![]() Jody’s entrance into and authority over any man’s house is emblematic of his ability to wrest agency from other men. When you get home / after working hard all day / Jody’s got your girl / and he’s gone away. ![]() Jody leave ashes / in your ashtray / footprints on your carpet / while you work all day / he even got the nerve / to sleep in your bed / sit down at the table / eat your bread. Jody’s agency is clearly demonstrated in Taylor’s next verse: This verse functions in two ways: first, it serves as a warning to black men about “Jody’s type,” and second, the image of Jody spending lots of money and “just riding around” suggests that a man with enough money to “just ride around” apparently has the means to get what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants it, including other men’s women. There’s a cat named Jody / in every town / spending lots of cash / and just riding around. Jody appears, in some instances, as a Southern human-fusion of black and white masculinity. ![]() If a man such as Jody is skilled enough to sneak into a man’s home and steal his woman and everything he’s worked so hard for, then what is the point in working so hard in the first place? This image of a black man working hard to provide for his family reflects black men’s frustrations with hard labor and the realities of black working-class life, and it suggests then men are anxious and suspicious about what goes on their homes while they’re off providing for their families. Taylor opens the song with:Į very guy I know / trying to get ahead / working two jobs till you’re almost dead (you tell ‘em!) / work your fingers / right down to the bone / there’s a cat named Jody / sneaking around in your home. Johnnie Taylor’s 1970 hit, Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone, is one of the earliest soul-blues representations of Jody, and Taylor depicts Jody as a complex and ambiguous figure. Johnnie Taylor performs, "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" at the 1972 WATTSTAX benefit concert in Los Angeles, CA. In one military running cadence simply titled, Jody, men are heard in the background chanting:Īlthough Jody’s origins are obscure, he remains a dominant figure in contemporary blues mythology. Hear the song on YouTube.įolklore suggests that it was African American soldiers who introduced the Jody chant into the U.S. Irvin "Gar Mouth" Lowry sings Joe De Grinder on the album, "Field Recordings Volume 2- North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas (1926-1943)" by Alan Lomax. Bruce Jackson writes that Alan Lomax recorded a man named Irvin “Gar Mouth” Lowery signing Joe de Grinder in 1939. Jody is the contemporary of “Joe De Grinder,” a black man who would steal the wives of black soldiers and prisoners during WWII. He often creeps into black men’s homes while they’re hard at work and does “who knows what” with and to their wives. Jody is perhaps the most mysterious and influential figure within the southern soul-blues genre. While I did not always understand ‘exactly’ what the bluesmen and women were talking about, I knew three things: that the maintenance man would fix your woman, the clean-up woman would take all the love another woman left behind, and Jody would get your girl and be gone! I watched as the grown folks would swing out, their silhouettes illuminated by sweat and lightning bugs, grooving and juking with the fictional characters of the soul blues, until night fell. And no matter the situation – somewhere, somebody was always singing about a maintenance man, a clean-up woman, and old low-down Jody Ryder. My folks can tell the tales of the blues: the classics were always Johnnie Taylor, Betty Wright, Mel Waiters, Marvin Sease, and T.K. When we arrived, Aunt Maxine and my other aunts, uncles, and cousins would be sitting in the shade under an old Mimosa tree, eating pigfeet and neck bones flavored with onions, garlic, and hot peppers, drinking whiskey, cussin’, laughing loud, and listening to the soul blues. Then we headed to Aunt Maxine’s house, where all the magic began. We drove thirty-two miles up Highway 18 until we reached the Spanish moss trees that masked dirt roads, shotgun houses, and the old-country-store-by-day turned hole-in-the-wall-juke-joint-by-night. When I was younger, I spent every weekend in my mother’s hometown of Utica, Mississippi, a small, rural community located just south of Vicksburg. My folks can tell the tales of the blues the classics.and no matter the situation – somewhere, somebody was always singing about a maintenance man, a clean-up woman, and old low-down Jody Ryder.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |