Last week I commented about the demise of poetry. Today, I am struck by the poetry deeply embedded in one of my favorite Disco tunes of the 70's. Here are a few of my favorite stanzas (I've added my own punctuation marks based on what I think it needed):
Artist: Peaches and Herb
Song: Shake Your Groove Thing
Let's show the world we can dance-
Bad enough to strut our stuff.
The music gives us a chance.
We do more out on the floor.
Groovin' loose or heart to heart,
We put in motion every single part.
Funky sounds, wall to wall,
We're bumpin' booties, havin' us a ball, y'all.
We got the rhythm tonight.
All the rest know we're the best.
Our shadows crash in the light;
Twistin', turnin', we keep burnin'.
Shake it high, or shake it low!
We take our bodies where they wanna go.
Feel that beat. Never stop!
Oh, hold me tight; spin me like a top.
I think it's "We're bumpin' booties, havin' us a ball, ya'll" that really gets me. The alliteration, the internal rhyme: genius.
2 comments:
You know, I think you have something here. I compared against my other disco favorites, "Disco Inferno" and "Boogie Fever" and they come nowhere near when it comes to poetry.
I now find myself intrigued by the rhyme scheme - it's not your typical abcb or abab. In fact, it's more like abac - with the c having the additional little internal rhyme that you note. Is it possible that the poetic genius that is Peaches & Herb have created something entirely new?!
I have found other examples of ballads with abac schemes - but the b and c are choruses built into each verse. Can you find other uses of abac like P&H?
So, now I'm really curious about the rhyming scheme:
abac aabb abac aabb
(with internal rhymes like "ball y'all", "turnin' burnin'", "enough/stuff", and "more/floor", "rest/best")
So here's a question for the English teacher: is SYGT a ballad? And are there any other famous works that share this rhyming scheme? I tried searching and couldn't find any.
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