Getting the Lyric Right......But Not Getting The Lyric

Not the same thing as thinking Hendrix was saying "'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy"............

But more like singing the right lyric, with no clue what a word or phrase means :

"Sunshine on the lino / Woke me with a shake......"

from Goodbye Girl by Squeeze......... I didn't know for many years that lino meant linoleum (so what's that mean - he's sleeping on the bathroom floor?). But not knowing what "lino" was, didn't stop me from singing it (badly) every time I heard it.

Never found out about "lino" until many years later when I saw Difford & Tilbrook mention it in passing in an interview.

........actually that's "SUNLIGHT on the lino" come to think of it !!

Even after researching it and finding out what exactly Subbuteo is, I still don't know what it means that cousin Kevin flicked the kick, why that helped him beat Feargal Sharkey (or whichever O'Neill wrote "My Perfect Cousin"), or how he could do it without the Undertone in question noticing.

I have no clue what Yonki time is, or why Tom Verlaine was so fired up about it.

Who exactly is on the seventh floor? What alternatives are they brewing that have the Bunnymen all stressed out? What is waiting for things to give while hiding out in the bottom drawer? Will not knowing these things mean I have to face the cutter? What the hell is the cutter, anyway? Is it a man or a machine?

And I've mentioned this before, but I have no idea why the fact that Ric Ocasek's frozen fire and one desire is beautiful excuses her from wearing shoes, though I understand she doesn't like to choose. And a clock machine differs from a plain old clock how? I need to know these things, dammit, if I'm going to go with her and I'm willing to hold her down and break her crown until she tells me.



Post Edited (09-03-10 07:41)

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What the hell is the cutter, anyway? Is it a man or a machine?

Spare us?



Spare us!



Spare us!

"You're a star-belly sneech
You suck like a leach
You want everyone to act like you"

After 30-odd years, I finally decided to look up "star-belly sneech" a couple weeks ago - it's a Dr Suess character. Huh. "Holidays in Cambodia" is just the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it?

Seems a bit unfair to Sneetches to compare them to the clueless rich kids of the song.


Speaking of "Fresh Fruit," come this Nov. we may have to dust off "California uber Alles" again...

Good lord, an Elfquest reference - never thought I'd see that around here.

Leg Before Wicket. A foul.

I've complained about this Squeeze lyric before:

And I feel like William Tell
Maid Marian on her tiptoe feet
Pulling mussels from a shell

WTF does the Swiss 14th century legend of William Tell have to do with the 16th century British myth of Robin Hood for fuck's sake?

But God I love mondegreens. They're fascinating on several levels.

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WTF does the Swiss 14th century legend of William Tell have to do with the 16th century British myth of Robin Hood for fuck's sake?

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According to The Complete Annotated Squeeze Lyric Book by Katherine Everard:

"Elements of archery are prominent in both of the story cycles."

So perhaps there isn't as much of a leap as one might imagine?

What Ms. Everard fails to explain is what any of that has to do with pulling mussels from a shell.

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It took me years to figure out what Robyn Hitchcock was singing about in "Love" from Element of Light when he offered a line like:

"And we eat Weetabix and sing ... about the joys that love can bring"

Of course ... it was obviously some sort of edible thing.



I've tried it. It's obviously some sort of edible thing.

Kind of a sissified, "powdered-wig and knickers" take on Shredded Wheat.

Beats the hell out of Marmite - which is like an unholy union of apple butter and axle grease.

Kay - this is appropos of nothing but you, truthfully, are The Shit !!!!! That's one of the most surrealistic posts you've written in the last....6 hours or so.

I'll spoil these:

"cousin Kevin flicked the kick" -- "Flick the Kick" is the Subbuteo soccer slogan. Every kid in England played one.

A clock machine has a better meter than just a clock. I want to meet a barefoot waif with a risque mouth who's *not* holding out.

Pulling Mussels is about seeing the girl of your dreams at a holiday camp when you're 12.
"But behind the Chalet
My holiday's complete"

But what do I know? I always thought "There She Goes" was just a love song.



Post Edited (09-03-10 20:54)

Sorry, just feeling literal tonight, since STEVE doesn't seem to be on here lately.

blasmo wrote:

> Sorry, just feeling literal tonight, since STEVE doesn't seem
> to be on here lately.

Yeah, I kind of miss STEVE's anarchic minefield of new topic posts appearing Fridays at beer o'clock sharp. It was an event I looked forward to, like hearing the hourly chime of the California Tower carillon in Balboa Park.

In the center of the city in the night, I found the Geritol Man - Joy Division

That ain't what you heard?

Took me 10 years to realize it was "revved up like a deuce," and ten more to understand what it meant. For those keeping track, that's 20 yrs. of not getting it.

In "pulling mussels from a shell" I always thought it was Maid Marion and her Slippered feet. I will have to listen to it again...

I always wondered what "LBW" meant in the song "Cricket" from the Kinks' Preservation Act 1.

I've never seen the lyrics to "Pulling Mussels from the Shell" in print, but I've always interpreted that chorus as "And I feel like William Tell / Made Marian on her tiptoed feet." In other words, Will and Marian met on holiday and decided to hook up. They snuck out behind the chalet, and found the only way they could do it back there was standing up. (Hence the reference to tiptoes; Will is taller than Marian, ya see.)

Maybe Difford was on holiday too, and had his eye on Marian ... but that lucky bastard Will beat him to the punch.

[I miss Steve too. I really thought the deep-fried beer post would catch his attention.]

This bloke I know actually represented Australia in the Subbuteo World Cup.
Re LBW - It means you're out.