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From: catherine yronwode <cat@luckymojo.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Accomplished...er, organist
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 16:54:32 -0800

bermuda999@aol.com wrote:
>
> <<Hint: jelly roll = blueberry danish
> Is the picture becoming clearer now? I thought so.>>
>
> A jelly roll is a thin sheet of sponge cake spread with jelly and rolled
> up

More on jelly rolls:

The jelly roll is a spiral of jelly (red) and thin spongecake (white). It is not similar to a Danish pastry at all. The latter is a flaky pastry surmounted by a fruit jam or cream cheese topping.

The jelly roll in blues songs is invariably vulvar. Not only that, ALL bread products are female in blues imagery. This includes biscuits, buns, bread, rolls, and even the cornmeal-based tamale. Here are some samples:

     I need a litte hotdog between my rolls 
          (sung my Bessie Smith, female)

     Jelly, jelly, jelly, jelly's all i crave
     And that good jelly roll's gonna carry me to my grave
          (sung by a man, sorry i've forgotten his name)

     You don't need no more baking powder in your biscuits, you see
     'Cause your biscuits are plenty big enough for me 
          (sung by Bo Carter, a man)

     I smell your bread a-burnin', you better turn your damper down
     If you ain't got a damper, good gal, then turn your bread around
          (sung by Jimmy Rodgers, a man)

[note on obsolete usage: a damper is a device in a wood cookstove that regulates the airflow; turning the damper down decreases oven heat. I take this verse to mean that Mr. Rodgers wishes to prolong intercourse and suggests that in order to avoid imminent orgasm, his partner should decrease her activity-level or change position.]

     Hot tamales and they're red hot, yeah she's got 'em for sale 
          (sung by Robert Johnson, a man)

By the way, in the sexual imagery of the blues, meat products (hot dogs, bacon, hambone, etc.) are male and so are some fruit and vegetables, including phallic bananas as well as testicular peaches and potatoes. If there is any interest, i will supply numerous further examples of the sexualization and gender-specificity of food imagery in the blues.

Yours for "more steam heat on the floor,"

cat