[lit-ideas] Re: Dr. Feelgood and the Interns
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2004 18:43:39 EDT
Correction.
I wrote:
>it seems Geary was thinking of ... William Perryman,
>not Jeremy Bentham.
Rather, from Geary's
>you have to be familiar with a group called
>The Negro Problem. It's from one of their songs.
-- it looks like he was indeed having the "A. Franklin and T. White" 1967
hit song reference in mind -- not connected apparently (other than via lexical
identity) with the Perryman 1962 one, as the OED notes:
the term ["Dr. Feelgood"] seems to have
been first used as a simple self-designation
(without any of the later negative connotations)
by the blues pianist â??Piano Redâ?? (William
Perryman) who broadcast, and subsequently
recorded, under this sobriquet.
But, as the OED adds:
*the words of the 1967 hit song which popularized the phrase
do, however, suggest awareness of the sense
described [above].*
"Don't send me no doctor
Filling me up with all those pills
Got a man named Dr. Feelgood
That man takes care of all of my pains and my ills."
-- and I don't think A. Franklin and T. White _meant_ Perryman.
-- An interesting case for lexicological analysis. While Perryman's use (as
a self-sobriquet) was idiosyncratic (and ultra-creative), it's only via a
_hit_ song that can a word get into the (non-idiosyncratic) mainstream
_lexicon_
I wonder if A. Franklin is Aretha Franklin?
(The info comes from a 1997 addition to the OED. And I would guess that
while the 1967 was first identified (with lyricists), it was only _later_ that
someone traced the Perryman earlier use of "Dr. Feelgood".)
Cheers,
JL
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
