English as a second language is hard, and it’s even harder when you want to decipher (diner related) slang from the 1940s. Can someone explain the meaning, or significance of the emphasised lines?
Mr Moto was a fictional Japanese secret agent.
“I cut a rug” means “I dance”.
“Snug as a bug in a rug” means to be wrapped up ready for sleep. The substitution of “jug” has no meaning to me.
No more ideas though - suspect the lyrics are just nonsense in order to scan and rhyme.
“A slice of onion and a raw one, draw one.” is pretty obviously lunch counter lingo.
I can’t find the specific meaning of slice of onion or raw one, though. “Draw one” means get a cup of coffee from the urn.
Maybe it just means a slice of raw onion.
To “draw one” in this context probably means to fill a coffee cup from an urn. You normally don’t hear people using this for coffee, but rather for beer filled from a tap.
A lot of these words are just thrown in there to fill space and rhyme. Lots of songs in that era had nonsense lyrics, to wit
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!
A tisket, a tasket
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Moved from GQ to Café Society.
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I’d hazard a guess that a “raw one” is something cooked rare. Sounds like diner slang.
Burger rare with onion, and a coffee.
Onion means onion? What kind of slang is that?
Onion was breath or crying.
Oops, I was thinking about slice and forgot “of onion”.
Speaking of coffee songs, I’ve always liked…
(I wish I could find Colombian Blend by Tintin & Hårtørrerne, but I’ve only found the intro.)
‘Johnny, how about drawing a cup of coffee for your Old Man?’
He stopped asking that way after I drew him a cup of coffee… on paper.
“Raw one” is definitely a hamburger (possibly rare?)
I sang this song A LOT in high school. It was our a capella group’s signature song, and it’s a great one!
Yep, slice of onion on a buger, cooked rare.
More interesting to me is the line:
whoops, Mr. Moto, I’m a coffee pot
Who is Mr. Moto? If it’s the character played in movies by Peter Lorre, why? What does Mr. Moto have to do with coffee? This has bugged me for years and no one has been about to provide me with a satisfactory explanation.
Google led me to a Wordwizard message board post from 2004, which suggests this connection:
There’s some further discussion on there, if you want to check it out.
Java Jive, as recorded by The Ink Spots, July, *1940. *Evidently a favorite platter in Joseph Kesselring’s household.
Wai-ter, wai-ter, per-co-la-tor…
“Egg Coffee” is coffee made with an egg (shell and all). You put the ground coffee in
a filter and break a raw egg over it (a “raw one”). Egg shell is crushed. It is said to
reduce the acidity of the coffee.
Apparently, this custom was imported from Scandinavia, and is reportedly still
practiced by some Lutheran congregations in the American Midwest (e.g. Minnesota).
I surmise that the “slice of onion” may refer to a similar practice (putting some
onion in the pot of brewing coffee), although I haven’t been able to find a reference
to that practice (and frankly, it sounds disgusting).
On the other hand, putting a raw egg in with your coffee sounds disgusting, but
apparently some folks enjoy it.
Sorry to “resurrect” a “zombie” thread, but I’m listening to a Manhattan Transfer album, and just Googled the “Java Jive” lyrics. This thread was at the top of the list for “Meanings.” So, if Naita (or anyone else is interested), here are my thoughts on the subject:
“Java Jive” refers to the caffeine buzz you get from drinking lots of coffee. The singer is obviously addicted to the stuff. “Jive” (originally US “Negro” slang) can also mean to dance energetically, e.g., to jazz music. Maybe the singer gets so hyper from his caffeine, it makes him want to jump up and start dancing (“cut a rug”).
“Shoot me the pot and I’ll pour me a shot.” Sounds like he’s in a diner, and he’s asking the guy/girl behind the counter to just slide the coffee pot over to him so he can serve himself, the way a bartender might do with a bottle of whiskey. (The hamburger reference, if that’s what it is, supports this assumption.)
“Oh, slip me a slug from the wonderful mug.” A “slug” is a gulp/swallow of a beverage; cf: a “shot” of whiskey. He wants another “belt” of coffee (drinkers’ slang) from his heavy cup.
“And I cut a rug till I’m snug in a jug.” Whiskey can come in a jug. It sounds as though he’s comparing addictions: caffeine vs. alcohol. Maybe he drinks booze to come down off his coffee high. (This might have broader connotations within the so-called “drug culture.”) Maybe he needs the onion to disguise the odor of alcohol on his breath.
The only other meaning I can attach to “jug” here is “jail,” which is British slang (“Me brofer’s in jug again!”), though they would, of course, spell it “gaol.” Maybe he gets so high (and crashes so badly, or gets so drunk) that he’s often hauled in by the police to sleep it off.
“Coffee and tea and the jivin’ and me.” “Jive” can also mean to talk nonsense, or to bullshit someone (cf: the Bee Gees’ “Jive Talkin’”). Maybe he gets so high that he just starts rambling incoherently. Again, I’m thinking “drug culture” connotations here.
It’s true that a lot period songs have nonsense lyrics; often, however, there is a much deeper subtext (cf: “Hooray for Captain Spaulding!” 
).
If we take him literally, that is.