What makes hosing more fun? Is it:
(A) Thoughts of death
(B) A good hosepipe or
(c) Jack Daniels
If you answered (A) or (C) then you already understand the words to Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s song ‘Death To Everyone’ where he sings:
“Death to everyone is gonna come /And it makes hosing much more fun”.
This lyric has always mystified me.
What exactly is ‘hosing’ in this context?
Turning, as you do, to Google I found that these words had been submitted to Word magazine as an example of rubbish lyrics.
Coincidentally, the author called himself ‘Steerpike’ – which is my alias on Last.Fm and E-music and would have been on WordPress too if someone hadn’t beaten me to it.
This rival Steerpike assumed that the lines were nonsense and that the Bonnie ‘Prince’ was guilty of making it up as he went along. The replies to his post reveal another story.
‘Hosing’ is, to put it bluntly, another word for ‘fucking’!
Turning to the Urban Dictionary for further illumination, the word is defined as “the act of fornication with no regard for the pleasure of the recipient. Usually accompanied by alcohol and characterized by frenetic intensity”.
Apparently Jack Daniels is often the alcohol frequently chosen for
to assist this activity. The dictionary defines ‘Jack Daniels hosing’ as fucking which is “often punctuated by slurred expletives, fleeting visions of naked ex-lovers, and a grippng inability to recall the first name of the person with whom you are coupling”.
So it seems Will Oldham aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy knew what he was singing all along and as the corrected Steerpike sagely observed “washing the car will never be the same again”.
If by any chance you don’t know this amazing song, it can be found on BPB’s masterpiece ‘I See A Darkness’ & here it is from YouTube:
I have spent a lot of time asking myself this very question and finally settled with the idea that “hosing” is a job or a task, a daily routine which in itself is not the most hilarious thing you can spend you’re time on earth doing, but having in mind, that you are not going to live forever and that this watering of flowers in your garden is a minor pleasure you are experiencing only a limited number of times in your lifetime, thereby making it “much more fun”. I guess that if you were told that you were going to life forever the idea of hosing and a lot of other small things that you were expected to do could become painfully depressing. I don’t know… But thanx for sharing your interpretation and for doing some research on the matter. Any way we put it, it’s a wonderful song.
All the best, Rasmus.
Nah in this song it means fucking i also read somewhere that hosing here actually means fucking somebody’s else’s girlfriend or wife.
Thanks, Rasmus – I prefer your interpretation to the fornication theory; after all , BPB is singing about being conscious of our own mortality and it is certainly not just another song about fucking. Good call!
Martin
Listen to the lyrics of the next song… Fucking is a theme here. The evidence all points to ‘hosing’ meaning ‘fucking’. I just thing the politically correct hipster indie rockers don’t believe in rock and roll cliches like sex. Will Oldham MUST be speaking of something so deep. But he isn’t.
I think you are right,Harry. But also, songs can be about fucking AND deep at the same time, 🙂
i think you’re right about Oldham’s intent for it to mean fucking. it’s the kind of thing that is right up his alley. it’s what he does. but…
just saying the other best explanation is that hosing just means messing around, as in those SCTV guys that drank beer. hosers. hose off.
but i don’t think that gets to it really. it’s an explanation but not the right one.
it has to do with fucking, for sure. and your research, I think is right on the true track of what was going on in his head.
one lyric that made me realize how consciously petulant and in some lenses kinda just dickheaded and pissy that this guy is… is the one off the Will Oldham solo record. all white with a red house on it or whatever.
and I forget if it’s that cum in your hair song, or not, haha, but on some song, he’s singing about sitting there ruddy faced with his tumescence against him. and I’m not doing it justice in my rephrasing, but everyone who has heard the song knows what I’m talking about. and it’s a deliberate ugliness.
and in the past, I’ve just disliked the guy becuz of this, but I’ve realized he’s not trying to make the world an uglier place. which is where my dislike comes from with a lot of similar type of people. he’s not some kind of early Von Trier. where his whole point in life is just to piss on everything.
it’s similar, but there is something truly beautiful about what Will Oldham does that goes beyond that.
and that’s hard to put my finger on, exactly. but the guy’s not a dickhead. i mean, I’m sure he is, but that’s not what should go on his tombstone, i guess is what i mean.
I really like that point, that “that’s not what should go on his tombstone.” Point of fact, I’m very interested to hear his music as he gets older, and closer to the grave. It would be very elucidating to hear his answer to the question, not “what does hosing mean to you, sir,” but, “what do you want on your tombstone?” His answer, my guess? “Pepperoni.”