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What's She Gonna Look Like With A Chimney On Her?

OneWingedBird

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One of my colleagues at work has been getting reaquainted with 90s dance music, never cared for it much but of course I just had to tease her about this track which has the most ridiulous lyric - "What's she gonna look like with a chimey on her?"


So I had a google around to see if it was just nonsense or had some sort of meaning.

Some sources suggest that 'chimney' is a slang term for a black eye, derived from thyming slang - Chimney stack / smack.

A more amusing version is that it's a euphemism for dropping a house on her ie what a witch!

Any other ideas?
 
The earliest steam ships were usually sailing ships which had had a steam engine installed. No doubt some of the shipwrights might have wondered "What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her?"
 
A slightly-deeper check reveals a school of thought that Tamperer's "Feel It" uses samples from Urban Discharge's "Wanna Drop a House (On That Bitch)" from1996.
 
One of my colleagues at work has been getting reaquainted with 90s dance music, never cared for it much but of course I just had to tease her about this track which has the most ridiulous lyric - "What's she gonna look like with a chimey on her?"


So I had a google around to see if it was just nonsense or had some sort of meaning.

Some sources suggest that 'chimney' is a slang term for a black eye, derived from thyming slang - Chimney stack / smack.

A more amusing version is that it's a euphemism for dropping a house on her ie what a witch!

Any other ideas?
I thought it was along the lines of dropping a chimney off a roof onto somebody.
But my mental processes somehow produce an image of a woman with a small chimney sprouting from her head. Which is surreal.
 
I don't think I've ever actually heard it said, but I've certainly read "if people were meant to smoke, god would have given us chimneys".
Yes, that is the slightly less vernacular version which I couldn't think of earlier. :D
 
I'm glad I'm not the only person who's wondered about the 'chimney on her' .. lyric .. I always thought it might date back to the Chicago house music days with the lyric "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire, we don't need no water let the motherf***r burn" .. something to do with 'bringing the house down' so in other words a very good 'hot' party in dance club culture ? ..

A woman with a chimney on her yesterday ..

images.jpg
 
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When I was very young, I asked my father why the people in the old black & white films had chimneys on their heads.
I was referring to top hats and took steam trains as my reference point.
 
An absolute gen, I remember hearing it on the radio in the Coop on Duke Street, Darlington circa spring 1998. In the pre-Shazam and popular internet age I had to chase around radio channels for about a week before I found out it's name and about another week before I managed to have a blank cassette in place with PLAY/REC at the ready...

I was always under the impression it was the Wizard of Oz interpretation but the lyrics might suggest the black eye theory.
 
When I was very young, I asked my father why the people in the old black & white films had chimneys on their heads.
I was referring to top hats and took steam trains as my reference point.
Some of those hats were referred to as 'stove pipe hats'.
 
One of my colleagues at work has been getting reaquainted with 90s dance music, never cared for it much but of course I just had to tease her about this track which has the most ridiulous lyric - "What's she gonna look like with a chimey on her?"


So I had a google around to see if it was just nonsense or had some sort of meaning.

Some sources suggest that 'chimney' is a slang term for a black eye, derived from thyming slang - Chimney stack / smack.

A more amusing version is that it's a euphemism for dropping a house on her ie what a witch!

Any other ideas?

Ha! I'd forgotten all about this being in the 'hit parades'.

Could it be 'chimney liner --> shiner'?
 
According to Wiki:
The song became a number one single in the United Kingdom, and samples the Jacksons' Top 10 1981 hit "Can You Feel It" and quotes Heather Leigh West's lyrics from Urban Discharge's 1996 song "Drop A House."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feel_It_(The_Tamperer_featuring_Maya_song)

And said song:

I'd suggest it originates on a play on words; actually wanting to drop a physical house (with said chimney) on the scarlet woman, and the genre of music being house.
 
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Could be.

Could they not think of a better name? 'Urban Discharge' sounds like something to do with sewers...
 
Oh. Gosh. Embarrassed now.

I always thought that the 'chimney' was a euphemism for...ahem... a certain part of a male's anatomy.

Never thought it might mean a literal 'chimney'. Sometimes I suppose I might read too much into modern music lyrics..
 
Doesn't that whole 'chimney liner - shiner' cockney rhyming slang chime a bit oddly with a band who were largely Italian?
 
I believe you'll find I solved this conundrum in post #7.

:sherlock:
 
It would look no dafter than some of the stuff peeps wear on their heads
 
I thought it meant something like 'pushing over a chimney stack so it falls onto the victim'.
 
"I I didn’t even know that chimney was slang for a black eye, it originated in Northern Ireland and, despite half of my family moving over there to open chip shops, I’ve never even been,” continued Mr. Fargetta. “When I penned those inspirational lyrics I was literally just thinking what a girl would look like with an actual chimney on her.”

https://wundergroundmusic.com/she-looked-pretty-stupid-with-a-chimney-on-her-reveals-the-tamperer/
That was funny reading.
 
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