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Hi Folks,

Back in the day (ie the 1950's) I used to listen to, mainly, cover versions, by British artists, of songs first recorded by USA artists. Most of the slang terms were unfathomable to my young ears (ie Flat Top = a type of hair style). This includes a lot of the early recordings by Cliff and The Shadows. Nowdays I can understand most of the old idioms, but the following still puzzles me:-

In the song "Little Deuce Coupe" by The Beach Boys, there is the line "There's one more thing, I got the pink slip Daddy".

The song is, I believe, about car racing. I cannot work out what, in this context, is a "pink slip daddy".

If anyone can help with an answer, I would be most grateful.

Kindest regards (and the compliments of the season)
Christopher

Pink slips were some sort of vehicle ownership document, they raced and the loser would hand over the pink slip for the vehicle to the winner.

If you watch the movie "Grease" they had a race for pink slips in that!

Pink Slip is still the slang term for a vehicle ownership form in the U.S. - A distinctive color to prevent them being accidentally thrown out. Must have the "pink slip" to sell your car. The form may not actually be pink these days.

Andrew

Thank you Gary and Andrew - that has solved a puzzle which has eluded me for nearly 60 years!

But it is not us mere, semi-pro, semi-retired musicians who get caught out. The great (IMHO) singer Joan Baez, in her version of "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down", sings the line:-

"Till so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again".

But the original version, as composed by Robbie Robertson of group The Band, is:-

"Till Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again"

Union General George Stoneman was a noted cavalry commander, who carried out several raids against the Confederates, to destroy their means of making war, including railway infrastructure. I believe that the John Ford film "The Horse Soldiers" (starring John Wayne of course) was partly based on Stoneman's exploits.

Kindest regards,
Christopher

As a pure aside, before the advent of the DVLC in Swansea (c. 1974), we in the UK had those little red booklet driving licences which had to be renewed every three years unless it was a provisional, which had to be renewed every year.

Passing your driving test used to result in the examiner handing the successful candidate a completed Certificate of Competence to Drive. This was printed on a small sheet of pink paper and was indeed termed "the pink slip". It conveyed information to the effect that the provisional licence was now valid as a full licence and did not have to be surrendered in exchange for a new licence until it was about to expire. I remember being stopped by the police in Cheshire one night. The officer's eyes lit up when he saw the words "Provisional Driving Licence", mainly because I was on my own. I pulled out the pink slip from the back pages and read out the bit about not having to get a full licence until the provisional was about to expire. The fact that the licence had been issued by the Greater London Council elicited a grumpy "You might get away with that down there, but...".

Gatwick1946 wrote:Thank you Gary and Andrew - that has solved a puzzle which has eluded me for nearly 60 years!

But it is not us mere, semi-pro, semi-retired musicians who get caught out. The great (IMHO) singer Joan Baez, in her version of "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down", sings the line:-

"Till so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again".

But the original version, as composed by Robbie Robertson of group The Band, is:-

"Till Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again"

Union General George Stoneman was a noted cavalry commander, who carried out several raids against the Confederates, to destroy their means of making war, including railway infrastructure. I believe that the John Ford film "The Horse Soldiers" (starring John Wayne of course) was partly based on Stoneman's exploits.

Kindest regards,
Christopher

Joan Baez didn't want to say anything bad about a Union general?

Gatwick1946 wrote:Hi Folks,

In the song "Little Deuce Coupe" by The Beach Boys, there is the line "There's one more thing, I got the pink slip Daddy".

The song is, I believe, about car racing. I cannot work out what, in this context, is a "pink slip daddy".

Christopher

There's little in this world you can't discover nowadays via the auspices of Google, including the US equivalent of our P45...

https://www.thedrive.com/cars-101/38323/pink-slip

Bill

JimN wrote:
Joan Baez didn't want to say anything bad about a Union general?

Joan Baez has stated that she sang the lyrics as she heard them, or misheard them in this case.