# Car people, can you explain "Little Deuce Coupe" lyrics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841 "2017-01-10T22:59:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/61 "2017-01-12T16:04:38Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Edited to add: I just noticed that, in my time zone, you post was submitted at 4:09 am. Well played! Now that’s real fine. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/62 "2017-01-12T16:09:16Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The original LPs don’t have lyrics printed on them anywhere, either the cover or the liner. Other than in this thread, I have never heard of **anyone** who thinks the words are “big slip.” Not in 50 years. Not in any cover version. In searching I found others who get this wrong, but they get shouted down by the dozens. In addition, every reference the guys in the band have ever made about the song talk about the pink slip. And search doesn’t bring up “big slip differential” as a term. It’s always limited-slip differential. Sorry. He’s got the pink slip, daddy-o and he’s cooler than thou. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/63 "2017-01-12T16:20:48Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > walk a Thunderbird-outrun a Thunderbird(car model) in a race > ported and relieved-intake manifolds have been modified to improve/increase airflow > stroked and bored-cylinders are increased in size, longer connecting rods=increases engine displacement > a hundred and forty with the top end floored-top speed of 140 mph > competition clutch with the four on the floor-clutch built for better engagement and to handle the rigors of a more powerful engine and a four speed manual transmission-stick shift on the floor > lake pipes-built for racing on dry lakebeds/salt flats. I have no idea as to what advantage they have, though > > ETA:deuce coupe with a flat head mill-1932 Ford coupe with a [Ford flathead V8 engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_flathead_V8_engine) I liked your answers, running coach; but it’d sure be nice if you tried some capitalization and punctuation. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/64 "2017-01-12T16:26:06Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Totally agree, and nice analysis of the dynamics of the line! When I hear it, I can almost see Brian waving the pick slip in my face. > [@scabpicker](#): > > Once again, fortune conspires to make me seem more clever than I actually am. 🙂 At least there’s no controversy about what differential the 409 had. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/65 "2017-01-12T16:36:49Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > I liked your answers, running coach; but it’d sure be nice if you tried some capitalization and punctuation. 😕 I usually do. I don’t know why I went full-newbie on that. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/66 "2017-01-12T18:21:02Z")
Hey, it’s a retro thread. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/67 "2017-01-12T19:01:50Z")
As a side note, Chuck Berry references a flat-head engine in his 1956 tune “You Can’t Catch Me:” > [@](#): > > New Jersey Turnpike in the wee wee hours > I was rollin’ slowly ‘cause of drizzlin’ showers > Here come a flat-top, he was movin’ up with me > Then come wavin’ by me in a little’ old souped-up jitney The line was reprised by John Lennon in "Come Together;’ and it got him into some trouble. From wiki: > [@](#): > > Berry’s music publisher sued Lennon for copyright infringement because of the melodic similarity between “You Can’t Catch Me” and the Beatles’ 1969 song “Come Together”, written by Lennon, and because the Beatles’ song used some of the lyrics of Berry’s song (“here come old flat-top”). The suit was settled out of court. As part of the settlement, Lennon included a rendition of “You Can’t Catch Me” on his 1975 album of cover versions, Rock ‘n’ Roll. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/68 "2017-01-12T19:55:46Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Wow… all of this lingo is part of my foundational knowledge. Is it really that obscure in the era of chipped, flattened ricers? Ricers? Wow that’s a pretty racist term. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/69 "2017-01-12T22:41:32Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > As a side note, Chuck Berry references a flat-head engine in his 1956 tune “You Can’t Catch Me:” > > Quote: > New Jersey Turnpike in the wee wee hours > I was rollin’ slowly ‘cause of drizzlin’ showers > Here come a flat-top, he was movin’ up with me > Then come wavin’ by me in a little’ old souped-up jitney It’s not a reference to a flathead engine, and flathead engines were never called flat-tops. It’s a reference to a men’s hairstyle called a flat-top. More info [here](https://genius.com/Chuck-berry-you-cant-catch-me-lyrics), quoted from Chuck’s autobiography. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/70 "2017-01-12T22:44:59Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Ricers? Wow that’s a pretty racist term. Only if you can be racist towards an inanimate object. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/71 "2017-01-13T00:39:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The “four on the floor” line – that’s opposed to something like “three on the tree” right? That is, like what you think of as a stick shift these days that’s floor mounted rather than steering column mounted, right? (Although typically these days we’re looking at five or six gears – and possibly more – not four.) What’s the last car that came with the gear shift on the column, anyway? Or are there still some being made? I drove an early 70’s Nova V8 with column shift. > [@salinqmind](#): > > I don’t know ANY men of any age who futz around with cars, young or old. Once upon a time in the 50’s, maybe someone’s uncle would be out in the garage on weekends poking around an ancient Ford, like the Fonz. Husband can replace a dead battery and clean a sparkplug, that kind of thing, but not lately - he says 'why would I, that’s what the garage down the road is paid to do." My father, husband, neighbors, and boyfriends of our children get in their cars and go - if it needs work or breaks down, they call the AAA. I have to say you live in a different world. I know a LOT of people who work on their car. You can easily double the horsepower of an 80’s or 90’s engine with aftermarket mods. Factory performance died in the late 70’s. At one point Dodge had a truck that put out more hp than a Corvette. It took decades for car manufacturers to catch because it took computerized fuel injection and variable timing to meet environmental standards. Now it’s common for everyday V6 engines to produce 300+ HP. Even with all that there are aftermarket kits that can take a 400 hp engine and add 150 hp to it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/72 "2017-01-13T00:58:16Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Yup. Also, _Blinded By the Light_ by Bruce Springsteen. "Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night " Speaking out, decipher me this: I got a '69 Chevy with a 396 Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/73 "2017-01-13T01:04:21Z")
[Fuelie heads](http://www.hotrod.com/articles/ctrp-0912-chevrolet-double-hump-cylinder-heads/) [Hurst shifters](http://www.hurst-shifters.com/) Basic meaning: I’ve souped-up my Chevy and it will dust your ass. Wanna race? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/74 "2017-01-13T01:18:47Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > [Fuelie heads](http://www.hotrod.com/articles/ctrp-0912-chevrolet-double-hump-cylinder-heads/) > > [Hurst shifters](http://www.hurst-shifters.com/) > > Basic meaning: I’ve souped-up my Chevy and it will dust your ass. Wanna race? Or ride to sea and wash these sins\* off our hands? - Thanks, silenus! This made me go look that up and see that it’s not “sands off our hands”! ---
**Author:** ![D.E.S.K.Top668](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@D.E.S.K.Top668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.E.S.K.Top668)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/75 "2017-01-13T01:54:22Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Are you sure you don’t mean tuners? I was always an always a American, V-8, rear wheel drive kind of rodder. Since starting on my first real import project (1999 Honda Civic Hatch,) I’ve discovered the difference between Ricers and Tuners. Ricers are the “Kustomizers” of the import scene. Even if they put a bit of go in their cars, they’re mainly about show. Tuners are the “Rodders.” If you see an import with a ridiculous body kit, tri-llevel wing, fart-can exhaust, and is moving a a speed that suggests it has a stock motor; Ricer. If it goes like hell, even if it has SOME questionable cosmetic mods; Tuner. [QUOTE=Drunky Smurf] Ricers? Wow that’s a pretty racist term. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Gary T] Only if you can be racist towards an inanimate object. [/QUOTE] Ricer not only refers to the cars, but to the builders. However, they’re referred to as Ricers regardless of their ethnicity. You can have White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, whatever ricers. Of course it’s never meant as a compliment to either the person or the car [QUOTE=ftg] Anyway, I also thought “deuce” referred to a two-door making “deuce coupé” a bit redundant. Are we sure that it refers to 1932? [/QUOTE] In the hot rod world, only two things are known as a deuce. A 1932 Ford and, less commonly, the first generation Chevy II/Nova. You could have deuce coupe (two door/two person hard top,) deuce roadster (two door/two person with removable roof and windshield and no roll up windows,) cabriolet (two door/two person with fixed windshield, roll up windows, and removable roof,) or sedan (two or four door fixed roof/5 person.) There were other models but that’s all I could think of off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/76 "2017-01-13T02:47:39Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Ricers? Wow that’s a pretty racist term. Nope, used to be powered by rice wine ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/77 "2017-01-13T03:03:57Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > “Pink slip”. Probably more legend then fact, there has been lots of discussion on this over the years on various car forums. Who in the heck is going to run in a claiming race against an unknown car? Seems like the fastest guy would end up owning all the hot rods in town. > > Dennis Perhaps but I can see it as an offer for someone who is into racing and doesn’t have the cash, and offers the title as the bet instead (while the other person puts up the cash) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/78 "2017-01-13T03:06:53Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > In the hot rod world, only two things are known as a deuce. A 1932 Ford and, less commonly, the first generation Chevy II/Nova. Also a two barrel carburetor, as in “three deuces and a four speed”. ---
**Author:** ![D.E.S.K.Top668](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@D.E.S.K.Top668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.E.S.K.Top668)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/79 "2017-01-13T03:15:21Z")
True. I was only thinking of car makes/models at the time. Not individual parts. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841/80 "2017-01-13T21:52:26Z")
Can we revisit the “lake pipes”? I’m really not comfortable with the explanation. First, people all over the country were building hot rods, and only the smallest subset of those people had “dry lake beds” to run on. But the term became recognizable wherever one went. Secondly, these cars were built as street racers, not primarily for real unlimited racing someplace like Daytona or Bonneville. Guys made macho on the streets, at stoplights, in the new drive-in restaurants, and such. Races were one on one at the nearest corner. We used to race on a lonely stretch of rural 2-lane road “west of town”. The big thing about “lake pipes” was that they had removable caps. With caps on, you had a tough looking, loud but street legal automobile. But remove the caps (or lever the butterfly valves) and you had a wide open, down and dirty racing machine! If the common practice had been to build these cars to be run in the wide open places where street-legal didn’t matter, they’d have been built with tuned open exhausts, not half-measures like “lake pipes”. But instead you could drive your hot rod to the sock hop, become engaged in a challenge, and – with your manhood and your pink slip on the line – head down to the corner to “stand side by side”. And before your buddies signaled “GO” you opened those exhaust ports, giving you more horsepower and perhaps the winning edge. At the end, you capped the exhausts again, before the cops showed up. I was alive and present for at least part of the “muscle car” era, back to 1950 anyway. And I have faint memories (I really wish now that I hadn’t been so wasteful of brain cells back then! my memories might be more clear) of advertising for early versions of these exhaust systems from a builder/manufacturer with “Lake” in the company name. Like Lake Exhausts, or Lake Manufacturing, or Lake Speed Shop or some other variant. I can (dimly, dimly) still see the ads. My memory (or what I’m using these days in place of memory – perhaps just make-believe, I admit) is that the very first “lake pipes” were one-offs put together by hand in some enthusiast’s garage. And then seen around town, and passed along the gossip line, which was red hot for any technological innovation. Other people (garagehounds being what they are) copied the idea and popularity soared. Before too long some enterprising capitalist started manufacturing standardized versions made to fit some of the more popular models of hot rod, like Ford flat heads. And that company had “Lake” in the name. National recognition followed. If you wanted straight exhausts with dump ports for your little deuce coupe, you ordered them from Lake. And the name underwent the same transference that Scotch suffered with clear cellophane tape. “Lake Pipes” became iconic and the original company faded away. I’ve tried to find evidence of this, but my google-fu is weak. And I suspect there aren’t all that many newspaper and magazine ads from that particular point in time. But I’d sure love anyone to either affirm or deny my – memory? Fairy tale? Whatever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-can-you-explain-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics/776841.md?page=5)