# Benny the Bouncer lyrics question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453 "2008-02-28T02:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/1 "2008-02-28T02:12:31Z")
[QUOTE=Emerson, Lake, and Palmer] Sidney chose a switchblade And Benny got a cold meat pie. [/QUOTE] A cold meat pie is a wonderful thing, but not worth a damn in a knife fight. Is cold meat pie Cockney slang for something a little more deadly? Or is a cold meat pie slang for the injuries you might receive in a knife fight? ---
**Author:** ![SingSingSing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SingSingSing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingSingSing)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/2 "2015-10-26T12:24:45Z")
Don’t know where I heard this but I think “Cold meat pie” is slang for the weapon that results when a person holds a bottle by the neck and then breaks the bottom off the bottle. He then uses the jagged glass of the bottle to slash or stab. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/3 "2015-10-26T13:09:48Z")
Don’t know if **Bill Door** is still interested in this topic after all these years, but I’d imagine he’ll be excited to see a previously ignored Thread of his finally getting some long delayed attention, **SingSingSing** (Welcome to the Dope, by the way!). I wouldn’t see any reason to interpret it as a weapon of any kind. Expanding the sample lyrics just a bit, it’s: “Benny looked at Sidney, Sidney stared right back in his eye, Sidney chose a switchblade and Benny got a cold meat pie.” I would go with **Bill Door** ’s second interpretation- “got” meaning “sustained an injury”, the same way you’d say someone “got” a broken nose or “got” a black eye. I would think Sid immediately stabbed Benny- Benny’s stab wound (or his subsequent corpse) was the “cold meat pie”. However, I do love **SingSingSing** ’s definition of cold meat pie. I can’t find any other sources for it, don’t know who **SingSingSing** got it from, but I like it. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/4 "2015-10-26T14:28:01Z")
It feels pretty obvious to me, but just to make it official and all, [this](https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC&pg=PA314&lpg=PA314&dq=cold+meat+pie+slang&source=bl&ots=2zhSV7lhB8&sig=idZugB2s9uPrQ5tToZhQX1siUhE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDMQ6AEwA2oVChMIh-fMxKvgyAIVBEQmCh23BgJY#v=onepage&q=cold%20meat%20pie%20slang&f=false) confirms that “cold meat” does indeed refer to a corpse. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/5 "2015-10-26T14:40:17Z")
^ Further: “cold pie” (a little further down the page) is “an easy victim,” so Benny was easily dispatched. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/6 "2015-10-26T15:11:47Z")
About time. Seven years and eight months. Thanks for the answers. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/7 "2015-10-27T06:06:46Z")
The “cold meat pie” is clearly the cold steel blade, delivered to the stomach. It’s not deep. Needn’t be based on slang. It just rhymes and is fitting imagery. I’m a big ELP fan, but in general their lyrics aren’t much better than most rock, which sets a pretty low bar. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/8 "2015-10-28T04:26:04Z")
I always thought it was Cockney rhyming for getting kicked in face. cold meat/feet pie/eye sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/9 "2015-10-28T13:37:21Z")
I read somewhere, long, long ago, before the internet age, that a cold meat pie was slang for a [sap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_(law_enforcement)#Sap). However, I couldn’t find anything to verify that when looking it up for this thread. For all these years I thought that this _one hell of a fight_ was Sidney with his switchblade and Benny with his concealable club. At least until _Sidney grabbed a hatchet and buried it in Bennie’s head_, which introduced a third weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/10 "2015-10-28T13:54:46Z")
Huh. I always thought that _cold meat pie_ was a comment on the quality of the food at that particular establishment - the cold meat pie was so hard and dense that it was useful as a weapon. Never thought it might actually have a slang meaning :smack:. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/11 "2015-10-28T17:22:29Z")
Man, was a HUGE fan of ELP, with Brain Salad Surgery my fave album at the time - and I NEVER thought of it as anything other than the foodstuff. Reckon I never thought Benny the smartest chap. What are we going to tackle next? 7 virgins and a mule, keeping cool, keeping cool? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![SingSingSing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SingSingSing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingSingSing)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/12 "2015-11-16T13:51:56Z")
I sure wish I could remember where I heard that slang definition of “Cold Meat Pie”. In any case, I too have been unable to find that definition anywhere. At the time I was working with a gentleman from Liechester (sp?) England (pronounced like Lester). Perhaps it came from him as the chronology would fit and " Cold Meat Pie" is most likely English slang … but I really can’t say for sure. But it does raise another question, that being, “What name DO we give to a broken bottle used as a weapon”? Maybe just " Broken bottle " . Saw ELP at the International Amphitheater in Chicago back in the day. My hearing never recovered completely. GREAT SHOW!!! ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/13 "2015-11-16T15:48:08Z")
> [@SingSingSing](#): > > I sure wish I could remember where I heard that slang definition of “Cold Meat Pie”. In any case, I too have been unable to find that definition anywhere. At the time I was working with a gentleman from Liechester (sp?) England (pronounced like Lester). Perhaps it came from him as the chronology would fit and " Cold Meat Pie" is most likely English slang … but I really can’t say for sure. But it does raise another question, that being, “What name DO we give to a broken bottle used as a weapon”? Maybe just " Broken bottle " . Saw ELP at the International Amphitheater in Chicago back in the day. My hearing never recovered completely. GREAT SHOW!!! I saw them at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in August of 1972. That was a great show as well. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-the-bouncer-lyrics-question/439453/14 "2015-11-16T16:01:08Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > About time. Seven years and eight months. Thanks for the answers. Stop being pushy. These things take time.