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> What does the phrase “shake sugaree” mean, though? [...] The Grateful Dead’s song “Sugaree” references the phrase, but that isn’t very enlightening, Jerry Gar

> What does the phrase “shake sugaree” mean, though? [...] The Grateful Dead’s song “Sugaree” references the phrase, but that isn’t very enlightening, Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter were Elizabeth Cotten fans and just thought it sounded cool. I learned from Google that the Sugaree were a Native American tribe in the Carolinas; maybe the song references a dance of theirs? The annotated Robert Hunter lyric book says that Elizabeth Cotten was actually referring to the tradition of shivaree, but gives no explanation as to why she would call it “sugaree.” If someone can enlighten me, please do. I have had the exact same question for a while now. If anybody here has an idea, it would really make my day :)

1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
From Robert Hunter's liner notes for the re-issue of "Garcia" in the box set "All Good Things": "Sugaree was written soon after I moved from the Garcia household to China Camp. People assume the idea was cadged from Elizabeth Cotten's Sugaree, but, in fact, the song was originally titled 'Stingaree,' which is a poisonous South Sea manta. The phrase 'just don't tell them that you know me' was prompted by something said by an associate in my pre-Dead days when my destitute circumstances found me fraternizing with a gang of minor criminals. What he said, when departing, was: 'Hold your mud and don't mention my name.' "Why change the title to 'Sugaree'? Just thought it sounded better that way, made the addressee seem more hard-bitten to bear a sugar-coated name. The song, as I imagined it, is addressed to a pimp. And yes, I knew Libba's song, and did indeed borrow the new name from her, suggested by the 'Shake it' refrain."
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
I note the song also mentions "raising cain" (edited to fix autocorrect error), another obscure idiom for "causing a fuss", "making a ruckus". But generally it's common for things passed down in an oral tradition to get respelled at some point down the chain. Examples from music include Jock-o-mo in the song Iko Iko, where someone heard a word in a language they didn't know, then sang it and someone else wrote it down in a different way. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iko_Iko https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iko_Iko
- iainmerrick 4y ago
  I always thought it was “raising Cain”, as in the biblical figure who killed his brother Abel. A quick google suggests that’s right, and the “raising” is in the sense of “summoning”, which makes sense - summoning the spirit of a famous murderer!
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    It is raining Cain, I got autocorrected. Used similarly to: "raising hell".
    - jamiek88 4y ago
      It surprises me to see that described as an obscure phrase. It was/is commonly used in my upbringing in Liverpool, UK (second generation Irish catholic diaspora family). I’ve also heard the term in Texas recently.

1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago

From Robert Hunter's liner notes for the re-issue of "Garcia" in the box set "All Good Things": "Sugaree was written soon after I moved from the Garcia household to China Camp. People assume the idea was cadged from Elizabeth Cotten's Sugaree, but, in fact, the song was originally titled 'Stingaree,' which is a poisonous South Sea manta. The phrase 'just don't tell them that you know me' was prompted by something said by an associate in my pre-Dead days when my destitute circumstances found me fraternizing with a gang of minor criminals. What he said, when departing, was: 'Hold your mud and don't mention my name.' "Why change the title to 'Sugaree'? Just thought it sounded better that way, made the addressee seem more hard-bitten to bear a sugar-coated name. The song, as I imagined it, is addressed to a pimp. And yes, I knew Libba's song, and did indeed borrow the new name from her, suggested by the 'Shake it' refrain."

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

I note the song also mentions "raising cain" (edited to fix autocorrect error), another obscure idiom for "causing a fuss", "making a ruckus". But generally it's common for things passed down in an oral tradition to get respelled at some point down the chain. Examples from music include Jock-o-mo in the song Iko Iko, where someone heard a word in a language they didn't know, then sang it and someone else wrote it down in a different way. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iko_Iko https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iko_Iko

iainmerrick 4y ago
I always thought it was “raising Cain”, as in the biblical figure who killed his brother Abel. A quick google suggests that’s right, and the “raising” is in the sense of “summoning”, which makes sense - summoning the spirit of a famous murderer!
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  It is raining Cain, I got autocorrected. Used similarly to: "raising hell".
  - jamiek88 4y ago
    It surprises me to see that described as an obscure phrase. It was/is commonly used in my upbringing in Liverpool, UK (second generation Irish catholic diaspora family). I’ve also heard the term in Texas recently.