# Tin Roof Rusted **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 1999, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208 "1999-07-29T20:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/1 "1999-07-29T20:16:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/2 "1999-07-29T20:28:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/3 "1999-07-29T20:30:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/4 "1999-07-29T20:30:00Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/5 "1999-07-29T20:35:00Z")
- - - Since we’re there, what’s it mean to be “living in your own private Idaho”? - MC ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/6 "1999-07-29T20:56:00Z")
Would you want to live in someone elses Idaho? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/7 "1999-07-29T21:06:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/8 "1999-07-29T22:01:00Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 1999, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/9 "1999-07-30T01:57:00Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 1999, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/10 "1999-07-30T02:25:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 1999, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/11 "1999-07-30T02:53:00Z")
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) ---
**Author:** ![JimL3222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@JimL3222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimL3222)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/12 "2012-06-21T20:30:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/13 "2012-06-21T21:03:35Z")
Given that the thread was 13 years old before that last post, I’d expect it to be rusted. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/14 "2012-06-21T21:11:37Z")
It would appear the SDMB database is lacking some referential integrity ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/15 "2012-06-21T21:18:24Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > It would appear the SDMB database is lacking some referential integrity On **extremely** old threads, like this one, yes…the poster IDs are missing. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/16 "2012-06-21T21:32:41Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/17 "2012-06-22T00:34:30Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/18 "2012-06-22T17:28:34Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > 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. Why would they lie about what their own song meant? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/19 "2012-06-22T18:14:18Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208/20 "2012-06-22T18:24:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tin-roof-rusted/2208.md?page=2)