Edited by Azizi Powell
This post presents information about the (White) British group George Thorogood and the Destroyers' 1982 Blues rock song "Bad To The Bone" along with lyrics for and a video of that song.
This post also presents my critiques of online definitions of the term "bad to the bone" means in the context of this record and my statement about what "bad to the bone" REALLY means in this song and why it has that meaning.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, etymological, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners
Thanks to George Thorogood and the Destroyers for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT GEORGE THOROGOOD & THE DESTROYERS' RECORD "BAD TO THE BONE"
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=11616 [referred to below as songfacts. com #1]
Album: Bad to the Bone
Released: 1982
This is based on the Bo Diddley Blues song "I'm A Man." Thorogood is influenced by The Blues, and Diddley is one of his heroes... Both songs are full of swagger, with the singers exuding lots of testosterone...
With MTV coming on the air in 1981, Thorogood picked a good time to release a memorable video. The clip showed Thorogood playing pool against Bo Diddley in a place where there was no chance of a dance sequence breaking out. Pool champion Willie Mosconi also appears in the video, which introduced Thorogood - and to some extent, Diddley - to the younger MTV crowd."...
***
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_to_the_Bone
"Bad to the Bone" is a song by George Thorogood and the Destroyers released in 1982 on the album of the same name. While it was not widely popular during its initial release, its video made recurrent appearances on the nascent MTV, created a year before. Licensing for films, television, and commercials has since made the song more popular.
Structure and influences
The song's roots can be traced back to rock and roll musician Bo Diddley's song "I'm a Man", which uses a similar guitar riff and vocal rhythm, and has a similar overall structure, as well as Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man", Muddy Waters's "Mannish Boy," John Lee Hooker's "I'm Bad Like Jesse James", and Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Gangster of Love". The riff is also very similar to the one from Chuck Berry's song "No Money Down" as well as Elvis Presley's "Trouble"."
****
SONG LYRICS: BAD TO THE BONE
(As sung by George Thorogood and the Destroyers)
On the day I was born
The nurses all gathered 'round
And they gazed in wide wonder
At the joy they had found
The head nurse spoke up
Said "leave this one alone"
She could tell right away
That I was bad to the bone
Bad to the bone
Bad to the bone
B-B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-B-Bad
Bad to the bone
I broke a thousand hearts
Before I met you
I'll break a thousand more, baby
Before I am through
I wanna be yours pretty baby
Yours and yours alone
I'm here to tell ya honey
That I'm bad to the bone
Bad to the bone
B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-Bad
Bad to the bone
I make a rich woman beg
I'll make a good woman steal
I'll make an old woman blush
And make a young girl squeal
I wanna be yours pretty baby
Yours and yours alone
I'm here to tell ya honey
That I'm bad to the bone
B-B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-B-Bad
Bad to the bone
And when I walk the streets
Kings and Queens step aside
Every woman I meet
They all stay satisfied
I wanna tell ya pretty baby
Well Ya see I make my own
I'm here to tell ya honey
That I'm bad to the bone
Bad to the bone
B-B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-Bad
B-B-B-Bad
Bad to the bone
Source: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/georgethorogoodandthedestroyers/badtothebone.html
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: George Thorogood And The Destroyers - Bad To The Bone
emimusic, Uploaded on Apr 22, 2010
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread:
2015
Craig Jackson
"good song ROCK N ROLL forever
**
Reply
"+Craig Jackson Led Zeppelin and George are the best White boy bluesmen ever....no offense to Eric Clapton."
****
2016
Freddy Ramirez
"Anybody besides me ever thought this was sung by a black guy? I had no idea, always loved this song!"
**
Reply
stephen brooks
"+Freddy Ramirez You're dumb lol"
**
Freddy Ramirez
"+stephen brooks don't tell me you never thought about it lol"
**
Reply
duttyow709
"+Freddy Ramirez Muddy Waters, Mannish Boy."
**
connfyoozed
"For those who don't know, this is a cover of a Bo Diddley song. That is Bo Diddley playing pool against George in the video. And Bo Diddley was one bad mofo with a guitar."
****
THE REAL MEANING OF "BAD TO THE BONE" IN THE CONTEXT OF GEORGE THOROGOOD & THE DESTROYERS' RECORD
In the context of George Thorogood & The Destroyers' "Bad To The Bone" song, a man who is "bad to the bones" is "thoroughly good when it comes to pleasing women sexually". A man who is "bad to the bone" has really "got it goin' on" when it comes his success with women.
"Bad to the bone" is an intensification of the standard English language meaning of the word "bad". Instead of something negative, in African American slang, the adjective "bad" means "very good". The adjectives "dope" and "sick" are two other contemporary [beginning of the 21st century?] African American originated synonyms of "bad".
Read the other definitions of "bad to the bone" below that I found online. I don't think the definitions of "evil through and through" fit the sexually bragging lyrics of those Blues, Blues Rock, and R&B songs that I mentioned.
-snip-
It should be noted that "the bone" that is referenced in the term means "skeleton bones" and not the slang term for a man's sexual organ.
**
It's ironical that George Thorogood's last name echos the real meaning of the term "bad to the bone".
****
OTHER ONLINE DEFINITIONS OF "BAD TO THE BONE"
From http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=11616
"The phrase "Bad To The Bone" means there isn't a bit of good in him....
While Thorogood is a disciple of the Blues, he was raised in a Delaware suburb and by most accounts is actually a pretty nice guy, despite what he claims in this song"...
-snip-
The songfact.com writer arrived at those conclusions even though he or she wrote that "George Thorogood & The Destroyers' "Bad To The Bone" is "based on the Bo Diddley Blues song "I'm A Man."
Another songfacts.com article about Bo Diddley's "I'm A Man" song (http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=12395; songfacts.com #2) indicates that "He sings about his sexual prowess".
-end of quote.
"I'm A Man", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Mannish Boy", the British Blues Rock song "Bad To The Bone", and countless other Blues & R&B songs are self-bragging songs. And what the men are bragging about is their sexual prowess with women.
People who read the lyrics of those songs and concludes that a man who describes himself as "bad to the bone" is using the standard definitions of "bad" rather than the African American Vernacular English meaning which is coupled with the slang definition of "to the bone", meaning "thoroughly". Add a large amount of sexual inferences and you arrive at what I strongly feel is the REAL meaning of "bad to the bone" in the context of George Thorogood & The Destroyers' song*.
-snip-
*I added italics to highlight the end of that sentence.
****
From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bad_to_the_bone
"Adjective
bad to the bone (not comparable)
(idiomatic) Completely bad and evil; pure evil."
**
From http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bad+to+the+bone
“bad to the bone".- idiom
Thoroughly and completely immoral, wicked, dangerous, and/or unlawful. Often used in an ironic, jocular way.
****
OTHER USES OF THE PHRASE "___ TO THE BONE"
Barbecue Bob's 1928 song "Chocolate To The Bone" is an example of an early use of "___ to the bone" phrase. In that song, the singer brags about how I "Love that I’m brownskin, chocolate to the bone." Although the extended form of this phrase isn't used in that song, "chocolate to the bones" means "chocolate down to my bones". While that 1928 song includes a considerable amount of sexual bragging, the "chocolate to the bone" phrase refers to the person being proud that he/she* is part of the brownskin (i.e. Black) race.
*I wrote he/she because it appears to me that although the singer is a man, the person whose words are spoken in that 1928 song is a woman.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/12/barbecue-bob-chocolate-to-bone-sound.html for a pancocojams post about that song.
****
"She's My One Black Two Black" is the title/first line of a children's rhyme/song which includes the words "chocolate to the bone". I believe that Barbecue Bob's 1928 song is the primary source of "One Black Two Black". I also believe that the phrase "chocolate to the bone" in that song means the same thing that it does in that earlier song -i.e. the person who is "chocolate to the bone" is proud of her or his Black racial identity.
****
"Trini to the bone" [Trinidadian] to the bone" is a contemporary Caribbean form of the phrase "chocolate to the bone". That patriotic phrase affirms one's love of being from Trinidad (or from Trinidad & Tobago). The use of the colloquial referent "Trini" marks this form of that phrase as being of somewhat recent origin. That phrase may have been used prior to David Ruffin's 2003 Soca song "Trini to de bone". However, that song certainly popularized that phrase. Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VCYlLG8VR8 for a sound file of that Soca song.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Using the word 'wicked' as a term of approval was current in Britain within the last ten years or so. Actually for all I know it still may be, but it was teenage slang and may be very dated now. Although I thought it was British, OED gives it as American slang from the 1920s:
ReplyDeletewicked:
b. Excellent, splendid; remarkable. slang (orig. U.S.).
1920 F. S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise i. iii. 119 ‘Tell 'em to play “Admiration”!’ shouted Sloane... ‘Phoebe and I are going to shake a wicked calf.’
In Britain it was often reinforced as "Well wicked!", that is, "very excellent". This site from 2009 quotes a usage:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091029120455AAXyweX
I have a feeling it must have dated as slang because there's a even a sales website now called 'wellwickedstuff.com'
Hi, slam2011
DeleteHere's the hyperlink for that site, that question, and two of the responses that it received seven years ago (2009):
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091029120455AAXyweX
"What does "init bruv" mean?
im from america so i have no idea what that means"
**
"Best Answer: "Innit" is short for isn't it? and "bruv" is mate or friend
Innit bruv is basically asking for someones agreement on something
i.e. "that party was wicked innit bruv" "yeah it was sick man" (sick meaning cool)"
unique, 7 years ago
**
"it's "chav" talk (a stereotype from England, generally)
the translation is "isn't it, brother?"
but sometimes, it has absolutely no meaning whatsoever... LOL
Vicky.✰", 7 years ago
-snip-
I'm glad that that response that was rated "best answer" included the slang word "sick" because it helps date when that slang meaning for that word was first used in the USA- ie. at least 7 years ago or before then.
With regard to the slang meaning of the word "wicked", I meant to include a note about the R&B singer "Wicked" Wilson Pickett in this post.
DeleteAs is the case with the term "bad" (and "bad to the bone") the African American slang word "wicked" can carry a lot of sexual inferences- along with the sense of being quite good in bad ways.
Here's a quote from an article announcing Wicked Wikson Pickett's death in 2006:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/arts/music/wilson-pickett-64-soul-singer-of-great-passion-dies.html
"He soon found himself with the nickname "Wicked Pickett" -- which has been described as a reference both to his screaming delivery and to his offstage behavior."
I think the "screaming delivery" part (which probably came from his church roots) and his on stage persona were interpreted as being sexually inticing by his female fans.
I'am also interested in this quote from the 1920 F. S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise i. iii. 119 ‘Tell 'em to play “Admiration”!’ shouted Sloane... ‘Phoebe and I are going to shake a wicked calf.’
DeleteHere's the complete quote from http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=6063
wicked Post by Archived Reply » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:56 pm
"Dear s, WICKED appeared in 13th century Middle English. ‘Wicked’ and ‘witch’ are closely related. ‘Wicked’ is an extension, using the suffix ‘-ed,’ for the now obsolete adjective ‘wick,’ which meant wicked. And this in turn originated as an adjectival use of Old English ‘wicca,’ which meant wizard, whose feminine form is the ancestor of modern English ‘witch.’
‘Wicked’ connoted various forms of maliciousness, unpleasantness, etc., from the 13th century up until the late 1800s when U.S. black English adopted the ironical use of ‘bad’ as good, which more than likely inspired the use of ‘wicked’ for excellent, wonderful, marvelous, outstanding, impressive, remarkable, fine, admirable, and the ironical mean. The OED’s first cited use is in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise (1920): “Phoebe and I are going to shake a wicked calf” [dance impressively]. BAD as good followed a parallel path and it too proliferated in the 1920s in jazz slang – “Ellington’s jazzique is just too bad,” (Charters & Kunstadt, 1927) and widened in use in the 70s and was adopted by the youth culture of the 80s.
Similarly ‘wicked’ saw increased use in the 80s as it was borrowed from black English and streetgang slang in the U.S. and as it was also adopted overseas by the British youth culture.
(Barnhart Dictionary of American Slang, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang, Ayto’s Dictionary of Word Origins
_______________________
Ken G – October 17, 2003
"Wick" as an adjective is not obsolete, and I have PROOF!
DeleteAbout twenty or so years ago an elderly lady in Manchester, England, was speaking to me about a kitten one of her neighbours had just got. "She's always getting out of the house and running off," she said, "She's very wick." By which she meant the kitten was "very lively".
In fact "wick" used as she used it is really a variant of the word "quick" - but not so much meaning "fast-moving" as "possessing life" (as in the obsolete phrase, "the quick and the dead").
And you know the cuticle round your fingernails, how you get little torn bits in it sometimes, which can really hurt if you catch them? Those are called "wicks" round here. Again, I think it comes from the contrast between the "dead" fingernail and the part near it which is still sensitive, still "alive", still "wick".
I agree that the African American Vernacular English meaning of the word "wicked" might mean something that is very good (and therefore some synonyms of that meaning would be the AAVE meaning of "bad" and the contemporary AAVE meaning of "sick").
ReplyDeleteBut since at least the late 1960s, demonstrated by Wilson Pickett's nickname, the African American Vernacular English word "wicked" might also have a sexual element.
Here's a quote from another obituary of Wilson Pickett that includes
"sexuality" in its explanation of the reason why "Wicked" was that R&B singer's nickname:
http://www.mtv.com/news/1521238/mustang-sally-singer-wilson-pickett-dies-of-heart-attack/
"Pickett, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, helped shape modern R&B with his stripped-down classics like "In the Midnight Hour" and "Mustang Sally." His gruff voice, raw sexuality and sweaty style earned him the nickname of "the Wicked Pickett.""
Among other pancocojams posts that I published about Wilson Pickett, I'd like to direct attention to this 2014 pancocojams post that features seven of that singer's songs: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/01/wilson-pickett-wasnt-uncle-sugar-but-he.html.
DeleteHere's two comments that I wrote in the comment section of that post:
Azizi Powell January 24, 2014 at 8:05 AM
"To clarify, in the context of this post, "wicked" means "very good with much more than a dash of sexually charged badness". And in the context of this post, "sweet" means "very good." "
"Bad" also can mean "very good" .However, "bad" doesn't necessarily have any sexual overtones (or under tones).
**
Azizi Powell January 25, 2014 at 10:32 AM
"I wrote this post before I learned that "Uncle Sugar" is almost always used as a referent for the US government and not individual men who act like pimps.
But my failure to understand the real meaning of that referent gave me an opportunity to showcase some of Wilson Pickett's hit records. So I count that as a win."
And when I published that Uncle Sugar/Wilson Pickett post I wasn't implying that Wilson Pickett was a pimp. I just meant his singing and his sexual persona drew women - like a pimp does.
DeleteWell, maybe a pimp doesn't really do that...
I'mma quit right here with that explanation of why I thought of Wilson Pickett when I read that referent "Uncle Sugar"...
:))
DeleteI just came across another example of the phrase "to the bone".
ReplyDeleteRuth, one of the members of the 1970s and 1980s singing group "The Pointer Sisters" introduced her sisters & herself saying “We’re the Pointer Sisters from Oakland, California. This is sister Anita. this is sister June and I’m sister Ruth . And we are real sisters- I mean to the bone."
-snip-
She goes on to explain that their last name is Pointer and that they got that name from her mother and father...
In that example "to the bone" repeats, gives explanation, and emphasis to the word "real", meaning that the women singing are biological sisters (and not just soul sisters).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS6NXsgEoSw "Fire" The Pointer Sisters at The Attic 1981 ["to the bone" comment at .029 in that video.]