "Policy
Blues" by Blind (Arthur) Blake, recorded in December 1930 in Grafton,
Wisconsin, for Paramount Records.
Race
Records
"Race records" was a term used by major and independent record
labels from the early 1920s until the early 1950s to specifically label
records recorded by African American artists. The term itself was not
used pejoratively, but instead so that the records could be more readily
marketed to an African American audience.
Ramblin'
Slang term used to connote both the act of leaving a place and of wandering,
particularly in search of work, a home, or spiritual peace. Also, to
talk or write in a desultory or long-winded wandering fashion.
Rent
Party
Musical parties in an apartment where admission was used to cover the
rent. See "House Party".
Rider
/ Riding
A girl friend or sexual partner (see also "Easy Rider"). Riding
is probably the most common metaphor for the sexual act in blues, see
also "balling the jack" and "grinding".
Ride
the Blinds
A walk way between two passenger cars covered with either canvas or
leather in an accordion shape. From the outside of the blinds to the
outer edge of the cars there was a space about 24 inches wide. There
was a ladder running up to the top of the car in this space and the
bums would grap hold of the ladder and hold on to it. That was riding
the blinds. 2- Illegally travelling by freight train.
Roadhouse
Conventionally, the definition of a roadhouse encompasses barrelhouses,
juke joints, honky tonks, or any similar drinking establishment located
along a road. What is regionally considered a juke, honky tonk, or a
roadhouse often differs according to the predominate race of its clientele,
although they are presently more racially integrated then in the past.
Rock
City, See
A strange place from which one can"See Seven States" is described
in rural blues musician's, Blind Willie McTell, song that mentions Rock
City (outside of Chattanooga, TN). McTell, a Georgia-born 12-string
guitarist, travelled the South extensively and in the beautiful "Drive
Away Blues," he extolled the sights to be seen from atop Lookout
Montain. Like many blind songwriters, McTell casually used visual imagery
as a metaphor -- but partway through the song, he unconsciously transformed
the wondrous view from Rock City into a poignant blind man's fantasy
-- a place from which one can HEAR Seven States.
Roll
Originally the word meant work, to work, as in "rolling cotton".
Like other expressions from the vocabulary of labor (like "hauling
ashes"), it took on a sexual connotation in blues songs: having
sex; it also referred to being robbed.
Root
Doctor
Person versed in magical cures from plants.
Rounder
A real party animal and womanizer -- coundrel, especially one that might
steal a man's woman. In the gambling underworld a rounder is slang for
a big-money poker player, who risks big, wins big - and often loses
big. In contrast to a rounder, a grinder is a pro who squeezes a few
hundred here, a few hundred there by honestly outplaying others.
Salty
(Dog)
"Salty" in general equates with the current word horny or
with the words "agressive" or "tough." A "salty
hombre" would be a "tough guy."
Seven
Sisters
As Funny Paper Smith's song indicates, the Seven Sisters demonstrated
a "gift" or mark of power commonly found among hoodoo root
workers: they could tell a client what was wrong before he or she spoke.
This gift was also attributed to the Arkanasas conjure and spiritualist
Aunt Caroline Dye. Advertisements for such seers may make reference
to their telepathic power with stock phrases such as "She tells
all before you utter a word" or "Don't tell her -- let her
tell you!"
Seventh
Son
The special luck attributed to the seventh son of a seventh son, as
seen in Willie Dixon's blues song "The Seventh Son," recorded
by Willie Mabon in 1955 and also by Mose Allison
Shakin'
That Thing
A blues euphemism for engaging in sex, popularized by Papa Charlie Jackson's
1925 hit "Shake That Thing".
Sharecropping
An agricultural system particularly common in the post-Civil War South,
where a tenant worked a piece of land in exchange for a portion of the
year's crop or revenue. For their work on the land, the tenants were
supplied living accommodations, seeds, tools, and other necessities
by the landowner, who was invariably the bookkeeper and proprietor of
the local commissary as well. While theoretically offering a degree
of independence to sharecroppers, the system was invariably harrowing,
with hard work and poor living conditions the norm. In addition, it
was nearly impossible to work one's way out of the system, as tenants,
both white and black, invariably found themselves with little to no
money left after the balancing of year-end accounts, if not actually
in debt to the landowner. Although the norm for half a century, the
sharecropping system met a quick end in 1941, when the first successful
mechanical planting and harvesting of a cotton crop indicated that human
labor was no longer as necessary.
Shimmy
African American dance of the late 1880's. It involves shaking of the
shoulders and a whole body,
Signifying
Signifying refers to the act of using secret or double meanings of words
to either communicate multiple meanings to different audiences, or to
trick them. To the leader and chorus of a work song, for example, the
term "captain" may be used to indicate discontent, while the
overseer of the work simultaneously thinks it's being used as a matter
of respect. Also: A good-natured needling or teasing using taunting
words and clever, often preposterous "put-downs" or humiliating
remarks. In signifying, speakers spontaneously compose rhythmic and
rhyming phrases in improvised counterpoint to the signified phrases
of other speakers. Within this word play structure, signifying is an
indirect speech act form that allows the speaker to express bold ideas,
opinions, beliefs, or feelings without repercussions as the stated convictions
become diffused through the playful nature of the act. This improvisational
verbal device arose as a component of the call and response form and
became incorporated into blues lyrics.
Skin
Color
Within the segregated society of the United States dominated by a white
majority a sort of caste system based on racial features and skin color
developed that was also passed down to the black minority. Lighter skin
color and less pronounced Negro features often meant that a person had
a little less to suffer from the daily discrimination and this was often
aspired by black people. A couple of shades of color are more or less
often used in blues songs: black, brownskin, fair brown, teasin' brown,
the lighter skinned high yellow or yeller. Certain characteristics were
often attributed to specific shades of color.
Slide
Slide is a method of playing guitar where the player uses either a tube
placed over the finger (such as a "bottleneck") or a flat
edged object (such as a knife blade) to press down the strings of the
guitar. The resulting sound wavers and fluctuates, and can include tones
that cannot be reached in the conventional manner, where fingers are
used to depress the strings. Blues slide guitar originated in the Mississippi
Delta region, and is integrally associated with early electric blues,
particularly as developed by Muddy Waters in the late 1940s and early
1950s.
Smokestack Lightin'
A mule fart. Some may say it describes a steam train in the night
Spoonful
A reference to cocaine or heroin; secondarily a vague blues euphemism
for sex. Possibly derived from "to spoon" meaning: to make
love by caressing, kissing, and talking amorously.
Squeeze
My Lemon
The lemon is a reference to the genitalia. Squeezing the lemon refers
to having sex.
Stagger
Lee
The now-mythical figure of Stagger Lee (also "Stack-o-Lee"
and "Stagolee") likely has real origins in a St. Louis murder
in the late 1800s, when ostensible pimp Lee Shelton, aka Stack Lee,
shot Billy Lyons because Lyons had taken Shelton's Stetson hat and wouldn't
return it. As treated first in African American folklore and then by
the mid-1950s throughout popular song, Stagger Lee has been cast as
everything from an anti-hero to the devil himself.
Stavin'
Chain
A stavin' chain was a tool used to make barrels (I won't go in depth
about it's use) it was often used by supervisors in barrel factories
to beat slaves. Also a stavin' chain was the chain used to hold together
chain gangs, and was pulled around the prisoner's ankles much like the
sexual version. It worked much like a choke-dog collar in all it's forms,
and could be used to describe any chain noose that worked on this principal.
Steel-Driving
Man
Part of a railroad-construction crew, a steel-driving man worked with
a partner to drive holes into stone. Using a large hammer, the "driver"
repeatedly struck the top of a pointed steel shaft held in place by
his partner until a hole was created. Explosives were placed in these
holes and set off, helping carve tunnels and level the track bed.
Stingaree
Literally: alteration of the word stingray which is a fish with one
or more large sharp barbed dorsal spines near the base of the whip like
tail capable of inflicting severe wounds. In blues music it is a euphemism
for the sexual organs, usually applied to women.
Strut
/ Strut Your Stuff
Originally "dancing well" but it became synonymous with the
rhythmic movements of sexual intercourse. Also, showing off, to parade
(as clothes) with a show of pride, to walk with a proud gait, to walk
with a pompous and affected air.
Texas
Blues
A geographical subgenre earmarked by a more relaxed, swinging feel than
other styles of blues, Texas blues encompasses a number of style variations
and has a long, distinguished history. Its earliest incarnation occurred
in the mid-1920s, featuring acoustic guitar work rich in filigree patterns-almost
an extension of the vocals rather than merely a strict accompaniment
to it. This version of Texas blues embraced both the songster and country-blues
traditions, with its lyrics relying less on affairs of the heart than
other forms. The next stage of development in the region's sound came
after World War II, bringing forth a fully electric style that featured
jazzy, single-string soloing over predominantly horn-driven backing.
The style stays current with a raft of regional performers primarily
working in a small-combo context.—(Erlewine, et al., eds. All Music
Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1999.)
Urban
Blues
The term has two pervasive definitions. Originally, it was used to describe
the more sophisticated sentiments of the style in contrast to the more
rural style of country blues. As time went on, it also came to describe
blues music whose lyrics captured city life, its opportunities as well
as its grim realities.
West
Coast Blues
More piano-based and jazz-influenced than anything else, West Coast
blues is—in actuality—the California style, with all of the
genre's main practitioners coming to prominence there, if not actual
natives of the state. In fact, the state and the style played host to
a great many post-war Texas guitar expatriates, and their jazzy, T-Bone
Walker style of soloing would become an earmark of the genre. West Coast
blues also features smooth, honey-toned vocals, frequently crossing
into urban blues territory. The West Coast style was also home to numerous
jump-blues practitioners, as many traveling bands of the 1940s ended
up taking permanent residence there. Its current practitioners work
almost exclusively in the standard small-combo format.—(Erlewine,
et al., eds. All Music Guide to the Blues. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat
Books, 1999.)
Whoopie,
Making
It usually means having a ball, in blues it often carries the meaning
of having sex.
Work
Songs
A probable root of the blues, work songs were extensively documented
by folklorists during the early portions of the 20th century, although
their roots arguably go as far back as West Africa. Work songs help
synchronize the rhythm of group tasks, with a single leader calling
out a line that is then copied or responded to by the group (see "call
and response"), typically in time with their work motion (e.g.,
chopping with an axe or digging with a shovel).
Yas
Yas (Yas)
A rhyming substitute for the word "ass" which appear quite
frequently in songs from the earlier part of the century, when "ass"
was apparently still unacceptable slang.
Yea
You Right
New Orleans' answer to every question.
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