ARF: Notes and Comments: OVERNITE SENSATION: Dinah-Moe-Hum

OVERNITE SENSATION

Dinah-Moe-Hum

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	I couldn't say where she's coming' from, But I just met a lady named Dinah-Moe Humm
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller) Play on words:
Dynamo is an electric generator. When working they make a humming sound. Dinah is a woman's name.
Dinah Moe Humm is a reference to Dinah's Moaning and Humming when she has an orgasm.
From: Brian Zavitz (bzavitz@fres2.glfc.forestry.ca) wrote: It was probably dynamo hum that was the inspiration. Frank had probably been to hydro-electric plants before, but I doubt that he knew an actual woman named Dinah......Moe......Hum.
CC
From: spb0377@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu (Pat Buzby) Note that the phrase "dynamo hum" appears in the plot summary from the Uncle Meat booklet, a few years before the song was written. One of the stranger instances of conceptual continuity.
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru> Applause Pat! Here is the quote itself
"It's quiet except for a little light wind. We are traveling across the wasteland toward a huge hydro-electric dam. Dynamo hum increase as we near it."
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	I wipped off her bloomers'n stiffened my thumb An' applied rotation on her sugar plum
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru> Sugar Plum is a title of one of so dear to our Franky a Lightnin' Slim's early Excello (King/Federal) sides.
Below is a full text of this song transcribed for you FZ's fanatics by great japanese blues fan Masahiro Sumori <sumori@din.or.jp>
Sugar Plum Sugar mama, sugar mama Where in the world you get your sugar from? Sugar mama, sugar mama Where in the world you find your sugar from? You musta been down in South America On somebody's sugar farm I can see your sugar plum, sugar mama Hanging way up in your little sugar tree I can see your sugar plum, sugar mama Sprouting from your little sugar tree Now you say that you're in love with me so much, baby Mama please drop one down for me (Well, blow your harmonica, son!) You know my mama want to get a part of your plum, sugar mama She wanna make her little plum reserve You know my mama want to get a part of your plum, sugar mama She wanna make her little plum reserve Mama, poor Lightnin' would be so delighted to taste 'em Mama, I'd bet they would taste on out of this world
See also The Duke Of Prunes comments for Zappa's own words about "euphemistic sexual blues imagery popular in country blues tunes".
But to surpise you even more here is a verse from Frank's doo-wop favorite the Marvin and Johnny' song Cherry Pie
Sugar, nah-nah-nah sugar plum nah-nah-nah-nah-nah Sugar, nah-nah-nah sugar plum nah-nah-nah-nah-nah Sugar, nah-nah-nah sugar plum, sweet as they come Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah (Da, da, da, da, da)
See complete song lyrics and comments. Memories Of El Monte. CUCAMONGA YEARS
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	Got her legs in the air An' asked if she had any cooties on there (Whaddya mean cooties! No cooties on me!)
From: jerry@MicroUnity.com (Jerry Kreuscher) An earlier use of the term in American English was for the body lice common to soldiers in the trenches in France during The Great War. There used to be, perhaps there still is, a fraternal order of WWI veterans who called themselves "Cooties".
From: hackbod@storm.cs.orst.edu (Dianne Hackborn) Maybe this is a purely American phenomenon, but I assume it's a reference to that grade-school playground scourge which Members Of The Opposite Sex always seemed to have.
You know, "Mary's got cooties, ewwwwww!! Watch out, she'll touch you and give them to you!!!"
From: kerryy@bnr.ca (Kerry Yackoboski) Cooties. The mythical insect that terrorizes small North American children.
"I don't want to sit by her, she has cooties!" "Nya nya, you have cooties!"
Of course, the line in Dyna-Moe Humm alludes to other little bugs...
From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour) I recall a toddler's game in the 1960's (maybe it's still around) called "Cootie". The object was to accumulate the pieces to assemble a large, plastic insect, resembling an ant. I don't know if the term preceded the game or vice-versa. I assume it was the former, thus "cootie" has been used for a long time to refer to any non-specific bug.
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	Kiss my aura...Dora...
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	M-M-M...it's real angora
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller) Angora might refer to wool, but more likely to marijuana or hashish.
From: Jack Fleming <JackF90000@aol.com> Angora is a special kind of wool (I can't remember if it comes from sheep or llamas). It is very soft and expensive. During the sixties, Angora sweaters were status symbols among females.
From: Mobile Toolshed <michael.malm@kumla.mail.telia.com> Angora wool is the very expensive fabric from the long haired angora rabbit. Angora sweater fashion in the sixties was "one size too small for your chest". The size of the fashion was a result of that none of the PLASTIC PEOPLE knew that it had to be laundred in luke warm water.....!!
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	She was buns-up kneelin' BUNS UP
No doubt, simply with her ASS UP.
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	MMM, sure...listen D'you think I could interest you In a pair of zircon-encrusted
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	tweezers?
From: james@hermes.cybernetics.net (James Robinson) Having just read URL: http://www.catalog.com/mrm/zircon.html , which is an archive of rabin-dan@cs.yale.edu's 1 Apr 92 17:26:57 GMT post on the above mentioned subject, I feel that I need to set some records straight.
For the first time, I am happy to say that I grew up in a town called Zirconia, North Carolina (USA -- sortof). For those who want to verify its existence, look south of Hendersonville (itself south of Asheville). You should see Flat Rock and Tuxedo. If you have a _really_good_ map, you will see Lake Summit and Zirconia situated very close to Tuxedo.
Anyway, this lovely jewel of the south is named because there was a zircon mine there. In fact, the mine is still there -- just not 'operational'. There is not much to it, merely a hill that is obviously missing a good sized chunk.
As a child, some friends and I would go to the mine and partake in zircon hunts.
Now, a zircon is not what one would normally think. It is a hard black little thing that looks like two pyramids stuck to one another. I was told that they were so hard that they were melted down (or something like that) and forged into tools.
They are certainly not the ever so rampant disco-craze jewlery items with similar names -- cubic zirconia and the like. At least not in their natural form.
So, was I lied to as a child (well, on this particular occasion)? What are zircons really used for?
From: ljh@teleport.com (Larry Huntley) Sounds like just the thing for plucking the floss off the dental floss bush. Can it be used to make sequins? For encrusting whatchamacallits?
From: David Bagsby <dcb@utulsa.edu> I read a Zappa interview somewhere and he mentions that Zircon is a childhood symbol of cheepnis. They would sell these fake diamond rings in comic books that were large chunks of zirconium.
CC :-)))
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru> Please, don't confuse this gentle amatuer obstetrician thingy with heavy duty cowboy gear for pickin' up full-blown Dental Floss of Montana :-))
From: Charles Ulrich (culrich@istar.ca) In an interview on WABX Detroit, 11/14/73, FZ explained the cover of Over-Nite Sensation as well as zircon-encrusted tweezers. In order to play piano like Fats Domino, Terry Wimberly bought a ring with a huge zircon. To FZ this embodied cheepnis. I'll cover this in the Over-Nite Sensation chapter.
From: Vladimir Sovetov Terry Wimberly was part of the original Blackouts. Played piano, of course.

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