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"Getting away with it, all messed up" BrE expression?

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Gus

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Aug 11, 2014, 7:59:03 PM8/11/14
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The band James released a song with the lyric "Getting away with it, all
messed up... That's the living" and I've always wondered what the line
means. Is it an expression in BrE?

Big White is one mine and my gf's favorite movies. And they play the
song it in it... And Robin Williams was in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g1WPXCZ2kA

Peter Duncanson [BrE]

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Aug 12, 2014, 5:21:54 AM8/12/14
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On Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:59:03 -0400, "Gus" <gus.o...@gmail.com> wrote:

>The band James released a song with the lyric "Getting away with it, all
>messed up... That's the living" and I've always wondered what the line
>means. Is it an expression in BrE?
>
The whole line is not an expression in BrE.

"getting away with it" and "all messed up" are standard colloquial
English phrases.

There is a discussion about the meaning of the lyrics here:
http://wearejames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7041




>Big White is one mine and my gf's favorite movies. And they play the
>song it in it... And Robin Williams was in it.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g1WPXCZ2kA

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

Robert Bannister

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Aug 12, 2014, 7:32:21 PM8/12/14
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Interesting. It is "That's the living" that I don't understand.
--
Robert Bannister - 1940-71 SE England
1972-now W Australia

Gus

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Sep 21, 2014, 10:17:32 PM9/21/14
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On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 5:21:54 AM UTC-4, PeterWD wrote:

> There is a discussion about the meaning of the lyrics here:
> http://wearejames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7041

> Peter Duncanson, UK
> (in alt.usage.english)


Thank You. Interesting thread on that board. Someone mentions a mag that has an interview and TB says:

"There's a story in there of a guy called Daniel saving a woman called Grace from drowning but he doesn't realise that in saving her he's really saving himself."
http://www.moredarkthanshark.org/eno_int_dot-jun01.html

I need to listen to the song again. I really like that "album"-- listening to it is a pleasant way to fall asleep and wake up.
Message has been deleted

Anton Shepelev

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Sep 24, 2014, 4:51:15 PM9/24/14
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Gus:
I understood the meaning of "to get away with" a
very long time ago, when I was still on dial-up and
downloading mp3's from a P2P network called eDonkey.
Eden Kane's "Well, I Ask You" was among them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh9zHzx9QE4

I'd define the phrase as "avoid punishment or nega-
tive consequences of something you have done."

--
() ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail
/\ http://preview.tinyurl.com/qcy6mjc [archived]
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