decoding lyrics
Thomas Adams
Is there a site on the WWW that helps me decode FZ lyrics? I hear what he
says but don't get the meaning of it most of the time. :-(
--
Thomas Adams <fin...@zx2.hrz.uni-dortmund.de>
no vicTim anymore
Gary Worsham
In article <4upu2o$l...@nx2.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE>, fin...@zx2.hrz.uni-dortmund.de
says...
Maybe the nice people on this newsgroup would help you with specific examples.
I.e. "ram it up your poop chute" means to insert it into your anus.
"Girl you thought he was a man but he was a muffin" has no secret meaning.
It's just silly. Unless I missed something.
Gary W.
}8^{*
Thomas Adams
Gary Worsham (gswo...@earthlink.net) wrote:
: Maybe the nice people on this newsgroup would help you with specific examples.
Oh well, I could write hours and hours about stuff I don't understand.
: I.e. "ram it up your poop chute" means to insert it into your anus.
I thought so but thanks for the confirmation.
Ok, one example: What does he mean with "baby snakes"? A certain part of
the female anatomy? Then there's this rhyme in the song:
baby snakes - they live in a hole that is usually empty
baby snakes - they live by a code that is usually SMPTE
...
Is there really a "Society of Motion ..." or is SMPTE just there for the
rhyme or does it mean something entirely different?
Another one: Who's Freddie in "Bobby Brown"? And what about "Jewish
Princess"?
Ok, enough for today and thanks for any hint.
Edi Weitz
fin...@zx2.hrz.uni-dortmund.de (Thomas Adams) wrote:
>Is there a site on the WWW that helps me decode FZ lyrics? I hear what he
>says but don't get the meaning of it most of the time. :-(
>--
Try the "Notes and Comments"/FAQ sections of
http://www.fwi.uva.nl/~heederik/zappa/
This site is fantastic!
Edi.
Michael Dec
for Thomas Adams:
I thought a "baby snake" might be a clitoris, but in reference to the
Society of Motion Picture and Televeision Engineers this makes no sense.
To me anyway.
"Freddie" is a "dyke" = lesbian. Again, whatever.
"Jewish Princess" ...there really are such creatures, mostly in New York.
Lemme guess... you're not from the US, are you? ;-}
-
MICHAEL DEC VNL...@prodigy.com
Matthew D Lavallee
In <4us61r$7...@nx2.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE> fin...@zx2.hrz.uni-dortmund.de
(Thomas Adams) writes:
>Ok, one example: What does he mean with "baby snakes"? A certain part
of
>the female anatomy? Then there's this rhyme in the song:
>
>baby snakes - they live in a hole that is usually empty
>baby snakes - they live by a code that is usually SMPTE
>...
>
>Is there really a "Society of Motion ..." or is SMPTE just there for
>the rhyme or does it mean something entirely different?
No, no. Baby snakes (Pink an' wet) are WORMS. get it? There really is a
SMPTE, they do stuff like set industry standards and enforce them, or
something along those lines. I'm REALLY reaching here, but this could
be a song about unions, and how slimy they are.
>And what about "Jewish Princess"?
While oozing through my uncle's bookshelf, I found a book called
Looking For Mr. Goodbar. It's about this lady who goes to singles bars
and stuff, and sleeps with lots of dudes looking for "emotional
fulfillment" of some kind.
Also the "you must be a Libra" refers to the fact that Librans are
know to be "in-love-with-love," flirtatious types. A lady-friend of
mine is a Jewish, Libran, promiscuos (sic) type. Only 16. Older than me
(taller, too). What a coincidence.
-Matt-a-roo
Thomas Adams
Michael Dec (VNL...@prodigy.com) wrote:
: Society of Motion Picture and Televeision Engineers this makes no sense.
: To me anyway.
I got an email suggesting he meant the cables on a stage, but on the
other hand a different followup suggested worms. Hmm, what do I pick? :-)
: Lemme guess... you're not from the US, are you? ;-}
True, I'm from .de utschland, europe
YoYo
In article <4ut7sm$k...@dfw-ixnews9.ix.netcom.com>,
Matthew D Lavallee <matt...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>In <4us61r$7...@nx2.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE> fin...@zx2.hrz.uni-dortmund.de
>(Thomas Adams) writes:
>
>>Ok, one example: What does he mean with "baby snakes"? A certain part
>of
>>the female anatomy? Then there's this rhyme in the song:
>>
>>baby snakes - they live in a hole that is usually empty
>>baby snakes - they live by a code that is usually SMPTE
>>...
>>
>>Is there really a "Society of Motion ..." or is SMPTE just there for
>>the rhyme or does it mean something entirely different?
>
>No, no. Baby snakes (Pink an' wet) are WORMS. get it? There really is a
>SMPTE, they do stuff like set industry standards and enforce them, or
>something along those lines. I'm REALLY reaching here, but this could
>be a song about unions, and how slimy they are.
SMPTE codes are electronic timing blips that are used to sync soundtracks
up with films. Use of the synclavier would have familiarized FZ with them.
--
YoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYo yo...@io.com YoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYoYo
++---What this country needs is a cranky 17th--------------------------++
++--------century Turk with clear vision, a mean mouth,----------------++
++-------------and a really awesome scimitar. -Meg Greenfield---------++
David Demery
>Is there a site on the WWW that helps me decode FZ lyrics? I hear what he
>says but don't get the meaning of it most of the time. :-(
Point your web-browser to the following URL:
http://www.fwi.uva.nl/~heederik/zappa/faq/
Look under "Notes and Comments" and you'll find a choice of text and
HTML files that will tell you all you need to know -- and more besides,
too.
Dem
johan wikberg
Gary Worsham <gswo...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> "ram it up your poop chute" means to insert it
> into your anus.
>
> "Girl you thought he was a man but he was a muffin"
> has no secret meaning. It's just silly. Unless I
> missed something.
I remember that someone lashed out at the "Muffin Man" lyrics earlier, and I
think that was you as well, dismissing it as "nonsensically rhyming muffin
with puffin". I don't know what level to put this on - I assume you're an
English speaker and should have no problem at all "decoding" "Muffin Man" -
but since you and/or someone else obviously have a problem with it, I'll be
very basic. However, if any of you readers take offense at words like PENIS
(you're in the wrong newsgroup), I must warn you that I'll also be explicit,
since I want Gary to get it straight. (By the way, this is all
tongue-in-cheek. Very much so. So peace; no offense to anyone, and absolutely
not to Gary.)
The lyrics go like this:
[1] Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a muffin
[2] He hung around 'til you found that he didn't know 'nuffin'
[3] Girl, you thought he was a man, but he only was a-puffin'
[4] No cries is heard in the night as a result of him stuffin'
I will explain them line by line, using boy/girl terminology.
Line 1. The girl thought the boy "was a man" - that is, capable of satisfying
her sexually, preferably by means of a large penis (in good old blues
tradition). Unfortunately, he was not - rather, he was a "muffin", that is,
not at all capable of satisfying her sexually. Probably, his penis was not
that large after all (in good old blues tradition). An alternative reading is
that the penis may or may not have been large when erect, but never achieved
erection. This is a slight deviation from orthodox (good old) blues
tradition, and in my opinion less likely, but nonetheless made possible by
the inherent softness of muffins.
Line 2. The boy "hung around" until the girl found out that he did not know
anything - about how to satisfy her sexually. At this point he was in no
position to hang around any longer, since she no doubt dumped him (as indeed
she should). This may sound like he was merely inexperienced, but of course,
it is nothing else than a modified repetition of the already implicitly
established fact that his penis was not large enough (in good old blues
tradition).
Line 3. The first part repeats line 1; the second part presents the new fact
that the boy had actually led the girl to believe that he was indeed capable
of satisfying her sexually, preferably by means of a large penis (in good old
blues tradition). Unfortunately, he had only been puffing (untruthfully
boasting; breathing out empty air).
Line 4. This lovely line adds insult to injury. The cries that are not heard
are the type of cries that a girl lets out when she is being satisfied - very
satisfied - by a boy, preferably with a large penis (in good old blues
tradition). In the lyrics, this is referred to as "stuffin'": stuffing the
penis into the vagina. Strict logic tells us that there are two possible
reasons why no girl is crying now - either he does not try to satisfy anyone
sexually at all, or he tries and fails (maybe the penis enters the vagina but
is not, ehm, large enough to satisfy). Good old blues tradition dictates the
latter.
After Bongo Fury was released, as the lyrics started to find their way into
live performances of the song, Zappa wound up modifying the last bit (as
documented on Stage #6):
No cries is heard in the night as a result of him
Stuffin' it in
He shoulda been
Stuffin' it in
In my opinion, this takes some of the edge away since it veers off from good
old blues tradition. All of a sudden, all the boy would have had to do was
stuff it in (may I remind you that this means vaginal (well, or anal)
intercourse), and the girl would have cried in satisfaction. This transforms
the Muffin Man from a small (or impotent) man into merely some kind of
coward. I, for one, care less for these versions and consider them a typical
example of Zappa going soft when he cut his hair in the 1980s. :)
Finally, we must try and find reasons why people tend to consider this
concrete description to be complete nonsense. (Of course it's not "Billy the
Mountain" but what do you expect from a single quartrain?) I think it has to
do with the verb form "a-puffin'", homophonous with "a puffin": people think
Zappa name-drops an arctic bird in the middle of a sexual innuendo, as if
mentioning a muffin weren't enough. At any rate, the lyrics are not too
explicit and make use of periphrasis. This is celebrated in many literary
traditions which some readers may not be familiar with, such as lots of black
popular music dealing with sexual matters, or Old Icelandic poetry. The rule
seems always to be that the more imaginative the circumlocution, the greater
the glory of its author. Zappa's bid includes muffins and almost a puffin
too, which is kind of cool if you ask me.
(As a parenthesis: Zappa's mad scientist ravings in the spoken introduction
on Bongo Fury are quite interesting. "Some people like cupcakes better, but I
myself say there is not - nor ought there be - nothing so exulting [? - don't
have a CD player handy] on the face of God's great Earth as that prince of
foods: the muffin!" Without digging to deeply, the cup-cakes and the muff-in
could here symbolize two parts of the female anatomy, one of which is later
used to derogatorily refer to a boy who fails to satisfy a girl sexually - in
the good old blues tradition (using a large penis, that is).)
Johan
johan_...@ssco.se
As the coach said (red in the face, at the very top of his voice) in a Beavis
and Butt-Head episode when he had to fill in for the hippie teacher during
sexual instruction class:
Do you think it's funny, Beavis, when I mention the PENIS?
Do you think it's funny, Butt-Head, when I talk about the
PENIS entering the VA-GINA?
Gary Worsham
In article <4ut7sm$k...@dfw-ixnews9.ix.netcom.com>, matt...@ix.netcom.co
says...
>
>In <4us61r$7...@nx2.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE> fin...@zx2.hrz.uni-dortmund.de
>(Thomas Adams) writes:
>
>>Ok, one example: What does he mean with "baby snakes"? A certain part
>of
>>the female anatomy? Then there's this rhyme in the song:
>>
>No, no. Baby snakes (Pink an' wet) are WORMS. get it?
I'd have to disagree with you on this one. Wet and pink.
Wet and Pink. I mean this is Zappa, fer gosh sakes, on one of his "cruder"
albums ever.
It's a genitalia reference if'n ever I heard one.
But it would be difficult to prove. Also remember that FZ loved to play with
words and multiple meanings are only one example of this.
Still I can't believe this has anything to do with WORMS. That didn't happen
until "Jumbo Go Away".
Gary W.
}8^{*
Gary Worsham
In article <4uv2ks$m...@pentagon.io.com>, yo...@io.com says...
>
>SMPTE codes are electronic timing blips that are used to sync soundtracks
>up with films. Use of the synclavier would have familiarized FZ with them.
>
Actually it probably would have pre-dated the synclavier. SMPTE code also
tells you where you are on a professional video tape, such as the ones used in
the "Dub Room". I enjoy this tape since the Ampex VPR-2 shown is what I used
to worship in front of during my first year of work at Ampex.
SMPTE codes are also used for time-telling on pro tape recorders, whether or
not it's being sync'ed to anything. They have a nice feature in that they
function even when the tape is going very slow or very fast.
Technically yours,
Gary
}8^{*
Ulf Tropp
In article <103290879...@ssco.se>,
johan wikberg <johan_...@ssco.se> wrote:
| [2] He hung around 'til you found that he didn't know 'nuffin'
I always heard this as ...do nuffin' which would be congruent with:
|After Bongo Fury was released, as the lyrics started to find their way into
|live performances of the song, Zappa wound up modifying the last bit (as
|documented on Stage #6):
|
| No cries is heard in the night as a result of him
| Stuffin' it in
| He shoulda been
| Stuffin' it in
|
|In my opinion, this takes some of the edge away since it veers off from good
|old blues tradition. All of a sudden, all the boy would have had to do was
|stuff it in (may I remind you that this means vaginal (well, or anal)
|intercourse), and the girl would have cried in satisfaction. This transforms
|the Muffin Man from a small (or impotent) man into merely some kind of
|coward. I, for one, care less for these versions and consider them a typical
|example of Zappa going soft when he cut his hair in the 1980s. :)
|
Ulf Tropp, tr...@ce.chalmers.se
Matthew T. Isom
In article <4v0fur$b...@bolivia.it.earthlink.net>, gswo...@earthlink.net
(Gary Worsham) wrote:
] >No, no. Baby snakes (Pink an' wet) are WORMS. get it?
]
] I'd have to disagree with you on this one. Wet and pink.
] Wet and Pink. I mean this is Zappa, fer gosh sakes, on one of his "cruder"
] albums ever.
]
] It's a genitalia reference if'n ever I heard one.
]
] But it would be difficult to prove. Also remember that FZ loved to play with
] words and multiple meanings are only one example of this.
]
] Still I can't believe this has anything to do with WORMS. That didn't happen
] until "Jumbo Go Away".
]
] Gary W.
There's so much foreshadowing in FZ's conceptual continuity
that I don't see why Baby Snakes can't refer simultaneously to
genetalia AND worms, a psychic glimpse of things to come in
"Jumbo Go Away."
Given the concurrent discussion of SMPTE (sp?)codes, bearing
the possible implication of cables or wires, consider the (remote)
possibility that "snakes" may derive in part from the "hissing"
implicit in tape recording. Then again, never mind--It's really
early in the morning.
-- Matthew T. Isom
-- is...@mail.sdsu.edu
Matthew Isom
is...@mail.sdsu.edu
Matthew D Lavallee
In <4v0fur$b...@bolivia.it.earthlink.net> gswo...@earthlink.net (Gary
Worsham) writes:
>
>In article <4ut7sm$k...@dfw-ixnews9.ix.netcom.com>,
matt...@ix.netcom.co
>says...
>>
>>In <4us61r$7...@nx2.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE>
fin...@zx2.hrz.uni-dortmund.de
>>(Thomas Adams) writes:
>>
>>>Ok, one example: What does he mean with "baby snakes"? A certain
part
>>of
>>>the female anatomy? Then there's this rhyme in the song:
>>>
>
>
>I'd have to disagree with you on this one. Wet and pink. Wet and
>Pink. I mean this is Zappa, fer gosh sakes, on one of his "cruder"
>albums ever.
Heck, you're probably right. What do I know? I'm so miserable.
-Matt-a-roo
Grgy
In article <103290879...@ssco.se>, johan_...@ssco.se (johan
wikberg) writes in part:
>I remember that someone lashed out at the "Muffin Man" lyrics earlier,
and I
>think that was you as well, dismissing it as "nonsensically rhyming
muffin
>with puffin".
ALSO from johan's post:
>The lyrics go like this:
>
> [1] Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a muffin
> [2] He hung around 'til you found that he didn't know 'nuffin'
> [3] Girl, you thought he was a man, but he only was a-puffin'
> [4] No cries is heard in the night as a result of him stuffin'
>
The phrase a-puffin' might also be read as a 'puffin which
would be an artistic contraction of "cream puff" ( derogatory slang
for a male who is not manly)
Greg Riemer
Gary Worsham
In article <103290879...@ssco.se>, johan_...@ssco.se says...
>
- I assume you're an
>English speaker and should have no problem at all "decoding" "Muffin Man" -
>but since you and/or someone else obviously have a problem with it, I'll be
>very basic. However, if any of you readers take offense at words like PENIS
>(you're in the wrong newsgroup), I must warn you that I'll also be explicit,
>since I want Gary to get it straight. (By the way, this is all
>tongue-in-cheek. Very much so. So peace; no offense to anyone, and absolutely
>not to Gary.)
Boy, of all things, to learn "I can't even speak my own fucking laguage...."
I must tip my hat to Johan. I never had thought about it too much. Now I'll
never be able to look at or eat a muffin the same way.
Arf in all its possible intended meanings,
Gary }8^{*
Tmalchow
Hey, folks, forgive me for writing in another language to our German
friends, but here goes:
Hallo, Leute, lasst mich etwas anbieten! Ich bin in der sonderbaren Lage,
Amerikaner zu sein, der lang in Deutschland lebte und fliessend Deutsch
spricht UND am allerliebsten Zappa-Musik hoert. Ich kann mir nichts
Schoeneres vorstellen als Zappas schoene Spracherfindungen und
Slanganwendungen ins Deutsche nach Bedarf zu uebersetzen. Ich kenne leider
niemand aus Deutschland, der so sehr auf Zappa steht wie ich. Das waere
schoen. Meldet euch bitte mal. Ich werde nicht so herablassend sein wie
einige hier, die nicht begreifen, dass nicht alle Menschen auf der Welt
ihre wunderbare Muttersprache in allen nutzlosen Einzelheiten beherrschen.
Tim Malchow
johan wikberg
Greg Riemer <gr...@aol.com> writes:
> The phrase a-puffin' might also be read as a 'puffin which
> would be an artistic contraction of "cream puff" ( derogatory
> slang for a male who is not manly)
I'm interested, but somehow, I'm at a loss when it comes to dealing with this
type of extremely weird information. And do you mean he was in that case A
PUFFin, that is a cream puff, or was he PUFFing, that is being or acting like
one?
Johan
johan_...@ssco.se
Brian Zavitz
In article <1032908798...@ssco.se>, johan_...@ssco.se says...
Or maybe Zappa had a thing for seabirds?
Puffins.....,
Penguins (in bondage).......,
Or feathered creatures in general.
........Prune's not a seabird.
Call any seabird
And the chances are GOOD
Ah, that the seabird will poop on you.
--
Bri
****************************************
"You need a thneed!"
The Once-ler in "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss
****************************************
Charles Ulrich
In article <DwJK4...@emr1.NRCan.gc.ca>, bza...@fres2.glfc.forestry.ca
(Brian Zavitz) wrote:
> Or maybe Zappa had a thing for seabirds?
>
> Puffins.....,
> Penguins (in bondage).......,
> Or feathered creatures in general.
> ........Prune's not a seabird.
>
> Call any seabird
> And the chances are GOOD
> Ah, that the seabird will poop on you.
Don't forget the Aaawk.
--Charles, who spent an hour cleaning oil off the sea-gulls
(I don't think we'll be going again)
Grgy
In article <1032908798...@ssco.se>, johan_...@ssco.se (johan
wikberg) writes:
>
>Greg Riemer <gr...@aol.com> writes:
>
> > The phrase a-puffin' might also be read as a 'puffin which
> > would be an artistic contraction of "cream puff" ( derogatory
> > slang for a male who is not manly)
>
>I'm interested, but somehow, I'm at a loss when it comes to dealing with
this
>type of extremely weird information. And do you mean he was in that case
A
>PUFFin, that is a cream puff, or was he PUFFing, that is being or acting
like
>one?
>
>
Muffin man or cream puff man.... both would be a part of the larger family
of breadstuffs.
Why is the Muffin Man in the spoken intro wearing a scapular? Is he
celibate? Or is the scapular just a plain and foreshortened poncho?
Greg Riemer
jeff Guynn
In article <4vp26l$o...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, gr...@aol.com says...
"Puffing" as the original decoding person so cogently explained is the act of
building oneself up to something he isn't by exaggeration. It's a term used in
advertising. It's in the dictionary.
A Puffin is also a sort of sea bird...now try and see how you can make that fit!
(Girl, ya thought he was a man, but he only was a sea bird! Naw, I don't think so.
Jeff Guynn
Grgy
In article <4vs4et$a...@lex.zippo.com>, jcg...@most.fw.hac.com (jeff Guynn)
writes:
>
>"Puffing" as the original decoding person so cogently explained is the
act of
>building oneself up to something he isn't by exaggeration. It's a term
used
>in advertising. It's in the dictionary.
>
So this guy has presented himself as a "studmuffin" but in fact this is
just a thin shell of a disguise propped up by his smooth-talking airy
manner.
Puffin could also be "blowing smoke "... another way to hide his
shortcomings.
>A Puffin is also a sort of sea bird...now try and see how you can make
that
>fit!
How far off on a tangent do you want<g> Look at the song by way of
another slogan- You are what You Eat... I don't know, is a puffin
classified
as a type of bird known as diving?
Greg Riemer
Peter de B. Harrington
jeff Guynn wrote:
>
> In article <4vp26l$o...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, gr...@aol.com says...
> >
> >In article <1032908798...@ssco.se>, johan_...@ssco.se (johan
> >wikberg) writes:
> >
> >>
> >>Greg Riemer <gr...@aol.com> writes:
> >>
> >> > The phrase a-puffin' might also be read as a 'puffin which
> >> > would be an artistic contraction of "cream puff" ( derogatory
> >> > slang for a male who is not manly)
> >>
> >>I'm interested, but somehow, I'm at a loss when it comes to dealing with
> >this
> >>type of extremely weird information. And do you mean he was in that case
> >A
> >>PUFFin, that is a cream puff, or was he PUFFing, that is being or acting
> >like
> >>one?
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Muffin man or cream puff man.... both would be a part of the larger family
> >of breadstuffs.
> > Why is the Muffin Man in the spoken intro wearing a scapular? Is he
> >celibate? Or is the scapular just a plain and foreshortened poncho?
> >
> > Greg Riemer
>
> building oneself up to something he isn't by exaggeration. It's a term used in
> advertising. It's in the dictionary.
>
>
>
> Jeff Guynn
I could be wrong on this due to false memory syndrome, but in
Lonesome Cowboy Swaggart (TBBYNHIYL) isn't he puffin' to
obtain/maintain his erection. Another, case for multiple-entendre
behaviorims.
Pete
johan wikberg
<har...@helios.phy.ohiou.edu> writes:
> I could be wrong on this due to false memory syndrome, but in
> Lonesome Cowboy Swaggart (TBBYNHIYL) isn't he puffin' to
> obtain/maintain his erection. Another, case for multiple-entendre
> behaviorims.
Yes, how does it go? "I cough and I puff, and I pump up my sanctified
erection"? For some reason, this has always reminded me of the Big Bad Wolf
in the Three Little Pigs (Disney version).
Johan
johan_...@ssco.se
Charles Ulrich
It's "huff", not "cough", for both Lonesome Cowboy Jim & the Big Bad Wolf.
I think the allusion must have been intended. Congratulations for catching
it.
--Charles
RedZone1
I believe Frank was refering to the act of smoking the ganga.