Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents examples of the foot stomping cheer "Sophisticated Lady".
Addendum #1 of this post presents a YouTube video example of Natalie Cole's 1976 R&B song "Sophisticated Lady" and an excerpt of the lyrics for that song.
Addendum #2 of this post focuses on the inclusion of "number verses" in some Sophisticated Lady" foot stomping cheers and traces the inspiration for those verses to the 1934 Blues song "Kokomo Blues" and the 1936 Blues song "Sweet Home Chicago".
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the creativity of all of those who are mentioned and/or quoted in this post. Thanks to the contributors of examples of these foot stomping cheers. Thanks also to the publishers of these YouTube video or audio files.
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EXAMPLES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN GIRLS' "SOPHISTICATED LADY" FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
SOPHISTICATED LADY (Version #1)
All -Sophisticated lady,
who rocks?
Sophisticated lady,
who rocks?
[...]
-collected by Tazi Powell, 1980s from girls at Lillian Taylor camp, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.
-snip-
Sometime in the early 1990s* my daughter Tazi shared the beginning words and verses (soloists' lines) to a cheer called "Sophisticated Lady" that she vaguely recalled hearing other Black girls chant in the mid or late 1980s. She said that the girls might have said the word "suffocated" instead of the word "sophisticated". My daughter also vaguely remembers saying something about "I got hips on me" and "you better not kiss my man" but doesn't remember how the cheer went.
*The early 1990s was when I began to formally write down the cheers that my daughter and her friends chanted as well as the cheers my daughter or I observed or audiotaped or otherwise collected.
This is the only part of this cheer that my daughter remembers. Following the usual pattern for foot stomping cheers, one girl probably gave her name or nickname and chanted other lines.
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SUFFOCATED LADY (Version #2 of "Sophisticated Lady")
Suffocated lady, Suffocated la-dy(this is said twice), then the first girl would sing
I'm a bad bad girl from a bad bad town, it take a thousand n%$%@ just to hold me down, if you don't like my apples don't you pick em (not them) off my tree cause I'm after you're lover and he's after me. (this is repeated until every girl in the circle gets her turn)
-cbwells26; (African American female, FT. Worth, TX , Tarrant), http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=4, remember when”, 01-02-2001
-snip-
This example has "the n word" given as an n and randomly typed symbols
SOPHISTICATED LADY (Version #3)
Sophisticated Lady
Sophisticated Lady, that me
Sophisticated Mama, that's you
Well, my name is _________ and I'm foxy fine
If you tip me over I will blow your mind
- IHEARTWRITING, http://nothingliketheninetys.blogspot.com/2008/08/etet.html, August 3, 2008 “I Heart The 90s”
-snip-
I reformatted this example to add a space between the last line of this "cheer" and the contributor's comment.
This example was categorized as a hand game, but the "Well my name is" line suggests that it's actually a foot stomping cheer.
Some cheers were later performed as hand clap games (i.e. "Hollywood Swinging" and "Gigalo" to name two examples). Therefore it's possible that this version of "Sophisticated Lady" was performed as a hand clap game.
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SOPHISTICATED LADY (Version #4)
All- Sophisticated lady
Sophisticated lady
2 4 6 3
Soloist #1 (woman in video) -Well, my name is Essie
And I'm five foot tall
[It appears that some words that were chanted here weren't said in this video.]
If you see my man
You betta not give him a call
I got hips to party
And I love my man (Crosses her arms over her chest in the American Sign Language sign for Love and the Wakanda Forever gesture)
If ya try to hurt him
[This part is faster]
I would tip ya for your body [These words are recited while the woman leans forward in an aggressive stance and hits her hands on top of each other in imitation of hitting someone else. Her daughter (?) also imitates these motions.
???
and don't forget I'll break your hiney ["Hiney" means =butt.]
Heeey.
All -Sophisticated lady
Oh, that's me.
Sophisticated lady
Oh, that's me.
2 4 6 3
Soloist #2 [young girl in video] -Well, my name is KK
And I'm four feet tall
If you see my man
Don't you give him a call
I got hips to party (She swivels her hips while chanting this.)
And I love my man (Crosses her arms over her chest in the American Sign Language sign for Love and the Wakanda Forever gesture)
If you try to hurt him
[This part is chanted faster]
I would tip ya for your body
???
and don't forget I'll break your hiney [These words are recited while the girl leans forward in an aggressive stance and hits her hands on top of each other in imitation of hitting someone else. Her mother (?) also does these motions at the same time as her daughter.]
Heeey
-Alexander approved, May 28, 2018; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdY3ekZxkOw&ab_channel=AlexanderApproved
This is my transcription of a YouTube video of a cheer that a Black woman and a young girl (her daughter (?) chanted. Additions and corrections are welcome.
The woman and girl clap their hand and move back and forth while chanting. They also do a lot of imitative movements to match the words that they chant.
**
The original Black Panther movie was first released in the United States on February 16, 2018. Five months later this commenter included the iconic "Wakanda forever" words and gesture from that highly successful movie in this version of the Sophisticated Lady" foot stomping cheer.
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Natalie Cole's 1976 song "Sophisticated Lady" is undoubtedly the source of the "Sophisticated Lady" foot stomping cheers.
Here's a 1990 video of Natalie Cole performing "Sophisticated Lady"
Natalie Cole | Sophisticated Lady | Live 1990
Black Music Archive LIVE!, Jan 31, 2022
Here's an excerpt of the lyrics for that songthat was written by Chuck Jackson
from https://genius.com/Natalie-cole-sophisticated-lady-shes-a-different-lady-lyrics
[Chorus]
(Sophisticated lady)
Sophisticated lady, yeah
(Sophisticated lady)
Oh
(Sophisticated lady)
That's her name
That's her name
(Sophisticated lady)
Whoa, whoa
Everybody knows how she got her name
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
ADDENDUM #2- INSPIRATION FOR "ONE AND ONE MAKES TWO" AND SIMILAR WORDING IN SOME "SOPHISTICATED" (AND CERTAIN OTHER) FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
Here's a YouTube sound file of Kokomo Arnold singing that Blues song:
Old Original Kokomo Blues - Kokomo Arnold
CharlesDavidPollock, Feb 13, 2012
Click https://genius.com/Kokomo-arnold-old-original-kokomo-blues-lyrics for the lyrics for that song. Here's the first verse of that song
Two and two is four
You mess around here, pretty mama
You know you got to go
Cryin', oooh, baby don't you want to go
Back to the Eleven Light City
To sweet old Kokomo"...
-snip-
"Kokomo Blues" is the precursor for Robert Johnson's 1936 Blues song "Sweet Home Chicago".
That seminal Blues song includes two number verses:
[Verse 3]
Now one and one is two, two and two is four
I'm heavy loaded baby, I'm booked, I gotta go
Cryin', baby, honey, don't you want to go
Back to the land of California, to my sweet home Chicago
[Verse 4]
Now two and two is four, four and two is six
You goin' keep on monkeyin' 'round here friend-boy
You goin' get your business all in a trick"...
Click https://genius.com/Robert-johnson-sweet-home-chicago-lyrics for the complete lyrics for that song.
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Historically Black Greek letter organizations changed "Kokomo Blues" and "Sweet Home Chicago" "number" lyrics to similar words such as "one and one and one make three/ you better watch your lover cause your lover's watching me".
I've come across these lines or similar to lines in various historically Black Greek letter sororities, historically Black Greek letter fraternities, or little sister groups* chants such as those entitled "One And One And One Make Three" . Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/03/examples-of-historically-black_53.html for examples of these chants.
You better watch your man
cause your man is watchin me.
So if you came her with your man
you better hold him tight.
Cause you damn sure better believe
He’ll be leaving here with a Q Pearl tonight.
-a member of Q Pearl, 1990s {East Coast, USA}; posted by Azizi, 12/05;
also featured in Meharry College step show video, (with the name "AKA" substituted for "Q Pearl) late 1990s; transcribed and posted by Azizi, 12/2005.
-snip-
The source of the phrase "one and one and one makes three" is the song "Kokomo Blues". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/12/kokomo-blues-as-source-of-beatles-lyric.html for a pancocojams post about this song, the fraternity and sorority examples, and its use in a Beatles song.
-snip-
DO YOU REMEMBER THE "SOPHISTICATED LADY" CHEER?
If so, for the folkloric record, please add the words to and information about the version of this cheer in the comment section below. Thanks!
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