I’ve been listening to a lot of soul music lately and I think what the world needs is a dictionary of soul, or at least a guide to the stranger locutions used therein. Let me start off. Please add your own suggestions.
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta … — Expression of urgency as in Gotta, gotta, gotta, have it. Usually what he’s gotta gotta gotta gotta have is more of your sweet lovin’.
Sing it one more time for me right now children — Expect the backing chorus to sing it about four or five more times as the song fades out.
Oh my my my my my my — Eh, it’s his.
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa — Just riffin while I try to remember the words here.
It’s uptight … — Watch where you bleedin’ put it next time matey.
… clean outa sight — I won’t tell you again.
Every, every every … — As in Every every every since you left me baby. Just means ever, but if I sang that you’d think I’m a honky.
Have moicy — I wish this suit was a better fit. (Why is the quality of soul music inversely proportional to the singer’s taste in clothes?)
G’d Eye, G’d Eye, G’d Eye - a special greeting reserved for non-blind soul singers who also hold antipodal political views
Where the bloody hell is the barbie? … - the cry of soul singers who hold antipodal political views, who are also well known for their predilection for prawns and ribs
did you ever hear the joke about how Stevie Wonder (or Ray Charles) suddenly get their sight restored. They look back over the years of pictures and videos from their career…
…and they shoot their manager for letting them dress like that!
Stevie Wonder and Tiger Woods meet at a fundraising event. Stevie tells Tiger that he’s actually an avid golfer. Tiger says he’s heard about blind golfers, but didn’t know how that worked. Stevie says “It’s actually pretty simple. I have an excellent caddie. He stands between me and the ball and calls out the range to the hole. I shoot towards the sound of his voice. On the green, he crouches behind the hole and talks to me and I shoot towards his voice again.”. Tiger says that this is fascinating and he’d like to see Stevie in action sometime. Stevie says he’d be glad to oblige: in fact the resort where the fundraiser has an excellent course and he would be happy to play with Tiger while they’re there. He tells Tiger that he likes to bet pretty heavily on the outcome of the game however and that he’s a pretty good golfer. Tiger thinks “Well, he may be pretty good for a blind golfer, but hey: I’m Tiger Woods!”. Tiger says “You’re on! You name the time!” Stevie replies “Fine.. tomorrow at midnight!”
You could quibble about some aspects of my background, but I’m not African American if that’s what you really mean. So what? I have a vast collection of soul records and contribute little-known discographical information to specialist soul websites. I’m not a casual passer-by taking a cheap shot.
I should have thought that my dictionary was obviously drawn up with tongue very deeply in cheek. Nobody would even notice some of the mannerisms I’m gently lampooning who didn’t listen to the music a lot, and to do that you would have to love it.
What got me thinking about the typical soul mannerisms was something a lot more interesting—the strange disconnect between a lot of soul lyrics and the passion of the performance. This has a simple explanation: the songs were designed to be radio-friendly pop songs but the performances were straight out of the Southern Baptist and Pentacostal churches. At one level this is no big deal—read the libretto to ‘Satisfaction’ and try to figure out how it got to be the anthem for people young in the 60s. At another level, it’s pretty weird. When soul songs had deeply meaningful lyrics as with Paul Kelly’s ‘Stealing in the name of the Lord’, or several songs by the Impressions, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations, it just made the more usual disconnect seem even more strange. Well nobody wanted an academic speech on what was really interesting me so I went for a bit of froth—this is the pub you know.
When you listen to soul as much as I do, you just let the mannerisms wash over you. But, why should we ignore them all the time? And when we do make them the focus of attention, why shouldn’t we find them funny and say so? People joke about the mannered aspects of all kinds of music. Mannerisms are a kind of cliche and cliche’s are funny.
Some folks is even whiter than me
Some folks is even blacker than me
I got myself caught in the middle somewhere
And that’s just where I want to be
-Todd Rundgren-
With the comment about “why is the quality of soul music inversely proportional to the singer’s taste in clothes?”, you stepped beyond interpreting Ebonics and made a statement about a whole culture.
No, they were not straight out of Southern Baptist and Pentacostal churches.
Historically, it took considerable time for the people of those particular faiths to not think of that kind of music as sinful and suitable only for places of ill repute.
Acceptance, IF it happened, evolved.
Perhaps part of that evolution, what one might call “Soul Music” was for a great deal of time pretty much the only music an African American could market to the predominant (White) culture.
Granted there were exceptions to this, but even then the Black performers were pigeon holed to a particular kind of musical performance that, with limitations, was acceptable for Black performers to do.
Music isn’t created from a vacuum.
Ethnomusicology is a fascinating subject.
I just checked and, OMG, so am I!!!
