Now I stash me down to nod;
My mellow frame upon this sod.
If I should cop a drill before the early toot,
I’ll spiel to the Head Knock to make all things root.1
The “hepcat” that reworked the famous children’s nighttime prayer “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” was Dan Burley, an integral figure in Chicago during the 1930s. The outburst of creativity that took place during the Chicago Renaissance was often linked if not compared to the Harlem Renaissance. The cultural and creative achievements that had taken place in Harlem, by the mid 1930s, seemed to be taking shape in Chicago as well. Music, art, literature, and journalism were part of Chicago’s growing urban environment. Journalism, in particular, kept blacks, some who had recently migrated to Chicago from such states as Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, in touch with their southern relatives and friends and updated them frequently on current events. The Chicago Defender and the Chicago Bee were just two of the few black papers at the center of black journalism during the Chicago Renaissance, and Dan Burley was a key fixture at both newspapers.
As a journalist, Burley covered a gamut of subjects in regards to African American life and culture. He reported on sports and entertainment and kept his readers up to date with current events by chronicling the racial conflict in America and the military conflicts abroad. Yet, Burley did not just reserve his creative energies to journalism. He channeled his love of language, prose, and African American culture into writing and publishing two books that took preoccupation with the language of jive, Dan Burley’s Original Handbook of Harlem Jive (1944) and Diggeth Thou? (1959). Burley’s knowledge and preoccupation with jive stemmed, in part, from his status as a musician. Burley was known around the South Side of Chicago and in New York for his own unique style of jazz, where the music reflected the energy and originality of the language about which Burley wrote. As an integral figure during the Chicago Renaissance, Dan Burley personifies the creative richness that emerged during the 1930s in Chicago.
Daniel Gardner Burley was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on November 7, 1907, to Anna and James Burley. Burley’s father, born a slave, was a Baptist minister and thirty-five years older than his wife. One of the few memories that Burley could recall regarding his father was that he enjoyed “‘tinkering with objects and communicating with the Patent Office in Washington.’”2 Anna Seymour Burley, prior to her marriage, taught at Tuskegee Institute under the tutelage of Booker T. Washington. When Burley was three years old, his family left Kentucky and moved to Texas. Unfortunately, two years after this move, the senior Burley died while in the pulpit of his church. By 1917 Anna Seymour Burley remarried, and the family moved again, this time to Chicago. Burley’s mother was active in Chicago politics and was considered influential in rallying blacks to vote. Burley recalled politicians, such as Mayor William “Big Bill” Hale Thompson and Governor Len Small frequenting their South Side home.3
Although Burley would eventually inherit his father’s ingenuity and his mother’s political activism, as a youngster and a teenager Burley’s interests centered on journalism and music, specifically on blues and the emerging genre of jazz. Burley, similar to many early performers of jazz, had no formal musical training. Hersal Thomas, a child prodigy and a fellow classmate of Burley’s at Douglas Elementary school, “taught Burley to play his first blues piece on the piano.”4
Thomas would subsequently teach Burley other arrangements to which Burley would master and play at parties held around the South Side of Chicago.
Burley’s aversion to formal training stemmed from his belief that it was too concerned with technique instead of innate ability, raw emotion, and improvisation. Burley would later assert “if it is supposed to be jazz, it must perform the function of reporting on a condition of life, always on a corridor of human existence which the player must have experienced or understands through the works of others.”5
Burley attended Wendell Phillips High School, a school that was famous for producing talented blacks who would later make their mark in literature, science, sports, and music, such as Nat “King” Cole, Eddie Cole, and Milt Hinton. Milt Hinton, who was known as the “Judge” among jazz bassists, recalled having after-school jam sessions with Burley, saxophonist Scoville Brown, and trombonist Edward Burke.6 Having grown up around 31st Street in Chicago, which was the nexus for many of the nightclubs, Burley and his classmates were undoubtedly influenced by the types of sound and style emerging from this area.
Yet, music was not Burley’s only passion. He was editor of the school newspaper, Phillipsite, involved with the student council, and at one time, president of the Pen and Ink club. In high school, Burley’s musical interest was now being split with his love for writing. Yet, despite his involvement with extracurricular activities, Burley had very little interest academically in school.
At seventeen years old, Burley got his first professional break in the newspaper industry working as a copy boy for the Chicago Defender while still a student at Wendell Phillips High School. Along with making twenty-five dollars a week at the Defender, Burley continued to play piano in some of the roughest establishments in Chicago. Though still a teenager, Burley appeared older and was already known for being quite sociable, and he was not intimidated by the people who frequented these joints. In addition, playing in these establishments allowed Burley the opportunity to associate and learn from “authentic barrel-house musicians,” which was key for a man who often played “by ear.”
Burley soon developed a reputation as a semiprofessional musician. He performed in barrelhouses and nightclubs, and was also able to draw a crowd to social events, such as “rent parties.” Rent parties were very popular during the Depression era when jobs and money were scarce. A “low-on-the-rent-money” tenant would host a party and charge admittance, hoping that the money that they made would help pay the monthly rent. In exchange for a nominal fee, the tenant was expected to provide beverages, good food, and good dance music for the guests to ensure a large turnout. Hinton recalled hearing Burley play “many times” at rent parties in Chicago, which of course is a testament to Burley’s abilities as a pianist and, possibly, at drawing a crowd to these gatherings.7 At these events, Burley honed his skills as a barrelhouse and “skiffle” musician. Skiffle music became almost synonymous with the name Dan Burley in later years. He is not only credited with popularizing the term “skiffle” but also the music, as a genre, during the 1930s, and he helped it to reemerge during the 1950s.8
In 1927 Burley left school and the Chicago Defender and traveled to several destinations, making his money as a lumberjack and piano player. However, by 1931 Burley returned to the Defender, taking on more responsibilities and writing duties, and eventually becoming a columnist and sports editor. The first indication of a “Burley” article appeared in the Defender on March 21, 1931. It was a series of local high school sports updates and the byline read “Daniel.”9 Two weeks later, the April 4 edition of the weekly had a new column, “‘Sports Squibs’ Doped by Daniel.”10 On April 11, 1931, “Sports Squibs by Dan Burley” appeared in the Chicago Defender. “Sports Squibs by Dan Burley” was Burley’s first byline column for the Defender. Burley, an avid sports fan, would occasionally write his column with his trademark lyrical flare and humor:
Bill Shakespeare, bard of the Dark Ages, was something of a scribe, we’ll all admit and while my memory of his lines in “Julius Caesar” may be somewhat bedimmed by too much intermingling with lowlifer sports bugs, I still am wide awake enough to see the connection between Cassius and one Leroy “Satchel” Paige, especially in the case of the American Giants playing the Kansas City Monarchs at Comiskey Park on Sunday.11
Burley wrote extensively on the Negro League and was an avid proponent for the desegregation of baseball, a cause he continued to advocate for and write about even when he began working for the New York Amsterdam News in late 1937.
In 1932, Burley left the Chicago Defender and became editor and columnist for the Chicago Bee while concurrently working as a correspondent for the Associated Negro Press. After spending approximately three years at the Bee, Burley returned to the Chicago Defender. It was during his brief return to the Defender that Burley created his column “Back Door Stuff.” Originally intended as a borderline risqué-gossip-entertainment column, the purpose of “Back Door Stuff” was to expose the dirty little secrets of Chicagoans. In his May 1, 1936, column, Burley cited the “preamble” of “Back Door Stuff’s” constitution:
This column, herein … shall be dedicated to the principles of telling the truth and nothing but the truth, on what goes on after dark; what transpires behind closed doors and what hubby and wifey do when apart during the day and night, whatever the case may be. It shall be forever the ideal for this column to stand on the theory that what a man does is our business if we find out, and Lawd help his wife if she sings off-key.12
“Back Door Stuff” was Burley’s sounding board—a vehicle for him to express his concerns regarding current political and racial contradictions, a literary space for him to wax poetic, and a medium for him to name-drop. Similar to many artists who emerged during the Chicago Renaissance, Burley was also a social commentator, taking note and writing about social ills he witnessed. Burley would later be known for his other controversial columns, “Confidentially Yours” and “Talkin’ Out Loud.”
At the Defender Burley tackled other serious topics. In 1935 he did an extensive report on the war in Ethiopia and penned several columns in the Chicago Defender Foreign News Section, a section devoted to world news. Yet Burley would also address human interest stories and accomplishments of African Americans around the country and provide political and historical information to his readers. Burley wanted his readers to be informed and knowledgeable on historical and current political and social events.
Burley’s love for writing and his flare with words took a different twist in 1944 when his first book, Dan Burley’s Original Handbook of Harlems Jive was published. Although living in New York at the time Handbook was written, Burley’s decision to write this dictionary of slang was undoubtedly inspired by the creative milieu of Chicago. The literary atmosphere was very rich during the period of the Chicago Renaissance, producing many poets and writers. Burley’s literary flare, and his love for black history and culture, which was evident in many of the newspaper columns that he wrote, was now gathered in book form.
Burley, who often wrote “Back Door Stuff” in jive, normally limited his use of the language to those columns directed specifically to African Americans who considered themselves “hep.” But in Original Handbook, Burley’s target audience was not specifically those familiar with the language of jive. Indeed, the Handbook, in addition to locating the origins of the term “jive” in Chicago, is a pedagogical tool aimed at teaching the language of jive. As one of the first “dictionaries” of jive, Burley presents a thoroughly researched text on the evolution of a language spoken in the inner city and how this dynamic language reflected the dynamism of the culture.
After he explicates the history of jive, Burley proceeds to explain the rudiments of the language. In this, Burley becomes a semiotician. He provides a glossary of jive terms and demonstrates how words can mutate from noun, verbal noun, adjective, and simile to hyperbole. Burley then suggests that his “students” try to construct a sentence based on all the information that is given. Dan Burley’s Original Handbook of Harlem Jive was well received and lauded for its comprehensive study of African American culture and language. Burley wanted to give credence to jive and in the process celebrate black culture. His hope when he published the book was that one day,
the cats who lay that larceny in the book of many pages (dictionary) will give the jivers a break and substitute the phrase, “twister to the slammer,” for the word, “key”; use the word “jive” in their definition of “slang”; and, otherwise, give notice to those hipped studs who have collared such a heavy slave to add color to the American language.13
Burley’s motivation for writing the Handbook was possibly twofold. He seemingly wanted white audiences to accept this lyrical and complex language and to see the merits of jive and African American culture; and he wanted his black audience to take pride in their rich American heritage. Burley was praised as a “scholar of merit” and his legitimization of jive as a language “elevated [him] to the status of semanticist: historian, linguist, and lexicographer, all in one.”14 His Handbook was considered a true reference source. It was translated into four languages and could be found on any reference shelf.15 Although the Handbook had been out of print for several years, it was republished in 2009 and is still considered a modern reference source because of its thorough examination of jive.
Burley’s legacy and contribution to the Chicago Renaissance and black culture would not be complete without mentioning his professional accomplishments in the realm of jazz. Burley was friends with many great entertainers in the world of jazz, such as Lionel Hampton, Sticks and Brownie McGhee, Leonard Feather, and Dizzy Gillespie, and he appeared on some of their recordings. Burley also had his own band, “Dan Burley and His Skiffle Boys,” who recorded a number of 78 rpm records. As a composer, he wrote and cowrote several jazz tunes, including “They Raided the Joint,” “Pig-Feet Sonata,” and “Chicken Shack Shuffle,” the latter two with Lionel Hampton. In 1948, filmgoers witnessed Burley’s musical talent in cinematic form when he appeared in Dizzy Gillespie’s musical variety film, Jivin’ in Bebop. Burley was featured in two segments of the film, playing alongside fellow jazz musician Johnny Taylor.
In a tribute to Burley, A. S. “Doc” Young recalled the moment when he first heard Burley play skiffle music on a jazz piano. According to Young, to watch Burley play was to witness “the reincarnation of an age when jazz was a feature of the speakeasy.”16
He’d play 32 bars, probably, and then perspiration would cascade from his pores. His large, brown eyes would stare out in ecstasy, yet mischievously, and Dan, like Hamp, would grunt or groan or, like Dizzy, start a humorous conversation with a listener.17
Burley had a passion for jazz. He witnessed the evolution of the genre from boogie-woogie in the 1920s to swing, to bebop in the 1940s. Gillespie, Earl Hines, and Burley were just a few of the bop musicians known around Bronzeville or the South Side of Chicago. Bop is considered a more stylistically challenging form of jazz. It avoids a melody line and conformity, yet it consists of fast tempos and complex harmonies. This along with the language of jive that many boppers spoke, set bop apart from the more polished Swing performers. Bebop was said to have emerged as a response to Swing. Burley believed jazz was “three quarters biographic and the rest heresy” and that it symbolically reflected the condition of life in the inner cities.18 Jazz, similar to jive, was a form of emotional expression. It was this emotional expression and cultural richness that Burley sought to communicate in his performing and writing.
Burley, similar to Wright and other social commentators that emerged during the Chicago Renaissance, recognized that art needed to reflect and represent the social conditions of its urban environment. As an artist, Burley who mingled with the social elite, also kept company and spoke the language of the people who dwelled in some of the most impoverished places in the inner city. Burley was a cultural icon who was informed of every facet of African American culture, from history, folklore, and music, to politics, and he felt the desire to keep all blacks informed with not just current events, but also with historical events that would impart knowledge and education.
In late 1937, Burley left to Chicago for New York and worked as a journalist and editor for New York Amsterdam News. In New York, Burley continued his music career and was also a disc jockey at two New York radio stations. During World War II, Burley traveled with the first USO tour and would occasionally pen columns from his locale. However, by 1949 Burley left New York and returned to Chicago where he continued to work in journalism. At Johnson Publishing Company (JPC), the black-owned business started by John H. Johnson, Burley wrote and was associate editor for both of JPC’s magazines Ebony and Jet.
After leaving JPC, Burley started his own short-lived men’s magazine, Duke in 1957. Duke’s format was similar to both Ebony and Playboy: it showcased black athletes, jazz musicians and black women. Burley’s popularity and notoriety as a journalist and then as publisher continued, so much so that in 1960, when The Nation of Islam decided to start their own newspaper to spread their message, they recruited Burley to help launch their endeavor. Burley’s first publication for the Nation of Islam was Salaam, a short-lived magazine that was formatted similar to Jet.19 Nevertheless, despite the failure of Salaam, Burley’s editorial knowledge and Malcolm X’s political message helped to make the Nation’s next vehicle, Muhammad Speaks, one of the most widely circulated black newspapers of its day.
Burley’s second book, Diggeth Thou? was self-published around 1959. Diggeth Thou?, similar to the Handbook, is a book that showcased the language of jive. However, whereas the Handbook could be used as a reference tool, Diggeth’s primary preoccupation was the reciprocity between jive and jazz. In 1962, after working for the Chicago Crusader, Burley published and edited his own weekly newspaper, The Owl.
Dan Burley died in October 1962 leaving behind his wife Gladys, daughter D’Anne, and two stepchildren. The tributes to Burley that were published after his death mentioned his humor, wit, and ability to embrace and report on the ironies of African American life. Burley’s legacy, similar to the legacies of all the Renaissance artists, is that he was able to express the struggles and the triumphs of African Americans in the inner city and blended it with his own distinct creativity to create art.
1. Burley, Dan. “The Techniques of Jive.” In Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel, edited by Alan Dundes, 206–21. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1973. For those not familiar with the nighttime prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.
2. Nowakowski, Konrad. Dan Burley, South Side Shake: 1945–1951. Compact disc. Vienna: Wolf Records, 1991, WJB-CD-008, 12.10.
3. Ibid., 12.
4. Ibid., 12.
5. Tamony, Peter. “Funky.” American Speech 55, 3 (Autumn 1980): 212.
6. Hinton, Milt. “Foreword.” Dan Burley, South Side Shake: 1945–1951. Compact disc. Vienna: Wolf Records, 1991, WJB-CD-008, 12.10.
7. Nowakowski, 13.
8. Major, Clarence. Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang. New York: Penguin Books, 1994, 420.
9. Chicago Defender, March 21, 1931, 8.
10. Chicago Defender, April 4, 1931, 9.
11. Chicago Defender, September 8, 1935, 13.
12. Burley, Dan. “Back Door Stuff,” Chicago Defender, May 2, 1936, 23.
13. Burley, “The Techniques of Jive,” 208.
14. Ibid.
15. Burley, Dan. Diggeth Thou? Chicago: Burley, Cross, & Co., 1959, 3.
16. Young, A. S. “Doc.” “The Legend of Dan Burley.” Sepia (January 1963): 5.
17. Ibid., 76.
18. Norfolk Journal and Guide, November 10, 1962, 18.
19. Muhammad, Askia. “Muhammad Speaks: A Trailblazer in the Newspaper Industry.” Final Call Special Edition, October 3, 2000; April 16, 2004. www.finalcall.com/national/savioursday2k/m_speaks.htm
Burley, Dan. “Back Door Stuff,” Chicago Defender, May 2, 1936, 23.
———. Blackman in America, “The Truth about Burley, Dan.” “The Vacant Chair: A Short Story with a Thrilling and Unexpected Climax.” Abbott’s Monthly 1, 1 (October 1930).
———. Dan Burley, South Side Shake: 1945-1951. Compact disc. Vienna: Wolf Records, 1991, WJB-CD-008, 12.10.
———. Dan Burley’s Jive, edited by Thomas Aiello. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2009.
———. Dan Burley’s Original Handbook of Harlem Jive. New York: Jive Publishing, 1944. “Daniel,” Chicago Defender, March 21, 1931, 8.
———. “Demon Balu.” Abbott’s Monthly 2, 6 (June 1931).
Burley, Dan. Diggeth Thou? Chicago: Burley, Cross, & Co., 1959.
———. Diggeth Thou? and Dan Burley’s Original Handbook of Harlem Jive. edited by Thomas Aiello. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2009.
———. “He Ballyhooed a Race.” Negro Digest 1, 2 (December 1942).
———. “Jim Crow Train Pulls Out.” Negro Digest 2, 3 (January 1944).
———. “My Favorite War Hero.” Negro Digest 4, 7 (May 1946).
———. “Sports Squibs by Daniel,” Chicago Defender, April 11, 1931, 9.
———. “Sports Squibs Doped by Daniel,” Chicago Defender, April 4, 1931, 9.
———. “The Strange Will of Colonel McKee.” Negro Digest 10, 1 (November 1951).
———. “What Became of Negro Humor?” Negro Digest 10, 8 (June 1961).
———. “What’s Ahead for Robinson?” The Crisis 52, 12 (December 1945).
Jivin’ in Bebop. Movie, 1948. idem idvd 1018.
“Muhammad.” Message to the Blackman in America, by Elijah Muhammad. Chicago: Muhammad Mosque of Islam No. 2, 1965.
Reisler, Jim. Black Writers/Black Baseball: An Anthology of Articles from Black Sportswriters Who Covered the Negro Leagues. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 1994, 127–44.
Rusinack, Kelly E. “Dan Burley.” Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Thompson Gale, 2004.
Magazine: Duke (1957).
Newspapers Edited/Published: South Side Civic Telegram, 1932; The Owl, 1962.