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RE: Guts, nuts, and what the hell is Pete talking about?
>Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 12:35:48 -0500
>From: "O'Neal, Kevin W." <Kevin.ONeal@vtmednet.org>
>
> I've often thought about these lines as well. It never has made
>sense to me that by covering up my (your) "nuts" (in this country would be
>the same as guts.....aka "you have no balls" )(as apposed to guts) that you
>are then admitting there is something wrong. How does covering my nuts say
>something is wrong?
I think Pete's saying that when you cover up (hide) the most important
parts of yourself (your deepest loves, feelings, etc.) that's wrong.
"Nuts" just happens to be a very concise, effective image to use for that
purpose.
Not having sex with one's wife is about as "covering up your nuts" as you
can get, and if "our names are both the same, but we still get separate
rooms", it sure implies that that's what's happening.
> Makes more sense if your is really you're.
I don't think so...
>And, how does this tie
>into two people with the same name getting different rooms.
As above.
I've always
>assumed that Pete is talking about troubles with Karen? If your is you're,
>then it would say that by not expressing yourself, or covering up you are
>crazy. Better to get it all out. Am I reading this correctly?
But if "your" is "you're", the lines don't balance. Makes more sense to have:
You can cover up your <body part>
But when you cover up your <body part>
You're admitting that there must be something wrong.
The first line clearly refers to covering up a body part (albeit one with
alternate meanings), namely guts. The "But" ties the second line back to
the first, implying a parallel structure, of referring to yet another body
part, or at least something that CAN be covered up. If you use "you're" it
just blows up the whole thought, plus makes the following line awkward by
using the same word twice, and in a redundant manner:
You can cover up your guts
But when you cover up, you're nuts --
You're admitting that there must be something wrong.
Doesn't work. I don't think Pete thinks we're so dense (or is so dense,
himself) that he would have to explain the meaning of "nuts" in the
following line, or to simply repeat: you're this, you're that. Finally if
you use "you're", the 1.5 lines that follow are all devoted to expounding
on "You can cover up your guts", which means that checking into separate
rooms with(out) one's wife has ONLY to do with covering up one's guts.
It's a much more satisfying (and, I think, correct) reading to relate
covering up ones' nuts, which Pete's saying is never right, back to the
wife and leave covering up one's guts, which Pete's saying is OK at times,
to life circumstances in general.
*******
To move to a different topic: my post hasn't showed up in the digest yet,
but I trust it will eventually...concerning "You Better You Bet" I wrote
>I couldn't tell you when Bolan died, but if it was 51 weeks before Keith's
>death in '78, your theory doesn't hold as the song was written in the late
>'60s.
I was suffering from brain lock. I was thinking about the songs for "Who's
Next" being written in the late '60s, which obviously has nothing to do
with YBYB, a later song. Thanks to Dan Duffy for pointing it out to me.
Cheers,
Alan
"It's not like bein' possessed or anything...it's just...*I* *do* *my* *job*."
--Pete Townshend