A while back I came across a second-hand book which was a dictionary of American slang words and expressions from the '20s to the '50s (taken from jazz and blues songs, pulp novels and gangster movies), words and expressions that have all gone out of fashion but which are quite interesting.
Even when that terminology was in use, back in those days, not everyone was familiar with it, which allowed some songs with drug or sex references to sneak past the censors and on the radio waves.
In 1932 the radio used to play Harlan Lattimore's Chant Of The Weed because, at the time, not many people knew what weed was. And the title of the 1926 song by Margaret Carter I Want Plenty Grease In My Frying Pan seems innocent enough, but it's actually really risqué.
(In the '60s and '70s BBC Radio used to censor songs with explicit sexual content, and yet they used to play Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed for the simple reason that the censors didn't realize what "giving head" meant.)
The meaning of some of those old expressions is pretty obvious. You don't have to be a genius to figure out what "a rocket in the pocket" or a "back seat bunny" are. (Ah, the back seat of a car. What a magical place.) But other expressions are a little more obscure.
Here I put together a few of my favourite ones, with the meaning underneath. (You can read the entry and then try to guess the meaning. Not always easy, let me tell you.)
You never know. Should you find yourself transported back to the '50s (and we know that it could happen, we've all seen Back To The Future), some knowledge of the terminology could go a long way to keep you out of trouble. And remember the golden rules: keep cool, hold your cards close to your chest, never admit anything.
Alabama lie detector
Police baton
Barbecue stool
The electric chair
Beat the gong
Smoke opium (gongs are from China, and Chinese people used to run opium dens)
California blanket
Newspaper (often used as a blanket by homeless people)
Caught in a snowstorm
Addicted to cocaine
Chicago overcoat
Coffin
Coffin nails
Cigarettes
Dead Presidents
Dollar bills
Florida honeymoon
Affair while away for the weekend
Free to run for President
Out of work, unemployed
Lower than a snake's belly
Depressed
Meadow mayonnaise
Bullshit
Memphis umbrella
A head with lots of water-resistant hair gel
Moth's chance in a nudist colony
Doomed, no chance (moth larvae can feed on silk and wool clothes)
Nose candy
Cocaine
On the Jersey side
In the wrong place (I'm guessing only New Yorkers say that)
Onion ballad
A sentimental song, a tearjerker
Panther piss
Bootleg liquor
Running a temperature
Slightly drunk
Shoot the cookies
Vomit
Skull orchard
Cemetery
Straight from the fridge
Cool
They'll pat you with a spade
You'll get yourself killed
Tijuana bible
Adult magazine
