Talk:The Sheik of Araby

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With or without no pants?

Is it "with no pants on" or "without no pants on"? I realize the latter is a double negative, but that's how I remember it. Gaohoyt (talk) 00:24, 22 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Double negative" describes an error in standard English; in contrast, this is an example of "negative concord", a norm of African American Vernacular English. It can be heard in multiple recordings.
--Jerzy•t 10:55, 17 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The current text describes this with (brackets as in WP article)

"With[out] no pants on"

completely botching the matter: the brackets say "the syllable 'out' was missing in what this article quotes, but correctly should have been present." The real situation is that "out" was there in the AAVE original, but will be misunderstood by many Standard-English speakers, who may wonder if the apparent double negative is intended as a positive; what is needed is translation:

...the AAVE chant "Without no pants on", corresponding to "With no pants on" or "Without any pants on" in Standard English ...

The distinction is real and important: the singer may have enjoyed the confusion of an occasional sufficiently ignorant outsider, but is likely to be neither ignorant of SE, nor pretending to be, nor trying to sound momentarily confused. Even if the lyrics are flawlessly written in Standard English, he's commenting between them in the primary dialect of most of his audience -- to the incidental pleasure (variously motivated) of those w/ SE as their primary dialect.
--Jerzy•t 10:55, 17 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We usually say "without no drawers on" whenever we perform the song. 2600:8807:560A:7300:A16F:EEEF:DCEE:278D (talk) 03:54, 6 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Charlie and his Orchestra

Does anyone thing a reference to the Charlie and his Orchestra cover would be worth putting here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.72.171.245 (talk) 20:23, 30 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand the relevance of the question to the article.... Misty MH (talk) 13:21, 10 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"New words"

I've not been able to find the "new lyrics" penned by Billy Rose; has anyone seen them? --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 06:40, 22 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Billy Rose "That Night in Araby" is properly described as a separate song, inspired by the same film, that has some melodic relationships to "The Sheik of Araby". My music informant tells me that the first three sung notes are identical, and several musical phrases parallel the earlier melody by inversion, specifically making several steps up or down in pitch, on the same beats where the original made them in the opposite direction of pitch. "Double negative" describes an error in standard English; this is an example of "negative concord", a norm of African American Vernacular English.
--Jerzy•t 10:55, 17 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note that the cover of the sheet music displayed as the image portion of the video cites the film, stars, and studio. It would be good to document what that suggests: the studio either saw an opportunity to turn some profit on sheet music and records, or sought to counteract the image damage sustained by association with the apparently completely unauthorized "Sheik of Araby" and its risqué but apparently widely associated "w/o no pants on" inter-phrase wording. Research needed!
--Jerzy•t 10:55, 17 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Recordings

If you are interested in expanding this article, you may want to check out this version to see a list of people/groups who have recorded the song. If you could find citations for these, the information would help the article. DiamondRemley39 (talk) 21:55, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That doesn't help. Covers songs don't make an article. That's trivia. The article needs sources about the article.Vmavanti (talk) 23:56, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No, that's meta. DiamondRemley39 (talk) 00:25, 14 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Nobody gets the joke!

There are multiple dimensions of jokes with this song. Starting with the title. Shiek was slang for a ladies man or a womanizer and Araby (or Arabi) is a poor white neighborhood in New Orleans. Seeing performances that miss that adds another dimension to the joke. 2600:8807:560A:7300:A16F:EEEF:DCEE:278D (talk) 04:22, 6 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]