Miss Suzy!

[idothattopeople]

I was just talking to some Californians about Miss Suzy. It's a fascinating topic: a song in American culture that has no true codification. We learned it in school in the 80s and early 90s, before the internet. So, there was no way to truly verify what the "official" version of the Ms Suzy song was. Thus, regional variation abounds

Comments

Re: Florida

[idothattopeople]

Perhaps we can propose a progression for this song, where each stage of the process is motivated (somewhat like Neogrammarian sound change analyses).

This is all hypothetical of course, because I don't have any corroborating evidence, but I think this series of changes makes some sense.

(Stage 1) "I'll cut off your / behind" (kitsuchan's version)
Where "cut" makes sense because phones get cut off, and you can (technically) cut off people's buttocks

(Stage 2) "I'll chop off your / behind" (satyreyes' version)
Loses the semantic connection with telephones, but maintains the idea of removing the butt with a blade

(Stage 3) "I'll kick you in your / behind" (possibly unattested?)
Loses the cutting idea, but reinforces the butt connect, because kicking in butts is very common (lexically and in action)

(Stage 4) "I'll kick you right / behind" (my version)
Loses the butt connection altogether, but matches the song's rhythm better than the previous stage

(Stage 5) "I will shove you in / behind" (ataralas' version)
While kicking people behind refrigerators seems to be a difficult feat, shoving people into that situation is much more realistic.