Jean-Michel Basquiat's words

Question

In one of Jean-Michel Basquiat's compositions from 1981, there appears the phrase: JIMMY BEST ON HIS BACK TO THE SUCKERPUNCH OF HIS CHILDHOOD FILES.

The structure of the sentence is a little bit confusing to me. Could you please tell me what it means literally and what it does really mean?

Thank you in advance.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]In one of Jean-Michel Basquiat's compositions from 1981, there appears the phrase: JIMMY BEST ON HIS BACK TO THE SUCKERPUNCH ... little bit confusing to me. Could you please tell me what it means literally and what it does really mean?[/nq]
No one seems to be leaping in to answer this one. The reason you can't understand this sentence is that it is not normal English. I could be charitable and say the artist must have been caught up in a poetic frenzy; I could be less charitable and say he was probably stoned out of his mind.

Google finds two versions of this -- one like you have it, and other with "YEARS" instead of "FILES."

Anyway, I'll take a stab at it. "Jimmy Best" is a person's name. "On his back" simply means, lying on his back. "To" is not the usual preposition expected here, but let's suppose it means "due to." "The suckerpunch" you probably looked up, it's a kind of sneaky blow. It's two words in m-w.com. "His childhood files," if it's not "years," doesn't mean much but perhaps refers to the kinds of records that schools and social service agencies keep, about a child's misbehavior, problems, etc.

So, Jimmy has been unfairly laid low by the do-good social services. Maybe.

Does this connect at all to what the artwork depicts? I didn't see that on line.

-- Best -- Donna Richoux

Jean-Michel Basquiat's words

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