In Penny Lane, the line “The banker never wears a Mac” refers to a Mackintosh rain coat, named after Charles Mackintosh - a Scottish chemist who invented the waterproof material that they were made from.
On, ‘Good morning, Good morning’, John sings : “it’s time for tea & meet the wife”. Now, since I’m Canadian, I always thought that John meant, he’s now made it home, having a cup of tea & seeing his wife at the end of the day. It’s only in the last few years that I came to understand that having tea is supper or dinner as some call it and “Meet the Wife” was a television sitcom which played during tea/ supper time. That’s an aspect that always appealed to me about The BeaTles, the fact that they never tried to “Americanize” their songs/ lyrics in order to appeal to the US fans. Things like, motor cars, knickers, naughty (which is also an American/ Canadian term but rarely used but used frequently by the British), hob nailed boots, cast iron shore, hour glass, looking glass, a lark, git (and curse Sir Walter Raleigh …), pilchard, the banker never wears a Mac (I know what a Mac is because in Canada we wore them; rain coats called MacIntosh but I don’t think they have them in the US), fire engine as oppose to fire truck, fish and finger pie, a lucky man who ‘made the grade’ (not an US expression), Blackburn Lancashire, Albert Hall, “watching the skirts” is British; in the US/ Canada we would say, watching the girls. And so many others. Especially when I was a young man listening to their songs, I remember sometimes being fascinated and thinking “ my God, that’s so British” again, giving them homage for remaining who they were. So grateful to have lived during their era, what a gift to the world they were and remain.
Tea originally was a Victoria term, it would be served at 4pm and consisted of small sandwiches and cakes with Tea and was a middle / Upper class thing, the term is mainly used now in North of England usually just after 5pm when you would arrive home from work, dinner is after 7pm, Supper after 9pm, Fish fingers (not sure if you have them in US/Canada) are fingers of fish coated with breadcrumbs these would be placed in a deep dish and covered with mash potato and cheese then baked -Fish Finger pie , I think the 4 meaning 4 fingers were used.
Oh, I always thought when he sang "Made the bus in seconds flat / Found my way upstairs and had a smoke" he was just omitting the bus ride and meant he was then going upstairs in his company building or school or whatever 😅
I like the way the Beatles used British phrases in their songs and didn’t try to pretend to be American. One of the terms used that sticks in my mind is `oompah oompah stick it up your jumper’ from I am the Walrus.
Stick it up your jumper comes from The song "Umpa, Umpa, Stick It Up Your Jumper" recorded in 1935 by The Two Leslies, British comedy song writers. It was still played on the radio in the 1950's when I was a school-boy
@@edronuk7656 No idea where it came from, but it was a well known saying from growing up in the 70s and 80s. "I am the Walrus" has so much nonsense in it, I guess it could get difficult to distinguish between well known British phrases and mad stuff that John Lennon just made up in that song.
@@paulhammond6978 I Am The Walrus's deliberatly nonsensical lyric was John's response to hearing Beatle lyrics were being studied in English Literature classes for deeper meaning.
"A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray." For decades I thought it was just a pretty girl selling poppy plants on a tray, but several years ago I was in London and saw a nurse selling paper poppies from a tray for charitable contributions to support veterans; Remembrance poppies. I had no idea.
*Andrew B,* thank you for taking the time to make and post this excellent video on British phrases. Love to see more video on this topic. Cheers from USA ♪♫♪
I'm an Aussie (surprise!) and I remember pre-decimal currency which stopped in 1966 here. A lot of our TV programming back then came from the UK so there were generally only a few things I didn't understand. I remember the Beatles from their earliest singles and have always been a fan. Appropriately (for those who know their Beatles songs) I recently turned 64.
Polythene Pam-- "She's the kind of a girl who'd make the news of the world, yes you could say she was attractively built." He's referring to the page three girls, she looked good enough to be one.
"Norwegian Wood" is not about forests in Norway, but refers to the cheap wall panelling, called "Norwegian Wood", which was popular in England at the time, and hence relevant to the scene of the song.
"His son is working for the Daily Mail" in Paperback Writer, referring to yet another British tabloid. When the song came out as a kid growing up in the US I thought he worked for the post office.
@@miketaverner4451 Must have been some time after I left Liverpool and I don't think I have been on a bus there since the 1970s. I do know that there were some single deck bus routes (68 route at the time for example) and they had smoking at the back only.
@@miketaverner4451 Where on earth did that happen and what was the point of it if it did? This never happened in any town I lived in (North and East of England). Those sitting in a 'non-smoking half' of a top deck would still be forced to breathe in the smoke emitted from those sitting in the 'smoking half'. If this actually did happen, it must have been ordered by those with a non-functioning brain. Probably politicians, either local or national, it matters not; they all put the acquisition of power over common sense.
Outside US , we occasionally have the same with American Song words but they can usually be thought through : for example: Homecoming Queen, Old Stogies, I’m a Toker, Educated ay Woodstock, Chevy to The Levee, under the Boardwalk, sidewinder sleeps
To be fair to the "Taxman" who George resented so much, one for you, nineteen for me, wasn't the tax rate on all George's earnings, just the top slice after he had been taxed at a much lower rate on the several hundred thousand or even millions below that.
@@lawsonj39 No it falls. From 1965 to 1973 the maximum rate of surtax was 55% on sums over 15,000. The crazy 83% /98% rates came with Denis Healy. 15,000 is not today's equivalent of millions. Why wouldn't someone object to 95% tax rate ? Fortunately it wasn't quite as bad as that but you shouldn't lose more than half of your income band to the government , certainly not more than 60%.
I believe "Meet the Wife" was a British TV show, which is referenced in "Good Morning, Good Morning" (it's time for tea and Meet the Wife). Great vid! :)
It’s time for home and meet the wife refers to a very popular tv sitcom Meet the Wife with Thora Hird and Freddie Frinton. It ran 1963-8. For John it represents anything conventional.
The tax rate for high earners in 1966 was 95%. Hence the line in Taxman "Should 5% appear too small be thankful I don't take it all". George realised exactly why they had been given OBEs the previous year.
@@jontalbot1 You're probably right that it started in Liverpool, but it's such an apt expression (for something that can't easily be described in other words) that it's not surprising that it spread far and wide in the teenage culture. It was certainly known in the southeast by the time Penny Lane came out. I think the Beatles often used a kind of innuendo code that was comprehensible to their target teenage audience but went over the heads of the people who might decide to ban songs from airplay. The oldies probably listened to that line and heard something a bit garbled about fish fingers. We listened and thought, "Hang on--since when could you get a four of fish? Surely he means a four of chips." Then the line makes complete sense. Oh, right, you get your four of chips then walk over to the "rec" (in our case); sit on a bench to eat them; and there might be some girls there......
I've read that as well, specifically referring to something that was previously eaten. E.G. "a soap impression of his wife, which he ate and donated to the National Trust."
Finger on your trigger… now there might be many who disagree with me here but if u listen to that line within the relevance of the whole song I’m pretty sure he’s talking about a syringe believe it or not… slang for syringe was a gun and it would have to be heated up to be prepared and I believe he’s referring to the feeling of the moment he’s about to inject heroine which yoko had recently introduced to him, he’s at that moment when he’s just about to press his warm gun and no one can do him any harm… like John always said he’s just writing about his life at that moment ..
I did wonder about "Rita the meter maid" but I just looked it up and confirmed my suspicion that it was an American name for a traffic warden. Lots of British bands over the years have included American terms as the US record market is a lucrative one.
@@sophiared5068 It's hardly a British idiom, it's a universaly acknowledged means of sexual arousing . What a man's finger can trigger in woman's body? Woman must know it best.
Same here. Born in 61 so know all of these. This wasn’t so much about vernacular rather than common knowledge of life in the UK. On the other hand, a Liverpool-specific idiom would be along the lines of “it’s a clean machine” in Penny Lane, which refers to the mans penis and the absence of venereal disease ha ha
Mean Mr Mustard came from a newspaper story John read in 1967 . It was about a man called Mr Mustard who was called the tightest man in Britain (a miser) . His sister (who called Shirley no Pam as in the song) said he would shave in the dark to save electric and to save paper (in those days if you cut yourself shaving you would put a bit of newspaper over the cut). In the summer he would sleep in the park to avoid wear and tear on his blankets. Keeps a ten bob note up his nose was John's sense of humour with John thinking he kept money in certain parts of his body.
I think the most British phrase they used is directly before WMGGW on the White Album. I've had to explain what John's "ey-up" means to several Americans who didn't have a clue what it meant.
I'm from the UK and a Beatles fan so I know where you are going with this video. One off the top of my head is in Cry Baby Cry where John sings "at the local bird and bee"
@@verkehrsteilnehmer-berlin 200 years after Napoleon people in a French country market were still asking for une livre (a pound) of cheese. Heard it myself.
@@wilsonflood4393 For weight we kept pound, but it was defined differently. It was 500 g, what is a little more. About money we kept Groschen, what means a 12 penny coin, but applied it to 10 coin and called the 5 penny coin "Sechser" what means 6.
Interesting a Groschen being 12 pennies for 12 pennies (or pence) was a shilling in UK old money and that is now 5 new pence. And penny and pfennig are really the same word.
The Beatles liked mystery and poetic phrases, especially from John Lennon who loved word play. I was aware of these things you point out. Lennon creates Beatles with an A. Unless I misunderstood you, Routemasters never ran in Liverpool in the 60's. Smoking on top deck was abolished about 1990.
Went into this video assuming I wouldn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. But realizing the “upstairs” in A Day in the Life was the smoking section above on the double decker bus blew my mind! After all these years I never thought of that.
And the bbc banned that song saying that it referred to smokin pot and although there are many pot related references in lots of Beatles songs this phrase wasn’t one it was simply getting on a bus and going upstairs for a fag (smoke)
This is great! Please, give me more like this. Also about idiomatic phrases and slang. I, as a non-native English speaker Beatles fan, don't really know what to make of lyrics like "she's got it coming, but she gets it while she can", "jump the gun", "I'll be round", "such a stupid get", "somebody really done me" and "you and me chasing paper".
As an Englishman of a certain age, I'll try to explain those examples you gave from my youth "she's got it coming, but she gets it while she can" "she's got it coming" means she's asking for/ trouble/retribution by being very argumentative or making others jealous, OR she's on my list of girls to make love to, & she gets it while she can, could mean she makes the most of the situations she manufactures/ has sex a lot. "jump the gun" means reacting before it's appropriate to, like beginning a race before the starting pistol fires, "I'll be round" means I'm coming to see you, "such a stupid get" 'get' is Northern English for 'git' which is Southern for an awkward person or an unpleasant or contemptible person, "somebody really done me" means he's been cheated/robbed and "you and me chasing paper" means going nowhere/ chasing dreams and rainbows...futile actions. Hope this helps
I will just concentrate on She’s got it coming etc as the explanation above is not quite right. If someone has it coming, it means they are due for trouble on account of their own actions. So if l was a smoker and got lung cancer I had it coming. But the next sentence changes the meaning of ‘it’. If someone is ‘getting it’, they are getting plenty of sex. So it’s a word play, a joke, by changing our understanding of Polythene Pam from someone who is facing retribution of some sort to someone having a good time. John loved word play and humour. Incidentally ‘curse Sir Walter Raleigh he was such a stupid get’ is another example of the humour. Raleigh is the man who brought tobacco to England so he is blaming him for smoking lots if cigarettes. He gets some humour by contrasting the grand Sir Walter Raleigh (who is a national hero) with stupid get, which is pure low class Scouse ( Liverpudlian). In the rest of the country people usually say git: it is a simple term to mean someone of no value
Observation as an American. Back in the '70s(I was a little too young when the Beatles were together to know about such things),high rollers in the US used 100 Dollar bills to snort coke. The fact that Mr Mustard used a 'ten bob note' might have been John's ironic allusion of the 'mean old man' doing coke with a low denomination bill. I think it fits the tone of the song.
As far as Mean Mister Mustard, I thought it meant that he was badly behaved or cruel, but in the British sense of the word it means he was cheap or stingy.
Poppies readily establish themselves naturally on chalk. The WW1 battlefields of Belgium and northern France have chalk subsoil (same chalk strata as White Cliffs of Dover) . When the ground was churned up and cratered by the fighting, the first sign of re-growth were the red poppies appearing . This was picked-up on and they became a symbol of fallen soldiers.
This is an interesting discussion of certain phrases and references that aren't generally used outside the UK. You explained these things quite well. I thought of a couple other examples for any future discussions: The Daily Mail in "Paperback Writer" (British newspaper) and "Any jobber got the sack" in "You Never Give Me Your Money." When I was a kid, I thought that The Daily Mail was the daily delivery of the postal service. Also, in the US, we don't refer to employees as "jobbers," and a "sack" is just a paper bag for your lunch, or a burlap bag of potatoes at the grocery store. Here's another one: "never wears a MAC in the pouring rain" in Penny Lane.
Many successful British pop Songwriters were quite intentionally included American references in their songs- eg. Tony Hatch, Albert Hammond , Cook & Greenaway , Elton John
Liverpool buses where red and run by the council.the green bus you have shown was also in Liverpool which was the crossvillle bus company which was private company but had to follow council rules.
Have to correct you, in the 1960’s Liverpool double decker buses were green…. And screeched a lot when they braked……..They may have been AEC or Leyland Atlantean buses……rear engined too…..
@@recruit_37 Son of a bitch! I was all set to tell you 'NO'; I always like to be certain I'm right about things so I went and I double and triple checked; I'll be dipped but you're absolutely right! Not only that, that's definitely Lennon's voice; not Harrison's. I never realized it because I bought that record (or rather, got it for xmas) 1968 and the original pressings had the tracks run into each other with no space so it's impossible to tell...
In Penny Lane Paul mentions the banker doesn't wear a Mack in the pouring rain. I figured out that a mack was a raincoat but not why the banker didn't wear his in the rain. Thanks for the insightful information.
It's probably because as a banker, he needs to look smart in a suit. He has to look the same whatever the weather is, and can't deviate in the way he looks. The mack would spoil his appearance. The same would go for not taking his jacket off, even if it was a boiling hot day.
The Mac that is strangely missing in "Penny Lane" finally shows up two years later, in "The Ballad of John and Yoko," being worn by "the man in the Mac."
I have a German album, The Beatles Beat with the same cover as one of your The Beatles at the Beeb. It’s from ‘69 and the sound quality isn’t the best, but it was sealed when I found it and it’s in beautiful condition.
I was asked by a German friend to explain the lyric from Taxman "Declare the pennies on your eyes." (Explanation) Many, many, many years ago an old English penny was often put on persons eyes to keep them closed shortly after death. Pennies were a lot larger and heavier back in the mid 1960's.
50 pence would currently be about 65 cents. A pound has never been worth less than a dollar, often a lot more. Half a century-odd a go, a shilling was more the equivalent of a pound, today. A ten-bob note was the equivalent of today's tenner.
A lot more than just one pound. A bag of crisps (chips to Americans) was forpence (a third of a shilling). A portion of chips (or fries to Americans) was a tanner (half a shilling). Fish and chips was about 2 bob. A packet of 20 cigarettes was about 2 bob so Five packets for 10 bob. Our bakers used to sell 5lb boxes of broken biscuits for a tanner. Try converting any of those things to current cost and you'll see that 10 bob then got you a hell of a lot more than a single pound will get you now. A bus trip into town for me was threpence (quarter of a shilling) Ticket for the cinema was another tanner. So a trip into town to watch a film at the cinema was a total of one shilling. A shilling is equivalent to 5 pence in decimal coinage. Using your equivalency that would be 10 pence in todays money. No kid would be able to get a ticket for the cinema + return ticket on the bus for that now!
@@KenFullman That's from long before 1974. And I did say ten bob was more equivalent to TEN pounds now. Not sure where you get the ten pence from - no one mentioned florins. The value of the currency has decreased massively, over time..
@@wessexdruid7598 I was talking about the 1960s Because that's when the Beatles were producing their music. I somehow missed the TEN pounds (somehow read that as A pound). IF you'd had said a 10 bob note was worth about a pound of todays money (which it turns out you didn't), that means it's equivalent to twice the price today. (obviously the difference is really much bigger than that). I brought up a florin because that would be twice what it would cost me, in those days to go into town and watch a film. I think we generally agree but I misread your comment.
Yup ! I used to work in a bakery in the early 1960s and also delivered bread. A large (unsliced) loaf was a shilling. Ready sliced loaves up to one shilling and threepence. Today in 2024 they are - depending on the brand up to £ 1.25 or more. So back then a 10/- note would get you ten loaves or eight ready sliced. My weekly wage for six days 6 a.m. to 7.p.m. (including deliveries time + baking) was £4-10/-. Four pounds ten bob. This compared favourably with my friends working much harder at the local quarries - much harder work but fewer hours who were on £5 for five and a half days as my employers provided breakfast (while our first baking was in the ovens) and later lunch before going out on deliveries. Quarrymen ( not John Lennon;s group!) had to bring their own packed lunch.
Britain had deforested to build timber ships for empire building and trading and was heavily reliant on imported timber from Canada and Scandinavia. Much timber was from Sweden and was finished items were often marked as. “Swedish Timber” less so Norway
Also in “Mean Mr Mustard” Lennon is using the word “mean” in the sense of being cheap or stingy, where now it almost exclusively used to mean bad tempered (at least in the USA)
From the song GEORGIA ON MY MIND, sung by Ray Charles: "Georgia, Georgia. No peace, no peace I find. Just an ole sweet song, keeps Georgia on my mind." The song became the official state song of Georgia, USA. Another Georgia was part of the Soviet Union at the time BACK IN THE USSR, was written. Now, it's an independent country. That's why: "That Georgia's always on mymymymymymymymy mind." However many MYs there are in the lyric.
The whole upper deck on London transport buses was available for smoking, and on the tube, it was the second carriage from the front and back of the train, was smoking also allowed…Boom 🎤 enjoyed my first visit o your channel…..
The man with the multicoloured mirrors on his hobnail boots referred to a news article about a man caught with mirrors on his shoes so he could look up girls' skirts, hence his hands working overtime.
The ten shilling note got replaced some time before decimalisation took place in Feb 1971 by the new 50p coin because they were the same in value. 10s was a reasonable sum of money . I remember sometimes getting one tucked into a birthday card and it would buy something nice for my electric train set !
Taxman: "There's one for you and nineteen for me." Using a radically progressive tax schedule, the top earners were in the 95% tax bracket for the top tier of their income, therefore they kept one out of every twenty pounds they earned.
There should be an annotated book of Beatles lyrics which would explain all this and much more: the Cast Iron Shore= actually a place in Liverpool, "I"ll have another cigarette and curse Sir Walter Raleigh+= a brand of cigarettes, a helter skelter is a type of slide not a race war as Charles Manson thought etc.
I seem to remember back in the late 1950s if you wanted to make a copy of a key (for illegal "activities") being told that you could make an impression of the genuine one in a block of soft soap . You then purchased (or made) a similar blank key and with a deft bit of work with a hacksaw and file you made a copy that would fit the outline in the soap. There was also a term "softsoaping someone" similar meaning to " buttering up" to get someone on your side.
I always get a kick out of the fact we both speak English, but the US and UK have so many different names for things. Like pants vs. trousers. Car trunk vs. boot. etc. Luckily being a fan of various British series over the years, l have a basic knowledge of British culture and terminology, and my favorite British humor.
Way back in 1976 (I was 14), I knew the British referred to sports as merely "sport" from watching Monty Python. But only in more recent years since I started following UK politics (when Spitting Image resurfaced on RUclips) did I find out that math was "maths" in Britain.
Several of the differences between American and English English are due to the Americans speaking and/or spelling in an old English way. "Fall" for autumn, sidewalks not pavements, center etc etc. English English imported more fashionable sounding French-based words and spelling the late 18th, early 19th centuries.
Younger British viewers might not understand that one, of course all us who grew up with the BEATLES will. As you were only about 5 when we went Decimal came in I'm not surprising, 🤔 We still have double deckers buses.
“Four of fish and finger pie” in Penny Lane is about fish and chips and, umm, touching a woman in a certain area. Some vulgar slang that would go over the heads of American listeners. I also learned the word “Para-adventure” from Paul’s song English Tea from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. Just an old timey way of saying “maybe.” My mom and I saw Paul in concert in 2005 and after playing English Tea live, he explained the term and joked perhaps he should rename Maybe I’m Amazed to “Para-adventure I’m Amazed.”😂
Sorry, but the fish finger explanation above is wrong. Fish fingers have nothing to do with fish and chips. They are a snack beloved of children and are what Americans call fish sticks. Essentially, it is the same product. Over the years, people have bunged fish fingers into all sorts of rudimentary dishes, particularly sandwiches. Why? Harmless nostalgia for childhood, I would think. The pie mentioned is in the same vein. Oh, I think it is "for," not "four", but I stand to be corrected.
@michavandam I think it is "For a fish and finger pie" from memory. I could be wrong. Of course, the product is called "Fish Fingers," so they are twisting the lyric a bit here with this wording. Basically , they are frozen strips of processed white fish (usually cod or haddock) in breadcrumbs. I believe they are called Fsh Sticks in the USA.
@@AdrianLee-ho1ds The words, which can be verified easily, are “four of fish and finger pie”, ie. four pence worth of fish and chips, and yes, a sexual reference that would escape censorship. The song is an affectionate nod to all things Scouse, and many of Paul’s contemporaries would have totally got that line!
I heard an interview with John where he said he heard about a guy who kept a ten bob note up his butt, but John wanted to use a less offensive expression in the song.
Or maybe they had to cut down the lyrics as Pauls middle part was too long. So they cut words between "made the bus in seconds flat" & "Found my way up stairs and had a smoke". Maybe he had a whole story about his work day. He got to work on time. He had a Bap for lunch. Back to work and the boss yells at him. Got back on the bus. Made it home, Then he went upstairs had a smoke!
Up stairs on the bus was less crowded so he made his way up stairs ,as you do,and had a smoke,simple as that so let’s stop reading all sorts of meanings where there is none ,That type of crap amused John Immensely
As a small child in the US I had never heard the British non-rhotic accent. I had no idea what a "pay pah bock right uh" was but it didn't keep me from singing along with the nonsense.
I can't imagine that that is what you heard, especially when the words are clearly printed on the record and any chart list of the day! Although The Beatles all spoke with distinctive Liverpudlian accents, they were very well spoken and they sang lyrics very clearly.
@@Lily_The_Pink972 I didn't have the record. I heard it on the radio, I was 7 years old and I had never heard a British accent of any kind. Why is that so hard for you to believe?
@@AndrewBrooks One explanation I've heard was that Ryde was the location of a famous maternity hospital for unwed mothers. Have no idea whether to trust it.
Nice vid thanks but I’ve never thought about it like this I just presumed that everyone understood these phrases coz their so obvious to me ie pretty nurse, smokin on the top deck, national trust, ten bob, Wilson an heath, 95% tax for very top earners, I might try and see how many others I can think of an do a later post but again thanks for the clip very interesting to me lol 😂
“Lost your hair” from Ringo’s song, “Don’t Pass Me By,” on he White Album. Is that an English expression or just an interesting Ringo expression, like “Hard Day’s Night?”
Hi there I'm John from East London and to do the 10 bob no it wasn't meant for anything it was just me as a probably throw away you know because he wants something to feel the gap so he could have said anything you know but I suppose it rhymes perfectly with what he was singing this is John you know he sleeps in a hole in the road it keeps the 10 box note up his nose it rhymes doesn't it so that's why
You are right. I’m Spanish and my English is more or less….. and I can’t understing all that you explein here so well about it. A cuestion; What is your opinion about the biography of Harrison by P.Norman. To me it is his best biography. Also it was great the biography about McCartney by the same author. Thanks by your video.
You blew it with "National Trust." Yes, what you said was true, but that's just the start. Going to the bathroom, number 2, was naughtily referred to as "leaving a donation to the National Trust." So in the song, the soap impression he ate and donated to the national trust, means he passed it through his system and left it in the toilet.
In Penny Lane, the line “The banker never wears a Mac” refers to a Mackintosh rain coat, named after Charles Mackintosh - a Scottish chemist who invented the waterproof material that they were made from.
On, ‘Good morning, Good morning’, John sings : “it’s time for tea & meet the wife”. Now, since I’m Canadian, I always thought that John meant, he’s now made it home, having a cup of tea & seeing his wife at the end of the day. It’s only in the last few years that I came to understand that having tea is supper or dinner as some call it and “Meet the Wife” was a television sitcom which played during tea/ supper time. That’s an aspect that always appealed to me about The BeaTles, the fact that they never tried to “Americanize” their songs/ lyrics in order to appeal to the US fans. Things like, motor cars, knickers, naughty (which is also an American/ Canadian term but rarely used but used frequently by the British), hob nailed boots, cast iron shore, hour glass, looking glass, a lark, git (and curse Sir Walter Raleigh …), pilchard, the banker never wears a Mac (I know what a Mac is because in Canada we wore them; rain coats called MacIntosh but I don’t think they have them in the US), fire engine as oppose to fire truck, fish and finger pie, a lucky man who ‘made the grade’ (not an US expression), Blackburn Lancashire, Albert Hall, “watching the skirts” is British; in the US/ Canada we would say, watching the girls. And so many others. Especially when I was a young man listening to their songs, I remember sometimes being fascinated and thinking “ my God, that’s so British” again, giving them homage for remaining who they were. So grateful to have lived during their era, what a gift to the world they were and remain.
The cast iron shore was an embankment at Otterspool on the Mersey, played there as a kid!
The coats have been called MacKintosh in the USA.
The coats have been called MacKintosh in the USA.
The soap he ate and was donated to the national trust. I found that that meant it was expelled into the toilet.
Tea originally was a Victoria term, it would be served at 4pm and consisted of small sandwiches and cakes with Tea and was a middle / Upper class thing, the term is mainly used now in North of England usually just after 5pm when you would arrive home from work, dinner is after 7pm, Supper after 9pm, Fish fingers (not sure if you have them in US/Canada) are fingers of fish coated with breadcrumbs these would be placed in a deep dish and covered with mash potato and cheese then baked -Fish Finger pie , I think the 4 meaning 4 fingers were used.
Oh, I always thought when he sang "Made the bus in seconds flat / Found my way upstairs and had a smoke" he was just omitting the bus ride and meant he was then going upstairs in his company building or school or whatever 😅
Another possibility for 'ten bob note up his nose' - Some folk used to roll up a banknote and use it to snort coke
we still do dont worry
it makes a lot of sense
@@Mikeunism1 Only now it's gone up to a plastic £5 note !
@@trevorroberts-o7q Cheapskate! I use £50s
I like the way the Beatles used British phrases in their songs and didn’t try to pretend to be American.
One of the terms used that sticks in my mind is `oompah oompah stick it up your jumper’ from I am the Walrus.
Stick it up your jumper comes from The song "Umpa, Umpa, Stick It Up Your Jumper" recorded in 1935 by The Two Leslies, British comedy song writers. It was still played on the radio in the 1950's when I was a school-boy
@@edronuk7656 No idea where it came from, but it was a well known saying from growing up in the 70s and 80s. "I am the Walrus" has so much nonsense in it, I guess it could get difficult to distinguish between well known British phrases and mad stuff that John Lennon just made up in that song.
It was slang for shoplifting@@paulhammond6978
@@paulhammond6978 I Am The Walrus's deliberatly nonsensical lyric was John's response to hearing Beatle lyrics were being studied in English Literature classes for deeper meaning.
@sallybilzon3507 And "the walrus was Paul!" 😅
"A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray." For decades I thought it was just a pretty girl selling poppy plants on a tray, but several years ago I was in London and saw a nurse selling paper poppies from a tray for charitable contributions to support veterans; Remembrance poppies. I had no idea.
I've seen a British series where they all wore poppies in their button holes. I still don't know why they did that.
@@michavandam People wear poppies for Remembrance Day (11th November), to commemorate the sacrifices made during the 2 World Wars.
@@gebirg1 Thanks a lot!
@@gebirg111 November is Armistice Day. Remembrance Sunday is the nearest Sunday to Armistice Day.
I cover that in the video
*Andrew B,* thank you for taking the time to make and post this excellent video on British phrases. Love to see more video on this topic. Cheers from USA ♪♫♪
Episode 2 is already available
@@AndrewBrooks Great!
Ten bob note up his nose probably has to mean snorting cocaine through the nose.
NO it doesn't
I'm an Aussie (surprise!) and I remember pre-decimal currency which stopped in 1966 here. A lot of our TV programming back then came from the UK so there were generally only a few things I didn't understand. I remember the Beatles from their earliest singles and have always been a fan. Appropriately (for those who know their Beatles songs) I recently turned 64.
Are you still needed, are you still fed? 😄 Say hello to Vera, Chuck and Dave.
@sureshmukhi2316 will do. The important people still need me and I'm a bit too well fed.😁
@@OzSteve9801 great!
Polythene Pam-- "She's the kind of a girl who'd make the news of the world, yes you could say she was attractively built." He's referring to the page three girls, she looked good enough to be one.
News of the World - News paper but don't remember it had page Three models, paper now discontinued.
PAGE Three were in the SUN not the News of the World.
"Norwegian Wood" is not about forests in Norway, but refers to the cheap wall panelling, called "Norwegian Wood", which was popular in England at the time, and hence relevant to the scene of the song.
I always thought it was another name for marijuana
@@marylouchris457oh! Like Ikea!
Perfect, that really does make sense. Thanks!
I heard it was originally supposed to be “Knowing she would”. Which actually makes more sense.
Probably shouldve been called Norwegian Wouldn't.
"His son is working for the Daily Mail" in Paperback Writer, referring to yet another British tabloid. When the song came out as a kid growing up in the US I thought he worked for the post office.
Before he donated that soap impression of his wife to the National Trust ... he ATE it!
The top deck of a double deck bus in Liverpool was all smoking, don't know where the idea of only the back seat comes from.
Me neither - London was the same!
Same all over the UK.
It did get changed from the whole of the top deck , to only half the deck at back
@@miketaverner4451 Must have been some time after I left Liverpool and I don't think I have been on a bus there since the 1970s. I do know that there were some single deck bus routes (68 route at the time for example) and they had smoking at the back only.
@@miketaverner4451 Where on earth did that happen and what was the point of it if it did? This never happened in any town I lived in (North and East of England). Those sitting in a 'non-smoking half' of a top deck would still be forced to breathe in the smoke emitted from those sitting in the 'smoking half'. If this actually did happen, it must have been ordered by those with a non-functioning brain. Probably politicians, either local or national, it matters not; they all put the acquisition of power over common sense.
Ten bob note up his nose -
“Paying through the nose.” British expression that means paying a lot for something.
It’s also how you snort coke
@@jontalbot1 yeah not so much coke about in mid sixties as later on.
Surely it it means paying reluctantly rather than paying a lot.
@@AlBarzUK ten shilling notes were brown and white, a bit like snot.
It's just a line in a song it doesn't mean anything.
Outside US , we occasionally have the same with American Song words but they can usually be thought through : for example: Homecoming Queen, Old Stogies, I’m a Toker, Educated ay Woodstock, Chevy to The Levee, under the Boardwalk, sidewinder sleeps
Pounds, shillings and pence weren't weird. They were great because they were divisible by 3, unlike modern decimal currency.
That sounds so evil.
Jeebus. Get over it already! 🙄
LSD Pounds,Shillings and Pence.
You don't really need this kind of accuracy. And if you do, just price your products at 99p, then it's easily divisible by 3.
@@UranusMcVitieFish-yd7oq Divisible by 3? I'm glad no one thought of a currency that's divisible by 7.
You could smoke on the upper deck, not just on the back seat.
To be fair to the "Taxman" who George resented so much, one for you, nineteen for me, wasn't the tax rate on all George's earnings, just the top slice after he had been taxed at a much lower rate on the several hundred thousand or even millions below that.
No. In 1973 the 83% tax band started at £20,000 so 60% tax would start a lot lower than that in 1965.
Fish and Finger Pie
@@auldfouter8661 His point still stands--the 95% rate was a marginal rate, not applied to his entire income.
@@lawsonj39 No it falls. From 1965 to 1973 the maximum rate of surtax was 55% on sums over 15,000. The crazy 83% /98% rates came with Denis Healy. 15,000 is not today's equivalent of millions. Why wouldn't someone object to 95% tax rate ? Fortunately it wasn't quite as bad as that but you shouldn't lose more than half of your income band to the government , certainly not more than 60%.
So that’s all right then? (Not several millions by the way)
I believe "Meet the Wife" was a British TV show, which is referenced in "Good Morning, Good Morning" (it's time for tea and Meet the Wife). Great vid! :)
Thanks for watching.
"Oompah, Oompah, Stick it up your jumper"
It’s time for home and meet the wife refers to a very popular tv sitcom Meet the Wife with Thora Hird and Freddie Frinton. It ran 1963-8. For John it represents anything conventional.
The lyric is “time for TEA and Meet The Wife”
And "tea" means the evening meal.
The tax rate for high earners in 1966 was 95%. Hence the line in Taxman "Should 5% appear too small be thankful I don't take it all".
George realised exactly why they had been given OBEs the previous year.
Yes. In addition, the line "There's one for you, nineteen for me" refers to the 95% tax rate.
That was “just” the marginal rate of tax, the Beatles still managed to amass fortunes.
@@thomascarroll9556 You don't say
Fish and finger pie.
That’s a Liverpool thing
@@jontalbot1 No I lived in the south and knew the term very well.
@@stevewest4994 Interesting, I never heard outside Scouseland
I was gonna say that. I’m American, but I heard Paul explain what it meant on some show years ago. 😁
@@jontalbot1 You're probably right that it started in Liverpool, but it's such an apt expression (for something that can't easily be described in other words) that it's not surprising that it spread far and wide in the teenage culture. It was certainly known in the southeast by the time Penny Lane came out. I think the Beatles often used a kind of innuendo code that was comprehensible to their target teenage audience but went over the heads of the people who might decide to ban songs from airplay. The oldies probably listened to that line and heard something a bit garbled about fish fingers. We listened and thought, "Hang on--since when could you get a four of fish? Surely he means a four of chips." Then the line makes complete sense. Oh, right, you get your four of chips then walk over to the "rec" (in our case); sit on a bench to eat them; and there might be some girls there......
I've heard that "donating to the national trust" was sometimes used as slang for flushing the toilet.
I've read that as well, specifically referring to something that was previously eaten. E.G. "a soap impression of his wife, which he ate and donated to the National Trust."
Brit pals tell me that it means to defecate in public...
Would you explain "...And I feel my finger on your trigger (ooh, oh, yeah)"?
Finger on your trigger… now there might be many who disagree with me here but if u listen to that line within the relevance of the whole song I’m pretty sure he’s talking about a syringe believe it or not… slang for syringe was a gun and it would have to be heated up to be prepared and I believe he’s referring to the feeling of the moment he’s about to inject heroine which yoko had recently introduced to him, he’s at that moment when he’s just about to press his warm gun and no one can do him any harm… like John always said he’s just writing about his life at that moment ..
@@johnkennedy2635 Thank you for the explanation. It makes sense. Regards
I did wonder about "Rita the meter maid" but I just looked it up and confirmed my suspicion that it was an American name for a traffic warden. Lots of British bands over the years have included American terms as the US record market is a lucrative one.
I was born in 62 and remember the pre decimal currency. Of course I know all the phrases you mentioned.
Would you explain "...And I feel my finger on your trigger (ooh, oh, yeah)"?
@@sophiared5068 It's hardly a British idiom, it's a universaly acknowledged means of sexual arousing . What a man's finger can trigger in woman's body? Woman must know it best.
@@sophiared5068I always presumed it was a reference to a clitoris tbh .the whole song is sexual innuendo
@@cyeamaculture8486 Thank you for your explanation. The song always seemed mysterious to me. And because of that I like it. Regards
Same here. Born in 61 so know all of these. This wasn’t so much about vernacular rather than common knowledge of life in the UK. On the other hand, a Liverpool-specific idiom would be along the lines of “it’s a clean machine” in Penny Lane, which refers to the mans penis and the absence of venereal disease ha ha
Mean Mr Mustard came from a newspaper story John read in 1967 . It was about a man called Mr Mustard who was called the tightest man in Britain (a miser) .
His sister (who called Shirley no Pam as in the song) said he would shave in the dark to save electric and to save paper (in those days if you cut yourself shaving you would put a bit of newspaper over the cut). In the summer he would sleep in the park to avoid wear and tear on his blankets.
Keeps a ten bob note up his nose was John's sense of humour with John thinking he kept money in certain parts of his body.
The outtakes of the song refer to Shirley, but in the final version it was changed to Pam. As this to segue into Polythene Pam?
I think the most British phrase they used is directly before WMGGW on the White Album. I've had to explain what John's "ey-up" means to several Americans who didn't have a clue what it meant.
I will include it in a future video, thanks.
I'm from the UK and a Beatles fan so I know where you are going with this video. One off the top of my head is in Cry Baby Cry where John sings "at the local bird and bee"
Thanks, will include it in a future video
@@AndrewBrooks Would you explain "...And I feel my finger on your trigger (ooh, oh, yeah)"?
Long after the decimalisation, we called in Germany a 20 Mark banknote "ein Pfund", what means a pound.
@@verkehrsteilnehmer-berlin 200 years after Napoleon people in a French country market were still asking for une livre (a pound) of cheese. Heard it myself.
@@wilsonflood4393 For weight we kept pound, but it was defined differently. It was 500 g, what is a little more.
About money we kept Groschen, what means a 12 penny coin, but applied it to 10 coin and called the 5 penny coin "Sechser" what means 6.
Interesting a Groschen being 12 pennies for 12 pennies (or pence) was a shilling in UK old money and that is now 5 new pence. And penny and pfennig are really the same word.
The Beatles liked mystery and poetic phrases, especially from John Lennon who loved word play. I was aware of these things you point out. Lennon creates Beatles with an A. Unless I misunderstood you, Routemasters never ran in Liverpool in the 60's. Smoking on top deck was abolished about 1990.
As a yank i heard “saving up to buy him some coke- keeps a ten buck load up his nose”
Went into this video assuming I wouldn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. But realizing the “upstairs” in A Day in the Life was the smoking section above on the double decker bus blew my mind! After all these years I never thought of that.
As the saying goes, every days a school day.
Thanks for watching.
@@AndrewBrooks Thank you for teaching!
In my '60s, and it was news to me!
And the bbc banned that song saying that it referred to smokin pot and although there are many pot related references in lots of Beatles songs this phrase wasn’t one it was simply getting on a bus and going upstairs for a fag (smoke)
@@AndrewBrooks My Mom said simply, "We learn something every day."
This is great! Please, give me more like this. Also about idiomatic phrases and slang. I, as a non-native English speaker Beatles fan, don't really know what to make of lyrics like "she's got it coming, but she gets it while she can", "jump the gun", "I'll be round", "such a stupid get", "somebody really done me" and "you and me chasing paper".
As an Englishman of a certain age, I'll try to explain those examples you gave from my youth "she's got it coming, but she gets it while she can" "she's got it coming" means she's asking for/ trouble/retribution by being very argumentative or making others jealous, OR she's on my list of girls to make love to, & she gets it while she can, could mean she makes the most of the situations she manufactures/ has sex a lot. "jump the gun" means reacting before it's appropriate to, like beginning a race before the starting pistol fires, "I'll be round" means I'm coming to see you, "such a stupid get" 'get' is Northern English for 'git' which is Southern for an awkward person or an unpleasant or contemptible person, "somebody really done me" means he's been cheated/robbed and "you and me chasing paper" means going nowhere/ chasing dreams and rainbows...futile actions. Hope this helps
I will just concentrate on She’s got it coming etc as the explanation above is not quite right. If someone has it coming, it means they are due for trouble on account of their own actions. So if l was a smoker and got lung cancer I had it coming. But the next sentence changes the meaning of ‘it’. If someone is ‘getting it’, they are getting plenty of sex. So it’s a word play, a joke, by changing our understanding of Polythene Pam from someone who is facing retribution of some sort to someone having a good time. John loved word play and humour. Incidentally ‘curse Sir Walter Raleigh he was such a stupid get’ is another example of the humour. Raleigh is the man who brought tobacco to England so he is blaming him for smoking lots if cigarettes. He gets some humour by contrasting the grand Sir Walter Raleigh (who is a national hero) with stupid get, which is pure low class Scouse ( Liverpudlian). In the rest of the country people usually say git: it is a simple term to mean someone of no value
I will look at including them in future videos, thanks
@@jontalbot1 The "but she gets it while she can" line is from "Get Back," not "Polythene Pam."
@@harmonium8198 Yes realized afterwards. It is a clever wordplay, typical Lennon
Observation as an American. Back in the '70s(I was a little too young when the Beatles were together to know about such things),high rollers in the US used 100 Dollar bills to snort coke. The fact that Mr Mustard used a 'ten bob note' might have been John's ironic allusion of the 'mean old man' doing coke with a low denomination bill. I think it fits the tone of the song.
As far as Mean Mister Mustard, I thought it meant that he was badly behaved or cruel, but in the British sense of the word it means he was cheap or stingy.
Poppies readily establish themselves naturally on chalk. The WW1 battlefields of Belgium and northern France have chalk subsoil (same chalk strata as White Cliffs of Dover) . When the ground was churned up and cratered by the fighting, the first sign of re-growth were the red poppies appearing . This was picked-up on and they became a symbol of fallen soldiers.
All of the upstairs on buses used to be for smokers, not just the back.
This is an interesting discussion of certain phrases and references that aren't generally used outside the UK. You explained these things quite well. I thought of a couple other examples for any future discussions: The Daily Mail in "Paperback Writer" (British newspaper) and "Any jobber got the sack" in "You Never Give Me Your Money." When I was a kid, I thought that The Daily Mail was the daily delivery of the postal service. Also, in the US, we don't refer to employees as "jobbers," and a "sack" is just a paper bag for your lunch, or a burlap bag of potatoes at the grocery store. Here's another one: "never wears a MAC in the pouring rain" in Penny Lane.
A Mac is a mackintosh or raincoat. Named after the Scottish inventor Charles Mackintosh who invented the waterproof cloth used to make them.
As for smoking on the top deck of a bus, it was not just the back seats but anywhere on the top deck. It got a proper smog at busy times.
Right. It also means disorder and turmoil, which he likely did understand.
I was from London at 71 smoking on top of a bus was ok, and the tube too !
Before decimalisation one pound was divided into twenty shillings. One twentieth of a pound is exactly 5 (new) pence.
Many successful British pop Songwriters were quite intentionally included American references in their songs- eg. Tony Hatch, Albert Hammond , Cook & Greenaway , Elton John
Liverpool buses where red and run by the council.the green bus you have shown was also in Liverpool which was the crossvillle bus company which was private company but had to follow council rules.
Have to correct you, in the 1960’s Liverpool double decker buses were green…. And screeched a lot when they braked……..They may have been AEC or Leyland Atlantean buses……rear engined too…..
They Council Buses were green same as Crosville Buses. I don't recall seeing any red Buses in 60's & 70's Liverpool.
As a northerner, how about telling them about them about "Aye-up!", at the beginning of While My Guitar...
Thanks for the suggestion, a couple of others have asked.
Isn't it at the end of The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill?
@@recruit_37 Son of a bitch! I was all set to tell you 'NO'; I always like to be certain I'm right about things so I went and I double and triple checked; I'll be dipped but you're absolutely right! Not only that, that's definitely Lennon's voice; not Harrison's. I never realized it because I bought that record (or rather, got it for xmas) 1968 and the original pressings had the tracks run into each other with no space so it's impossible to tell...
Actually Beatles lyrics were used in Finland in teaching English language (at least those times they tried to teach strictly British English)
In Penny Lane Paul mentions the banker doesn't wear a Mack in the pouring rain. I figured out that a mack was a raincoat but not why the banker didn't wear his in the rain. Thanks for the insightful information.
It's probably because as a banker, he needs to look smart in a suit. He has to look the same whatever the weather is, and can't deviate in the way he looks. The mack would spoil his appearance. The same would go for not taking his jacket off, even if it was a boiling hot day.
You're correct about the mac (macintosh). As I said in the video I'm not going to interpret the lyrics. So the answer is I don't know
Macintosh, a type of raincoat.
The Mac that is strangely missing in "Penny Lane" finally shows up two years later, in "The Ballad of John and Yoko," being worn by "the man in the Mac."
@@harmonium8198 very interesting, thanks
Also this chestnut: the term "Helter Skelter" means 'stab a pregnant woman to death. "
I have a German album, The Beatles Beat with the same cover as one of your The Beatles at the Beeb.
It’s from ‘69 and the sound quality isn’t the best, but it was sealed when I found it and it’s in beautiful condition.
Let It Be album:
" I dig a pygmy..."
Also Matt Busby the former manager of Manchester United from about 1948 to 1971
Wasn’t that just John’s sense of humor talking about I dig a pony like his book a Spaniard in the works .
I was asked by a German friend to explain the lyric from Taxman "Declare the pennies on your eyes." (Explanation) Many, many, many years ago an old English penny was often put on persons eyes to keep them closed shortly after death. Pennies were a lot larger and heavier back in the mid 1960's.
When I think of a Mac, visions of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, cone to mind.
50 pence would currently be about 65 cents. A pound has never been worth less than a dollar, often a lot more.
Half a century-odd a go, a shilling was more the equivalent of a pound, today. A ten-bob note was the equivalent of today's tenner.
A lot more than just one pound. A bag of crisps (chips to Americans) was forpence (a third of a shilling). A portion of chips (or fries to Americans) was a tanner (half a shilling). Fish and chips was about 2 bob. A packet of 20 cigarettes was about 2 bob so Five packets for 10 bob. Our bakers used to sell 5lb boxes of broken biscuits for a tanner.
Try converting any of those things to current cost and you'll see that 10 bob then got you a hell of a lot more than a single pound will get you now. A bus trip into town for me was threpence (quarter of a shilling) Ticket for the cinema was another tanner. So a trip into town to watch a film at the cinema was a total of one shilling. A shilling is equivalent to 5 pence in decimal coinage. Using your equivalency that would be 10 pence in todays money. No kid would be able to get a ticket for the cinema + return ticket on the bus for that now!
@@KenFullman That's from long before 1974. And I did say ten bob was more equivalent to TEN pounds now.
Not sure where you get the ten pence from - no one mentioned florins. The value of the currency has decreased massively, over time..
@@wessexdruid7598 I was talking about the 1960s Because that's when the Beatles were producing their music. I somehow missed the TEN pounds (somehow read that as A pound).
IF you'd had said a 10 bob note was worth about a pound of todays money (which it turns out you didn't), that means it's equivalent to twice the price today. (obviously the difference is really much bigger than that).
I brought up a florin because that would be twice what it would cost me, in those days to go into town and watch a film.
I think we generally agree but I misread your comment.
@@KenFullman No worries. I thought you were a little confused!
Yup ! I used to work in a bakery in the early 1960s and also delivered bread. A large (unsliced) loaf was a shilling. Ready sliced loaves up to one shilling and threepence. Today in 2024 they are - depending on the brand up to £ 1.25 or more. So back then a 10/- note would get you ten loaves or eight ready sliced. My weekly wage for six days 6 a.m. to 7.p.m. (including deliveries time + baking) was £4-10/-. Four pounds ten bob. This compared favourably with my friends working much harder at the local quarries - much harder work but fewer hours who were on £5 for five and a half days as my employers provided breakfast (while our first baking was in the ovens) and later lunch before going out on deliveries. Quarrymen ( not John Lennon;s group!) had to bring their own packed lunch.
Britain had deforested to build timber ships for empire building and trading and was heavily reliant on imported timber from Canada and Scandinavia. Much timber was from Sweden and was finished items were often marked as. “Swedish Timber” less so Norway
Also in “Mean Mr Mustard” Lennon is using the word “mean” in the sense of being cheap or stingy, where now it almost exclusively used to mean bad tempered (at least in the USA)
The cleverest Beatle lyric is not particularly British but has three possible meanings “That Georgia’s Always on Mind”.
...my mind.
From the song GEORGIA ON MY MIND, sung by Ray Charles: "Georgia, Georgia. No peace, no peace I find. Just an ole sweet song, keeps Georgia on my mind." The song became the official state song of Georgia, USA.
Another Georgia was part of the Soviet Union at the time BACK IN THE USSR, was written. Now, it's an independent country. That's why: "That Georgia's always on mymymymymymymymy mind." However many MYs there are in the lyric.
@@johnbiela9442 an Georgia can be a girl’s name.
@@user-ky6vw5up9m Then the pun falls completely flat.
As an American, it was a long time until I realized that Mean Mr. Green was cheap, not angry and nasty. British “mean” = American “cheap”.
The old money wasn't weird. It is to people who never used it and can only count in tens.
The whole upper deck on London transport buses was available for smoking, and on the tube, it was the second carriage from the front and back of the train, was smoking also allowed…Boom 🎤 enjoyed my first visit o your channel…..
Thanks for watching
The man with the multicoloured mirrors on his hobnail boots referred to a news article about a man caught with mirrors on his shoes so he could look up girls' skirts, hence his hands working overtime.
The ten shilling note got replaced some time before decimalisation took place in Feb 1971 by the new 50p coin because they were the same in value. 10s was a reasonable sum of money . I remember sometimes getting one tucked into a birthday card and it would buy something nice for my electric train set !
It was also a lot lighter in your pocket than 120d
I remember buying the Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane single in 1967 for "six and six"... 6 shillings and 6 pence.
"The Watusi" in Revolution 9...
Taxman: "There's one for you and nineteen for me." Using a radically progressive tax schedule, the top earners were in the 95% tax bracket for the top tier of their income, therefore they kept one out of every twenty pounds they earned.
No Green busses in Liverpool my friend
The NEWS OF THE WORLD was more vulgarly called the NEWS OF THE SCREWS.
There was an old expression “ bent as a nine-Bob note” , meaning suspicious, dishonest, not to be trusted.
There should be an annotated book of Beatles lyrics which would explain all this and much more: the Cast Iron Shore= actually a place in Liverpool, "I"ll have another cigarette and curse Sir Walter Raleigh+= a brand of cigarettes, a helter skelter is a type of slide not a race war as Charles Manson thought etc.
The ten bob note was for snorting cocaine.
“She’s not a girl who misses much…
Would you explain "...And I feel my finger on your trigger (ooh, oh, yeah)"?
@@sophiared5068 Ask your spouse.
@@gevsaklixond8029 If you are unable to say something intelligent, shut your mouth.
Not a very perceptive woman?
hey ! you've got a new suscriber Love Peace from Argentina
Thanks for watching
Not unusual, old is what you mean ,they were relevant at the time.
national trust. i know what that is. what's a soap impression? strikes me as an unusual british hobby.
I seem to remember back in the late 1950s if you wanted to make a copy of a key (for illegal "activities") being told that you could make an impression of the genuine one in a block of soft soap . You then purchased (or made) a similar blank key and with a deft bit of work with a hacksaw and file you made a copy that would fit the outline in the soap. There was also a term "softsoaping someone" similar meaning to " buttering up" to get someone on your side.
I always get a kick out of the fact we both speak English, but the US and UK have so many different names for things. Like pants vs. trousers. Car trunk vs. boot. etc. Luckily being a fan of various British series over the years, l have a basic knowledge of British culture and terminology, and my favorite British humor.
Way back in 1976 (I was 14), I knew the British referred to sports as merely "sport" from watching Monty Python. But only in more recent years since I started following UK politics (when Spitting Image resurfaced on RUclips) did I find out that math was "maths" in Britain.
Several of the differences between American and English English are due to the Americans speaking and/or spelling in an old English way. "Fall" for autumn, sidewalks not pavements, center etc etc. English English imported more fashionable sounding French-based words and spelling the late 18th, early 19th centuries.
Younger British viewers might not understand that one, of course all us who grew up with the BEATLES will. As you were only about 5 when we went Decimal came in I'm not surprising, 🤔 We still have double deckers buses.
“Four of fish and finger pie” in Penny Lane is about fish and chips and, umm, touching a woman in a certain area. Some vulgar slang that would go over the heads of American listeners. I also learned the word “Para-adventure” from Paul’s song English Tea from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. Just an old timey way of saying “maybe.” My mom and I saw Paul in concert in 2005 and after playing English Tea live, he explained the term and joked perhaps he should rename Maybe I’m Amazed to “Para-adventure I’m Amazed.”😂
Peradventure is the word. It’s the sort of olde worlde English you’d get in Robin Hood.
Sorry, but the fish finger explanation above is wrong. Fish fingers have nothing to do with fish and chips. They are a snack beloved of children and are what Americans call fish sticks. Essentially, it is the same product. Over the years, people have bunged fish fingers into all sorts of rudimentary dishes, particularly sandwiches. Why? Harmless nostalgia for childhood, I would think. The pie mentioned is in the same vein. Oh, I think it is "for," not "four", but I stand to be corrected.
@@AdrianLee-ho1ds If it's "for", then what do you make of "for of fish"? Or is he singing "for a fish"?
@michavandam I think it is "For a fish and finger pie" from memory. I could be wrong. Of course, the product is called "Fish Fingers," so they are twisting the lyric a bit here with this wording. Basically , they are frozen strips of processed white fish (usually cod or haddock) in breadcrumbs. I believe they are called Fsh Sticks in the USA.
@@AdrianLee-ho1ds The words, which can be verified easily, are “four of fish and finger pie”, ie. four pence worth of fish and chips, and yes, a sexual reference that would escape censorship. The song is an affectionate nod to all things Scouse, and many of Paul’s contemporaries would have totally got that line!
Maybe because it was paper money, but the ten shilling note was worth half a pound note, and felt like you had some real money to spend! 😊
I heard an interview with John where he said he heard about a guy who kept a ten bob note up his butt, but John wanted to use a less offensive expression in the song.
Or maybe they had to cut down the lyrics as Pauls middle part was too long. So they cut words between "made the bus in seconds flat" & "Found my way up stairs and had a smoke". Maybe he had a whole story about his work day.
He got to work on time. He had a Bap for lunch. Back to work and the boss yells at him. Got back on the bus. Made it home, Then he went upstairs had a smoke!
Up stairs on the bus was less crowded so he made his way up stairs ,as you do,and had a smoke,simple as that so let’s stop reading all sorts of meanings where there is none ,That type of crap amused John Immensely
@@brucethomas5123 - Lighten up dude. It's just a joke. Andrew liked it! Maybe a Bacon Butty instead?
You could smoke anywhere upstairs on busus.
Loving the Shirt!
Thanks
"Well she was just 17...you know what I mean". What exactly does he mean???
It means I don’t know if she’s underage, so let’s say she’s of legal age!
As a small child in the US I had never heard the British non-rhotic accent. I had no idea what a "pay pah bock right uh" was but it didn't keep me from singing along with the nonsense.
I can't imagine that that is what you heard, especially when the words are clearly printed on the record and any chart list of the day! Although The Beatles all spoke with distinctive Liverpudlian accents, they were very well spoken and they sang lyrics very clearly.
@@Lily_The_Pink972 I didn't have the record. I heard it on the radio, I was 7 years old and I had never heard a British accent of any kind. Why is that so hard for you to believe?
Hopefully you now know it's an author lol
@@lloovvaallee I'll let you off, given you were little. Didn't anyone ever put you right?
I've always wondered what was a ticket to ride.
I think there are 2 theories, a ticket to ride a train, plane etc the other is ticket to Ryde which is a place on the isle of wight
@@AndrewBrooks One explanation I've heard was that Ryde was the location of a famous maternity hospital for unwed mothers. Have no idea whether to trust it.
Also the hookers in Hamburg being given a ticket which showed they were free of venereal disease!
Nice vid thanks but I’ve never thought about it like this I just presumed that everyone understood these phrases coz their so obvious to me ie pretty nurse, smokin on the top deck, national trust, ten bob, Wilson an heath, 95% tax for very top earners, I might try and see how many others I can think of an do a later post but again thanks for the clip very interesting to me lol 😂
"Fortunately now smoking in the UK on all public transport is banned. Oh thank god." Is this moralizing message really useful?
“Lost your hair” from Ringo’s song, “Don’t Pass Me By,” on he White Album. Is that an
English expression or just an interesting Ringo expression, like “Hard Day’s Night?”
Not really a phrase used every day. Probably ringo used it as a rhyme.
She was in a car crash and lost her hair. Not the best of outcomes for an accident, but she lived.
To ‘lose your hair’ means to get extremely angry.
Bishops also sit in the House of Lords.
good job the Beatles did not mention “Aluminium” in a song. We would be having transatlantic arguments forever more.
Lol
One two three four five six seven all good children go to Heaven
Hi there I'm John from East London and to do the 10 bob no it wasn't meant for anything it was just me as a probably throw away you know because he wants something to feel the gap so he could have said anything you know but I suppose it rhymes perfectly with what he was singing this is John you know he sleeps in a hole in the road it keeps the 10 box note up his nose it rhymes doesn't it so that's why
I agree it's simply meaningless word play/imagery by Lennon.
You are right. I’m Spanish and my English is more or less….. and I can’t understing all that you explein here so well about it. A cuestion; What is your opinion about the biography of Harrison by P.Norman. To me it is his best biography. Also it was great the biography about McCartney by the same author. Thanks by your video.
Sorry I can't give an opinion as I have not read it.
But thanks for watching.
You must remember using sixpence coins.
Tara Brown’s father was a member of the House of Lords
They aren’t at all unusual, they are just British phrases.
I’ve got a couple:
The “man from the motor trade”.
What is that?
“Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go.”
Is a “lorry” a flat-bed truck?
It will be in my next video
I figured it was a car dealership salesman
I think you'll find that a 'truck' is what we call a lorry. Lorries can be both flat-bed and with high sides.
For 40 years I thought it was “yellow Doris..”. Figured it was one of those Beatles names like Semolina Pilchard.
You blew it with "National Trust." Yes, what you said was true, but that's just the start. Going to the bathroom, number 2, was naughtily referred to as "leaving a donation to the National Trust."
So in the song, the soap impression he ate and donated to the national trust, means he passed it through his system and left it in the toilet.
Welcome to Slaggers.
Ha Ha Mr Wilson, Ha Ha Mr Heath. Harold Wilson and Ted Heath swapped position as Prime Minister several times between 1964 and 1976
More meaningless trivia. Harold Wilson's Constituency was Huyton which is in Liverpool.