I am incredibly clueless when it comes to pop music, and particularly inept at making out the lyrics. One of the Wonders of the Internet is that I can finally make out what the actual lyrics are. The problem is, that frequently doesn’t help much.
It doesn’t help that the comments I frequently come across, even of this Board (even from the Perfect Master Cecil himself) are frequently one of two types:
1.) Isn’t it obvious? (Answer – No. As I say, I’m clueless)
2.) It doesn’t mean anything – the guy’s just trying to get the song to scan, and he’ll put anything in there. (I got that omne when asking about Billy Joel’s "Always a Woman to Me " – the line “She can’t be connvicted/she’s earned her degree”) – I can’t always buy this one, either. It’s a panacea – It’ll answer any question about the meaning of lyrics.
The thing is, very often the lyrics do mean something. But you need to know the song’s backstory (As in the case of Elton John’s “Daniel”. Extra credit question – How the hell do the artists expect people to know this? How do they find out?) In other cases my understanding would be greatly enhanced if I knew the particular slang/argot of where the song is set, but I don’t.
With all that as background, can someone clue me in to the meaning of “Lido Shuffle”?
1.) What kind of name is Lido? I’ll bet it has nothing to do with the topless bunch “Lido de Paris”, but that’s the only Lido I know.
2.) Why is Lido running? I get the impression he owes somebody something, and is trying to get money from gigs either to pay it back, or to keep running.
3.) “Until he got the note – “Tow it or blow it”” Huh??? Evedently it’s bad news, though, 'cause it makes him run for the border. What’s THAT all about?
4.) What the hell is a tombstone bar?
5.) Don’t tell me it’s all just nonsense to fit the meter. It’s pretty clear this isn’t “Jabberwocky”. And I hate being on the outside of an inside joke.
And looking again at the lyrics after many years, I’m thinking Lido has left his girlfriend and is on a bender of some kind (drugs? gambling? booze? all three?) and she is sending him a note telling him to come home now or forget it. (Toe the line or blow it.)
“Toe the line” means “man up” or “do your part” or “pull your weight” or “fall in line.” I take it as his girlfriend telling him to come home and get serious about the relationship or it’s over.
Makes me think of the Lido Deck on cruise ships. As does Shuffle (as in Shuffle Board)… The One More Shot and Toe the Line bits sound like Shuffleboard as well.
Maybe there’s some 1970s slang in there that was frequently used in popular music, not unlike “stone in love” or “steal away”. The song might have made perfect sense when it was released, but today sounds like nonsense.
For the longest time I’d convinced myself that this song was by Elton John. It was only when the local oldies station started playing it and I heard the DJ note that it was Boz Skaggs that I realized I was wrong.
Interesting you mention Jumping Jack Flash; it’s one of a bunch of pop songs in the game Elite Beat Agents. Each song is set to a scenario, and more often than not the song has nothing to do with the scenario. My favorite is one in which a retired baseball player proves to an adoring young fan that he still has major-league skills…set to Good Charlotte’s Anthem. The music is peppy and fits the action well, but once you understand the lyrics, the cognitive dissonance is liable to make your head explode:
I don’t ever wanna be like you
I don’t wanna do the things you do
'Cause I don’t ever wanna
I don’t ever wanna be you
This is a total hijack to the specific question in the OP, but hey.
That interpretation helps a lot, but I still don’t think it covers it.
1.) Just because the line says “…and that’s all she wrote” doesn’t mean that he got a note from a lady. I’ve heard the slang “and that’s all she wrote”, and it means – “and that’s all it/he/she said. That’s the end.” I think this guiy is taking it much too literally.
2.) There has to be something more srerious involved. Unless the “run for the border” is another bit of slamnf (I suspect it isn’t) , Lido’s in big enough trouble with the law or the Mob or whatever that he feels he’s gotta get out of the country.
3.) I never would have thought of him as a con man or gambler. The “gig” terminology and other things make it sound like he’s a musician, getting money for playing his gigs. But I concede it makes more sense the other way.
4.) I never heard of either slang meaning of “handle”
It’s not “convinced”, it’s “She can’t be convicted”, which, despite what was said on these Boards when I brought that up earlier (by you? I don’t recall) , doesn’t mean at all the same thing to me.
Just a guess…but especially in older drinking establishments one still runs into bars where the bartop itself is made from polished marble or granite; just like tombstones. Sounds to me like Lido pulled into such an tavern in a car he boosted from a jukejoint and either stuck the place up or swiped money from the cash register. That the money is described as his " handle off the top" makes me lean toward the idea that he just snatched the cash from the till. He then lands in Chicago and, it seems to me, commences to gambling with the money and otherwise living it up.
The song is about a small-time lowlife on a bender. His wife wants him to come home and toe the line i.e. live like a square, but Lido isn’t having any of that.
Well now that’s interesting. I never really looked at it that way, but you could look at the gambling references as a metaphor for trying to make it in the music business.
By the time he wrote this song, Skaggs had been in the business a long time without much success. Maybe this song describes his last attempt to “make it” before hanging it up. He’s out on the road playing gigs, trying to find success, and his girlfriend is urging him to give up the dream, come home, and get a 9 to 5 job. He’s taking a gamble on making it in the music business.
The Tombstone bar might be a small gig he takes to get a little money so he can afford to head to Chicago.
The “handle” is the amount of money wagered on an event at a race track or casino. “The race handle was $2,000,000” means the facility “handled” that much money on that race.
