From the habits of Leonardo da Vinci, I try to come up with three things to be curious about each morning to cultivate my curiosity that is one of my Signature Strengths, of which using it helps keep me happy and alive in life. This morning, I came up with this question
When one is not wearing sleeves, where does the English language think one should wear one’s heart?
It references the English idiom about wearing your heart on your sleeve, meaning showing your intimate emotions in an honest and open manner. It references a common element in garments, which is the sleeve, but is not always found in a garment worn as a top, to which I then ask the equivalent of what if that element wasn’t there? What then?
Anybody want to suggest something? Preferably with a case for your answer? 🙂
There once was a time when you could take a dirty phrase to make a classy hit song out of it. I don’t know when it ended, but it was certainly alive in the 1940s when this song came about! This is the Louis Armstrong version, with Velma Middleton and the Louis Armstrong Orchestra, not the original Fats Waller version (at the end) that wasn’t nearly as good.
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Hey Pops! What’s wrong Daddy? You look like somethin’ botherin’ you Ain’t nothin’ botherin’ me honey That a piece of roast beef can’t fix up
A man works hard then comes on home Expects to find stew with that fine ham bone He opens the door, then start to lookin’ Say, Woman, what’s this stuff you cookin’?
Now all that meat and no potatoes I just ain’t right, dey like da green tomatoes Here I’m waitin’ Palpitatin’ With all that meat and no potatoes
All that meat and no potatoes All that food to the alligators Now hold me steady I’m really ready Now all that meat and no potatoes
I don’t think that peas are bad With meat most anything goes Yes, I look into the pot I’m fit to fight ‘Cause, woman, you know that mess just ain’t right
Oh, Pops!
All that meat and no potatoes Just ain’t right, like green tomatoes Woman, I’m steamin’, yeah! I’m really screamin’ All that meat and no potatoes
Say, I don’t think that beans are bad With meat most anything goes I look into the pot And what a sight! Oh, woman, you know that without rice Beans just ain’t right
Oh, Pops!
All that meat and no potatoes Just ain’t right, like green tomatoes Now woman, I’m steamin’ And I’m really screamin’ All that meat and no potatoes
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Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton
When I first heard this song, I found it really groovy, and I still do, but I thought to myself, why would someone write such a great song about meat and potatoes?
Well, after some researching, I found out.
The title of this song, All That Meat and No Potatoes, was a slur from the early 1940s that was used to described a big figured attractive woman with small breasts. Gee, don’t you wish English was still that classy these days?
Hey, some people will never be classy, but you could help them by giving them language like this rather than, well, you use your own choice words.
Anyhoo, the story regarding how this song came about was that Fats Waller liked some female vocalist he was working with, except that she was all that meat and no potatoes. So he wrote a song about it.
Awww. Wasn’t that romantic? 🙂
But you’ve got to give credits to Fats, and his manager Ed Kirkeby. They wrote a good song on the literal end of things, expressing discontent with cooking that had a lot of meat and no potatoes, as a metaphor for Fats’ feelings towards this woman.
Then Louis came along and just took it to another level. Compare the version above to the version below.
It might be jazz, but I’ll tell ya, can Louis rock it or what???
Digital Citizen 