Many of us may remember the 80’s song “Love Shack” by the B-52’s and the one part of the song where the music stops and someone says male:“You’re WHAT?” female:“Tin Roof Rusted”
I have a friend who swears this is a euphemism for pregnant. I was wondering, is this true? and if it is, how did it come about?
To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.
I can’t remember where I saw this, so I can’t verify for you. But, I seem to remember that this was just a nonsense phrase that was called out by the singer at the spur of the moment.
According to the occasionally reliable reference “Pop-Up Videos,” most people think it’s slang for pregnancy but Cindy Wilson apparently just made it up outta nowhere.
I remember a VH1 interview with the singer (Cindy something). Her reply to this question was that the three words were totally spontanious and had no conscious meaning. Time to read up on Freud…
Would you want to live in someone elses Idaho?
Maybe it means your house is full of potatoes, mormons and skinheads?
To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.
Hm… Good question. I recently found out that song is about the fear of annihilation by global thermonuclear war or something. Mebbe it’s related to that.
And why would you name a dog Quiche Lorraine?
I remember that as a boy growing up in Texas, there was an ice cream flavor that was called “tin roof.” Maybe Cindy was groovin’ on that. Maybe “tin roof, rusted” means “tin roof ice cream with caramel sauce.” And as the man says, if it ain’t true, then it ought to be.
And I always interpreted the phrase “living in your own private Idaho” as describing those young turks who always seem to have a mobile aura of boredom around them no matter what their surroundings might be. (I am assuming that Idaho is boring.)
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef
It always sounded like the guy said “Say What?”
I finally decided that the Love Shack was an illicit club and that she was responding with the day’s password.
Let m throw a ‘spaniard’ in the works here.
Way back in the 70’s, when I was runnin a coffee shop,we used to get alot a people who played East Texas Blues, gut bucket blues Eeep Elum blues,call um what you will. There was one guy in particular who played and knew a lot. I know the REAL words to Long Tall Sally,High Powered Wimmin,Keep On Truckin, lots a stuff. I remember parts of a song that had the lines, “Tin roof’s rusted, sumthin sumthin sumthin, and I’m flat busted. The guy had this explanation for what it meant. ( We always asked him " What the hell does ’ Gotta bottle up’n’go’ mean” for example.) HE said ‘tin roof rusted’ means the condom sprung a leak, and some girl is ‘in trouble’, he’s responsible, and he is broke. Now lots of those old songs have words that don’t mean much out of context, sometimes if you swapped rhyming words you could get a meaning , busted for rusted say, or scanning an entire verse gave a meaning that you couldn’t get from individual lines. Just for what it’s worth.
" Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."-Marx (Melissa Gilbert is in the rest room right now or she would have a snappy comeback)
According to an interview given to MTV years ago, when the original track was made the Female singer in question had just applied an outragious hair color. The Male lead, who had apparently been teasing her about the color choice and its weird name for the whole day, repeated the same crazy request for the color name of the hair dye (“You’re what?”). It was “Rusted Tin Roof”. Earlier she changed the order of the reply, and it stuck (“Tin Roof. . . .Rusted!”). Once on the track, that stuck to. That’s what was said in the interview anyway as I recall.
Given that the thread was 13 years old before that last post, I’d expect it to be rusted. 
It would appear the SDMB database is lacking some referential integrity
On extremely old threads, like this one, yes…the poster IDs are missing.
zombie or no
a roof is protection to a house. a tin roof is lasting durable protection. a rusty tin roof, especially with holes rusted through it at the nail holes, no longer gives protection.
Tin Roof Rusted is a euphemism for being pregnant after using a condom that failed due to a puncture.
it’s plain as day.
The love shack in the woods near my childhood home had a tin roof, rusted. I figured that made it plain as day. She’s talking about a love shack, remember?
Why would they lie about what their own song meant?
Tin doesn’t rust, you know. It’s always bothered me that the Ti n Man in the Wizard of Oz got “rusted” into position. Tin does ocidize, but it’s not the same thing. Tin is notable for retaining its uncorroded look.
Tin-coated steel can rust, though. Maybe that’s what they have in mind.
Damned if I know what the B-52s had in mind.
Clearly the scientific accuracy of the B52’s pop hit is lacking…