Well, I declare. The wombat got attracted. Was it the dance or the jocund company, Francis?
Seriously, sounding is a type of bandinage. And I alone know what it means.
Well, listeners, I just got a request from our Boo who has been away too long. So Boo--for you:
Lionel Richie
Stuck on you
I've got this feeling down
Deep in my soul
That I just can't lose
Guess, I'm on my way
Needed a friend
And the way I feel now I guess
I'll be with you till the end
Guess I'm on my way
Mighty glad you stayed
I'm stuck on you
Been a fool too long I guess
It's time for me to come on home
Guess I'm on my way
So hard to see
That a woman like you could wait
Around for a man like me
Guess I'm on my way
Mighty glad you stayed
Oh, I'm leaving on that midnight train tommorrow
And I know just where I'm going
I've packed up my troubles
And I've thrown them all away
Because this time little darlin'
I'm coming home to stay
I'm stuck on you
I've got this feeling down
Deep in my soul
That I just can't lose
Guess, I'm on my way
Needed a friend
And the way I feel now I guess
I'll be with you till the end
Guess I'm on my way
I'm mighty glad you stayed.
Not one peep about the origin and meaning of "sounding."
Both, Miss Letty.
But badinage is was...sounding weird.
peep, peep. i think sounding has something to do with taking the depth of water, maybe by tossing in a long line with a weight at the end, but i may be all wet.
Yes, yitwail. Sometime ago, Walter and I spoke about that on another thread.
Hey, Yit. That's not the sounding that I meant, honey. Blame it on Twain!
Yes, Francis, dear. We know you be bad.
Seriously, folks. Heard from Booman and hebba. Both alive and well. hebba is getting ready to start chiseling granite and Boo be in Manhattan.
Okay, let's see if I can explain sounding. It's a type of friendly "put down", if you will. Two people see if they can insult the other the best. Make sense? Sorta like "sounding off".
or dozens, perhaps, if you're african-american.
er, dys. How about a translation? Color me perplexed.
Folks, We understand that dys' grandmother colored his world, so let's hear a soothing sound for him.
Colour My Life
If you're wondering why I've not been speaking my mind sir
It took so long since I could call this my home
My shapes of confusion fit holes of frustration
And there's nothing worse then being home on your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
I've been wondering why you've not been speaking your mind sir
I've coloured my life and I'll make no bones
My shapes of confusion fit holes of frustration
You can colour my life until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
You can colour my life
If you're wondering why I've not been speaking my mind sir
It took so long since I could call this my home
My shapes of confusion fit holes of frustration
You can colour my life until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
Until it fits with your own
You can colour my life
You can colour my life
Colour my life
Colour my life
Colour my life
Yit, you clever thing. That's it, Yit.
A phrase from black English that I heard going around some 25 years or so ago, was "doing the dozens," meaning to exchange (mostly) friendly insults, in a kind of rap rhythm. How the heck does "dozens" play into this?
The dozens is a game, especially common among urban blacks, of exchanging insults usually about the mother of the opponent. Skilled playing of the dozens displays verbal improvisation of great originality and wittiness. It also requires a thick skin: you lose the contest if you get upset. The game is often in a stylized, rhythmic form, and the dozens are considered one of the precursors of rap music. Some excellent examples of the dozens can be seen in the movie White Men Can't Jump.
The term dozens is usually used in such phrases as "to play the dozens" or "to do the dozens"; the form dirty dozens is also common. The word dates at least to the 1910s, but the game was probably played considerably earlier. There are examples of this type of game in several other cultures; in sixteenth-century Scotland, a flyting was a battle between poets who exchanged abusive poems; and in the late ninteenth century, American cowboys engaged in "cussing contests," where a saddle would be awarded to the most abusive participant.
The origin of the term is unknown. Some conjectures include: it refers to a throw of 12 in craps, 12 being a difficult number to match; the original form had twelve verses, each one referring to a different sex act; and that inferior slaves were sold in lots of twelve, the number twelve therefore coming to mean 'wretched; inferior' itself. None of these hypotheses has any solid proof, and the origin is likely to remain a mystery.
Some other terms for this type of stylized insulting are capping, jiving, joaning (or joning), sounding, snapping, and signifying.
it/i was? but since colours came up, how bout a ditty from donovan.
Color in sky prussian blue
Scarlet fleece changes hue
Crimson ball sinks from view
CHORUS
Wear your love like heaven
Wear your love like heaven
Wear your love like heaven
Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like heaven
Color sky havana lake
Color sky rose carmethene
Alizarian crimson
CHORUS
Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like heaven
Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like heaven
Cannot believe what I see
All I have wished for will be
All of our race proud and free
CHORUS
Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Incidentally, folks. I got that bit from a ravin' maven on the net.
Ah, Yit. That is beautiful. Just sitting back and listening.
Letty, the wikipedia article on "the dozens" has a pretty fair selection--to me at any rate--of "snaps". good for a few chuckles. ;-)
Thanks, buddy. I'll check that out. Is it presentable for our listeners?
There are so many gems from African folk tales, also. The "signifyer" was always the monkey who started a fight between the other animals, then stood back and watched the fray.
Nat knew it, listeners:
Straighten Up And Fly Right Lyrics
The buzzard took the monkey for a ride in the air
The monkey thought that everything was on the square
The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back
The monkey grabbed his neck and said "Now listen, Jack"
"Straighten up and fly right"
"Straighten up and fly right"
"Straighten up and fly right"
"Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top."
"Ain't no use in jivin' "
"What's the use in dabbin' "
"Straighten up and fly right"
"Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top."
The buzzard told the monkey "You're chokin' me"
"Release your hold and I'll set you free"
The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye and said
"Your story's fetchin' but it sounds like a lie"
"Straighten up and fly right
Straighten up and do right
Straighten up and fly right
Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top."
(instrumental interlude)
"Straighten up and fly right
Straighten up and do right
Straighten up and fly right
Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top."
it's presentable, if comic exaggeration of obesity is tolerable. there's also a link to a wikipedia jokebook--i had no idea there was any such thing--at the bottom of the article, for another serving of the same fare.
Yit, will you give us a reference site?
Well, listeners. I must leave our little studio for a while, but I will be back later to join in.
Station break:
This is cyberspace, WA2K radio.
Ah, Yit. I loved the "Yo Mamma" jokes.
You know listeners, It is a pity that we have come to live in a world where ethnic humor is no longer tolerated.
I recall telling Booman about a true story that is still dear to my heart:
This is an anecdote, incidentally, as told to me by my sister.
A small and very ill little black girl was in a hospital ward and was crying. The charge nurse, white, picked her up to take her to the bathroom. As the nurse waited for the tiny thing to finish, the child looked at her with soulful eyes and said:
God likes me better than you.
The charge nurse replied:
Really? and why is that?
'cause he colored me and left you plain.
You see, listeners, cultural bias has taken away a part of all that is lovely and left in its place a colorless world.
I think that Francis once remarked that love was the universal language, and that is so true, because from that plant grows beauty unknown and known.
And that is my op.ed. for the late afternoon.
