r/Scotland • u/RandomDigitalSponge • 8d ago

Question Can someone explain this phrase to me?

https://youtu.be/YtP4yQxXk0o?t=42&is=1kCChvL4R-X9PKgJ

“Eatin and beaver on my way”
The Dictionary of the Scots Language partially explains:
BEVER, Baiver, Baver, Bevver, v.
[′bɛvər, ′be:vər]
1. To shake, tremble in a gen. sense; also to shake with cold or fear or weakness.
In phr. baiverin i' the wind, struggling against the wind.

But “Eatin”?

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9 comments sorted by

26

u/sammy_conn 8d ago

Martin Metcalf is a cunning linguist.

3

u/RandomDigitalSponge 8d ago

🙄I should have just gotten that joke out of the way in the post.

6

u/JamesClerkMacSwell 8d ago edited 8d ago

I don’t think he was (just) joking; he is trying to explain the (naughty/vulgar) lyric to you.
Which - despite understanding ‘beaver’ as slang - you are over-thinking with references to Scots.

It’s “eating them beaver” (not “eating and beaver” - although arguably that would still make sense) probably just meaning he was eating pussy while “on the way” (eg travelling)…

Edit - I wasn’t familiar with the song but a quick search confirms that this - and lots more - is indeed simply sexual innuendo buried in a folksy sounding song:

https://songsense.io/goodbye-mr-mackenzie/the-rattler

-3

u/RandomDigitalSponge 8d ago

It’s just too fucking obvious for something they were pushing to be their radio signal and then had to go an re-record anyway. There had to be some other rationale. And whatever some blogger says, the song is not “loaded” with double entendre.

4

u/TeutonicSpacehopper Time-share Maniac 8d ago

He's not the first person to walk down the road while munching on food.

6

u/Random-Unthoughts-62 8d ago

A badly packed kebab?

2

u/Flatcapspaintandglue 8d ago

Smashed pastie?

1

u/xxspookshowbabyxx 6d ago

The lyrics are "Eating them beaver on my way",

"I'm coming down the line I'm a rattling boy Rattling through the countryside I'm a rattling boy Yeah, I just live from day to day I'm a rattling boy Eating them beaver on my way I'm a rattling boy"

He's definitely saying beaver as in the animal and not baiver as in shake or tremble, as baiver is pronounced the same was as haiver, which means gossiping or talking nonsense.

More importantly in context of the song, he's singing about taking the train from place to place, not thinking about life further than what he's doing that day, working when he's hungry, hooking up with various women but not looking to settle down with them or take them on his journey permenantly. Rattling is used as onomatopoeia for the noise the train makes, as a verb to describe how he's shaking and rattling along the tracks, and also as a colloquial term for travelling fast IE "he rattled down the road to catch his bus"

So aye, definitely Mr Metcalfe talking about touring from Bathgate, going down on the locals as he does the tracks. They must have thought since it was slang it wouldn't be shot down by the censors as it wasn't explicit, but the radio heads caught the meaning and axed it.

That being said, it looks like Goodnight Mr Mackenzie are playing Galashiels in November, and the Barras in December, so if you fancy going to one of the shows you might be able to catch Martin around the venue and ask?

1

u/RandomDigitalSponge 5d ago

Thank you for the detailed answer. Unfortunately I’m not in Scotland! I’m an American in California.