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Words in lyrics you had to look up

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    Words in lyrics you had to look up

    Even as an (admittedly British), middle-aged man, I couldn't confidently explain what a levee (Don Maclean, Led Zeppelin) or a bayou (Creedence, Roy Orbison) is. Don't think we had either in Greater Manchester.

    Although I'm now familiar with:

    Keds (Teenage Dirtbag)
    Stacys (Tom Traubert's Blues)

    #2
    When I was younger jambalaya (Hank Williams).

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      #3
      Pompatus.

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        #4
        Mac (Penny Lane, The Beatles)

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          #5
          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
          Mac (Penny Lane, The Beatles)
          I'd imagine the line "A four of fish and finger pies" would confuse non-British people as well. There's quite some wordplay in that sentence, as well as 60s slang.

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            #6
            REM have supplied a couple of mine over the years, including 'amanita' from 'Flowers of Guatemala' (a beautiful, disturbing song, by the way) and 'Maybelline', as in 'Maybelline eyes from girl-as-boy moves' from 'E-bow the Letter'.

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              #7
              A fuckload. This is how I learned the language. That, and The Simpsons.

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                #8
                Uptown Top Ranking (Jamaican)
                Wh'appen (Brummie)
                Cher O'Bowlies ([London]Derry)

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                  #9
                  'Colitas' from Hotel California had me confused for a few years. It's apparently a cannabis bud. (As I suppose it would be - rather than a painful inflammation of the colon.)

                  In 1980, I had to explain to a young New York g/f what 'lager' and 'crisps' were, so fascinated was she with the then-recent Splodgenessabounds hit. (A lot of US beers would've carried the word 'lager' right there on the can, but I can't imagine that too many consumers would even now bother reading it.)

                  Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                  Although I'm now familiar with:

                  Keds (Teenage Dirtbag)
                  Stacys (Tom Traubert's Blues)
                  Care to enlighten us?

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                    #10
                    I looked up what a pharmacopoeia was and who the Tupamaros were just from listening to one song by Scritti Politti back in my youth. (Boom! There She Was).

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                      #11
                      Care to enlighten us?

                      They're both shoes.

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                        #12
                        Before I moved here I never even thought about the meaning of colitas. I just assumed that it was some obscure Mexican food that hadn't made it to Britain. I only looked it up a year or two ago because I realised that I'd never seen it on a menu.

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                          #13
                          Yonks ago, I created a round of this nature for NMTB called 'Word Up' which definitely included both 'colitas' and 'pompatus'. ('Beltane' might've been another...)

                          Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                          Care to enlighten us?

                          They're both shoes.
                          Thanks. Footwear not my strong suit. As indeed it were.
                          Last edited by Jah Womble; 29-10-2018, 18:13.

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                            #14
                            Actually I remember Colitas being discussed on NMTB. Didn't they conclude it was just a made up word?

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                              #15
                              Pretty sure it was defined as a plant of some description. (If it hadn't had any kind of meaning I doubt we'd have used it.)

                              I'm away at the moment but will double-check in the NMTB book when I return.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                'Colitas' from Hotel California had me confused for a few years. It's apparently a cannabis bud. (As I suppose it would be - rather than a painful inflammation of the colon.)
                                Yes, that word is in Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds ('the girl with colitis goes by').

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                                  #17
                                  Perhaps we need a Misheard Medical Lyrics thread - there's that and of course 'keep on doing what you're doing, you're gonna get leprosy'?

                                  Perhaps we don't.

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                                    #18
                                    Havering. From I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers.

                                    I didn't look it up; rather I asked my mum's Glaswegian boss. He informed me it meant talking crap. Or pish.

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                                      #19
                                      I suppose collitas has a similar etymology to collie weed. And not caulie weed.

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