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book: Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me
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Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me

African American Narrative Poetry from Oral Tradition
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2024

About this book

The classic work on African American toasts, the predecessor of rap.

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."

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Bruce Jackson 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 American Chartres: Buffalo's Waterfront Grain Elevators; The Story is True: The Art and Meaning of Telling Stories, Second Edition; Ways of the Hand: A Photographer's Memoir; and Voices from Death Row, Second Edition (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

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • The Titanic Toasts
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    Titanic

    239
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  • 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
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  • 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
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
May 15, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781438496573
Edition:
Second Edition
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
370
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438496573
eBook ISBN: 9781438496573
Keywords for this book
African American Studies : African American Studies; General Interest : General Interest; General Interest : Poetry; Literature : Folklore
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
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