Mr. Bojangles...

[RP]

I was listening to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band do Mr. Bojangles and was curious about the song's derivation. Like many, I assumed that it was about Bill Bojangles Robinson, a Richmond, Virginia native and popular entertainer. However, according to Wikipedia, this is false.

Jerry Jeff Walker's 1968 folk song "Mr. Bojangles" has been misinterpreted as a song about Robinson. According to Walker, it was instead inspired by Walker's encounter with a white street performer in the New Orleans first precinct jail, a street performer who called himself "Bo Jangles", presumably taking his pseudonym from Robinson. In the song, the street performer is a heavy drinker and has a dog that died. By Robinson's own account and those of his friends, he neither smoked nor drank (although he was a frequent and avid gambler), and he never had a dog.

I also learned the following:

1) Despite being the highest earning African American entertainer of his day, he died penniless. Ed Sullivan paid for his funeral.

2) He once held a world record for running backward.

3) He coined the word copasetic.

4) As a performer he broke down many racial barriers.

5) Richmonders who are familiar with his statue in Jackson Ward might be interested to learn:

Despite earning and spending a fortune, his memories of surviving the streets as a child never left him, prompting many acts of generosity. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, he saw two children caught between the heat of traffic to retrieve their ball. There was no stoplight at the intersection: Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have one installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles", sculpted by Jack Witt, at the intersection of Adams and West Leigh Streets was established in a small park at the intersection.

[boombox]

Thanks for the info. Interesting story.

'Mr Bojangles' has always been a favourite song of mine. For me though, I first heard it by Sammy Davis, Jr on a 70s TV show, then the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy (which also includes the definitive reading of 'House at Pooh Corner'). I only discovered Jerry Jeff Walker's original version when I heard a recording of David Bromberg doing it, then had to find a copy by Jerry Jeff. Just don't ask me which of the four versions I like most!!!

[jnidoh]

RP, Thanks for the info. Always admired Bill Robinson and loved the song by the NGDB. I also assumed it was about Mr. Robinson and inside will probably keep right on believing it after fifty years.

Can't say I ever heard a bad version of it.

john

[12barBill]

Yep. Jerry Jeff Walker wrote it about a true encounter in a New Orleans jail cell. He once said that he grew tired of performing the song but it paid a lot of bills through the years. I think the 6/8 time of the song is part of what brings the story to life.

Jerry Jeff has recorded different versions over the years but my favorite is from Gypsy Songman, A Life In Song from 1987. Some killer guitar work in this version:

https://youtu.be/O1OMdSmDeBw/

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, something reminded me of this song, that I used to sing decades ago.

I think I first heard it not by JJW, but by Harry Nillson.

It is one of those songs that I regards as "finely crafted" - it's a story song that has a beginning middle and end, and when well presented grasps any but the most detached audience.

Harry did it back in '69, and straight with no added emotion, and a little over produced as things tended to be back then, but a pleasing string melody behind it.

I felt compelled to video my version, but here is Harry's

[Silly Moustache]

Of course, there is a rather sensitive and tasteful version by our friend Glenwillow.

[BrunoBlack]

Good song that I play regularly. My version is inspired by David. He tells a story about JJW in his version.



And here is a cool video of David with JJW

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Of course, there is a rather sensitive and tasteful version by our friend Glenwillow.

Nice version,. This reminds of the NGDB version which is the one we used to play in the country band i was in. My preferred version

[RP]

Terrific version, Glen. Another interesting bit of trivia is that Bill Bojangles Robinson real name was actually Luther Robinson, and his brother's name was William. However, Luther wanted to swap first names with his brother who then renamed himself Percy Robinson; and Luther became Bill Robinson...

[Bluside]

Thanks for posting all this. One of my favorite songs. NGDB version is my go to.

[PHJim]

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band made a classic mondegreen in the Uncle Charlie version.
Where Jerry Jeff wrote, And he spoke right out, The Dirt Band sang And the smoke ran out.
I saw them open for Willie Nelson a few years ago and they had learned the correct words by then.

I love the Mr. Bojangles lick that appears in several songs in waltz time. (Although Bill Sims calls it 6/8, I have always thought of it as 3/4 time.)
Renaissance by David Bradstreet, Class Reunion by Mark Rust, High Heels In The Rain by Fred J Eaglesmith all use the Mr.Bojangles lick.

C/C, C/B, C/A, G/G or C, C/B, Am, G

[PHJim]

RP's original post sent me to Merriam Webster to look up "copacetic", a word that my dad often used, and this is what I found:

History and Etymology for copacetic
of obscure origin

NOTE: Copacetic (with many variant spellings) is probably better known for competing theories of its origin than for any record of unconscious everyday use in American English. The first written occurrence of the word thus far detected (as copasetic) is in A Man for the Ages (New York, 1919), a novel about the young Abraham Lincoln in rural Illinois by the journalist and fiction writer Irving Bacheller (1859-1950), born in northern New York state. In the book the word is used twice by a character named Mrs. Lukins, noted for her idiosyncratic speech. Bacheller emphasizes that this word and coralapus are her peculiar property: "For a long time the word 'coralapus' had been a prized possession of Mrs. Lukins…There was one other word in her lexicon which was in the nature of a jewel to be used only on special occasions. It was the word 'copasetic.' The best society of Salem Hill understood perfectly that it signaled an unusual depth of meaning" (pp. 286-87). While coralapus passes into oblivion after the novel, it is only the beginning for copasetic—though it is far from certain that Bacheller coined the word. Copasetic next appears in 1920, in the lyrics of a song, "At the New Jump Steady Ball," by the African-American songwriters Tom Delaney (1889-1963) and Sidney Easton (1886-1971): "Copasetic was the password for all, At the new jump steady ball [a speakeasy]"; a performance of the song was the first issued recording by the singer Ethel Waters, in March, 1921 (see post and link to the song by Stephen Goranson at the website Language Log, March 3, 2017). This attestation begins a long association of the word with African-American speech. It was used by the tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1877-1949) in radio broadcasts during the 1930's; Robinson claimed to have coined the word in an exchange of letters with the lexicographer Charles Earle Funke (see Funke's article "Bill Robinson's 'Copesetic'," American Speech, vol. 28 [1953], pp. 230-31, citing an earlier column by Funke and Frank Vizetelly in The Literary Digest, vol. 120, no. 20 [November 16, 1935], p. 3). Funke's American Speech article apparently inaugurates the tradition of searching outside English for the origin of copacetic. He cites a report by a correspondent from Milwaukee that the word comes from Louisiana French coupe-sètique; the correspondent even proffers its use in a couplet from "a charming old Acadian poem." Unfortunately, outside of this claim, such a word is not known to exist in any variety of French. The same absence of support vitiates other suggested sources, as Chinook Jargon copasenee (not actually attested in Chinook Jargon) and the putative Italian word copasetti produced by the novelist John O'Hara in a letter of December, 1934 (Selected Letters of John O'Hara, New York, 1978, p. 100). Most prominent in recent decades has been the hypothesis that copacetic is borrowed from Israeli Hebrew hakol beseder "all is in order" (in a transliteration from pointed spelling ha-kōl bĕ-sēdher), a calque on expressions in European languages (German "alles in Ordnung," Polish "wszystko w porządku," Russian "vsë v porjadke"). This etymology is thoroughly debunked by David Gold in "American English slang copacetic 'fine, all right' has no Hebrew, Yiddish, or other Jewish connection," Studies in Etymology and Etiology (Universidad de Alicante, 2009), pp. 57-76. The notion that an Israeli Hebrew expression not attested before the early 20th century—when a very small minority of the world's Jews, mostly in Palestine, actively spoke Hebrew—could be the source of copacetic is beyond improbable. Until more evidence appears the origin of copacetic remains obscure.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by PHJim

RP's original post sent me to Merriam Webster to look up "copacetic", a word that my dad often used, and this is what I found:

Fascinating stuff, thank you!

Originally Posted by PHJim

the lexicographer Charles Earle Funk

"Look that up in yer Funk & Wagnalls . . ."

[12barBill]

Originally Posted by PHJim

RP's original post sent me to Merriam Webster to look up "copacetic", a word that my dad often used, and this is what I found:

History and Etymology for copacetic
of obscure origin

NOTE: Copacetic (with many variant spellings) is probably better known for competing theories of its origin than for any record of unconscious everyday use in American English. The first written occurrence of the word thus far detected (as copasetic) is in A Man for the Ages (New York, 1919), a novel about the young Abraham Lincoln in rural Illinois by the journalist and fiction writer Irving Bacheller (1859-1950), born in northern New York state. In the book the word is used twice by a character named Mrs. Lukins, noted for her idiosyncratic speech. Bacheller emphasizes that this word and coralapus are her peculiar property: "For a long time the word 'coralapus' had been a prized possession of Mrs. Lukins…There was one other word in her lexicon which was in the nature of a jewel to be used only on special occasions. It was the word 'copasetic.' The best society of Salem Hill understood perfectly that it signaled an unusual depth of meaning" (pp. 286-87). While coralapus passes into oblivion after the novel, it is only the beginning for copasetic—though it is far from certain that Bacheller coined the word. Copasetic next appears in 1920, in the lyrics of a song, "At the New Jump Steady Ball," by the African-American songwriters Tom Delaney (1889-1963) and Sidney Easton (1886-1971): "Copasetic was the password for all, At the new jump steady ball [a speakeasy]"; a performance of the song was the first issued recording by the singer Ethel Waters, in March, 1921 (see post and link to the song by Stephen Goranson at the website Language Log, March 3, 2017). This attestation begins a long association of the word with African-American speech. It was used by the tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1877-1949) in radio broadcasts during the 1930's; Robinson claimed to have coined the word in an exchange of letters with the lexicographer Charles Earle Funke (see Funke's article "Bill Robinson's 'Copesetic'," American Speech, vol. 28 [1953], pp. 230-31, citing an earlier column by Funke and Frank Vizetelly in The Literary Digest, vol. 120, no. 20 [November 16, 1935], p. 3). Funke's American Speech article apparently inaugurates the tradition of searching outside English for the origin of copacetic. He cites a report by a correspondent from Milwaukee that the word comes from Louisiana French coupe-sètique; the correspondent even proffers its use in a couplet from "a charming old Acadian poem." Unfortunately, outside of this claim, such a word is not known to exist in any variety of French. The same absence of support vitiates other suggested sources, as Chinook Jargon copasenee (not actually attested in Chinook Jargon) and the putative Italian word copasetti produced by the novelist John O'Hara in a letter of December, 1934 (Selected Letters of John O'Hara, New York, 1978, p. 100). Most prominent in recent decades has been the hypothesis that copacetic is borrowed from Israeli Hebrew hakol beseder "all is in order" (in a transliteration from pointed spelling ha-kōl bĕ-sēdher), a calque on expressions in European languages (German "alles in Ordnung," Polish "wszystko w porządku," Russian "vsë v porjadke"). This etymology is thoroughly debunked by David Gold in "American English slang copacetic 'fine, all right' has no Hebrew, Yiddish, or other Jewish connection," Studies in Etymology and Etiology (Universidad de Alicante, 2009), pp. 57-76. The notion that an Israeli Hebrew expression not attested before the early 20th century—when a very small minority of the world's Jews, mostly in Palestine, actively spoke Hebrew—could be the source of copacetic is beyond improbable. Until more evidence appears the origin of copacetic remains obscure.

Will this be on the test?

Just kidding. That's very interesting.

[12barBill]

And here is the aging troubadour himself. At ~1:00 the discussion about writing Mr. Bojangles starts.

https://youtu.be/JVCvqZk3OY8