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Thursday, March 11, 2021

What Does "Don't Take No Jive" REALLY Mean In Children's Hand Clap Rhymes, Children's Foot Stomping Cheers, And An American University Football Chant

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision - November 12, 2024 (including title change)

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on the phrase "don't take no jive".

This post provides some definitions of the word "jive" and "jive talk". An example of a children's cheer with the phrase "don't take no jive" is included in this post.

This pancocojams also showcases a football chant from an American university that also includes the phrase "don't take no jive".

The Addendum to this post presents some information about "jive dancing".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/examples-of-childrens-foot-stomping.html  for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II presents all the examples of children's foot stomping cheers/hand clap rhymes that I have collected as of this date that include the phrase "don't take no jive".

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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DEFINITIONS OF THE WORD "JIVE" AND THE PHRASE "JIVE TALK"
Note: There are a number of definitions for the word "jive". This is the definition that I think is the best fit in the context of these cheers/chant:

From https://www.yourdictionary.com/jive
"To speak to (someone) in an exaggerated, teasing, or misleading way.

verb

The definition of jive is to talk in a way that is insincere or exaggerated in an attempt to fool people.

To jive is to tell a group of people about a wealthy relative that you really don't have just because you want to impress them."

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Here's another online definition of the word "jive". I've highlighted in italics the definitions that I think best fit the contexts of examples that are given in this pancocojams post. 

From 
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Jive+talk

v. jived, jiv·ing, jives

v.intr.

1. To play or dance to jive music.

2. Slang

a. To talk in an exaggerated, teasing, or misleading way.

b. To talk or chat: "You just jive in one big group, putting each other on, trying to top the last line" (Time).

[…]

v.tr. Slang

To speak to (someone) in an exaggerated, teasing, or misleading way.

adj. Slang

Misleading, phony, or worthless: talking jive nonsense."

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EXAMPLE OF HOLLYWOOD SWINGIN CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND CHEERS 

Hollywood rock swinging.
Hollywood rock swinging.
My name is Aniesha
I'm number one
My reputation is having fun
So if you see my just step aside
'Cause mighty Aniesha don't take no jive.

Hollywood rock swinging.
Hollywood rock swinging.
My name is katrina
I'm number two
My reputation is me and you
So if you see me just step on back
'Cause mighty Katrina don't take no slack.

Hollywood rock swinging.
Hollywood rock swinging.
My name is Natasha
I'm number twelve
My reputation is ringing that bell
So if you see my just step aside
"Cause mighty Aniesha don't take no jive
-Apples On A Stick: The Folklore Of Black Children by Barbara Michels and Bettye White (1983; p. 14)
-snip-
The preface of this book indicates that these examples came from Black children who lived in Houston, Texas.

This example is a version of the once apparently widely known family of "Hollywood Swinging" foot stomping cheers that eventually became a two partner hand clap rhyme. (Besides the differences in their performance activities, I think the way that you can tell that this hand clap rhyme used to be a foot stomping cheer is that the words are chanted in unison, but the words are clearly for two different people. In foot stomping cheers, each girl takes a turn being the soloist (The "Hollywood rock swinging" line is chanted by the group except for the soloist.)

Every "Hollywood Swinging" cheer/hand clap rhyme doesn't include the "don't take no jive" phrase. For example, the earliest example that I found (a cheer from 1976: Washington D.C.) on the Old Mother Hippletoe:Rural And Urban Children' Songs vinyl record. 

The entire "Hollywood Swinging" cheer/hand clap rhyme is about a girl boasting about how "bad" (meaning good) she is.

Each soloist brags about herself using stock rhyming lines that are memorized or improvised.
The soloist is declaring that she should be respected and shouldn't have to deal with weak, insincere, corny, or foolish talk from others.

In the context of these children's cheers, I believe that "jive" may also refer to insults or taunts, i.e. "trash talk" ("talking smack"). The soloist is saying that she doesn't want to waste her time dealing with that kind of talk because it is "jive" (nonsense, meaningless, fake).

The line "'Cause mighty [insert girl's name] don't take no jive"] is therefore both a boast and a threat, i.e. There will be consequences if a person tries "jiving" her. 

Although "Hollywood Swinging" compositions are usually remembered nowadays (since around 2009) as partner hand clap rhymes", the earliest examples that I've found of these rhymes appear to have been performed as foot stomping cheers. I recall seeing a foot stomping example of that rhyme in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the mid 1980s. 

There were different sub-categories of foot stomping cheers. "Hollywood swinging" cheers were examples of introduction and taunting foot stomping cheers. Another type of foot stomping cheers were those that served as opportunities to show off one's dancing and stepping skills). These taunting cheers should be considered "dramatic plays" in which girls put on the role of a tough, street wise girl (although that wasn't how they acted "in real life".  
-snip-
 "Foot stomping cheers" is the term that I coined in 2000 for a sub-set of children's cheerleader cheers.

Foot stomping cheers not only have a signature textual pattern, they also have a signature group synchonized foot stomping/ individual handclapping movement routine that is performed without stopping throughout the entire cheer. The movement for these cheers closely resembles and was probably patterned after historically Black Greek letter fraternity and sorority stepping. Probably the most widely known "foot stomping cheer" is "Shabooya Roll Call" that is performed (in what I consider a very exaggerated style) in the 2006 cheerleader movie Bring It On All Or Nothing.

Around 2007 I stopped collecting children's rhymes and cheers offline (through observation and directly asking children about their recreational activities). However, I still search online for these cheers, but haven't come across any examples after around 2007.  My guess is that foot stomping cheers are rarely performed anymore, at least not the way they were in the 1980s to the early 2000s. If that's the case, one reason for the demise of foot stomping cheers is that that informal recreational activity was started in imitation of actual cheerleading. However, it has become easier for Black American girls to join actual cheerleading squads and the structure of foot stomping cheers (where every member of the group has to have an equal time as the soloist) isn't compatible with actual cheerleading experiences. I think that two other reasons for the demise of the informal recreational activity I refer to as "foot stomping cheers" is the popularity of Hip Hop majorette dance teams (such as the Dancing Dolls on the television series Bring It!) and the existence of high school, middle school, and other pre-university step teams.  

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list_6.html "
Foot Stomping Cheers Alphabetical List (H - J)" for more information and examples of "foot stomping cheers" in general and "Hollywood Swinging" cheers in specific. 

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EXAMPLE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA "DON'T TAKE NO JIVE" CHANT 
When I was used google to search the internet for other examples of children's cheers that include the "don't take no jive" phrase*, I got several results for this University of Florida football chant:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 dem Gators don take no jive!"

https://www.pinterest.com/mrollo09/1-2-3-4-5-dem-gators-don-take-no-jive/
(and some other websites)

My guess is that this cheer is based on the "Hollywood Swinging" footstomping cheers and other footstomping cheers that include that "don't take no jive" phrase.

My guess is that that football chant means that no competitor's "trash talk" and no actions by their competitor will distract the University of Florida team from their goal of winning the game.
-snip-
For what it's worth, I didn't find any other examples of children's cheers with the "don't take no jive" other than the ones that I had already collected. All of those examples are given in Part II of this pancocojams series.

If you remember any cheers that include this phrase, please add to the folkloric collection by sharing those examples online. Remember to add demographic information such as where (city and state or nation if outside of the USA)  you learned that cheer and when you first learned that cheer (year/decade). Thanks in advance!

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ADDENDUM - JIVE DANCING

By at least 1942, "jive dancing" was a referent for "tap dancing".i.e. the White American professional tap dance group named "The Jivin' Jacks & Jills".

Here's a link to a YouTube video clip of that dance group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ9UCif5DB8

Great Tap Dance Team 1942 (The Jivin' Jacks & Jills), published by Bill Green, Dec 2, 2016

From the movie: PRIVATE BUCKAROO  1942

"I absolutely love the Jivin' Jacks & Jills. They were along with Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan who appear in this number among the mainstays of Universal Studio's so called "teenage musicals" of WWII era. The great background music is provided by Harry James and His Orchestra."

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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/why-african-americans-equate-tap.html for the related pancocojams post entitled "Why Some African Americans Nowadays Equate Tap Dancing With Shuckin' And Jivin' & "Uncle Tomming".

Here are some excerpts of the auto-generated transcript for that video that makes up the bulk of that pancocojams post:

"[narrator] "My name is Travis Knights and I love to tap dance."

[...]

A critical mass of black people who lived in Canada and the United states during the non-violent movement and the Black power movement of the 50s 60s and 70s do not like tap dance. In fact, they loathe it.  And they have raised their kids to have that same level of disdain."

[...]

[Karen Hunter] – and we’ve got to, we’ve got to step into this purpose. No more placating, we ain’t got to tap dance We don’t got to shuck and jive, change our hair, our vernacular, anything. We got everything”.

Narrator- “They perceive it as demeaning. They perceive it as the ultimate metaphor for an Uncle Tom sellout."

[video clip of Jacob Black, Sr, 2020 speaking at outdoor protest rally for Breonna Taylor, sourced from the Hill, YouTube] - “Did you say her name? Don’t come bringin us that shucking and jiving stuff. Nobody’s nobody’s ready for that. We're tired of that. Don't shuck and jiving and bojangles your way across the street”.

[Travis Knight, narrator] "He's right.  Tap dance was a key feature in minstrel shows for  over 100 years.  These blackface minstrel shows acted as propaganda that sold the public on the idea that black people were only three-fifths human and we’re still haunted by the ideas that stem from minstrelsy today.

That's not the end of the story though.  Tap dance has always been an African-American art form.  Check this: After the Stone rebellion in 1739 the colonizing slaveholders banned the use of the African drum because it was understood that the Africans were communicating across plantations  with them.  Now without the drums those rhythms were transferred to the feet.  That rhythmic expression called “buck dancing” was the precursor to tap dance,” That rhythmic expression was our link to roots that the colonial human traffickers of the time tried to sever.  The expression of the dance in black spaces helped to form a highly kinetic folk culture. In the post-emancipation era the folk music that was developed in that culture is jazz

[...]

Jazz culture became a major export of the United States much like Hip Hop is today. Knowing all that, how can black people reclaim our history?

How can we acknowledge the past and design a future with a bold sense of agency that would make our ancestors proud?

I don’t know.  I don’t have the answer to that.

But we can start with tap dance.. The form in itself is a treasure trove of black history.  So let's take it back so let's make it ours again.
.
Let’s reconnect to our roots.  Let's really do business with our history.  Let us tell our own stories

The revolution will not be televised."

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This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.  


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