Can someone tell me the "dirty" part of Penny Lane

1ststatestereo · Post by **1ststatestereo** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 6:21 pm

I am so glad Paul is adding this song. I was really upset he didnt play it last time. but anyway. What exactly does "four/full of fish and finger pie" refer to. I have a vague idea but does anyone know for sure. Oh and I know its naughty!

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 6:32 pm

I'd chime in on Finger Pie but I wouldn't want to offend Melissa.

lowendbob · Post by **lowendbob** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:46 pm

I have a pretty good idea, but don't know for sure.

Penny Lane was one of the best songs at the Philly show!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:13 am

It's a Brit schoolboy nastiness, referring to playing with Brit schoolgirls.

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:48 pm

Right you are, Paul. Some reviewer once pointed out the "sexual connotations" of the fireman in Penny Lane having a "clean machine." Hmmm? Should I mention that the background vocals in "Girl" refer to a particular part of female anatomy? No, I'd better not.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:28 pm

Dave, I think that reviewer was probably also seeing the word "F**K" in ice cubes too...(ref: Wilson Bryant Keyes; Google his name if you want a good laugh...). But the personalities mentioned in the song are a terrific psychological study of English small town life in the '50s and early '60s, if only a tad overstated. The fireman with an hourglass, in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen...he seems to be repelled by the pouring rain. The banker (supposedly the most upstanding member of the community, who is laughed at by the little children behind his back, who doesn't wear a mac in the pouring rain (is it lack of common sense, or is it arrogance?) and the piccolo trumpet middle eight, paying a bit of tribute to the British brass band tradition...

But the "clean machine" reference, to me, fits with the hourglass and the Queen's portrait...he's wound very tightly and quite proper. His fire engine is clean because it MUST be, or his carefully-ordered world will begin to unravel.

As Freud said: "Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar..."

The somewhat schoolboyishly crude background chorus in "Girl" shows the boys to be typically misogynistic in their younger years. But Lennon shows his vocal stuff on this poignant song.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:51 pm

"Was she told when she was young that pain would lead to pleasure...?"

More about his then home life?

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:09 pm

Nope. The line which follows clears it up:"...a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure".

It is a conflict between a working man of whatever class and his spoiled girlfriend, who apparently thinks parties are a way of life.

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:29 am

Paul: I know all about "Subliminal Seduction." Popcorn ads flashing by (buy?) in the cinema, models with thumbs hooked in belts but fingers pointing, um, elsewhere. When I was in junior high, a ruling went out that if a girl wore tennis shoes, she had to wear white (AKA bobby) sox because wearing tennis shoes with nylons was too titillating. AND IT WAS!!!!!!

Ah ... the good old PVS (pre-Victoria's Secret) days when the Sears catalog was considered to be erotic. AND IT WAS!!! I wouldn't want to be 16 now. What's left to imagine?

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:05 am

Every show, right before singing "that line" in PL I wonder to myself how many in the crowd know what it means.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:09 am

Would anybody like to venture a guess as to which country on this planet has the highest number of Victoria's Secret retail outlets per capita?

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:10 am

Saudi Arabia?

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:30 am

BINGO. A nice Wonderbra is on its way to you, Steve. Wear it in health...

bigbajo60 · Post by **bigbajo60** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:58 am

Ronn Roberts said:

Every show, right before singing "that line" in PL I wonder to myself how many in the crowd know what it means.

When my band does "Come Together", I like to hold up my thumb and forefinger in the international sign of "teeny-tiny" when singing the "so hard to see" line in the last verse.

I can sometimes see the expressions on peoples' faces as they have a "lightbulb moment".

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:05 am

Paul -- Thanks! 38C please. (*)(*)