Slanguage change

[Wilson Gray]

The 1963 , judging by a random scan of jam, Don't Shine Me On, by
Frankie & The Del Stars has been reprinted and is available at the
usual suspects - iTunes, Amazon, etc. Here of late, "don't shine NP
on" has come to be used to mean something closer to, Don't bullshit
NP, judging by a quick scan of random Googlits. However, a quick
listen to the record shows that, in 1963, it originally meant, Don't
brush me off. Of course, it could be used positively. I can recall a
snatch of conversation:

A. So, what happened next?

B. Nothing! He shined my black ass on!

It wasn't very long, within a year or so, before the positive also
came to mean, Don't let it bother you, an obvious, easy step from
"brush NP off":

A. [Insult!]

B. Say what?!!!

C. Ig that lame shit, man. Shine it on.

A note in the Urban Dictionary claims ca.1970 as the date, but the
reprint and numerous on-line R&B discographies, in addition to my
steel-trap-like memory, show the date to have been 1963. I heard it on
my car radio, just before I invented the term, "pimpmobile," for the
white-on-white-in-white Cadillac convertible stereotypically driven by
successful pimps of the day.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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