the meat and the motion

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:02 PM -0500 1/27/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Re the song:
>
>B/w "Bicycle Named Tillie," a slightly-bowdlerized re-make of "My
>Bicycle Tillie," by Bill Samuels, from the '40's:
>
>BNT : When I put on my brand-new _pedals_
>
>MBT: When I put on my brand-new _rubber_
>
>I was surprised to find, while researching this topic (and allowing
>Charlie to beat me to the post!), that, apparently "rubber" was once -
>and, perhaps, still is, for all I know - used for the tires of a
>bicycle. IME, it's used only WRT cars.
>
>"Beside You," by The Swallows, is one of my most-favoritest oldies.
>
>Glover also wrote "Work With Me, Annie," thereby making "work" yet
>another cover-word for the F-word, not to mention "workbench" for bed,
>and "workroom/-shop" for bedroom. I don't know whether there's any
>connection between this song and "working-girl" for prostitute, but I
>seriously doubt it.
>

Well, there's also Freud's favorite theory of the (sexual) origin of
language (not invented by him, but one he borrowed from Hans Sperber
and promulgated in his Introduction to Psychoanalysis) positing that
early humans made their work more agreeable by importing the sounds
made during sex into that context.  So fucking > working would have
naturally sponsored the opposite ("Work With Me, Annie") metaphorical
move above.  Yet another corollary of the general Law of Conservation
of...Everything.

LH

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