Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision - February 24, 2025 (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".
This post also presents a 1983 "Hollywood Swinging" children's rhyme or cheer that includes the words "don't take no jive" and also includes my beliefs about what those words mean in that "family" of rhyme/cheers and in similar children's rhymes/cheers.
In addition, this pancocojams post presents some of my notes about the Hollywood Swinging children's rhyme or cheer family as well as a football chant from an American university that also includes the phrase "don't take no jive".
Addendum #1 to this post presents some information and comments about "jive dancing".
Addendum #2 to this post presents an excerpt about "shuckin and jivin" and African Americans' distain for tap 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 include the phrase "don't take no jive".
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, linguistic, and recreational 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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"HOLLYWOOD SWINGING" - A 1983 EXAMPLE OF A CHILDREN'S RHYME OR CHEER THAT INCLUDE THE WORDS "DON'T TAKE NO JIVE"
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.
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.
Based on the examples that I have collected directly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and online, "Hollywood Swinging" was a widely known rhyme/cheer among African American girls from the 1980s to at least the early 2000s.).
Some other examples of "Hollywood Swinging" are given in Part II of this pancocojams series.
The Origin Of Hollywood Swinging Rhymes / Cheers
"Hollywood Swinging" children's rhymes/cheers have their origin in the 1975 hit R&B record with that name by Kool &The Gang.
What "Hollywood Swinging Cheers Are About
The soloist is declaring that she should be respected and shouldn't have to deal with "jive talk" (weak, insincere, corny, or foolish talk) from others.
In the context of these children's examples, 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.
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Changes in the play activities of examples of "Hollywood Swinging"
"Hollywood Swinging" compositions most often appear to be remembered (at least in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as partner hand clap rhymes. However, 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.
I believe that children's examples of "Hollywood Swinging" were originally performed as foot stomping cheers, and their play activity changed to hand clap rhymes. I've reached that conclusion based on the textual structure of those examples i.e. the fact that hand clap rhymes have one voice, and are chanted in unison, but the words to the "Hollywood Swinging" examples that I've come across are conversational (two voices speaking). Read my editorial note and the examples given in Part II of this pancocojams series.
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.
There are 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-
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 if ever performed anymore, at least not the way they were in the 1980s to the early 2000s. Here are some reasons why the custom of performing foot stomping cheers "died out":
1. Performing foot stomping cheers originated in the late 1960s/early 1970s among African American girls as an informal recreational activity in which those girls imitated being "real" cheerleaders. However, at some point it became easier for African Americans girls to join actual school or community cheerleading squads and girls didn't have to pretend to be cheerleaders anymore.
2. The texture 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.
3. Other recreational/entertainment activities took the place of doing foot stomping cheers:
Those activities include (in no particular order or years)
a. informally performing Tik Tok dances (as individuals or with friends)
b. joining formal majorette dance teams (popularized by the national American television series Bring It!)
c. joining high school, middle school, and community step teams (based on historically Black Greek letter fraternity and sorority stepping)
d. joining community drill 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.
AN 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:
"
(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-
If you remember any cheers that include this phrase, please add to the folkloric collection by sharing those examples in the comment section of this post.
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 #1 - 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."
****ADDENDUM #2- SHUCKIN AND JIVIN AND THE AFRICAN AFRICAN'S CURRENT DISDAIN FOR TAP DANCING
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.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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