Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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- The Meters
F U Z Z
The fuzz is slang for the police. It may be derived from the Wolof word fas for horse,
possibly because African slaves observed police patrols mounted on horseback. 180
Songs:
- Kool & The Gang
- Z.Z. Top
- W.C. Handy
G A L L INIPPE R
G
A gallinipper is a particularly fierce large mosquito found in floodwaters. It lays its eggs
on low-lying dry land, and they hatch when the land is flooded, releasing swarms of
vicious biters up to a half-inch long, with shaggy legs. Galliniper (or gabber nipper) is
also used in the South to refer not only to these mosquitoes but also to biting horse or
crane flies.
Song:
- Blind Lemon Jefferson (Lemon Jefferson)
G A T E, G A T E M O U T H
A gate is a fellow, a guy. Gate may be an abbreviation of gatemouthed, which means
gator-faced, and by the 1920s came to mean a jazz musician or any hip male. 181 Louis
Armstrong reportedly claimed to be the first to use gatemouth this way. 182
Just at the break of day you can hear old Hannah say,
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instrumentalist who plays some of the most fiery and musically sophisticated blues
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