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Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me, Second Edition
African American Narrative Poetry from Oral Tradition
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Bruce Jackson
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
The classic work on African American toasts, the predecessor of rap.
Author / Editor information
Bruce Jackson is SUNY Distinguished Professor and the James Agee Professor of American Culture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. His numerous books include The Story is True: The Art and Meaning of Telling Stories, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded; Ways of the Hand: A Photographer's Memoir; and Voices from Death Row (with Diane Christian), all published by SUNY Press. He lives in Buffalo, New York.
Reviews
Praise for the Original Edition
"A brilliant, groundbreaking work in both the collection and analysis of African American oral culture. Indispensable." — Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"A stone cold classic!" — Robin D.G.Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"Funny as all get out, full of biting wit and dazzling wordplay, this book drops more science than Einstein while proving the genius of black folk who created meaning and defended their lives through signifying words." — Michael Eric Dyson, author of Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves & Demons of Marvin Gaye
"These poems are the source of rap." — Amiri Baraka, author of Blues People
"A brilliant, groundbreaking work in both the collection and analysis of African American oral culture. Indispensable." — Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"A stone cold classic!" — Robin D.G.Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"Funny as all get out, full of biting wit and dazzling wordplay, this book drops more science than Einstein while proving the genius of black folk who created meaning and defended their lives through signifying words." — Michael Eric Dyson, author of Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves & Demons of Marvin Gaye
"These poems are the source of rap." — Amiri Baraka, author of Blues People
Topics
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Front Matter
i -
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Contents
ix -
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Acknowledgments
xv -
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Introduction to the 2024 Edition
xvii -
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Preface to the 1974 Edition
xxix -
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The Toast World
1 -
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The Toasts
39 - Badmen, Crime, and Jail
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Stackolee
43 -
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Stackolee in Hell
55 -
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Brock Hankton
58 -
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Dolomite
61 -
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Jesse James
67 -
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Boothill McCoy
69 -
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Herman from the Shark-Tooth Shore
72 -
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My Reflection (The Wanderer’s Trail; All You Tough Guys that Thinks You’re Wise)
76 -
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Feeble Old Man (Feeble Old Man and a Kid Named Dan)
81 -
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Subject to a Fall
87 -
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Derringer Youngblood
89 -
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Satan’s Playground of Hell
91 -
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Eddie LeDoux
93 -
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Limpty Lefty McCree
97 -
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I Was Sittin’ in the Jail to Do a Stretch of Time
100 -
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They Can’t Do That
102 -
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Life of a Junkie
104 - Pimps, Whores, and Other Lovers and Friends
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Joe the Grinder and G.I. Joe
113 -
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Hobo Ben
117 -
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Treacherous Breast
119 -
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Three Whores Settin’ Down in Boston
122 -
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Pimping Sam (Wicked Nell; The Pimp)
124 -
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Hustlin’ Dan
135 -
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Ping Pong Joe
138 -
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Don't Look So Downhearted, Buddy (Don't Feel So Downhearted, Buddy)
140 -
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Sweet Lovin’ Rose
144 -
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Strange, Strange Things
150 -
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You Told Me a Lie
152 -
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Cocaine Nell
153 -
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L.A. Street
155 -
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The Lame and the Whore
158 -
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Toledo Slim
161 -
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Pretty Pill
165 -
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Dogass Pimp
168 -
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Ain’t It a Bitch?
171 -
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If You See My Little Girl in Denver (Lady Liberty)
173 -
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Corner of Forty-seventh and South Park (Little Old Wicked Nell)
175 -
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Little Girl in the Gambler’s Nest (While Playing Short Coin)
178 -
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Winehead Girl
182 - Freaks and Supersex
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Dance of the Freaks
187 -
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Freaks’ Ball(Twenty-Two-Twenty; Bulldaggers’ Hall)
191 -
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’Flicted Arm Pete (Pisspot Pete)
194 -
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Casey Jones
198 -
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Cocaine Shorty
200 -
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Herbert Hoover
201 -
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The Voodoo Queen
202 -
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Marie
205 -
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Annabelle Jones
208 - Signifying and Poolshooting Monkey
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Signifying Monkey
213 -
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Poolshooting Monkey
226 -
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Partytime Monkey
234 - The Titanic Toasts
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Titanic
239 - Miscellaneous Narratives
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Ups on the Farm
261 -
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I Got a Job Down in Florida for Croft
263 -
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Once I Lived the Life of a Millionaire (Down and Out)
265 -
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Life’s a Funny Old Proposition
268 -
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Hoboes’ Convention
270 -
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Junkies’ Ball
273 -
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Junkies’ Heaven
276 -
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Hophead Willie
278 -
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Willie the Weeper
281 -
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T.B. Bees
284 -
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The Chintz
286 -
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The Fly
288 -
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The Alphabet
290 -
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The Seven Wise Men
292 -
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Get In out of the Rain
293 -
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Drinkin’
295 -
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Convict’s Prayer
296 -
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Pearl Harbor
297 -
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Hitler, You Lied to Me
299 -
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I Used to Be a Cowboy
301 -
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I Woke Up this Morning with a Hard On
302 -
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Ringo
304 -
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Through the Keyhole in the Door
306 - Short Verses and Drinking Toasts
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Short Verses
311 -
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Drinking Toasts
318 -
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Bibliography
325 -
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Index
329 -
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Index of First Lines
333
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 1, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781438496573
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
370
Other:
Total Illustrations: 0
eBook ISBN:
9781438496573
Keywords for this book
General Interest : Poetry; Literature : Folklore; African American Studies : African American Studies; General Interest : General Interest
Audience(s) for this book
General/trade;
