Really the Blues

by Mezz Mezzrow

  GLOSSARY

  Ace: dollar’s worth, dollar, one, first-rate

  Advocate: help to build and perfect

  Anywhere: State of possession (is you anywhere? = do you have any?)

  Back: adverb used for emphasis (scoffed back = ate very heartily)

  Ball: n., a good time; v., enjoy yourself

  Barrelhouse: n., low, boisterous dive; adj., the original style of playing jazz, once associated with such low dives

  Beat: exhausted, broke

  Beat the boards: tapdance

  Beat up your chops: talk a lot

  Before-Abe: job (the implication being that a Negro’s employment is slavery, of the type that existed before Abe Lincoln)

  Beginner Brown: Negro with light brown skin-tone

  Bellychord: a pleasing, abrupt musical chord that hits the listener hard

  Belly habit: an opium habit that, unlike the head type, affects the addict in the stomach

  The Big Apple: New York City

  Big bean: Sun

  Biggity: swaggering, putting on airs

  Bing: jail cell for solitary confinement

  Bit: jail sentence

  Biters: teeth

  Blip: nickel

  Blinds: spaces between tender and baggage car in any train

  Blow: smoke marihuana

  Blowtop: a crazy or violent person

  Blow your fuse: go crazy

  Blow your lid: go crazy

  Blow your lump: find a full outlet for your emotions

  Blow your top: go crazy

  Blue Broadway: the sky

  Boogie-woogie: a happier style of music which grew out of the blues; also, a style of dancing

  Boogity-boogity: pell-mell

  Bottle babies: drunks

  Breadbasket: stomach

  Break: a brief ensemble pause by a jazz band so that one player can extemporise a solo for a few measures

  Break it up: bring the house down

  Break time: get out of tempo

  Breeze: go

  Bright: morning

  Bring down: depress

  Bringdown: a depressing thing, a disappointment

  Bring time: punch a time-clock, work

  Briny: unpleasant, hostile

  Broom off: go away

  Brown: Negro with brown skin-tone

  Buddy ghee: pal

  Bug: put in the insane asylum

  Bundle: bankroll

  Bunk habit: practice of lounging around while others smoke opium, and inhaling the fumes

  Bust: arrest

  Bust your conk: become extremely happy and carefree

  Bust your vest: be big, magnanimous

  Buster: something extremely good

  Buzz: tell, whisper

  Buzz tone: a trumpet or trombone tone similar to that of a kazoo

  Bloodhound tip: snooping behavior of a policeman (see tip)

  Café sunburn: pallor

  Call some hogs: snore

  Canhouse: whorehouse

  Can’t see for looking: to stare so intently, usually with hostility, that your vision is blurred; to have your perspective distorted due to anger or jealousy

  Cap: have the last word, go one better, outdo

  Carry: escort

  Case: study carefully

  Cat: regular fellow, guy

  Cathouse: whorehouse

  Chances go around: everybody gets his turn, the wheel of chance keeps spinning

  Change: money

  Chesty: conceited

  Chick: young girl

  Chicken dinner: pretty young girl

  Chimes: hours

  Chinch: bedbug

  Chippy’s playground: stomach

  Chips: money

  Chops: lips

  Claws: fingers

  Climb’s on somebody: marihuana smokers get high; when somebody treats them to the marihuana, the climb’s on him

  C-notes: hundred-dollar bills

  Clinker: bad musical note

  Collar: understand, get hold of

  Collar all jive: understand all the subtleties

  Coin gold: make a lot of money

  Collar a nod: get some sleep

  Come on: give a terrific performance, be superb

  Comp: accompaniment

  Complexy: neurotic

  Con: convict; also, consumption

  Conk: n., head; v., hit on the head

  Conkhouse: head

  Connection: contact-man who supplies you with drugs, etc.

  Coonsbout: corny imitation of oldtime Negro style of singing

  Cop a deuceways: buy two dollars’ worth

  Cop a slave: get a job

  Cop a squat: sit down

  Corn: anything hackneyed, cliché

  Cover all spots: cope with all situations

  Crack your jaw: talk

  Craunch: grind

  Creep pad: a whorehouse where the girls are pickpockets

  Crib: type of one-room whorehouse in old New Orleans

  Croaker: doctor

  Cruise: entice

  Crummy: obnoxious

  Cruncher: sidewalk

  Crunchers: feet

  Cubby: home, apartment, room

  Cuckaburr: acorn

  Cut: outdo, out-perform

  Cut a brand-new one: affect very powerfully, bowl over, pierce to the vitals

  Cut out: leave

  Cut some rug: dance

  Cut some steps: dance

  Cutting contest: competitive get-together of performers

  Dance on all setting: crash the gates everywhere

  Daniel: buttocks

  Deuce: a couple

  Deuceways: two dollars’ worth

  Dicty: snooty, high-class

  Dig: understand, appreciate, listen to, follow, grasp, get

  Dim: night

  Dime note: ten-dollar bill

  Dinner: pretty young girl

  Dirty dozens: elaborate game in which participants insult each other’s ancestors

  Do a Houdini: disappear

  Dog around: follow

  Dommy: home, domicile

  Don’t lose it: sarcastic expression which really means it’s no good, get rid of it.

  Doodlely-squat: nothing, no more than the product of a child who squats to do his duty

  Dotey: old, senile

  Doublebank: gang up on

  Double-o: studious look

  Downbeat: conductor’s signal for the band to begin playing

  Down under: below the Mason-Dixon line

  Down with it: top-notch, superlative

  Drape: suit of clothes

  Dreambox: head

  Dreamers: blankets

  Driftsmoke: clouds

  Drink: ocean

  Drink den: saloon

  Drip: rain

  Drugg: brought down, depressed

  Dry goods: clothes

  Dummy up: shut up, refuse to talk

  Duster: buttocks

  Early black: early evening

  Eat up a breeze: eat a lot

  Enamel: skin

  Evil: unpleasant, obnoxious, hostile, neurotic

  Excusing: except for

  Eyeball: look, stare

  Face: a form of greeting

  Fall in: arrive on the scene

  Fall out: be tickled to death

  Father grab somebody: May the Lord take him away, to hell with him

  Fault: blame

  Faust: ugly (as the devil)

  Fay: n., white person; adj., white

  Feds: Federal agents

  Fer it: in favor of it

  Fillmill: saloon

  Final: go

  Fish: new inmates in a jail, fresh caught

  Fishblack: Friday night

  Fishtail: weaving motion of the buttocks during a dance

  Fix to: intend to

  Flickers: movies

  Fly: smart, sophisticated, in the know, alert

  Fly right: behave

  Foam: beer

 
For kicks: for pleasure’s sake

  Foxy: sly, clever, good

  Fracture your toupee: go crazy

  Fracture your wig: go crazy with joy

  Frame: body

  Framer: bed

  Frantic: wild, nervous, unusually good

  Fraughty issue: unhappy state of affairs

  Freakish: homosexual, perverted, weird

  Freebie: handout, something gratis

  Frolic-pad: place where you have a good time

  Frompy: unattractive

  Fruit: romance playfully

  Full orchestration: overcoat

  Funk: stench

  Funky: smelly, obnoxious

  Fusebox: head

  Gallion: slave quarters, Jim-Crow section

  Gangbuster: anything especially powerful

  Gas-meter: a quarter

  Gasser: something terrific that takes your breath away

  Gate: form of greeting

  Gauge: marihuana

  Gaycat: have a good time

  Geechee: Southerner from Georgia

  Get in your mouth: disturb you, repel you

  Get off: express yourself, render a good performance

  Get-off chorus: improvised solo for one chorus

  Get straight: reach an understanding, pay a debt

  Gig: single engagement, club date

  Gimpy: lame

  Git-box: guitar

  Give the office to somebody: to signal surreptitiously

  Gizz: short for gizzard

  Gizzard: form of greeting

  Glim: look at

  Glimmer: electric light

  Go down: happen

  God sure don’t like ugly: you get what’s coming to you

  Going to Slice City: going to cut somebody up

  Golden-leaf: the best marihauna

  Gone: out of this world, superlative

  Gone with it: really inspired, completely in control of the situation

  Grabbers: hands

  Grass: marihuana

  Grease: eat

  Grease your chops: eat

  Grefa: marihuana

  Grimy: Sour, unpleasant

  Groovy: really good, in the groove, enjoyable

  Gully-low: lowdown, unhappy

  Gumbeat: talk

  Gun: look, stare

  Gunboats: large shoes

  Gunja: marihuana

  Gutbucket: earthy style of music

  Hack: keeper in a jail

  Half-hipped: not very enlightened or sophisticated

  Half past the unlucky: midnight on Friday

  Hankachief-head: old Southern mammy

  Hamfat: ham performer, a nobody

  Hard-cutting: powerful, very good

  Hard-cutting mezz: the best brand of marihuana; anything that’s tops

  Have a ball: have a good time

  Have your hair fried: have your hair treated with hot irons

  Hawk: winter

  Hawk’s out with his axe: it’s freezing weather

  Hay: marihuana

  Head arrangement: a musical arrangement by ear, without written music

  Head Knock: God

  Heeb: Jewish person

  Heebies: jitters

  Hemp: marihuana

  High: intoxicated, or strongly affected by marihuana or other drugs

  High-jive: intellectual patter, the smoothest and most elaborate line

  Highjiver: smooth character with a very fancy and intellectual line of talk

  Hincty: snobbish, stuck-up, full of airs; also, suspicious

  Hip: in the know, worldly-wise, clever, enlightened, sophisticated

  Hipster: man who’s in the know, grasps everything, is alert

  Hit the jug: drink, heavily, often from the bottle; have a drink

  Homey: form of greeting between people from the same place

  Honeymoon kick: a situation of great intimacy, close friendship (see kick)

  Honky: factory hand

  Hooked: addicted

  Hop: opium

  Hopdog: insatiable opium addict

  Hophead: opium addict

  Hot: angry

  Hot for: enthusiastic about, in favor of

  Hot minute: brief moment (implying great hurry)

  House of many slammers: jail

  Hustler: prostitute; also, anybody who makes a living by hook or crook

  Hype: v., to deliver a phony but convincing line, to build up a sucker for the kill, to lay the groundwork for a scheme; n., a build-up, a phony story

  Hype up: build up (with ulterior motive)

  Ice: diamonds

  If push comes to shove: if a showdown comes, if things come to a head

  Igg: ignore

  In front: in advance, ahead of time

  In there: very good, sincere, masterful, likeable

  Intro: introduction to a musical piece

  Issue: a questionable or serious case or situation

  Jag: a state of extreme stimulation, produced by marihuana or some other stimulant

  Jam: to play collectively improvised music

  Jam session: a musical get-together in which all the playing is collectively improvised

  Jam-up: very good, most pleasing

  Jawblock: to engage in small talk

  J.B.: jet black, a very dark Negro

  Jeff Davis: an unenlightened person, a hick, from down South; sometimes shortened to jeff

  Jim Crow: the symbol of anti-Negro discrimination and segregation

  Jim-jam-jumping: extremely lively, vivacious

  Jive: v., to kid, to talk, insincerely or without meaning, to use an elaborate and misleading line; n., confusing doubletalk, pretentious conversation, anything false or phony

  Jive that makes it drip: clouds that produce rain

  John: customer in a whorehouse

  Joint: set of instruments used in smoking opium

  Joybox: piano

  Juice: n., liquor; v., to drink a lot

  Juiced: drunk

  Jump: turn, become (ex.: jump salty = turn sour or hostile)

  Jump: modern corruption of jazz in which short cliché riffs are repeated over and over mechanically and the loud, ringing sock symbol sets the pace

  Jump stink: turn sour and hostile

  Jungle bum: a hobo who cooks out in the open

  Jungles: San Juan Hill section of Manhattan, around Tenth Ave. in the Sixties

  Junkie: dope fiend

  Keep a lot of rumpus: act boisterously, make a lot of noise

  Kick: good feeling, something that gives a lot of pleasure

  Killer: anything very powerful, fine

  King Kong: cheap moonshine, corn whisky

  Kip: sleep (from camp)

  Kisser: mouth or face

  Kitchen: back of the head, the hair just above the nape of the neck

  Kitchen mechanics: domestic servants

  Kitten: very young girl

  Knock: give

  Knock a fade: go away, leave

  Knock out some vittles: eat

  Knock somebody some skin: shake hands with somebody

  Knowledge-box: head

  Kyaw-kyaw: sarcastic laughter

  Laine: hick, innocent, sucker

  Lamp: look at, see

  Latch on: get hold of

  Late watch: early hours of the morning

  Lay: to give, do

  Lay down: to recline and smoke opium

  Lay it: do something masterfully, do a good job

  Lay it on somebody: do something good for somebody

  Lay some iron: tapdance

  Lay your racket: perform, talk, give a good and convincing account of yourself

  Layout: set of instruments used to smoke opium

  Lead: melody, instrument that plays the melody in a band, solo chair of a section in a band

  Lead sheet: topcoat

  Lean your affection on somebody: to romance, to give a line to a girl

  Light up: smoke marihuana

  Light up and be som
ebody: smoke marihuana and make something of yourself

  Like Jack the Bear: worthless, no-account, broke, insignificant

  Lily-whites: sheets

  Lindy hop: a Negro dance

  Line two: one of anything (numbers are doubled to confuse outsiders)

  Line your flue: eat

  Lip: embouchure, muscular strength and control in the lips needed to blow wind instruments

  Liquor-head: drunkard

  Loaded: drunk or full of drugs

  Loot: money

  Lowrate: ridicule, show up

  Luck up on: get by luck, come into possession of unexpectedly

  Lush: to drink

  Lushhound: drunkard

  Lushy: drunkard

  Mac: pimp

  Main saw on the hitch: wife

  Main stash: home

  Main stroll: Seventh Avenue in Harlem

  Make: rob, visit

  Make time: beat a rhythm

  Make your love come down: Arouse your passion, put you in a romantic mood

  Mammy jamming: incestuous obscenity

  Mash: give

  Mellow: feeling good, especially after smoking marihuana

  Messerole: corruption of mezzroll

  Mess-around: dance in which hips are swung around in a circle

  The mezz: the best brand of marihuana; anything unusually good

  Mezzroll: fat sticks of marihuana, hand-rolled, with the ends tucked in

  The mighty mezz: see the mezz

  Mooch: beg, look, for handouts

  Moo-juice: milk

  Mop-mop: modern corruption of jazz built up around mechanical riffs

  Moss: hair

  Most anxious: very fast or excited

  Motherferyer: incestuous obscenity

  Much: like, be in favor of

  Mudkicker: streetwalker

  Mug: making faces or subtly clowning during a performance

  Mugg: associate with

  Muggles: cigarettes of marihuana

  Murder Belt: the South

  Murder State: Mississippi, or any lynch state down South

  Mush: kiss

  Muta: marihuana

  Nappy: kinky

  Nature: potency, virility

  Nayo hoss: no, buddy; that’s wrong

  Never no crummy: never in bad taste, never offensive

  Nix out: eliminate

  No stuff: no kidding

  Note: notoriety, publicity

  Nowhere: insignificant, broke

  Nympho kick: nymphomaniac form of behavior, erotic exhibitionism

  Ofaginzy: white person

  Ofay: a white person (from the pig Latin for foe)

  Offtime: out of harmony, old-fashioned, corny, offensive

  Old Fireball: sun

  One-nighters: one-night engagements

  Onliest: only

  Oscar: guy, especially a biased and narrow-minded one

  Out: oust, get rid of, destroy

  Pad: joint, place to enjoy yourself, bed

  Paddy: cop

  Pay no rabbit: ignore