Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me : African American Narrative Poetry from Oral Tradition / Bruce Jackson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jackson, Bruce, 1936- author.

Series:

Excelsior editions.

Excelsior Editions Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Poetry.

African Americans.

American poetry--African American authors.

American poetry.

Folk poetry, American.

Narrative poetry, American.

Oral tradition--United States.

Oral tradition.

Toasts (African American folk poetry).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (372 pages)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, [2024]

Summary:

Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me celebrates the African American oral tradition of toasting, one of the key roots of contemporary rap. Jackson was among the few to appreciate the profane energy and beauty of this rhymed form, collecting such classic toasts as "Stackolee," "The Titanic," "Signifying Monkey," "Dance of the Freaks," and dozens more. This unexpurgated edition offers the raw, vibrant, and still startling imagery of these toasts shaped by decades of oral transmission through the voices of countless rhymers. Just like rap, the toasting tradition enabled previously unheard or stifled topics, including racism, sexual exploitation, economic deprivation, and social oppression, to be expressed in a form that embodied multiple layers of meaning. Jackson helped preserve a rapidly dying art form to ensure that it would be available for many generations to come. In the words of Robin D.G. Kelley, "All you Hip Hop heads need to know this book if you want to know your roots."

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the 2024 Edition

Preface to the 1974 Edition

The Toast World

The Toasts

Badmen, Crime, and Jail

Stackolee

Stackolee in Hell

Brock Hankton

Dolomite

Jesse James

Boothill McCoy

Herman from the Shark-Tooth Shore

My Reflection (The Wanderer’s Trail; All You Tough Guys that Thinks You’re Wise)

Feeble Old Man (Feeble Old Man and a Kid Named Dan)

Subject to a Fall

Derringer Youngblood

Satan’s Playground of Hell

Eddie LeDoux

Limpty Lefty McCree

I Was Sittin’ in the Jail to Do a Stretch of Time

They Can’t Do That

Life of a Junkie

Pimps, Whores, and Other Lovers and Friends

Joe the Grinder and G.I. Joe

Hobo Ben

Treacherous Breast

Three Whores Settin’ Down in Boston

Pimping Sam (Wicked Nell; The Pimp)

Hustlin’ Dan

Ping Pong Joe

Don't Look So Downhearted, Buddy (Don't Feel So Downhearted, Buddy)

Sweet Lovin’ Rose

Strange, Strange Things

You Told Me a Lie

Cocaine Nell

L.A. Street

The Lame and the Whore

Toledo Slim

Pretty Pill

Dogass Pimp

Ain’t It a Bitch?

If You See My Little Girl in Denver (Lady Liberty)

Corner of Forty-seventh and South Park (Little Old Wicked Nell)

Little Girl in the Gambler’s Nest (While Playing Short Coin)

Winehead Girl

Freaks and Supersex

Dance of the Freaks

Freaks’ Ball(Twenty-Two-Twenty; Bulldaggers’ Hall)

’Flicted Arm Pete (Pisspot Pete)

Casey Jones

Cocaine Shorty

Herbert Hoover

The Voodoo Queen

Marie

Annabelle Jones

Signifying and Poolshooting Monkey

Signifying Monkey

Poolshooting Monkey

Partytime Monkey

The Titanic Toasts

Titanic

Miscellaneous Narratives

Ups on the Farm

I Got a Job Down in Florida for Croft

Once I Lived the Life of a Millionaire (Down and Out)

Life’s a Funny Old Proposition

Hoboes’ Convention

Junkies’ Ball

Junkies’ Heaven

Hophead Willie

Willie the Weeper

T.B. Bees

The Chintz

The Fly

The Alphabet

The Seven Wise Men

Get In out of the Rain

Drinkin’

Convict’s Prayer

Pearl Harbor

Hitler, You Lied to Me

I Used to Be a Cowboy

I Woke Up this Morning with a Hard On

Ringo

Through the Keyhole in the Door

Short Verses and Drinking Toasts

Short Verses

Drinking Toasts

Bibliography

Index

Index of First Lines

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438496573

1438496575

OCLC:

1418731192