gordonzola | A fluffy entry about music and my youth

While listening to my iTunes on shuffle, I was reminded of how many songs I misinterpreted before I was acquainted with English slang. Partly because my obsession with English music was in my pre-early teen years I made up explanations that really, in the end, made no sense at all.

For example, The Specials "Too Much too Young", a pro-contraception song, had the mysterious ending lyrics of "Keep a generation gap / Try wearing a cap!" I know those English winters were cold, but was wearing, as I imagined, a wool hat actually going to keep people from having sex? Was there a big problem of people just fucking to keep warm? The adult world was so mysterious.

That it was referring to cervical caps, contraception not available in the States at that time, made it extra obscure. Now it’s more of a quaint look back at the pre-AIDS world.

The classic English-ism, misinterpreted by generations of political punks was, of course, the end of "Anarchy in the UK". Hearing "Get pissed! Destroy!" as an American was a call to arms. Understand who is oppressing you and rise up against them! Get angry at this fucked-up society and take action!

It was disheartening to discover the message of Get drunk! Break stuff! later in life.

Anyone else have some to share? Misinterpretations, not mis-hearings.

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this entry was pretty fantastic. not music related but movie: dirty dancing was a movie just about dancing until i was about seventeen & it hit me that is was a little bit more. i was shocked. i might still be.

:)

The Canadians use that one too. There was much confusion when i was in high school, hanging out with Cananda Ken, and he said "Im fuckin pissed!"

Silence... "what are you pissed at, ken?"
"!!! I'm pissed... at the beer?!"
"What you dont like american beer?"
"I dont care, it gets me pissed." and so on...

It was like "who's on first," only Canadian

so would that be fifth and sixth grade?

i remember not getting the abortion parts, too. i thought "why is the dad so mad that the girl has the flu?"

not to do with music, but i often forget to say trousers instead of pants. emma has learned to interpret me, but i often get strange looks when speaking publicly of pants as they assume i am talking about my underwear. it's obviously infiltrated my thinking too -- when i was searching for new trousers on american ebay today, i was aghast at all the 'pants' staring back at me.

yeah exactly. plus, the whole class structure & the "hired help" jokes. it made no sense to me when i first watched it & i used to watch it all the time. i was like "patrick swayze is so hot, why don't they like him". sadly, i really did think that.

I meant like 10. 11, 12, 13. Pre and early teen years. 6-9th grade i guess.

that's great. You should immediately incorporate that into your country-swing band's act and tour Canada.

I remember thinking the same about "Anarchy in the UK" My pre-teen punk mind made up all sorts of lyrics for that record, anyway. Also, the song right before it, "Seventeen" had the lyric "I'm a lazy sod" and I had no idea what the hell that meant for the longest time either.

We were just discussing that. Did you know that since NAFTA, musicians have to pay a $400 entrance fee if they're gigging in Cananda? What type of shit is that? Why dont they hit up the doctors and lawyers for being "too rich" instead. Man.

I was utterly confused by "I would ramble all through time and space/Just to have a butcher's at your face" (Kingdom Of Love) Robyn just didn't seem like the axe-swingin' type, and it didn't go with the song.

I was going to do a bunch of outdoorsy stuff in Wales so I went to buy some waterproof pants at a sporty store. The woman was very confused until I corrected myself and asked for waterproof trousers. I still have them, but I'm now too fat to get them past my knees.

Actually, I believe that cap = condom. The French call them "une capote anglaise," meaning "English hat" and I can't remember if the courtesy extends the other way across the Channel. Or Chunnel. As it were.

that was my second interpretation after I realized the hat thing was wrong. But Brits told me cervical cap not condoms. I could still be wrong, I'd admit it. it's not my slang.

This reminds me of the suprising numbers of folks I"ve talked to who don't believe that those chicks in Fried Green Tomatoes were dykes. Of course, the dykeness was pretty veiled in the movie version.

oh yeah, plus the song is directed at the woman because birth control is obviously 100% her responsibility as she's the one who's done "too much too young".

awwwwwwww.

I love your new icon, btw.

God we were just talking about this the other day, they were playing all these 80s songs, and I remember being confused by them. The only one that comes to mind right now it "wake me up" by wham...I couldn't figure out why he would need to be woken up (must be morning) to be taken dancing _tonight_
I was not familiar with the "disco nap" at that point....

A-ha. I stand (or sit) corrected.

Wow. For the past like 20 years I have thought of those Specials lyrics as "try wearing a hat" (i.e. condom). You learn something new every day.

You know, I still don't quite know what "shock the monkey" means. I seem to recall all these people back in the '80s going on about how it was code for some unmentionable act. Maybe I misheard that and it doesn't mean anything?

The whole "bollocks" thing went over my head. I didn't know what a bollock was, so I looked it up in the dictionary.

BOLLOCK - Alternate spelling of BULLOCK; A young, castrated bull.

Wha??? Why are English people so mad at cows?

I think that song is about being sentient, about control over our most animalistic behavior.

Shock the monkey, as in "monkey on your back", you've got a habit you need to feed. Push the button get the pellet push the button get the pellet push the button.....The monkey inside you expects to get the pellet. It's what feels good, and also what is easiest. The monkey would be shocked if you exercised self control (humanistic behavior) and didn't push the button.

...or something.

Hm! Interesting. I just did a web search to see if anyone out there had defined the term since I last thought about it. Supposedly, Peter Gabriel has said that the song is about jealousy.

But other folks contend that it's about masturbation, which sort of fits into your argument ("animalistic behavior" vs sentience; "exercising self control" vs. "pushing the button"). In other words, the song is about being the master of ones own domain, to use Seinfeld terminology.

But who really knows?

Bollocks = testicles. ("That's the dog's bollocks.")

Er... yeah.

Not sure what that's supposed to mean, but the dog's testicles are apparently a good thing.

Well I don't know that its supposed to be a good thing.. I always heard it used to mean lies. Like 'that's bollocks, you don't know what you're talking about!'

No, it doesn't mean condom.

Correct, but confusingly "the dog's bollocks" is still a term for something exemplary. It's a bit like "wicked", or "baaad" - sometimes it's one thing, sometimes it's the opposite. Language is fun, eh?

A fluffy entry about music and my youth

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"pissed"

"pre-early teen years"

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Re: "pre-early teen years"

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Funny you should mention

Before I learned about rhyming slang

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A UK resident speaks

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