We move just like tigers on vaseline - Hang onto Yourself, Bowie

He's too busy hitting the vaseline - Wow, Kate Bush

Let me just expose my ignorance for a few moments. When I first heard Hang onto Yourself I assumed the above line meant that they danced so crazy that they seemed like a couple of wild animals slipping around on a floor covered with the vaseline you buy in the shops.

Time has made me wonder, for again and again I hear vaseline mentioned as if it is a veiled reference to something else.

All of you probably know what it is. One of those things that has escaped everyone but me up to this point in my life. But can someone help me out here? I've tried thinking of rhyming slang, to no avail. Is it alcohol? Hitting the bottle is a good guess considering the reference to self-important actors in 'Wow'.

Speed? 'We dance like two tigers on speed'?

What is meant by vaseline? Besides the smelly stuff you might buy in a chemist.

"I lost my virginity in Vancouver a month ago, the show was excellent but I had crappy seats."

It's about beastiality.

Do as thou fat ass wilt.

This might help?

I'll be seeing YOU in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, Kansas City, St. Louis, Washington DC, Moline, Wantagh, and Holmdel. So dress sharp.

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We move just like tigers on vaseline

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Gosh. I thought there was only one way to understand this. Ditto for the Kate lyric.

I think fandom has eaten me whole. What is vague innuendo to others is simply reality to me. Just shoot me please.

Phoenix, I admire your innocence. Hold on to it.

Nobody buys matching purple suits unless they are in love.

me too - i've stopped wondering. is that bad??? do i need an answer to that question? no.

If you think we're gonna make it...
http://groups.msn.com/keithism

I always thought--and still do--that references to "Vaseline," at least in the 70s, were to its (then common) use as a sexual lubricant.

I;m not familiar with the Kate Bush song, but I would assume she means the person was too busy getting laid all the time. To those who know the song, am I off here?

zigbot

Spot on, if I remember right WOW subject matter is on the same lines as Cracked actor

Believe everything I say,especially the lies.

Edited by pablopicasso on 05/15/04 07:31 AM (server time).

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I always thought--and still do--that references to "Vaseline," at least in the 70s, were to its (then common) use as a sexual lubricant.

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Yes, I've always seen it that way, too, and more precisely to gay sex, which requires more lubrication, or so I'm told.
This line is part of a network of references on the Ziggy album:
"Put your ray gun to my head."
"Make me jump into the air."
"The church of man, love, is such a holy place to be"
"He was the nazz with God-given ass."

Wear your wound with honour.

I must say the possibility to anal sex hadn't escaped me. The only reason I doubted it was the wording in the two quotes. I would have thought they would have been more like :

We move just like tigers with vaseline

and

He's too busy using the vaseline

The use of the words on and hitting just made it seem more like drug use than sexual lubrication, although considering the subject matter of TRAFOZSATSFM it really does seem likely to be sexual. I'm just not 100% convinced. If it was/is common to use the term vaseline when making an inference to anal sex then I probably would be.

"I lost my virginity in Vancouver a month ago, the show was excellent but I had crappy seats."

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If it was/is common to use the term vaseline when making an inference to anal sex...

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Well, it may not be any more, but it certainly used to be.
It seems to me that depending on what meaning is attached to "on", "Tigers on vaseline" may be very close in meaning to "Tigers with vaseline," with, as you note, a hint of drug use.

Wear your wound with honour.