The last lines about the borderline and going for broke suggest to me that he is NOT going home, and is ignoring the summons from his girlfriend – instead he is doubling down on his debauchery.
I can’t advance the answer anymore than it has already, but just to add a personal observation: I heard the song many times before I saw the title. I thought it was the “Lido Shovel.”
Pop songs are more about conveying emotional messages than literal ones. Some lines really don’t mean anything in particular. And as for inside jokes, the audience is usually not expected to find out the “secret meaning.” Songwriters and composers write different songs for different reasons, but conveying explicit messages is not the most common one.
I’m not sure I belie ve this. Frequently there IS an intended obvious meaning – if you can make out the damned words, and the subject isn’t obscure. If that weren’t the case, people wouldn’t have any reason to be annoyed at others for thinking “Every Breath You Take” is some sort of love song, instead of being a stalkerish fantasy.
I don’t think I expressed myself clearly. I don’t mean to say that there isn’t often an intended, obvious meaning, but that it isn’t always dependent on the exact words used. Lyrics in a pop song are more expressionistic tools rather than literal ones. Yes, they might convey a specific meaning or a general feeling, but examining them word-by-word and trying to understand the exact meaning of each line and each word in that line is not usually the key to understanding the message.
No, I understood yopu. But you can’t deny that the literal words actually mean something and are agents in expressing that meaning. Certainly others on this Board feel that way. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have as many threads about what lyrics mean and how ignorant people are about them on these Boards. And we’ve had plenty of those threads.
I agree with this - and to use your example from earlier - Jumping Jack Flash. You can find the lyrics on line easily these days - I had to suss them out on my own back in the day. But anyway, the basic gist of the song was “I was down, but now everything’s cool” - and the verses are Mick using different ways to express how down he was - I was drowned, I was washed up left for dead - and the chorus always comes back to “but it’s all right now - in fact it’s a gas.” I always have assumed that the narrator of the song has gotten high or something - so their troubles aren’t gone, but at least they are all right now - so Jumping Jack Flash to me was a reference to getting high on something so life would be a gas…
FYI - He used the exact same approach for a song called You Got Me Rockin’ off one of their more recent albums. He uses the verses to describe how bad it has been, but now things are better because…well, You Got Me Rockin’…
The point being that there IS some meaning to that particular song…but most folks just dig the groove of it…
It seems like some artists are more prone to this expressionism than others. Remembering the oldies, Stevie Nicks and Elton John were (are?) both particularly prone to the practice.
First I think the era the song refers to is 40’s & 50’s not contemporary
Lido missed the boat that day he left the shack
(left home/ small town)
But that was all he missed and he ain’t comin’ back
**(no regrets in leaving) **
A tombstone bar in a jukejoint car, he made a stop
(unclear - a dive bar of some kind, possibly a bar in a railroad car - these were very popular in the 30’s - 50’s)
Just long enough to grab a handle off the top
(he won some money gambling at cards)
Next stop Chi town, Lido put the money down and let it roll
(he’s using the bar winnings to bankroll his action in the big city)
He said one more job ought to get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it
One more for the road
**(all refer to taking one last shot at whatever his gambling/con/hustle speciality is) **
Lido be runnin’, havin’ great big fun, until he got the note
Sayin’ toe the line or blow, and that was all she wrote
He be makin’ like a beeline, headin’ for the borderline
Goin’ for broke
(“All she wrote” is not referring to a woman but is simply an idiomatic phrase that means “that’s it” - he got some sort of warning from the underworld/gangster associated club owners/powers that be to cool it or else, so he’s moving on to the next opportunity)
Sayin’ one more hit ought to do it
This joint ain’t nothin’ to it
One more for the road
**(he’s done in Chicago time to move on) **
Thank you. I read the lyrics and the song started in my head, but I could swear that the written lyrics are not the ones I know to that song. Trouble is, I can’t dredge up “my” lyrics.
I do recall, “making for a beeline, going for broke”.
Maybe this song is up there with Louie, Louie for inarticulateness. And I don’t know the backstory on “Daniel”. I know the backstory on “Someone Save My Life Tonight” and “Empty Garden”. 
Oh! <raises hand>
The tombstone bar = the bar is empty, probably rundown and skanky.
Jukejoint car–some kind of old beater, but with some panache.
But I never heard any of the above in the song when it was popular. 
This helps explain why it’s called Lido “Shuffle.” Maybe it’s a reference to his lifestyle, shuffling around the country/world looking for more action. I think he’s a gambler too, also because of the word shuffle.
I think it has multiple meanings, like those above but also he’s calling a song and/or dance a “shuffle.” There are others like swing, twist…this one’s a shuffle. I can’t find a cite; always thought it was slang.
ETA hate to bring it up b/c it was heinous, but remember the Bears “Superbowl shuffle”?
ETA 2: Harlem Shuffle dates from 1963
But shuffle goes with the gambling theme and the song is too fast for anyone to shuffle to, unless they are so wasted that’s all they can do…
I remember the super bowl shuffle. And my dad used to sing “shuffle off to Buffalo”.
I’m old.
Old… nah… I just think you’re here looking for trouble.
“I’m just here struttin’ for fun, struttin’ on down for everyone!”
In music, a swung note or shuffle note is a rhythmic device in which the duration of the initial note in a pair is augmented and that of the second is diminished. Also known as “notes inégales”, swung notes are widely used in jazz music and other jazz-influenced music such as blues and Western swing. A swing or shuffle rhythm is the rhythm produced by playing repeated pairs of notes in this way. Lilting can refer to swinging, but might also indicate syncopation or other subtle ways of interpreting and shaping musical time.
Like so many things, it’s hard to differentiate one genre from the other; it doesn’t strictly have to be danceable to be shuffle, I think. I’m imagining dancing to it; I think it would have that jerky kind of feel to it.
In the swing era, swing meant accented triplets (shuffle rhythm), suitable for dancing. With the development of bebop and later jazz styles independent of dancing, the term was used for far more general timings. There is much debate over use of other ratios than 2:1 in swing rhythms.
Hmmmm… that gives the phrase, “shuffle off this mortal coil” a whole new subtext.
astro’s explanation seems logical and consistent, and has the ring of plausibility to it. I agre with his interpretation that “that was all she wrote” being idiomatic, and not reffering to any particular lady (and I said so in post #15), and I’m surprised at how many people take that literally. The rest makes sense, and my only quibble is that the reference to “headin’ for the borderline” makes it sound as if Lido’s reasons for leaving sound pretty serious – or is that a normal circa 1930’s-50’s way of saying your leaving town?
Still unanswered:
1.) What kind of name is “Lido”? I’ve never heard it as a name, and all I can think of is “Lido de Paris”. Or maybe the head of Houise Atreides, misspelled. Neither seems appropriate.
2.) Not relevant to this song, but from my OP:
I will never be able to enjoy listening to this song again.
Lee Iacocca’s given name is Lido.