Bruce Jackson 
Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me, Second Edition [EPUB ebook] 
African American Narrative Poetry from Oral Tradition

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.’

Table des matières

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the 2024 Edition

Preface to the 1974 Edition

The Toast World



THE TOASTS



BADMEN, CRIME, AND JAIL



1. Stackolee



2. Stackolee in Hell



3. Brock Hankton



4. Dolomite



5. Jesse James



6. Boothill Mc Coy



7. Herman from the Shark-Tooth Shore



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



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



10. Subject to a Fall



11. Derringer Youngblood



12. Satan’s Playground of Hell



13. Eddie Le Doux



14. Limpty Lefty Mc Cree



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



16. They Can’t Do That



17. Life of a Junkie



PIMPS, WHORES, AND OTHER LOVERS AND FRIENDS



18. Joe the Grinder and G.I. Joe



19. Hobo Ben



20. Treacherous Breast



21. Three Whores Settin’ Down in Boston



22. Pimping Sam (Wicked Nell; The Pimp)



23. Hustlin’ Dan



24. Ping Pong Joe



25. Don’t Look So Downhearted, Buddy (Don’t Feel So Downhearted, Buddy)



26. Sweet Lovin’ Rose



27. Strange, Strange Things



28. You Told Me a Lie



29. Cocaine Nell



30. L.A. Street



31. The Lame and the Whore



32. Toledo Slim



33. Pretty Pill



34. Dogass Pimp



35. Ain’t It a Bitch?



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



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



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



39. Winehead Girl



FREAKS AND SUPERSEX



40. Dance of the Freaks



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



42. ’Flicted Arm Pete (Pisspot Pete)



43. Casey Jones



44. Cocaine Shorty



45. Herbert Hoover



46. The Voodoo Queen



47. Marie



48. Annabelle Jones



SIGNIFYING AND POOLSHOOTING MONKEY



49. Signifying Monkey



50. Poolshooting Monkey



51. Partytime Monkey



THE
TITANIC TOASTS



52.
Titanic



MISCELLANEOUS NARRATIVES



53. Ups on the Farm



54. I Got a Job Down in Florida for Croft



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



56. Life’s a Funny Old Proposition



57. Hoboes’ Convention



58. Junkies’ Ball



59. Junkies’ Heaven



60. Hophead Willie



61. Willie the Weeper



62. T.B. Bees



63. The Chinz



64. The Fly



65. The Alphabet



66. The Seven Wise Men



67. Get In out of the Rain



68. Drinkin’



69. Convict’s Prayer



70. Pearl Harbor



71. Hitler, You Lied to Me



72. I Used to Be a Cowboy



73. I Woke Up this Morning with a Hard On



74. Ringo



75. Through the Keyhole in the Door



SHORT VERSES AND DRINKING TOASTS



76. My Uncle Sam



77. My Uncle Had a Old Gray Horse



78. Mary Had a Little Lamb



79. Miss Lookingood



80. Bend Your Back



81. The Rooster Crowed



82. The He-Frog



83. Running through the Jungle



84. Swinging through the Trees



85. Pussy



86. A Girl Told Me



87. Cock Is



88. The Ford



89. Forty-Nine Ford



90. Old Cods



91. I Used to Could Diddle All Night Long



92. Well Here’s to the Fool that Writes upon the Shithouse Walls



93. Here’s to the Lady with the Little Red Shoes



94. Well if I Had a Dog that Could Piss this Stuff



95. And Here’s to the Duck that Swim the Pond



96. Well Here’s to the Crane that Flew down the Lane



97. Here’s to You, Mag, You Dirty Hag (Motherfuck a Woman Lay Flat on Her Back)



98. And May Your Life Become Unlivable, Boy



99. Knockin’ down Chairs and Slammin’ Doors



100. Hickory Wood is the Best of Wood



101. When I Begin to Think When I Was a Young Man and in My Prime



102. This Is to the Women of Texas



103. Talk Some Shit, Richard



Bibliography

Index

Index of First Lines

A propos de l’auteur

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.