old lang guy's definitions
Also songs used when people needed to work in rhythm. Many are familiar folk songs. Like
--sea chanteys where the lead singer's solo line would get everyone set, and then they'd all sing (and therefore exhale) when they put out their effort pulling on a line.
-- field hollers that were used to keep lines hoeing a field up with each other. (And field hollers, speeded up and with some rhythm and some guitar added, might have been one of the origins of the blues, and thus of most American popular music since 1920)
-- capstan chanteys that kept people pretty much walking in the same rhythm while they turned giant cranks.
Very often work songs were subversive, making fun of the boss, complaining about the conditions, and sometimes carrying instructions for prison breaks, union organizing, or the Underground Railroad.
--sea chanteys where the lead singer's solo line would get everyone set, and then they'd all sing (and therefore exhale) when they put out their effort pulling on a line.
-- field hollers that were used to keep lines hoeing a field up with each other. (And field hollers, speeded up and with some rhythm and some guitar added, might have been one of the origins of the blues, and thus of most American popular music since 1920)
-- capstan chanteys that kept people pretty much walking in the same rhythm while they turned giant cranks.
Very often work songs were subversive, making fun of the boss, complaining about the conditions, and sometimes carrying instructions for prison breaks, union organizing, or the Underground Railroad.
Work songs examples:
Sea chantey,
Leader (while the end man belays, and everyone walks up the line and gets a grip): Reuben was no sailor ...
Crew (Singing while they pull the line back): Ranzo, boys ranzo!
(later in the song it turns out Reuben is now the captain ...)
Field holler ...
Leader: (while the crew picks up their hammers, stretches, and gets ready to swing): When Israel was in Egypt land ...
Crew (hitting on the drills on let, peop, and go): LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Capstan chantey, used to turn the winch to move the locks on the canal ...
Leader (while crew breathe and get set): I got a mule, her name is Sal ...
Crew (Walking forward, pushing on the capstan bars): FIFTEEN MILES ON THE ERIE CANAL!
Sea chantey,
Leader (while the end man belays, and everyone walks up the line and gets a grip): Reuben was no sailor ...
Crew (Singing while they pull the line back): Ranzo, boys ranzo!
(later in the song it turns out Reuben is now the captain ...)
Field holler ...
Leader: (while the crew picks up their hammers, stretches, and gets ready to swing): When Israel was in Egypt land ...
Crew (hitting on the drills on let, peop, and go): LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Capstan chantey, used to turn the winch to move the locks on the canal ...
Leader (while crew breathe and get set): I got a mule, her name is Sal ...
Crew (Walking forward, pushing on the capstan bars): FIFTEEN MILES ON THE ERIE CANAL!
by old lang guy July 14, 2008
Get the Work Songs mug.Jeans so low cut that some pubic hair curls over the belt buckle; thought to be daring and sexy by a certain kind of younger woman.
by old lang guy October 17, 2006
Get the pube jeans mug.A pair of shorts so short (esp. in the crotch) that it's physically possible to have intercourse with a woman wearing them without having to pull them down.
See any Girls Gone Wild video for plenty of girls in tugovers!
We were making out and I got two fingers around one side of her tugovers.
We were making out and I got two fingers around one side of her tugovers.
by old lang guy August 27, 2010
Get the tugovers mug.Any exceptionally stupid or illiterate phrase found in a pop song. Particularly if it's then defended or expounded upon in various "meanings of lyrics" sites or in fan writing. A lot of pop stars were so totally created by parents/managers/agents/etc. that they went straight from a suburban bedroom to the celeb suites without having read a book or talked to a real person on the way, getting all their alleged education from other pop songs and tv.
The words "fork stuck in the road" originally occurred in a Green Day song, and in a later interview (urban legend has it) the songwriter came up with a long story about how people on journeys would stick a dinner fork into the road to show they'd been there or some such -- apparently being unaware that a dinner fork was originally a "forked spoon", i.e. one that split, the way a forked stick or a forked road splits, and that a "fork in the road" is a place where you make a decision, not a milestone or boundary marker. (I can find no evidence that any such interview occurred, but it seems to be widely believed in).
The words "fork stuck in the road" originally occurred in a Green Day song, and in a later interview (urban legend has it) the songwriter came up with a long story about how people on journeys would stick a dinner fork into the road to show they'd been there or some such -- apparently being unaware that a dinner fork was originally a "forked spoon", i.e. one that split, the way a forked stick or a forked road splits, and that a "fork in the road" is a place where you make a decision, not a milestone or boundary marker. (I can find no evidence that any such interview occurred, but it seems to be widely believed in).
"Hey, somebody should tell Alanis that every time you hear the rolling thunder, it means the lightning already missed you. And read her a definition of ironic."
"That's like so unfair! She was saying that like, he runs away when there's no reason to! And she was making fun of the way people use the word ironic wrong!"
"Naw, it was just another fork stuck in the road. She's the fork stuck in the road goddess."
"That's like so unfair! She was saying that like, he runs away when there's no reason to! And she was making fun of the way people use the word ironic wrong!"
"Naw, it was just another fork stuck in the road. She's the fork stuck in the road goddess."
by old lang guy September 17, 2008
Get the fork stuck in the road mug.I was too broke for the plane anyway, and didn't want to have to mail all my gear to myself, so I took the Hound.
by old lang guy June 22, 2012
Get the The Hound mug.1: Double useless, something with no point at all. Comes off of "tits on" any male mammal, since males don't nurse the young; chickens of course don't nurse their young at all, so tits would be especially useless on a rooster.
2: derogatory for tiny or very small breasts
2: derogatory for tiny or very small breasts
He's not even tits on a boar, at best he's tits on a rooster.
So we had it about worked out when Tits on a Rooster finally showed up, and it all had to have his input.
She's got about the same tits God gave a rooster.
So we had it about worked out when Tits on a Rooster finally showed up, and it all had to have his input.
She's got about the same tits God gave a rooster.
by old lang guy October 29, 2006
Get the tits on a rooster mug.A misunderstanding of the old scientist/techie joke that a millihelen is the amount of beauty needed to launch one ship. Milli- is the international scientific prefix for 1/1000. Most international units are named after someone -- watt for power, newton for force, ampere for current, and so on. Scientists, techs, and gears who work with those prefixes all the time often attach them to all sorts of made-up units. So a megahelen would be the beauty of a face that launched a billion ships (one million times one thousand) and a nanohelen would be the face that launched one millionth of a ship (one billionth times one thousand). Millihelen worked better a few decades ago when newspapers and TV news often carried stories about ship launchings, because usually the woman christening the ship launch was a First Lady, the Queen, or some senator or lord's wife (what nowadays we call a first wife, the one before the trophy wife), and thus a lizardy old bag that was only sort of recognizably female.
"That one's a mini-Helen."
"Unless she's a real cute midget, you mean she's got about a millihelen. Go back to chemistry class and stop getting your science from Star Trek reruns!"
"Unless she's a real cute midget, you mean she's got about a millihelen. Go back to chemistry class and stop getting your science from Star Trek reruns!"
by old lang guy September 8, 2006
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