[78-L] Dept of meaningless lyrics?
Ron L'Herault
lherault at bu.edu
Sat Apr 10 12:21:50 PDT 2010
Do we know that BB was Black?
Ron L
-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Don Chichester
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 2:37 PM
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Subject: Re: [78-L] Dept of meaningless lyrics?
The term should be written 'fine-tooth comb', referring not to its quality
but to its close spacing between teeth. Such a comb would be useless to a
black person with tough, kinky hair. Have you ever seen the kind of combs
black folks use? Very wide spacing. Hence the meaning of the lyrics: the
girl was left with nothing but a good-for-nothing fine-tooth comb!
Don
> Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 12:29:08 -0500
> From: kenreg at tds.net
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Dept of meaningless lyrics?
>
> Geoffrey Wheeler wrote:
> > "leave you with nothing but a fine tooth comb"?
> > ("Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?").
> >
> > Perhaps the tooth in the comb is just short of being mint and is thus
> > "fine." Must have been a large tooth, perhaps a T-Rex tooth. The song
> > doesn't say what the comb was made of, perhaps marzipan.
> >
>
> I'm thinking that "fine" refers to the size and spacing of the teeth of
> the comb. Fine vs course, so fine would be thin teeth spaced closely
> together. I think that "leave you with nothing but a fine tooth comb"
> means that you are left with something of little or no value, and that
> "fine tooth comb" simply fits the meter and comb rhymes with home.
>
> -- Ken
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