Selected Examples Of The Hand Clap Rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" (1965-1990s)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on "Miss Sue From Alabama".

Part I provides my brief editorial comments about why I believe "Miss Sue From Alabama" with originated as an African American rhyme.

Part I of this pancocojams series also presents selected examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" regardless of their titles* from 1965-1999. These examples probably include (accidental) folk processed* versions as well as purposely changed versions of that rhyme and may also include verses from another stand alone hand clap (or jump rope) rhyme.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/09/selected-examples-of-hand-clap-rhyme_1.html for Part II of this series. Part II of this pancocojams series presents selected examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" hand clap rhymes regardless of their titles that are dated from 2000 on as well as examples from the "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhyme family (regardless of their titles) that have no demographic information about their dates, but which I believe are later versions.

The tune of the sound file embedded in Part I and the video embedded in Part II are the same. However, compare the how different many of the words of these later examples are from the earlier examples of these rhymes that are featured in Part I. The examples that are featured in Part II also include (accidental) folk processed versions or purposely changed versions of that rhyme. Furthermore, it appears to me that more post 1990s examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" include that rhyme's verses in combination with verses from other stand alone hand clap rhymes.

*Instead of the referent "Miss Sue", a number of examples in the "Miss Sue From Alabama" family of hand clap rhymes include titles (first lines) such as "E.T.", "My soup", "Mazoo", and "Missing from Alabama".

DISCLAIMER: This series isn't meant to be a comprehensive compilation of all of the numerous versions of rhymes in the "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhyme family.

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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/folk-processing-childrens-rhyme-miss.html for a 2013 pancocojams post on "Folk Processing The Children's Rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" for my theories about the meanings of the referent "Scooby Doo" and the phrase take a smooth shot" in some examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama"

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The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who contributed examples to this post and all those who are otherwise quoted in this post. Thanks also to those who are featured in the embedded video in this post, and thanks to the publisher of that video.

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WHY I BELIEVE THAT "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA" IS PROBABLY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ORIGIN
I believe that the hand clap rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" probably originated with African Americans because of these characteristics in the early examples that I have found:
1. the examples' textual structure, and the African American American Vernacular English (grammar & words/phrases) that are found in these examples.

2. the percussive hand clapping performance activity that accompanies the performance of these rhymes is also associated with African Americans.

3. the fact that most of the earliest examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" that I've collected are attributed to African Americans.

4. anecdotal comments from some contributors* suggests that this rhyme is very well known among African American girls (after a certain time period).**

*For instance, this comment: "I lived in Indiana my whole life although I changed schools alot, and this song ["Miss Sue From Alabama" seemed to be known by every other African American child I met." [The example that accompanies this comment is given in Part II of this pancocojams series].

**I'm an African American female who performed two partner hand clap routines in the 1950s (in Atlantic City, New Jersey) and I have no recollection of any version of "Miss Sue From Alabama".

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EXAMPLES OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA" (1965-LATE 1970s)
These rhymes are given in relative chronological order based on the demographic information that is given with the contributor's comments or with the example itself.

Brief editorial comments are included after some of these examples.

Numbers are assigned for referencing purposes.

NOTE: The earliest example that I've collected of "Miss Sue From Alabama" is from 1965. However, I don't mean to imply that there were no examples of that rhyme before that date.

MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #1)

Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama

Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue from Alabama

Show me what you can do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Show me what you can do
Miss sue from Alabama

Is this the way you do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Is this the way you do
Miss Sue from Alabama

Hey Hey
A doobie-do-wah
Your mama's broke
And your papa's broke
Turn to the east
Turn to the west
Turn to the very one you love the best
Milk in the pitcher
The butter's in the bowl
Can't catch a sweetheart
To save your soul


I think this is the way we sang this game in Northern Mississippi cira 1965.
-GUEST,nanasallthat, 11 Dec 07, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097
Subject: RE: Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes?
-snip-
This contributor didn't any racial demographic information. However, the textual structure and vernacular language of this example is clearly of African American origin,. Also, note that the certain verses (particularly the last verse aster the words "You papa's broke") can be found in other African American folk rhymes such some in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Otherwise.
-snip-
The scatting phrase "a doobie-do-wah" is probably the folk processed source of the name of the cartoon character "Scooby Doo".

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #2)
Miss Sue, Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey you Scooby -doo
Now let me see you smoothing
Now let me see you smoothing
-from Yo Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America, edited by Onwuchekwa Jemie, (Temple University Press, 2003, page 99)
-snip-
Here's an excerpt from a summary of this book that is found on https://books.google.com/books?id=9_4fUgF9BFMC&dq=miss+sue+from+alabama+in+other+countries&source=gbs_navlinks_s:
Collected primarily in metropolitan New York and Philadelphia during the classic era of black street poetry (i.e., during the late 1960s and early 1970s) these raps, signifyings, toasts, boasts, jokes and children's rhymes will delight general readers as well as scholars. [These texts range] from the simple rhymes that accompany children's games to verbally inventive insults and the epic exploits of traditional characters like Shine and Stagger Lee"..."
-snip-
Read my comments after Version #2 for the probable meaning of "now let me see you smoothing".

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #3)
mmm-Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama
Now let�s have a party.
Chicka boom chicka boom
chicka boom boom boom
Now let�s have a tic tac toe
Ah tic ah tac ah tic tac toe
My mother�s in the kitchen peelin white potatoes
My father�s in the alley drinkin lemonade-o
Brother in the clink waitin for the clock to go
boom tic tock boom tick a wally wally (7x)
boom tic tock

Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama
She ma *
My mother had a baby
My father called it crazy
But, if it�s a girl
I�ll give it a curl
And If it�s a boy
I�ll give it a toy.
Wrap it up in toilet paper
Send it down the elevator
First floor � Stop!
(Think it over)
Second floor -Stop!
(Think it over)
Third floor, you better not stop
'Cause S.T.O.P spells stop.
-Songs for Children from New York City [1976]
Transcribed by Azizi Powell from the sound file published on YouTube.
-snip-
*"She ma" seemed like it was an utterance that the girls chanting this rhyme caught and then moved on to the "My mother had a baby" verses. "Mother had a baby" is a stand alone jump rope (hand clap) rhyme (a rhyme that can be chanted by itself).

SHOWCASE SOUND FILE: Miss Sue From Alabama; Miss Sue From Alabama



Various Artists - Topic, Published on May 30, 2015

Songs for Children from New York City [1976]

Provided to YouTube by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

? 2004 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings / 1978 Folkways Records

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #4)
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey you,
scooby do
your Mama's got the measles
Your papa's got the flu
magic measles
magic flu
Take an a b c d e f g
Take an h i j k l.m.n.o.p.
Take a smooth shot
Take a smooth shot
and now freeze.
-Eleanor Fulton, Pat Smith, editors Let's Slice The Ice, (Magnamusic-Baton, 1978; St. Louis, Missouri; p. 16)
-snip-
In this example & in other examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" playground rhymes, the word "smooth" is an adjective whose 1970s slang meaning is "doing something difficult without effort, with finesse." The word "smooth" was often used this way when someone performed a difficult action in a way that made that action seemed easy.

The line "Now let me see you smoothing" in the example given as Version #2 above, the word "smoothing" probably carries the same vernacular meaning of doing something difficult with finesse.

"Take a smooth shirt" is just one folk processed example of "take a smooth shot" that is found in multiple versions of "Miss Sue From Alabama" (or other titles).

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #5)
Miss Sue, (clap, clap)
Miss Sue (clap, clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama,
Let's make a movie,
Sittin' in a rocker,
Eatin' Betty Crocker,
Hey wise girl,
Whatcha gonna do,
When your mama's at work,
Baby's got the flu,
Daddy's got the chicken pox,
And so do you?
Take an a b c d e f g,
Take an h i j k l m n o p,
Take a booty shot,
take a booty shot,
And FREEZE!!
-from http://www.inthe80s.com/rhymes.shtml "Children's Rhymes From the Eighties
-snip-
This page begins with this note:
"The purpose of this page is to list out various childrens' rhymes that were popular during the 80s."

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #6)
Miss Sue (Clap Clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama
She's havin a party
Chica Boom Chica Boom Chich Boom Boom Boom
Mama got the measels
Daddy got the flu
I ain't lyin
Neither are you
Just sittin in the field pealing white potatas
Sittin in the hall drinkin achahol
Got to drunk I fell out
How many hours was I knocked out
-from http://www.inthe80s.com/rhymes.shtml "Children's Rhymes From the Eighties
-snip-
This entire example was written in upper case letters, and was also written in paragraph form. I changed those features in order to conform to the other examples on this page.s

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ET FROM OUTER SPACE (Version #7 of "Miss Sue From Alabama")
ET from outer space.
He has an ugly face.
Sittin in a rocket
eatin very tocket
watchin the clock go
Tick tock
tick tock shawally wally
ABCDEFG
You betta get your black hands offa me
You gotta smoooth cho
You gotta smoooth cho
You gotta smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth.
Now Freeze!
(alternative last line: My mama said "Black eye peas").
-Kiera, African American girl, 8 years old, (Pleasantville, New Jersey) and Kion, African American male, 6 years old, (Pleasantville, New Jersey), 11/8/2008
-snip-
Comments:
Kiara & Kion are my great niece & great nephew. Their mother, Kiemon, told me that she recited this same rhyme when she was a child in the 1980s.

The "ET" in the rhyme is the lead character from the hit 1982 American science fiction movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial for more information about this movie. I'm not sure why that character and his ugly face replaced the standard "Miss Sue from Alabama" lines.
-snip-
Italics added to highlight this note.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/get-your-black-hands-off-of-me.html for a pancoocjams post about the line "Get your black hands off of me."

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MISS MOO (Version #8 of "Miss Sue From Alabama")
Miss Moo
Miss Moo, Miss Moo, Miss Moo from out of space,
Rocking in a rocking chair
Eating candy floss
Watching the clock go tick tock tick tock bananarama
Tick tock tick tock bananarama
A B C D E F G
Watching the stars jump out of me
Moonshine moonshine moonshine FREEZE! Vashti (talk) 01:42, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
- Vashti, (southeast Wales, UK version circa 1986, sung to music); January 2017; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AClapping_game/Examples#Miss_Moo_.28southeast_Wales.2C_UK_version_circa_1986.2C_sung_to_music.29 (talk page)
-snip-
Here's a note about this example from the editors of this Wikipedia talk page:
"This one is interesting, it has the same hand movements as the Midwest version above, and "Bananarama" is clearly a British 80s adaptation of "banana-wana", but it also has the moonshine part from the Appalachian version listed here."
-snip-
Those examples that are referenced in that note don't include any demographic information about when they were performed.

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #9)
Hi there. I'm from Mississippi and was in elementary school in the late 80's through early 90's. the version of "Miss Sue" I remember was not listed here. I thought I'd help you out. Last time I heard it, I think it had varied ever so slightly from when I was in school, but this is how I remember it:

Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama Sittin' in a rocker
eatin' betty crocker
watchin' that clock go
tick-tock, tick-tock-banana-nana
tick-tock, tick-tock banana-nana
ABCDEFG-wash those stains right out'a my knees
MUSHKA, MUSHKA, MUSHKA FREEZE
(as fast as you can) 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10!

I never got the last part...sometimes the rule was you had to stay still while you counted, and sometimes it was to count the fastest. The most distinct difference I remember is that there were always three claps after "Miss Sue." I hope that was helpful.
-Allison {Mississippi; late 1980s, early 1990s}; 2/28/2007 [cocojams.com]

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #10 & "MAZOO FROM ALABAMA" Version #11)
"grind gremlin said:
�Miss Sue, Miss Sue,
Miss Sue from Alabama.
She's sittin in the kitchen, doin a bit of knitting,
watching the clock going
tic, toc, tic, toc bananarama
tic, toc, tic, toc bananarama
ABCDEFG, wash those cobwebs off my knee,
Awooshka, Awooshka, turn around and freeze.

[also includes an example of "C C my playmate"]"


We had versions of these two as well. They seem to have come from the U.S.

Ours went something like this:

Mayzoo, Mayzoo,
Mayzoo from Alabama,
Sittin' in her rockin' chair
Doin' a bit of knittin'
Watchin' the clock go
Tick tock, tick tock shawala wala,
Tick tock, tick tock shawala wala,
ABCDEFG,
wipe those cobwebs of my knee,
With a woochacha, woochacha
woochachacha,
A woochacha, woochacha
woochachacha,
Turn around, tip the ground and freeze!


[includes an example of "Sisi my playmate"],

[..].

We would have played these games around 1993 - 1999.
-Emily88, https://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2055548787/3?,
School-yard Rhymes. [from the United Kingdom ?], 26-Oct-2014

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E.T. FROM OUTER SPACE (Version #12)
E.T....E.T....
E.T from outer space he has an ugly face, sitting in the rocker, eating betty crocker, watching the clock go tick tock, tick tock shawawa(sp)(x2), a-b-c-d-e-f-g betta get your mama off of me, betta get your mama off of me musha, musha, musha, freeze.
-IHEARTWRITING, http://nothingliketheninetys.blogspot.com/2008/08/etet.html, August 3, 2008 "I Heart The 90s�
-snip-
"Get your mama off of me (also given as "get your grandma off of me") is a Dozens type sexual put down as it infers that the mother (or grandmother) of the person referred to as "your" has trying to have sex with the person who is chanting this rhyme.

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This concludes Part I of this two part series on selected examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" (and other titles).

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Categories: African American children's rhymes and cheers Children's rhymes and cheers

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Gospel Song "Spirit Break Out" Sung At Houston Area Hurricane Harvey Shelter & Sung By William McDowell

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a video of a Gospel song "Spirit Break Out" that was sung by Veronica White, Marquist Taylor, and others at a shelter near Houston, Texas.

The Addendum to this post showcases a video of "Spirit Break Out" by William McDowell featuring Trinity Anderson. William McDowell is the composer of this Gospel song.

The content of this post is presented for spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to William McDowell, the composer & first performer of this Gospel song. Also, thanks to Victoria White, Marquist Taylor, and all others who sung this song during that impromptu performance at a Hurricane Harvey shelter. Thanks also to who was the first to record this song. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE HOUSTON SHELTER PERFORMANCE OF "SPIRIT BREAK OUT"
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/30/impromptu-gospel-performance-evacuees-texas-shelter-warm-your-heart/619316001/
DALLAS � "A video of a group of volunteers breaking into gospel song inside a shelter for Hurricane Harvey evacuees has gone viral.

Joni Villemez-Comeaux posted a clip of the group singing a stirring rendition of Spirit Break Out for scores of people taking refuge inside the Lone Star Expo Center in Conroe, about 40 miles north of Houston....

Villemez-Comeaux identified the woman leading the performance as Victoria White. White, an admissions counselor at Sam Houston State University, was at the shelter as part of an outreach program raising money for flood victims in southeast Texas, according to the Daily Mail."

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From http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/31/us/harvey-shelter-gospel-singers-cnntv-trnd/index.html Gospel singers lift spirits at shelter for Harvey evacuees By Madison Park, CNN, Updated 5:21 AM ET, Thu August 31, 2017
"In a now-viral video, Victoria White and Marquist Taylor gave a passionate, gospel performance at a Texas shelter for Harvey evacuees.

Surrounded by cots and people, White burst out powerful notes of the song "Spirit Break Out," singing of hope and uplift. People nearby yelled "Amen" and clapped along.

"What do I see in their eyes? You know, when we first walked in the door, you may see a little bit of despair, some hopelessness, but by the time we leave, we're seeing tons of joy, hope and love," White, a volunteer with Others Outreach Missions told CNN's Chris Cuomo."...

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Texas gospel singer's powerful voice lifts spirits in Houston hurricane shelter



watch life 3, Published on Aug 30, 2017

Texas gospel singer's powerful voice lifts spirits in Houston hurricane shelter. A Texas woman brings smiles to her fellow evacuees at a Hurricane Harvey shelter with her beautiful voice.

A group of gospel singers broke into song at the Lone Star Convention & Expo Center on Tuesday to lift the spirits of thousands brought to the shelter. Victoria White's powerful voice can be heard throughout the hall filled with beds and cots.

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ADDENDUM- OFFICIAL VIDEO OF THE GOSPEL SONG "SPIRIT BREAK OUT"

William McDowell - Spirit Break Out feat. Trinity Anderson (OFFICIAL VIDEO)



William McDowell Music, Published on Jan 1, 2016

"Spirit Break Out" feat. Trinity Anderson from 'Sounds Of Revival' available now on all digital outlets.

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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Categories: African American Gospel

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Foot Stomping Cheers Demographics: City & State Locations For Early (1970s to 2000) Examples

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents general comments about foot stomping cheer demographics. This post also provides a list of city/state demographics for examples of foot stomping cheers that I have directly collected, or my daughter has directly collected. Also included in this list are cities/states for all the foot stomping cheers that I have found (as of this date) either online or off-line (in a vinyl record or in books), or that I have received electronically from others.

"Foot stomping cheers" are also called "cheers" or "steps" or other referents.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.

All content remains with their owners.

Thanks to all those who contributed examples that are included in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html for Part I of a three part pancocojams series on foot stomping cheers.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of a five part alphabetical listing of foot stomping cheers. The links to the other parts of this series are included in each post.

[added August 29, 2017] Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/08/values-expressed-in-foot-stomping_24.html of this series for a few videos that show performance movements that are similar to foot stomping cheers.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTES ABOUT DEMOGRAPHICS AND FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
[Latest revision September 13, 2017]

This pancocojams post provides a list of cheers and their cities/states (Note: This compilation only includes "early foot stomping cheers-from the late 1970s to 2000").

I'm sure that there were other foot stomping cheers in those cities in that time period that aren't listed in this post, and I'm sure that there are other cities/states that aren't listed in this post.

For the folkloric record, please add to this list by including the names of foot stomping cheers (and their lyrics) from this time period along with demographic information in the comment section for that pancocojams post.

Thanks!
-end of September 13, 2017 addition-

**
Most of the examples of foot stomping cheers that I've collected are from African American girls (mostly between the ages of 7-12 years) in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area*. While I've included "the Pittsburgh Pensylvania area" as one of the city/states listed, this post mostly focuses on compiling a list of other United State city/states with pre-2000 examples of foot stomping cheers.

As of the date of this post's publication, I've not found any examples of foot stomping cheers (pre-2000 or after that year) in any country except the United States . If you know of any such examples, please add that information in the comment section below.

*In the context of this study, "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area" means many Pittsburgh neighborhoods that are considered "Black" or "mostly Black" neighborhoods" such as (my home location) East Liberty/Garfield, as well as Homewood, and the Northside.. In the context of this post, the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area also includes certain nearby communities such as Braddock, Pennsylvania and Rankin, Pennsylvania. Also, in the context of this study, "Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area" also includes those examples that I collected from children (mostly African American girls ages 7-12 years) who attended two after school programs that I started in 1999 to around 2004-Alafia Children's Ensemble- (one in Braddock, Pennsylvania and one in Pittsburgh's East liberty/Garfield community where I lived and still live).

(Note that versions of the same cheers from Pittsburgh neighborhoods or from Pittsburgh area communities (such as Braddock, Pennsylvania and Rankin, Pennsylvania) are often at least somewhat different. However, some examples of certain cheers from the same neighborhood over decades might be the same or very similar.)

**
[Latest Revised Content -September 13, 2017]
Few online examples of foot stomping cheers (or any other children's recreational material) contain demographics, including geographical location. I'm including in the category of "online examples of children's recreational material" visitor submitted examples to my no longer available website cocojams.com - a multi-page cultural website that I founded and edited from 2000 to October 2014. In part because that website included an easy to fill out content submission form that needed no email address, it appears that many children and pre-teens submitted rhymes, cheers, and other children's recreational material on that site. Along with their first name and last name initial, cocojams.com contributors were asked to share their city/state or share their nationality if they lived outside the United States. To protect the contributors' privacy, I only included last name initials even for those contributors who gave their first and last name. Although I requested racial/ethnic and other demographic information, few contributors to my cocojams.com site included that information. The largest number of people who shared demographic information shared the city that they live in. The smallest number of people who shared demographic information shared information about their race/ethnicity (with "ethnicity" usually meaning Latino/a in the USA).

Mudcat folk music form is another website where contributors to children's recreational rhyme discussion threads (particularly guests) were asked to share demographic information, including race/ethnicity and nationality. From 2005 to 2011, I was a very active member of Mudcat (an online, United States based folk music discussion forum that also had a number of members from the United Kingdom, some members from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and a few members from elsewhere around the word, including one active member "Masato" from Japan who excelled in scholarly research. Regrettably, during my membership with Mudcat, except for a very brief period of time, I was the only acknowledged Black person who was a member of that forum, and there were very few other acknowledged members who were People of Color. Members of that relatively small discussion form didn't routinely publicly share their race/ethnicity or nationality, because the members of that forum already knew that information. However, that didn't mean that the considerable number of guests to and readers of Mudcat's children's rhymes discussion threads knew/know that information.

Nevertheless, a few guest comments on those Mudcat children's rhyme discussion threads include race/ethnicity demographics. On Mudcat that would sometimes happened after I or someone else added a comment that for the folkloric record we encourage guests to share their demographics-including race- along with examples of rhymes that they might post.

My sense was that people were (are) reluctant to acknowledge race/ethnicity because they thought (think) that if they did so, people would consider them to be racist. But I'm glad about that some people shared dempgraphic information including their race/ethnicity (and/or the race/ethnicity of the children/youth who performed the recreational compositions that they posted because I strongly believe that for the folkloric record, a contributor's race/ethnicity (as well as nationality) should be documented, because, among other reasons, race/ethnicity can be a factor in correctly understanding the words/phrases in those examples, and race/ethnicity can be a factor in how those examples are performed.
-end of September 13, 2017 revision-

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MY NOTE ABOUT AN EXCERPT FROM KYRA D. GAUNT'S BOOK "THE GAMES BLACK GIRLS PLAY"
In her 2006 book The Games Black Girls Play..., Kyra D. Gaunt wrote
[page 183]
What was fascinating, which I was unable to research and include in this book, was how many of LaShonda's versions of cheers [she remembered cheers and not handclapping games or double-dutch rhymes] involved a great deal of individual improvisation within the collective expression of many chants. it was the first time that I had observed this phenomenon, the invention of vocal expression in the context of social performance of a girls' game. Does that suggest a change in the transmission or performance practice of girls games?....Was Chicago in the early 1980s somewhat a different locale of expression than outside Detroit, where I collected games in 1994-95? This can only be left for further study."
-snip-
I believe that Kyra D. Gaunt is correct in her speculation that what I refer to as "foot stomping cheers" ("cheers") and what she refers to as "cheers" mark a change in the transmission and performance of girls games in that these examples are a relatively new style of children's (mostly girls)' recreational activity.

I also believe that Kyra D. Gaunt was probably correct that for some reason, examples of these cheers were performed early on - i.e in the late 1970s and early 1980s- in certain African American communities throughout the United States and not in others. I'm sure that one way these cheers traveled throughout the nation before the internet, was by people (family members/friends) sharing them with others. For example, in the 1990s, a version of the Washington D. C. cheer "Chocolate City, came to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania via a girl who attended a Pittsburgh area summer camp while she was visiting her Pittsburgh cousins.

That said, it seems very likely to me that there were foot stomping cheer examples in cities that aren't included in this geographical demographic list, and I think that there were probably many more cheers in the cities that are named in this list than the ones that I've documented.

For the folkloric record, if you know any versions of these cheers, please add them in the comment section below - and don't forget to add demographics!

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LIST OF CITY (AND/OR STATE) FOR EARLY (1970S-2000)
he city/state names are given in alphabetical order. With the exception of examples from "Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area", the titles of the foot stomping examples that I have collected or found online etc.

Because my "collection" contains so many examples from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (from the mid 1980s to around 2008), I've chosen not to add the names of those examples under the Pittsburgh, PA. area entry. Instead, when an example from another city is the same or similar to one or more versions from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, I've noted that with these words in parenthesis (example/ multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area). When versions of that examples are also found on other examples with no demographic I've added this note: (multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States).

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of a five part alphabetical listing of foot stomping cheers that includes these city/state demographics, including those for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. The hyperlinks for the other posts in that series are given on each posts in that series.

These entries are given in alphabetical order. The entries include the city (and/or state) name, the name/s of the examples, the way the example/s were collected, and the date of collection/retrieval. Some other editorial notes may be included after some of these entries. I've also added the words to the three examples that I've found which are from the late 1970s.

A, B
Ann, Arbor, Michigan
"Oolay Oolay"* in The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt, (page 77) contributor Tomika and Laura, mid 1990s
-snip-
This is a version of the cheer "Hula Hula", (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)

**
Atlantic City, New Jersey
"Introduce yourself" [late 1970s, Atlantic City, New Jersey] ; (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
from Joan C.(Anglo-American female ; chanted by Black, Latino, and White girls at Catholic High School in Atlantic City, New Jersey, late 1970s; electronic message to Azizi Powell from Mudcat folk music forum email; 2/11/2007
-snip-
This is one of the earliest examples of a foot stomping cheer that I've found (along with the (Washington, D.C. "Mother Hippletoe examples from 1976 that are noted below). I's ironic that I was given this example because Atlantic City, New Jersey is my home town, and before I received that email from Joan, I didn't know that she was also an active member of the Mudcat folk music forum. After that email, I tried to exchange other emails, but never received another email from her. I've added the words to this version of "Introduce Yourself" because it is one of the earliest examples of foot stomping cheers that I've found:

"Hey girl, hey you, introduce yourself. Introduce yourself."
Then each individual girl says a rhyme about themselves, like,
"My name is Joan (group says "check") I'm from AC ("check") I come to say ("check") Don't mess with me ("Check it out")
-Joan C., late 1970s, Atlantic City, New Jersey

**
Birmingham, Alabama; 1990s
�Angels Go Swinging�, posted in cocojams.com (my no longer active cultural website)
(version of "Hollywood"; (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)

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C, D
Chicago, Illinois
[version] "Tell It, Tell it" (also known as "TeLl It Like It Is"
Chrystal Smith, comment dated July 14, 2017 (comment in discussion thread for vlog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY
Let's Discuss: Black Girl Childhood Hand Games and Sing Songs")

**
Also, from Chicago, Illinois, (early 1980s) noted in The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt; contributor: LaShonda (pages 182)
"Planet Rock"
**
"Hollywood Swinging"; (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)
**
"Take Your Time"

**
Cleveland, Ohio
Shelly H. (African American female, Cleveland, Ohio, mid 1980s) �Check�

**
Denver, Colorado
"Ola Ola"* in The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt, (page 78) contributor Arielle [1995]
-snip-
This is a version of the cheer "Hula Hula", (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)

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E, F
Elkhart, Indiana:
"Introduce Yourself Roll Call"; from Sonjala; memories of the late 1970s and early 1980s; collected by Azizi Powell (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)

"Tab" from Sonjala; memories of the late 1970s and early 1980s; collected by Azizi Powell
-snip-
Elkhart, Indiana is about two hours by car from Chicago, Illinois.

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G, H,
Houston, Texas
From Apples On A Stick: The Folklore Of Black Children by Barbara Michels and Bettye White (1983; p. 14);
"Hollywood Rock Swinging"- (multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States).

**
"Hula Hula"- (multiple examples same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States).

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I, J

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K, L
Los Angeles, California
Tether ball (three examples)
1) Milan W; November 18, 2009, cocojams.com
-snip-
Milan W added this comment to her version of this cheer
"Little black girls at Windsor Hills Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA during the early 1990s chanted this rhythmic taunt in a circle on the playground"
**
2) bitsy196; http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=4 ; �remember when��-06-25-2003
-snip-
bitsy196 prefaced this example with this comment: ..."I remember one that surprisingly (sp?) has not been said.I grew up in LA and I am sure this made across the US"...

**
3) Nikkole Salter (Los Angeles, California), comment in discussion thread for vlog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY "Let's Discuss: Black Girl Childhood Hand Games and Sing Songs")"

also
"Candy Girl" posted by bitsy196 in greekchant.com site whose link is given above.

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M. N.
New York, New York
"We are the Ridgewood girls", -Yasmin H., (Latina), via email to cocojams.com, 2/25/04 (memories of East Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1980s.)

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O, P
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
From Recess Battles: Playing Fighting, and Storytelling by Anna R. Beresin (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, 2010, page 104-105, in the section of that book whose sub-title is "Steps"), African American girls, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,)
"Fly Girl" (1999) (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)

**
"Hollywood" (1992) (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)

**
"I Work" [1992]

**
"Pump It Up" (1992) (multiple same/similar examples in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and elsewhere throughout the United States)

**
"Shoo shoo Sharida" (1992)

**
"Telephone" (1992) (A similar cheer is included in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area version of "Cheerleader"; also examples of "Telephone" found elsewhere throughout the United States)

**
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (and some nearby communities
-snip-
Most of the examples of cheers in my collection are from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, including those which are noted as such in the parenthesis in this post. Here's a few other cheers that are found in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area which are also found in at least one other African American community if not in more than one other African American communities throughout the USA:

"Bang Bang Choo Choo Train"
-snip-
"Bang Bang Choo Choo Train" is a VERY widely known recreational composition that is performed as a hand clap rhyme and as a cheerleader cheer. Both the hand clap rhyme versions and cheer versions have basically the same text, but it I believe that "Bang Bang Choo Choo Train" is usually performed by some Black Americans and most other Americans as a unison chanted hand clap routine. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/bang-bang-choo-choo-train-rhyme-cheer.html for more information about this rhyme/cheer.

**
"Candy Girl"
-snip-
This was posted as a cheer (Los Angeles, Cal.) in the Black Greek sorority women's "remember when" discussion and was also mentioned as a handclap rhyme in The Games Black Girls Play

**
"Disco"
-snip-
This cheer includes the line " what you gonna do when they come for you?" I collected it in Pittsburgh and it was also posted to cocojams.com (no location given). Of course, the person posted it could also have been from Pittsburgh area.

**
"Get Down"
-snip-
In this cheer, the group commands a soloist to "show me how you get down". That line is also given as "Show me how to get down". ("Get down" meaning - to dance really well, to dance in a funky, seductive manner.) I first documented this cheer in the mid 1980s from my daughter and her friends. I collected examples of this cheer in Pittsburgh with almost the same exact words up to around 2006 (I stopped directly collecting recreational rhymes around 2008). An example of this cheer with similar wording was posted on cocojams.com with no location.

**
"Really"
-snip-
This cheer was "really" popular in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the early 1990s. I've collected versions from the greekchat.com website, from lipstick alley.com, and from cocojams.com (all without locations and decade when the cheer was performed).

**
[added August 29, 2017]
I collected foot stomping cheer versions of "Gigalo" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ("Gigalo" is also performed as a hand clap rhyme). Here's a large excerpt of a comment that I wrote in November 25, 2007 on http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097 Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes? -Note: The words in brackets are what I added today to help clarify what I meant by what I wrote in 2007.

[...]
"GIGALO
All:
Gig ah lo-o
Gig a lo-o
Gig ah lo-o
Gig gig a lo-o
Group:
Hey, Kayla *
Kayla:
What?
Group:
Are you ready to gig?
Kayla:
Gig what?
Group:
Gigalo
Kayla:
My hands up high
My feet down low
And this is the way
I gig a lo
Group:
Her hands up high
Her feet down low
And this is the way she gigalos

* substitute the soloist's name or nickname

{repeat from the beginning with the next soloist, and continue until everyone in the group has a turn as soloist}

Girls stand in a horizontal line. While chanting, they step to a percussive, continual stomp clap/ stomp stomp/clap beat. When the girl who is the soloist responds "What?", she says it with attitude {like "Why are you bothering me to ask a question?"}. When she says "My hands up high my feet down low" She raises her hands and sashays down to the ground, in a sensual manner. When she says "This is the way I gigalo", she does a fancy step to the beat. The group then imitates her foot movement. The cheer then repeats again with the next soloist whose name is called and she does her soloist step.

Btw, recently, I've seen the soloist move to the front of the horizontal line when it's her turn to do her soloist {this does not mean moving in front of the other performers in the center of the line-but just moving in front of where she was standing}. When her soloist turn ends, she moves back to the line. Also btw, the girls don't stand in consecutive order 1 through 4 for instance. And the order of soloist {who is first, second, etc often depends on who calls out those numbers first at the beginning of this informal "play" activity}.

[Similar to] handclap rhymes, performers [are] {usually but not always girls as young as 5 years and usually no more than 12 years old}. [The girls basically] stand in [the same] place. The emphasis is on chanting while executing hand clap and hand slap partner routines. These routines can also be done with three people or four {two sets of two partners}. There are also larger group handclaps, but those are often lightly competitive while partner/three and four person handclaps aren't.

In contrast, foot stomping cheers are all about the creation of bass sounding percussive sounds made by the feet and also the hands and body patting. These synchronized, chreographed routines are performed by girls about the same age as those doing handclaps, but usually at the upper end of that age group. While foot stomping routines include handclapping, there are no partners-you clap your own hands and never touch the body of anyone else. The performers {like handclap routines, usually girls} basically stand in place or if they do move, they don't move far from their starting place, and they quickly return back to it.

These foot stomping routines are very much like the African American art of steppin."...

****
Q, R

****
S, T
San Francisco, California
Janice, () �Introduce yourself�(multiple examples the same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area)
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U, V

****
W, X
Washington, D.C
"Cheering Is my Game" -1976 Washington, D. C. school girls, in Band 3 "Cheerleaders" of 1978 vinyl record "Mother Hippletoe"; (multiple examples the same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area)

and

"Hollywood Now Swingin/Dynomite" -1976 Washington, D. C. school girls, in Band 3 "Cheerleaders" of 1978 vinyl record "Mother Hippletoe" ("Hollywood Swinging"- (multiple examples the same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area)
-snip-
Band 3 "Cheerleading" of the 1978 vinyl record "Mother Hippletoe" includes four examples of what the author of the record notes calls "cheers". Two of these examples* ("Cheering Is My Game" and "Hollywood Keeps Swingin/Dynomite") have the textual structure that I consider a signature characteristic of "foot stomping cheers". These are the earliest examples of foot stomping cheers that I've found. I've collected multiple examples of both of those cheers among African American in various parts of the United States.

Here are the words to Cheering Is My Game:
Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (Twice)
CALL: Barbara. Barbara is my name.
RESPONSE: Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (similarly)
Cheering is my game.
Freddy. Freddy was my man.
But Ken is my main man.
Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (Twice)
Cheer continues until each girl announces her name and her boyfriend�s name.
-"Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs"; Barbara Borum and other Washington, D.C., schoolgirls, vocals.
-snip-
"Cheering Is My Game" is an early version of the "Cheerleader" cheer. I collected a rather basic mid 1980s "Cheerleader" from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a much longer version of "Cheerleader" also in the mid 1980s from from Rankin, Pennsylvania which is about twenty minutes from one part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"Cheerleader" is a form of the "introduce yourself" subset of foot stomping cheers. The first Bring It On high school cheerleader movie (in 2000) featured a couple of "introduce yourself/"roll call" cheers. The third movie in that franchise, Bring It On:All Or Nothing (2006), includes "Shabooya Roll Call", a VERY widely known example of an "introduce yourself". In the cafeteria scene ofn that movie, the high school cheerleaders performed an (albeit) exaggerated form of a step routine to the "Shaboya Roll Call" cheer. However, it should be noted that a version of "Shabooya Roll Call" was chanted by African American men and boys in a scene in Spike Lee's fictional 1996 Get On The Bus movie about the Million Man March on Washington, D.C.

For the record, a young Black woman I met in the Washington, D. C. area told me that she and other teenagers "said a cheer" that had a word like "Shabooya" before Spike Lee's movie, but she that was the only thing she remembered about that cheer.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-right-rhyming-pattern-for-shabooya.html for a pancocojams post about "Shabooya Roll Call".
-snip-
I initially attributed the "Shabooya Roll Call" cheer to the first Bring It On movie in 2000. My apologies for that mistake.

**
Here are the words to Hollywood Now Swingin / Dynomite
HOLLYWOOD NOW SWINGING/DYNOMITE
Hollywood now swingin'! (4 times)
CALL: Name is Nita.
RESPONSE: Hollywood now swingin'!
Similarly
I know how to swing.
Everytime I swing.
Stevie come around.
CALL: He popped me once!
He popped me twice!
All I felt was -dynomite!
RESPONSE: Dynomite, dynomite! (Twice)
Dynomite!
CALL: Here she is.
RESPONSE: Dynomite!
Similarly
Foxy Brown!
You mess with me,
I'll shoot you down!
Down, down,
To the ground,
Up, up,
CALL: Just out of luck!
RESPONSE: Dynomite, dynomite! (Twice)
-Barbara Borum and other Washington, D.C. schoolgirls, recorded in 1976 in Washington, D. C.; record notes by Kate Rinzler, "Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs"
-snip-
This versions combines two stand alone cheers. The "Hollywood Keeps Swingin" cheer is the one that is very widely found throughout the USA.

**
Other Washington D.C. examples:
"J. J. Cool Aid"*, from Anglo-American female living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who indicated that she grew up in predominately Black neighborhood of Washington, DC; performed this in the 1980s [written survey at Pittsburgh health care agency, Azizi Powell collected Collected by Azizi Powell, 1999 (Game song/Cheer survey of co-workers, Family Health Council, Pittsburgh, PA.) (one example the same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area)
-snip-
*This was that women's spelling of that title. The Pittsburgh example was "Jay Jay Kukalay". I believe the the source of these examples is the Ghanaian children's song "Kye Kye Kule" often given as Che Che Kulay" or similar spellings.

**
"Chocolate City", collected in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Lillian Taylor camp from a girl who lives in Washington D>C and attended Lillian Taylor camp (Pittsburgh area) with her Pittsburgh cousin; in 1990 [Lillian Taylor Camp was attended by mostly Black girls & boys ages 5-12 years from various neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My daughter (TMP) was a camp counselor who audio-taped a number of cheers that the girls knew (She didn't teach these cheers to them).

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Y, Z
Ypsilanti, Michigan
"Jigalow"
In The Games Black Girls Play by Kyra D. Gaunt, (page 80, 82) contributors: Jasmine and Stephanie, mid 1990s [?]
-snip-
This version of "Jigalow" combines "Jigalow" with "Introduce Yourself". The examples of "Jigalow" ("Gigalo") that I collected from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area are performed as handclap/imitative rhymes. "Jigalow" rhyme/cheer appears to be widely known in the USA. Versions of "Introduce Yourself" cheer are also widely known throughout the USA.

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OTHER DEMOGRAPHICS (STATE) FOR EARLY (1970S-2000)
Eastern North Carolina.
"L-O-V-E" (several examples the same/similar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area)
-snip-
This example was posted on my cocojams.com website but I neglected to save the contributor's name and date that it was aadded to that site. The date had to be in or before 2014. Here's the comment that was included with that example:
"I am a 25 year old African American woman from Eastern North Carolina.

**
Also, note that in her 2006 book The Games That Black Girls Play, Kyra Gaunt writes that "cheers" are called "scolds".

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Visitor comments are welcome.
"The section on the chant L-O-V-E caught my attention we used to do this when I was younger."

Categories: African American foot stomping cheers Shabooyah Roll Call The Games Black Girls Play book values foot stomping cheers

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"Candy Girl" - R&B Record, Hand Clap Rhyme, & Foot Stomping Cheer (with an excerpt from Kyra D. Gaunt's Book "The Games Black Girls Play")

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases the R&B record "Candy Girl". This post also presents an excerpt from Kyra D. Gaunt's 2006 book The Games Black Girl's Play: Learning The Ropes From Double-Dutch To Hip-Hop that discusses discusses the concept of "bridge" hand clap rhymes and focuses on a 1990s hand clap version of New Edition's 1983 R&B song "Candy Girl" as an example of Black girls cultural expression.

Text (word only) examples of three "Candy Girls" foot stomping cheers are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, recreational, cultural, and entertainment purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers and performers of the R&B song "Candy Girl". Thanks also to Kyra D. Gaunt for her research and writing about Black girls musical expressions and thanks to all the contributors of rhyme examples and all those who are quoted in this post.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "CANDY GIRL" & SONG LYRICS
�Candy Girl� was the first single New Edition released in 1983 from their debut album of the same name. The song was recorded in 1982 after the group was given studio time by producer Maurice Starr following a second-place finish in a Boston talent show. The members of New Edition were between the ages of 13-15 when this song was recorded. The single was released on February 24, 1983, and while it only peaked at #46 on the Billboard Hot 100, it hit #1 on both the R&B Singles chart and the UK Singles chart.

Lyrically, New Edition describes their girls as being �sweet as candy� and this song�s style was inspired by the 1970 hit �ABC� by The Jackson 5.

[LYRICS- CANDY GIRL]

[Ralph Tresvant rapping]
My girl's like candy, a candy treat
She knocks me high up off my feet
She's so fine, as can be
I know this girl is meant for me

[Ralph singing]
Candy girl...
You are my world
When you're with me
You brighten up my day

All I know
When I'm with you
You make me feel so good, through and through
The way you walk, and the way you talk
You always look so good, you make forget my thoughts

[Ricky Bell]
Do you really love me?
Don't you really care?
Do you really need me
And will you always be there?

[Ralph]
Every night and every day
I'm always thinking of you in every way
All I know
When I'm with you
You make me feel so good
Through and through

Candy girl, you are my world
[RB] You're everything, everything, everything to me

[RT] Candy girl, all I want to say
[Bobby Brown] I need your love, each and everyday!

[Ralph talking]
Hey fellas! (What?)
Check out Mike and Bobby's little lady!
(ooooh-weeeee!)

[Michael Bivins]
Well, check out Ricky and Ralph's!
(oooooh-weeee!)

[Bobby]
What about Ronnie's!

[Ronnie DeVoe]
She's bad, I know she's bad!

[Michael]
She walks so fast, she looks so sweet
She makes my heart just skip a beat

[Bobby]
My girl's the best and that's no lie
She tells me that I'm her only guy!

[Ricky]
That might be true, but my girl's a joy
She don't play around, she's right to the point!

[Ralph rapping]
My girl's like candy, a candy treat
She knocks me high up off my feet

[Ralph singing]
Oh, candy
You look so sweet

Oh, candy!
You're a special treat

[Break]

[RT] Candy girl, you are my world
[B] I need your love, each and everyday

[RT] Candy girl, all I want to say
[RB] You're everything, everything, everything to me

[RT] Candy girl, you are my world
[B] I need your love, each and everyday

[RT] Candy girl, all I want to say
[RB] You're everything, everything, everything to me

[RT] Candy girl...
[B] I need it, need it, need it, need it, need it everyday!

[RT] Candy girl..."


Source: https://genius.com/New-edition-candy-girl-lyrics
-snip-
"Candy Girl" was written by Maurice Starr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Girl_(New_Edition_song)

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Candy Girl official video New Edition 1983



dakwa4life, Published on Mar 19, 2009

Official Video (1983)

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BOOK EXCERPT
From The Games Black Girl's Play: Learning The Ropes From Double-Dutch To Hip-Hop by Kyra D. Gaunt (New York University Press), 2006; chapter: "Mary Mack Dressed In Black: The Earliest Formation Of A Popular Music", sub-title "Hand Clap Games"

[page 68]
"The lyrics of the musical games black girls play circulate between the dominant three types of play found in girls' games. For example, the lyric and melody of "Mary Mack" occur as a handclapping game-song and as a jump rope chant.
Additionally, these same lyrics and melodies operate within a wider musical system that includes the blues and other types of popular music typically associated with adults.

The partner style of handclapping, with only two girls, gradually expands o a type of handclapping game known as "bridges". The most popularly known handclapping bridge is "Tweedle deedle dee", based on the melody and lyrics of "Rockin Robin," Michael Jackson's first single as a solo artists, and his first departure in 1971, from the Jackson Five on Motown Records.

[...]


[page 72]
The author describes African American girls performing rhymes that they knew for a new television program in Boston, Mass. (October 18, 1999)
..."Lights, camera, action!" The girls began chanting the lyrics and melody of the opening lines of "Candy Girl". I recognized the song immediately and was titillated at discovering a game-song that showed a relationship between recent popular music culture and the ongoing tradition of creating girls games from it as a resource.

The girls patted hand with the girl to either side of them, creating an alternating current of contact around the circle. I was witnessing one of the latest bridges based on the early 1980s "bubblegum soul" of the

[page 73]
group New Edition. The game would have preceded these eight-and nine-year-old girls by ten years: they were born in 1991 and 1992. ("Candy Girl" was New Edition's first single hit, and it became the title of their first album releasd in 1983.)

[...]

The girls' handclapping, bridge version of "Candy Girl" highlighted the borrowing of popular dances from the recent past: i featured the Jamaican Pepperseed, marked by the alternating movements of the torso from left to right on one two three and (hold) four / one two three and (hold) four. With arms spread out to the side, the movements of the torso on one two three and (hold) four transferred wavy currents of motion from one arm to the other, causing the arms to look and feel like they were treading water. Th game featured the late 1980s dance the Running Man, popularized by bad boy Bobby Brown of New Edition. This dance involved the funky locomotion of lunging forward on alternate feet while thrusting your chest out and pulling your fists back by your sides. The dance was all about subdivided timing of strides marking the offbeats between one and two and three and four, while your feet executed a sliding action and a slight scuffling sound after each forward lunge, emulating a running man (or woman).

I recognized one other dance within the formula of "Candy Girl": the "Fight" from the early 1980s, which accompanied a chant about Mike Tyson. It involved mimicking a flurry of jabs, hooks, and punches times to the downbeats of the music, and I often deployed it when I was on the dance floor at a club or party with a guy who was getting toofriendly-too close for comfort. (These were the guys that wanted to turn even a fast song into an intimate slow dance or grind.)

[page 74]

The girls had fit these three dances, and others, into the kinetic orality accompanying the lyrics. They repeated the game-song for the cameras.

Can-dy Girl/You are my world
Look-so sweet/ Spe-cial treat

Following this was a section of show-and-tell, an embodied call-and-response of a sort, where the conjunction between word and the body, between individuals and the collective, became apparent. As they sand of doing the Janet Jackson, they danced the Pepperseed. As they sang of doing the Mike Tyson, the did the Fight. As they sang of doing the Bobby Brown, they did the Running Man.

This is the way you do - the Janet // Jackson ["Pepperseed"]
This is the way you do - the Mike // Tyson ["the Fight"]
This is the way you do - the Bobby // Brown ["the Running Man"]

Calling out the names of prominent African American stars that they would have been familiar with as popular icons in the media, the girls dramatized a salient feature of these figures' personas, or image, through kinetic orality. One could assert that the girls were performing the communal discourse, as well as a musical grapevine of blackness, through the body and their in-body formulas.

Traditional African American children's games revolve around dance, and its influence can be seen in almost all physical activities. Song and dance are an integral part of storytelling, for example. Cheerleading becomes dance, double-dutch jumping becomes dance, and so do the agile exertions of athletes from the end-zone to the hoop. Play serves as the training for performance. Through interaction, we learn fair play. That is, we learn the ethics of a culture and we learn to identify good play, which is similar to learning how to recognize good performance, The determining factors have to do with personal creativity, styling, and aesthetics. Thus, play becomes performance (Malone 1996 in Caponi 1999, 226"."

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THREE FOOT STOMPING CHEER EXAMPLES OF "CANDY GIRL"
CANDY GIRL
All: Candy Girl.
All my world.
Look so sweet.
Special treat.
Soloist #1: This is the way we do the Bounce.
Candy Girl.
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
Soloist #1: All my world.
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
Soloist #1: Look so sweet.
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
Soloist #1: Special treat
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
All: Candy Girl.
All my world.
Look so sweet.
Special treat.
Soloist #2: This is the way we do the Snake.
Candy Girl.
Group: Do the bounce do the Snake.
Soloist #2: All my world.
Group: Do the Snake. Do the Snake.
Soloist #2: Look so sweet.
Group: Do the Snake. Do the Snake.
--T.M.P.(African American female; memories of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the mid 1980s; audio recording 1992; In 2000 I observed members of Braddock, Pennsylvania's chapter of Alafia Children�s Ensemble perform this cheer with the exact same beat, and tune, and the same words except for then popular R&B/Hip Hop dances)

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CANDY GIRL (Version #2)
does anybody know candy girl? little girls i know still play it!

candy girl, oh my world
look so sweet, special treat
this is the way you do the "wop"(or the "snake", or whatever dance is cute that u know the name of)
candy girl, say wop,wop
oh my world, say wop, wop
look so sweet, say wop,wop
special treat, say wop,wop(and then move on to the next dance)
- bitsy196 (African American female); http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=4; �remember when?�; 6-25-2003 [no location given]

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CANDY GIRL (Version #3)
Candy girl,
all my world,
looks so sweet,
candy treat
This is the way
we do the (insert a dance)
Candy girl
Do the (dance) the (dance)
All my world
Do the (dance) the (dance)
Looks so sweet
Do the (dance) the (dance)
Candy treat
Do the (dance) the (dance)
(Repeat)
Directions:
This one involves the whole participation of the group at once. You repeat it for as many dances as you have until you can�t think of anymore.
-Jennifer (Korean), undergraduate female college student University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; remembrances of rhymes she performed when she was 8-12 years ; (she indicates that she learned this from African American girls); collected in 2005 via email to Azizi Powell in 2005
-snip-
Notice that the lyrics for these "Candy Girl" foot stomping cheers are very similar to the lyrics for the hand clapping/imitative motions example that was given in Kyra D. Gaunt's book The Games Black Girls Play.

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Categories: African American children's rhymes and cheers African American Rhythm & Blues foot stomping cheers old school dances The Games Black Girls Play book

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Values Expressed In Foot Stomping Cheers- Part V: Dancing (with editorial comments and examples)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part V of a five part pancocojams series that explores the values that are expressed in particular foot stomping cheers.

This post provides my editorial comments about and showcases ten examples of foot stomping cheers whose words largely refer to dancing.

Click the "values foot stomping cheers" tag for more posts in this pancocojams series.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.

All content remains with their owners.

Thanks to all those who contributed examples that are included in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html for Part I of a three part pancocojams series on foot stomping cheers.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of a five part alphabetical listing of foot stomping cheers.

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GENERAL OVERVIEW ABOUT FOOT STOMPING CHEERS [slightly revised 8/25/2917]
Foot stomping cheers are recreational compositions that originated with African Americans girls pretending to be cheerleaders in front of pretend audiences. These foot stomping cheers were (are?) usually performed by girls, particularly by working class African American girls ages around 5-12 years. The earliest demographic information about these types of cheers that I've found so far is the late 1970s (Washington D.C. and Atlantic City, New Jersey).

"Foot stomping cheers" are also called "cheers" or "steps".

Foot stomping cheer compositions have a distinctive call & response textual structure that I've termed "group/consecutive soloists". That term emphasizes the fact that these cheers traditionally begin with the group voice, and then the soloist's voice, and these cheers always immediately begin again from the beginning, repeating multiple times until every member of the group has had an equal length turn as the soloist. These chanted words are accompanied by a metronome type synchronized choreographed routine that is made up of bass sounding foot stomps alternating with (individual) hand claps (or sometimes body pats). The word "metronome" is purposely used because the cheer's movement routine is performed without stopping throughout each iteration of the cheer. If someone "messes up the beat" by forgetting a word of the cheer or missing the beat in the movement routine, the cheer must begin again from the beginning.

The values that I've identified in foot stomping cheers and showcased in separate posts in this series are "self-confidence", "physical attractiveness", "sexiness/romantic relationship", "toughness/confrontational language", and dancing/stepping skills. Most of these values are interrelated, but are discussed separately to allow space to showcase selected cheer examples of each value.

As of the date of this publication, I've only found on example of foot stomping cheers that includes profanity other than the mildly profane word "ass". The only two examples of foot stomping cheers that I've found that could be said to refer to race or ethnicity are one example that includes what is commonly known as "the n word" (That example represented that word by the letter "n" followed by randomly selected keyboard symbols) and one example that refers to skin color by the soloist referring to herself as "this light skin chick" (in an example of "Hollywood Swinging").

As of this date, I haven't found any examples of foot stomping cheers that refer politics (including mention of any President's name), religion, race/ethnicity, national names or other geographical places except for city or neighborhood references, or historical events. Furthermore, few (pre-2000) examples of foot stomping cheers refer to sports (such as basketball or football, including any sports related activity such as making a basket or scoring a touchdown).

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Part IV: FOOT STOMPING CHEERS THAT REFER TO DANCING
This category is probably the one that is least often mentioned in the few published descriptions of foot stomping cheers that I've found as of this date.* Dance style foot stomping cheers that I have found appear to include far fewer self-bragging or insulting content. Instead, the purpose of these cheers- to provide opportunities to show off the girls' dancing (and "foot stomping") skills, is actually the underlying purpose of all foot stomping cheers.

The main difference between this sub-set of foot stomping cheers and other ones is that the most of the words of these cheers directly mention a dance or (usually several (then) popular R&B/Hip Hop and/or Reggae dances. Dance style foot stomping cheers may also mention once popular old school dances.

*The earliest published commentary about foot stomping cheers ("steps"), that I've found is record notes for Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs; http://www.newworldrecords.org/liner_notes/80291.pdf; (vinyl record, 1978); Barbara Borum and other Washington, D.C., schoolgirls, vocals; Cheerleading; Band 3; Recorded 1976 in Washington, D.C., by Kate Rinzler. The Mother Hippletoe record notes written by Kate Rinzler refers to "foot stomping cheers" ("steps") as "cheerleading" and describes that recreational activity this way:
"Unlike the more communal games, neighborhood cheerleading as performed by girls in Washington, D.C., requires rehearsal and is often dominated by a single dynamic girl who solicits recruits and kicks out slackers. Girls practice by themselves, best friends cheer together, groups proliferate, and everyone who wants to gets into the act.

In 1973-75, fieldwork for the Festival of American Folklife revealed cheerleading girls taking turns doing a dance step or a simple gymnastic trick. In 1976, perhaps because of the popularity on television of the Olympic Games, there was a sudden citywide interest in gymnastic pyrotechnics: complete frontward and sideward splits, forward and backward flips, and cartwheels ending in jumped splits.

The texts of the cheers suit the girls' growing sense of attractiveness, group solidarity, and allegiance to school and boyfriend. They also attest to their knowledge and misinformation about forbidden subjects �inebriation, aggression, sexuality�and to their interest in the heroes and heroines of movies that exploit these subjects."
-snip-
As of this date, other than these record notes, I haven't observed any foot stomping cheers sessions or read any accounts of girls doing foot stomping cheers (steps) while incorporating "simple gymnastic tricks" with dance moves.

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THREE VIDEOS EXAMPLES OF PERFORMANCE MOVEMENTS THAT ARE SIMILAR TO FOOT STOMPING CHEERS [added August 29, 2017]
Unfortunately, I've found very few video examples on YouTube or elsewhere of foot stomping cheers. For those who have no idea what "foot stomping" looks like, videos of stepping are the most readily available video examples, since basic forms of stepping are very similar to foot stomping. Here's a video of a girl demonstrating the performance art of "steppin":

Video Example #1: step



swtytwty9988

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Video Example #2: Sesame Street - Girls clap out a song about K



Posted by wattamack4, July 11, 2007
-snip-
This cheer has the same lyric structure & a very similar performance activity as the footstomping cheer entitled "L.O.V.E". The words to this Sesame Street cheer and the words to examples of "L.O.V.E." (which is featured in Part III of this pancocojams series on Values In Foot Stomping Cheers https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/08/values-expressed-in-foot-stomping_40.html. The tune for the jingle that the girls chant is exactly the same as the tune for "L.O.V.E". However, "L.O.V.E." is the only foot stomping cheer that I've found that uses that foot tapping to the front and side type of movement. Also, while there are some foot stomping cheers where girls stand in more than one horizontal line, that isn't the formation for most of these types of cheers - and I've never seen a girl stand out in front as the leader of the cheer like it is shown in this video. Furthermore, unlike the chanting in that video, the second iteration of that cheer wouldn't have repeated the name of the first soloist, but would the new soloist would have chanted her name or nickname.

**
Sesame Street - 7 girls slide



sesamestreet66 Published on Nov 20, 2007

Seven girls dance to a chant about the number seven
-snip-
This video shows a group of girls "chanting" while performing an alternating hand clap and foot stomping routine which is similar to foot stomping cheers, the girls who I observed doing these types of cheers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania didn't lift their arms high like the girls in the video do when they clap their hands.

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TEN EXAMPLES OF FOOT STOMPING CHEERS THAT REFER TO DANCING
(given in alphabetical order)

These examples aren't meant to be all of the examples of in this categories that I've collected or found as of this date.

EXAMPLE #1
A BULLDOG
Group: Ah bull dog.
Ah bull dog.
Ah bull dog.
Ah bull dog.
Soloist #1: My name is Kayla.
Group: Ah bulldog.
Soloist #1: And I�m gonna show you how to work that bulldog.
Group: Ah bulldog.
Soloist #1: First you roll it.
Control it.
Then you bounce it.
Announce it.
Then you pop it.
Don�t stop it.
Then you creep it.
Don�t sleep it. (or �Don�t weep it�.)
Then you stop,
Think,
A ring a ding ding.

Repeat the exact same cheer with the next soloist. Continue with this pattern until every member of the group has had one turn as soloist.
- Jasmine, Indonesia, Brittany, Kayla, Felicia, & Tiara (African American females ages 9-12 years), Alafia Children�s Ensemble, Braddock, Pennsylvania, Collected by Azizi Powell 10/2000

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EXAMPLE #2
AT THE PLAYGROUND
All: I�ve fallen.
I can�t get up.
I�ve fallen
And I can�t get up.
Smack, Jack!
Homie don�t play that.
Kick off your shoes [or "Put up your dukes"]
and let�s get loose!
We kick our beat at the playground. playground
You know.
All except the soloist:
Bust it "T", Bust it "T", Bust it! [Use first initial of the soloist�s name or nickname]
Swing it "T", Swing it "T", Swing it!
Kick it, "T", Kick it "T", Kick it!
She kicks her beat at the playground,
you know, playground.
- African American girls ages 7-12 years old; Lillian Taylor Camp; Pittsburgh, PA, early
1990s; collected by T.M.P. ; transcribed from audio tape by Azizi Powell, 1996
-snip-
This cheer text was corrected on June 11, 2017 to add missing words (as per my daughter T.M.P who collected it from that summer camp attendees.

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EXAMPLE #3
CANDY GIRL
All: Candy Girl.
All my world.
Look so sweet.
Special treat.
Soloist #1: This is the way we do the Bounce.
Candy Girl.
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
Soloist #1: All my world.
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
Soloist #1: Look so sweet.
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
Soloist #1: Special treat
Group: Do the Bounce. Do the Bounce.
All: Candy Girl.
All my world.
Look so sweet.
Special treat.
Soloist #2: This is the way we do the Snake.
Candy Girl.
Group: Do the Snake Do the Snake.
Soloist #2: All my world.
Group: Do the Snake. Do the Snake.
Soloist #2: Look so sweet.
Group: Do the Snake. Do the Snake.
--T.M.P.(African American female; memories of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the mid 1980s; audio recording 1992; In 2000 I observed members of Braddock, Pennsylvania's chapter of Alafia Children�s Ensemble perform this cheer with the exact same beat, and tune, and the same words except for then popular R&B/Hip Hop dances)

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EXAMPLE #4
CANDY GIRL (Version #2)
does anybody know candy girl? little girls i know still play it!

candy girl, oh my world
look so sweet, special treat
this is the way you do the "wop"(or the "snake", or whatever dance is cute that u know the name of)
candy girl, say wop,wop
oh my world, say wop, wop
look so sweet, say wop,wop
special treat, say wop,wop(and then move on to the next dance)
-bitsy196 (African American female, Los Angeles, California); http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=4; �remember when?�; 6-25-2003 [no location given];
-snip-
The participants in this online discussion thread were young adult Black women who were members of various historically Black Greek lettered sororities.

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EXAMPLE #5
DISCO
Disco 2x [repeat two times]
Reeses pieces reeses my pieces (say sombodies name) what you ganna do when they come for you (the person who's name was said says) i'm gonna step aside disco roll my eyes disco stomp my feet disco and do the hilltoe ah ha and do the hilltoe.
-Ciera S.; (African American girl), 10 years old; collected by Azizi Powell, Pittsburgh, PA); 5/16/06

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EXAMPLE #6
DO IT! DO IT!
All: Do it! Do it!
Do it! Do it!
(Now) Freeze!
Now stop and let the first row kick it!

(The girls in the first row recite the next lines, the girls in the 2nd row stand in place in an agreed upon stance)

First Row: With the �Drop Top�
(All the girls in this row do their own version of this R&B dance)

Second Row: Do it! Do it!
(All the girls in the second row do their version of the same dance along with the girls in the first row. This imitative movement repeats while saying that phrase after each dance step)

First Row: And the �Roll Your Body�
Second Row: Do it! Do it!
First Row: Do �The Butterfly�
Second Row: Do it! Do it!
First Row: Bust �The stop�
Second Row: Do it! Do it!
First Row: Shake your rump.
Group: Do it! Do it!
Do it! Do it!
Freeze!
Now stop and let the second row kick it!

(The same pattern as above, with some of the same dances and some different dances-�The Pop�, �The Crybaby�, �The Rodeo�)
-African American girls, 8-10 years old, Alafia Children�s Ensemble (Braddock, Pennsylvania), 1998; collected by Azizi Powell, 1998

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EXAMPLE #7
ELEVATE YOUR MIND
elevate your mind
get yourself together
when i count to 3
do the "rock" with me...
I said a 1, 2, 3 do the "rock" with me...

repeat that last line 2 times then repeat the entire cheer until everyone puts a �dance� in�
-AKA2D '91 (no location given); retrieved on 12/29.2009; http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=2 �remember when�

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EXAMPLE #8
FLY GIRL
Group: Fly girl one.
Fly girl two.
Pump it up, Shavona
Just like you do.
Soloist #1: My name is Shavona.
Group: Yeah.
Soloist #1: And I�m a fly girl.
Group: Yeah.
Soloist #1: I know karate.
And I got the body [pronounced �boh-day�to rhyme with �karate]
All you got to do
is put a move in the groove.
You jump side to side.
Front to back.
And break it down with the
�Cabbage Patch�
- African American girls, around ages 6-12 years, Lillian Taylor Camp, Pittsburgh, PA. 1989-1992

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EXAMPLE #9
ON THE LIST
Group: On the List
On, on the list
I saida on the list
On, on the list
Soloist #1: Well, Linda is my name
and I�m first on the list
and I got a little story
that goes like this.
One or more persons in the group says: "Kick it!"
Group & Soloist: Put your hand up in the air
like ah Coca Cola and ah Root Beer!
Kick off your shoes
and relax your feet
and move your body
to Linda�s beat. (soloist #1 says �to MY beat�)
(The soloist and group perform beat pattern #2 (see below) and then the entire chant begins again with the next soloist)
-TMP, mid 1980s Pittsburgh, PA, transcribed from audio tape in 1996 by Azizi Powell

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TINGALING A LING
Entire Group -Tingaling A Ling
School bells ring
Boolicka, Boolicka
1st Soloist - And (soloist's name or nickname) sings.
(Soloist does a brief step move or dance move).

The cheer then repeats from the beginning with the next pre-selected soloist who says her name/nickname and does a different step or dance move in the same brief length of time. This continues until every member of the group has had one turn as the soloist.
- T.M.P, mid 1980s, transcribed by Azizi Powell from casette tape in 1996
-snip-
The cheer "Tingalingaling" has its source in Shabba Rank's Dancehall song with that title.

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This concludes this five part series on values expressed in foot stomping cheers.

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Visitor comments are welcome.

Categories: African American foot stomping cheers values foot stomping cheers

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Excerpts About "Foot Stomping Cheers" From Kyra D. Gaunt's Book "The Games Black Girls Play"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams series features excerpts of Kyra D. Gaunt' book The Games Black Girls Play: Learning The Ropes From Double -Dutch To Hip-Hop (New York University Press, 2006). These excerpts provide an analysis of the African American originated girls' recreational activity that I refer to as "foot stomping cheers" (also known as "cheers", "steps" and other terms). Complete and partial words to versions of a few of these cheers are also included in these excerpts.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Kyra D. Gaunt for her research and her writing. Thanks also to all of the girls whose play is documented in this excerpt.
-snip-
This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on foot stomping cheers. Click the foot stomping cheers tag below for other posts in this pancocojams series.

[added August 29, 2017] Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/08/values-expressed-in-foot-stomping_24.html of this series for a few videos that show performance movements that are similar to foot stomping cheers.

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Selected Excerpts From:"GAMES BLACK GIRLS PLAY: LEARNING THE ROPES FROM DOUBLE-DUTCH TO HIP-HOP"
[Excerpt from Chapter 3: "Mary Mack Dressed In Black: The Earliest Formation Of Popular Music"; sub-section titled "Cheers"]

[page 76]
"Cheers are the second type of play that occupies girls' musical and social play. They are also known as "scolds
in Memphis, and in urban centers like Philadelphia, as "steps". The latter links the practice of cheers to a competitive tradition of group identity, known as "stepping" that was practiced by black, Greek-lettered fraternity and sorority members throughout much of the twentieth century. It involves creating in-body formulas that represent the unique identity of each group, sampling and re-composing aspects of black vernacular style and expression as well as moments of popular recorded song from gospel to hip-hop, from preaching to playing the Dozens. Competing groups try to outdo one another by choreographing a funky routine of embodied percussive beats and chants, collectively enacted by the group that names individual members, while signifying their unique group identity (i.e. individuality within collectivity). Steeping began at predominantly white universities, where many of these black "Greek" organizations exist, as well as historically black universities and colleges. (HBCUs).

This practice occurs with several girls gathered in a circle or a row, reminiscent of ring games like Little Sally Walker. Together, the girls synchronize their individual performances of percussive choreography-based on a more polyrhythmic and multi-limbed sequence of handclapping gestures, thigh-slapping, and foot-stomping. While cheers and handclapping games share percussive gestures, cheers feature a greater degree of difficulty relative to physical coordination and musical expression.

In performing cheers, girls must learn to create the embodied percussion of the gestures separately: there is little or no contact with other to produce percussive sounds and gestures, as was the case in handclapping games. In order to transition from performing handclapping games to cheers, girls must learn to navigate a sea of embodied sounds that they initially

[page 77]

produced in tandem with another person and move to perform individually, yet collectively, in concert with others, rhythmically.

Who keeps the beat among the crew? Who synchronizes the timing of their collective gestures and moves to avoid cacophony and disarray? Everyone keeps the beat simultaneously, and no one person, per se, conducts the music-making. This is one of the earliest examples of the development of the so-called metronome sense frequently alluded to in musicological literature about African and African American aesthetics.

[...]

Following my interactions with the twins, Stephanie and Jasmine, I learned and collected a few handclapping games and cheers in the summer of 1995 from a group of black and biracial girls (ages 10-15) participating in a summer writing workshop for current or formerly homeless girls and boys. The program was held at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And because boys were constantly lurking around when the girls were demonstrating their games during recess, this site elicited some interesting observations about female-male relations, in what often resembled scenes from commercial popular culture in reverse (i.e. boys dancing to the rhythms created by girls' play.)

One of the games I most enjoyed learning at Community High was a cheer performed by Tomika and Laura (ages 10 and 11) hat began "OO-lay, OO-lay/na-OO-tay/ Stay back that's me", and culminated with an antagonistic call-and-response: Call: "Oo! She thinks she bad." Response: Baby, bady, don't get me mad."....

Later that year, ... I happened upon a variant of the same cheer performed by my cousin's daughter Arielle (age 10). Arielle grew up on an Air Force base

[page 78]
in Denver, Colorado, a region influenced by Mexican heritage. And her version may reflect an adoption of Hispanic local practice or may parody it (Oo-lay in Tomika's version was pronounced Oh-la in Arielle's.) Arielle learned her version from her membership in junior high school (O-la, O-la/ Now who thinks they're bad!").

Arielle's version seemed less sophisticated and less complex, no as "funky" as the body of musical games I participated in and observed during my upbringing and research in black settings. Though the rhythm of the vocal dimension was initially the same, there are key differences between the two versions. Tomika's emphasizes more of the ideals associated with musical blackness.

[...]

Cheers offer a more polyphonically-embodies percussion that involves all four limbs, creating additional timbres from finger0snapping, handclapping, thigh-slapping, and foot-stomping. They tend to feature more syncopation, swinging of he beat, and rhymed linguistic play, facilitating a competitive nature within such play (more of an emphasis on individuality within collectivity). The fun of performing cheers is the synchronization of the voiced chants and the uniformity of emodiment, signaling a

[page 80]
team or group effort, even while many cheers internally feature antagonistic narratives of self-assertion within the group, often through call-and-response structures. All of this becomes apparent in the act of naming the self, and claiming to share a group identity that is black and female.

Jigalow" and Michael Jackson
"Jigalow" is a cheer that I learned from Jasmine and Stephanie that reveals a different aspect of the relationship between girls' games and popular songs by male artists. In this case, the artist is the young, emerging soloist Michael Jackson. And the aspect highlighted here concerns the use of kinetic orality, or transmission of movement or motion that are used to key into an older dance.

[...]

The expression "jig-a-low", which sonically resembles the word "gigalow", features call-and-response between two or more girls, with opportunities for each player to "do their thang": show off their individual dancing and identity. I imagine the "jig" in "jig-a-low" refers to dancing, or perhaps even "getting down", in its colloquial meaning in black dance. Definitions of "jig" in the Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary include "to move with rapid jerky motions," and "to dance in a rapid lively manner of a jig" (1999). These movements are not lost here.

Note the lyrics of the latter part of the game-song, which describe the action that accompanies how to "jigalow":

Well, my hands up high / My feet down low
And this the way I jig-a-low
Well, her hands up high / Her feet down low
And that's the way she jig-a-low
Refrain:
Jig-a-low/ Jig-a-low

[page 81]
Simple claps on beats two and four accompany the refrain,while the call-and-response sections lack any significant body-slapping, clapping, or finger-snapping. In that sense, this is an unusual cheer. But movement is not lacking here:dance or dancelike gestures are privileged in this game-song, following its name.

In introducing herself, each player inserts her name into a scripted verse of call-and-response, in dialogue with the other girls (one or more) playing the game....

The cheer actually explores contemporary "street" dance styles...

[...]

[page 82]

Jiglow
Refrain (Unison)
Jig-a-low, jig, jig-a-low
Jig-a-low, jig, jig-a-low

Part I
(Call) Jasmine: Hey Stephanie!
(Response) Stephanie: Say what?
Jasmine: In-troduce yourself!
Stephanie: Know what?
Jasmine: In-troduce yourself!
[They exchange roles here.]
Stephanie: My name is Ste-phanie
Jasmine: Yeah!
Stephanie: I got the mucle.
Jasmine: Yeah!
Stephanie: To do the hu-stle
Jasmine: Yeah!
Stephanie: I do my thang
Jasmine: Yeah!
Stephanie: On the video screen
Jasmine: Yeah!
Stephanie: I do the ro, ro, ro, ro, ro-bot (punctuates each syllable with Do Do Brown)
Jasmine: She do the ro, ro, ro, ro, ro-bot (Jasmine imitates Stephanie's version of the dance)

Refrain (Unison)
Jig-a-low, jig, jig-a-low
Jig-a-low, jig, jig-a-low

Part 2
Stephanie: Hey Jasmine!
Jasmine: Hey what?
Stephanie: Are you ready?
Jasmine: To what,?
Stephanie; To jig
Jasmine: Jig-a-low?
(unison): jig what?

[Exchanged roles again]

Jasmine: Well, My hands up high, my feet down low.
and THIS's the way I jig-a-low
[Jasmine creates a stylized move on THIS's]
Stephanie: Well, My hands up high, my feet down low.
and THIS's the way she jig-a-low
[Stephanie mimic Jasmine's stylized move on THIS's.]

[...]

[page 83]

The actual dance that Jasmine and Stephanie performed in place of the Robot in "Jig-a-low", was the Do. Do. Brown. This dance involved a rapid locomotive action, popping one's pelvis back and forth... It accompanied the song from which its name was taken: "C'mon Babe [Do Do Brown Version]," recorded by Miami-based entrepreneur Luther Campbell (aka Luke Skywalker) ....1990.

[...]

[page 84]
Whether girls are conscious of it or not, "Jig-a-low" is linked to the historical popularity of the song "Dancing Machine", the dance the Root, and the rising star of Michael Jackson..."Jig-a-low" is linked to black girls' fascination with boy singers, like Jackson, as teen idols; linked to youthful trends in black dance, and girls' significant participation to it; linked to girls' imitation of mediated black popular culture "on the video screen", from the Supremes to doing the Robot, as I once did.

[...]

[page 85]

Through the rhythmic and timbral patterns created from handclapping and finger-popping, body-patting and foot-stomping, jumping and dancing, all three types of play-handclapping games, cheers, and double-dutch- operated withing the everyday musical landscapes of language, rhythm, sound, and gesture of black female experience."...

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[Excerpt from the chapter "Who's Got Next Game?:Women, Hip Hop, and The Power Of Language" and the interview sub-section titled "Women, Music And Other Things Besides Singing"]

[page 131]
"Tosha (b 1972) recalled that she and her friends in Memphis, Tennessee, referred to cheers as scolds. In other cases, cheers are known as steps- linking them with the popular black, Greek-lettered fraternity and sorority tradition known as "stepping". I invited Tosha to explain what she thought scolds meant, and she speculated that it probably had a lot to do with the competitive exchanges and put-downs-the call-and-response that often took place between performers within the frame of specific cheers. She couldn't recall specific examples but likened scolds to playing the Dozens."

****
[Excerpt From "Conclusion"]

[author referring to a presentation that she did in 2003]
[page 181]
"My presentation rekindled the memory of several games once forgotten by a beautiful sister with locks who grew up in suburban Chicago....LaShonda waited after the talk to perform for me. The cheer began with a triplet rhythm into the downbeat-sung to a refrain that was remarkably familiar to my hip-hop ears:
Rock Rock to the Planet Rock / BAM!/ Don't stop!/
Rock Rock to the Planet Rock / BAM!/ Don't stop!/

[....]

[page 182]
LaShonda was clueless about the significance of [Afrika Bambaataa's hip-hop song "Planet Rock"] outside of her realm of memory of performing it with her sister. She may not remember it, but "Planet Rock" was surely the hot track circulating around the sub-culture of her adloescnece as a teenager in the late seventies and early eighties. The oral-kenetic transmission of black girls' play was her direct feed.

A few weeks later, I invited LaShonda to visit my hip-hop course to teach her version of ""Planet Rock"and several other cheers she grew up performing. They were all based on funk hits from the early 1980s, including Kool and the Gangs' "Hollywood Swinging" and the S.O.S. Band's Take Your Time". Upon hearing Afrika Bambaataa's original for the first time, she had no recollection of ever hearing it before.

[...]

[page 183]
What was fascinating, which I was unable to research and include in this book, was how many of LaShonda's versions of cheers [she remembered cheers and not handclapping games or double-dutch rhymes] involved a great deal of individual improvisation within the collective expression of many chants. It was the first time that I had observed this phenomenon, the invention of vocal expression in the context of social performance of a girls' game. Does that suggest a change in the transmission or performance practice of girls games?....Was Chicago in the early 1980s somewhat a different locale of expression than outside Detroit, where I collected games in 1994-95? This can only be left for further study."

****
This concludes this pancocojams post of excerpts about cheers from Kyra D, Gaunt's book The Games Black Girls Play.

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Categories: African American foot stomping cheers African American fraternity and sorority stepping The Games Black Girls Play book

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