Entertainment For Lively Minds
Family sayings from albums
Posted by adze thuggery on 10 December 2008 - 5:06pm.
We have lots of family sayings based on things family members said ('no hold the bum'), TV sitcoms ('I've got a slug'), books ('any fule kno'), etc, but we also have some from music sources. Particular favourites include 'just the name of the shop', 'it's a long time to be with a man, ain't it?' and 'how do you get your water so dark?'. Can you identify the origin of these? And, more interestingly, do you have any similar music-based family sayings?
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A colleague once arrived late to a meeting...
...with the excuse "Sorry I'm late, the highway was full of broken heroes on a last chance power drive"
if i recall correctly...
i think Silvio delivers that line in an episode of the Sopranos. I've not seen it; i've read about it elsewhere.
Christopher says it
and Tony gives him a look that would kill a small child.
“It’s only castles burning”
(Neil Young – Don’t Let it Bring You Down)
Co-opted by me and my friend Heinz as a catch-all expression of solidarity and commiseration. Used in the aftermath of any disaster, from a spilled drink to the diagnosis of a life threatening medical condition.
Beatles Christmas Album
My other half has a vinyl album with all of the old Beatles Christmas fan club recordings on it. This has provided us with a hefty store of festive bon mot to chuck around such as 'Who's dropping that?', 'Wonderful cheese, Agnes', 'Candles, matches and buns', and 'The next one's gonna be in colour. Green.'
Those winter nights round our house just fly by, let me tell you.
It's alright
Whenever a friend said this phrase his flatmate would always (and I mean bloody always) reply "Ma, I'm only bleeding".
Confused
Oh yes, I recognise the call and response type. When a bit bemused, as I often am, I moan 'Dazed and confused for so long it's not true', to which my good lady always responds 'Wanted a woman, never bargained for you'. So it goes.
P.E.
I often quote certain lines from Public Enemy songs. Once, at the end of a long day of teaching, I remember muttering, "I got so much trouble on my mind".
"Refuse to lose", the cleaner pitched in (part-time DJ), rinsing out his mop.
(Sorry, just remembered you're looking for family-based stuff).
More of the call-and-response style sayings here:
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/whats-my-line
e.g.
"We're on our way..."
"...We are Ron's twenty-two".
Ah! An old topic. Maybe this time, Nick
more, indeed, than any other time ... we’ll get it right.
Sponge and a rusty spanner
Ever since 1987, any time a member of my family is called upon to list objects (eg. the contents of their bag) they tend to include "a sponge and a rusty spanner". This includes my mum and dad who are in their late 60s and probably have no idea from whence the phrase originates.
"What d'you think about that?"
"Well, you know how I feel".
"...And John Wayne"
That's what is said in my family whenever my brother or I says something the other doesn't like. It means "F$%k you!"
It comes from the Public Enemy song Fight the Power which goes
"Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me,
Straight out racist the sucker was simple and plain,
motherf$%k him and John Wayne."
Somehow it morphed from " f$%K him to "f$%k you."
Also
This isn't from a song but is music related. If anyone makes a prediction that sounds short-sighted we tend to quote the man from Decca as he knocked back The Beatles, "Guitar groups are on the way out."
Monorail!
Your excellent "Guitar groups are on the way out" remark reminds me of another similar one I heard.
Danny Kelly was on the radio in a discussion about yet another dubious plan by a football club to fleece their fans of their last coppers. Kelly quietly sang "Monorail! Monorail!"
Simpsons fans will get the reference. I've used it occasionally myself.
What's the time?
Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast.
Many a blank look greets that witty riposte, I can tell you.
Doesn't stop me, sadly, being a line I have ever bitterly rued, believing to this day that it is/was my failure to spot the reference when said phrase was bounced back to me, on asking the sentence in question of a friend. I had met him at Glastonbury 94 (or possibly 93) and we were trying to arrange a meet up later on after he had put up his tent. He didn't shoe. (Hi, James, if you're reading this)My failure to immediately identify Dylan I have since seen as his rationale for spurning me, failing his test to see whether I was still as committed to the movement as I had been when we last met. This blog and all my contributions remain my penance......
As a nod to Tears Of Rage...
...I no longer say "Life is short", but "Life is brief".
My brother...
...went skiing once and his group were chatting to the ski instructor about his origins. "Are you from around here?" they asked. The instructor gestured down the mountain and nodded, with Springsteenian lyricism, "I come from down in the valley..."