some questions on FZ's lyrics

[Bálint]

Greetings to the Zappoid Community of the World.
I opened this stuff to ask you some questions mostly about the lyrics of the songs, or other text-oriented material. I read FZlyrics' "notes and comments" regularly, but there are still questions remaining, mostly because I'm not an english-born guy, and sometimes I might not understand things here and there.
I also started to translate some of the songs, what is real fun to do, but it REALLY brings some more questions in mind.

The first ones:

Charlie's enormous mouse
It's clear that Charlie is a girl. Who is she, why is this song about her? Is she a real or close-to-real figure?

Advance Romance:
Opened three of his eyes in the food-stamp lineI think I (think I) understand it, but what's this stuff with the 3 and more eyes? Does it mean he watched REALLY carefully, or what? Or is it some kind of expression with the three eyes and the foodstamp something?

OK, that's it, for the moment, as a warm-up, hopefully later I'll add some more questions. Thanks:

B

[Barry]

Charlie's enormous mouse
It's clear that Charlie is a girl. Who is she, why is this song about her? Is she a real or close-to-real figure?

from arf.ru:
From: Arthur Barrow <bigear@netcom.com>                          
 ... "Charlie's Enormous..." was originally "Carlie's...", as  in Simon,  but FZ was afraid he might get sued."
Kinda gives whole new meaning to the song doesn't it?              

Advance Romance, hmmm, I'm still lookin' into that one... Stay tuned! :-)

[Studio Tan]

It's 'Charlie's enormous mouth' isn't it?

Actually translating Charlie's mouse to swedish is quite funny when you consider that mouse is slang for what you called pussy in english  

[Bálint]

Hehe, of course, I wasn't careful enough... :-)

[Bálint]

Oh, I see, I left the letter "S" from the title (questions), and that "S" might attacked the word mouth, because he also wanted to be a part of the show. I think. But where can my "th" be than?...

[Bálint]

I have some more questions, so here are they:

Baby take your teeth out:
Go ahead and eat the label” – what kind of label?

Titties and Beer:
What’sthe end of the song? Where does the girl come back from, and (the main thing): what does she says? And why? What does it mean?

She said "I got me three beers and a fistful of downs (is it drogs?)
and I'm gonna get ripped, so fuck, you clowns!"
Then she gave us the finger, it was rigid and stiff
That's when the devil, he farted
and she went right over the cliff! (why? She just went away, or what?)

The devil was mad, I took off to my pad
I swear I do declare, how did she get back there? (where? With the devil? Or what?

*

These are my silly questions for today - and the earlier ones are living questions, too..

Thanks.

B

[Wannabeard]

She said "I got me three beers and a fistful of downs (is it drogs?)
and I'm gonna get ripped, so fuck, you clowns!"
Then she gave us the finger, it was rigid and stiff
That's when the devil, he farted
and she went right over the cliff! (why? She just went away, or what?)

I think, as they are on a "mountain of mystery", there would be a cliff to fall from, and as a result of the devil farting, she is pushed over the cliff by the pressure from the gas coming from the devils rectum.
And I think that downs are some kind of drugs, so she are going to get ripped, real fucked up as a result of the drugs and alchohol.

The devil was mad, I took off to my pad
I swear I do declare, how did she get back there? (where? With the devil? Or what?

As I see it the narrator takes off back to his bed or appartment, and when he arrives, his Crissy is already there, and therefore, the question on how she got there "how did she get back there"  , as she went "right over the cliff".

That's the way I see the song anyway.

Wannabeard

[guacamole]

"opened three of his eyes....."

The subject of the song is "Potato Headed Bobby was a friend of mine......."

The little black indented marks on potatoes are known as "eyes" therefore you can have many of them on a single potato.

As for the "Titties and Beer" scenario, I tend to think that "Motorcycle man" is so ripped on his cocktail of drugs and alcohol that he either dreams or hallucinates the whole thing.

[Noolie]

yep I agree but, the devil speaks of Milhouse Nixon and Agnew too as being bad suckers...who are they?

[guacamole]

Richard Milhouse Nixon, also known as Tricky Dickie (the very same as in "Dickie's Such An Asshole")
President of The United States following Lyndon Baines Johnson and preceding Gerald Ford.

Spiro Agnew was Secretary of State or some such thing in the same administration - I'm not an American so I can't be absolutely certain about that.
( Hopefully our American KURsters know their history better than I do ).

[SOFA]

Spiro Agnew was Secretary of State or some such thing in the same administration - I'm not an American so I can't be absolutely certain about that.
( Hopefully our American KURsters know their history better than I do ).

Spiro T. Agnew was Richard Milhouse Nixon's Vice President. Spiro was supposed to help Dickie distract the young voters from Bobby Kennedy (until he was killed). And it's really tough to say which one of those was the worst sucker.
For all of Nixon's faults: paranoid, power hungry, ego-maniac, liar, he wasn't a thief. Spiro handled the thief end quite well. His political career was ruined by tax evasion, and questionable deals with powerful conglomerates.
I would assess that Nixon and Agnew combined couldn't hold a candle to Ronald Reagan...

And I think that downs are some kind of drugs, so she are going to get ripped, real fucked up as a result of the drugs and alchohol.

Downs are "downers", or depressants; the most popular of the era were called "reds".
There's more drug references in the song that didn't make the ZINY release: "We had 20 reds and a big ol' pile o' weed. You know we drank some wine and then we LSD'ed".
I go with guac, who said that the "motorcycle man" hallucinated (or dreamt) the entire episode...

[Lonesome Cowboy Squirt]

Advance Romance:
Opened three of his eyes in the food-stamp line...


Hi, folks.  I just wanted to add a little to Guacamole's explanation about the spud and his numerous optical receptors.

Yes, there is a play on words here with "Potato-Headed Bobby" and his "eyes."  Another thing to consider in the context of this song is Bobby's nature.  This guy falls for almost any good-looking girl:  "...they said she might be a devil, but she sure was fine."

When Bobby opens three, then four, then five of his eyes in the food-stamp line, he is ogling at this particular woman.  She's so hot, he can't help but keep looking at her.  The guy's a lecher, but his practices seem to actually get him results:  "half an hour later she had frenched his fry."  Yes, yet another pun for your potato-mythology!

By the way, for those not familiar with the U.S. welfare system:  the food-stamp line was designed to keep people from going hungry.  If you're unemployed and have no money, you can wait in line for an ungodly long time and collect food stamps.  These stamps can be used in lieu of money at certain supermarkets or grocery stores in order to purchase the basic necessites - food.  Nope, alcohol doesn't count as a necessity.  At the beginning of Advance Romance we hear the lament, "no more credit from the liquor store."

By the way, I don't know if the food-stamp system is still active at all.  It's been a long time since I was back in the States.

[Bálint]

Hey, guys, thanks for the answers!!!

One comment, on Lonesome Cowboys words:
I think Advance Romance is about Bobby and one particular girl, who seemed to rob George Duke also, and that's why the others warn him: "She might be the devil!"

Yes, that potato-poetry is great, impossible to translate...

*

So, here's a new question, and I think I'll copy the "still mysterious" ones:

from You Are What You Is album:
"There are three things that smell like fish..."

Baby take your teeth out:
Go ahead and eat the label” – what kind of label?

Charlie's enormous mouth
It's clear that Charlie is a girl. Who is she, why is this song about her? WHO IS SIMON? :-)

Thanks in advance!!

B

[Barry]

Charlie's enormous mouth
It's clear that Charlie is a girl. Who is she, why is this song about her? WHO IS SIMON? :-)

Ever heard of Carly "You're So Vain" Simon?

[guacamole]

"there are three things that smell like fish...."

well, as the song says - "one of them is fish....and the other two.......are growing on you !"

How can I be delicate about this ?

unfortunately, bacteria like warm and damp places to multiply - one such place could be a sexually active young lady's pudenda especially when she is not very observant of her personal hygiene ( i.e.
"Don't You Ever Wash That Thing ?") the resultant odour could be said to resemble the smell of fish unfit for human consumption.

Not sure about the "Eat The Label" lyric - it also appears in Wonderful Wino - "watch me now I'm gonna eat the label" so it may be interpreted as an act of desperation / unfulfillment.

(Apologies Balint if my use of English is obscure )

Hegishegira !