Wondering about a couple of slang terms in songs once popular, unresponsive to a quick Google.
The term “dry roasters” in a Jay-Z song (Renegade), and the term “lightly leads” in a Squeeze song (Cool For Cats).
Any ideas?
This?
And meanwhile at the station there’s a couple of likely lads
Who swear like, “How’s your father?” and they’re very cool for cats
I suspect both of your strange slang terms are mondegreens.
For Jay-Z’s “Renegade”, genius.com renders the lyric as:
And they live with they moms, got dropped roadsters
Which I would hazard a guess to be a reference to wannabes who have a fancy low-rider car (“dropped roadster”), but who still live at home. But that might be way off.
Guess they both are. No wonder I couldn’t google ‘em.
And before you google “Then I saw her face, now I’m goin’ to Cleveland”, that’s the Monkees song I’m A Believer…
:~}
Not to let a thread go to waste, does anybody know what, “she’s about a mover” means?
Also referenced in the excellent Libertines song:
Though a reference to the 1970s british sitcom (which I still use to mean trying to avoid seeing the score of a british sporting event until it’s shown at a more reasonable time in US TV). The term had meaning before that I assume.
For years I heard the Proud Mary line “pumped a lot of 'tane down in New Orleans” as “pumped a lot of pain…” because I’d never heard gasoline called “tane.” Does anybody call gas that, aside from CCR and Tina Turner?
'60s comedy. There’s a bit about the etymology on the Wiki.
I’m surprised the OP was stumped by that as slang, but was cool with the Sweeney. Or the actual song title.
Its pumped a lot tang as in Poontang. She had a lot of sex.
And what is Elton John saying in Someone Save My Life Tonight when he sings “I would have walked head on into the deep end of a river, clinging to your stocks and bonds, paying your HP demands forever”?
HP is British and means Hire Purchase. In the US we call that “layaway.”
You heard right, from what I’ve read. But it’s spelled 'pane. For propane. Apparently.
But Ike changed it to 'tane, I guess for octane.
I can guess the meaning of likely lads but am unfamiliar with the term. I could probably also figure out dropped roadsters but heard it as dry roasters through I careful listening, which I thought somehow related to ghetto violence. However, I misheard both these phrases and did not Google the lyrics.
Pumping tane or tang are sort of different.
Although the Madness song One Step Beyond is the “nuttiest” sound around, I hear something different there sometimes.
When you’re not sure…it’s always about sex (or drugs).
Reminds me of the video. Watch her move!
I’m still waiting for an opportunity to use the word “pompatus” in conversation, which is difficult since I don’t know what it means.