'Sally in the Kitchen, Punchin’ Duff'

While walking or performing some mindless chore, scraps of melody and lyrics bubble to the surface. These might be pop songs from half a century ago, rousers or patriotic hymns learned in choir or glee club, show tunes (“All day long, I’d biddy biddy bum / If I were a wealthy man”), radio or television jingles or theme songs. Why such “earworms” appear I can seldom figure out. They leave no obvious trail. Memory is a kitchen midden. 

On Tuesday, “Hog Eye Man” as performed by Martin Carthy & Family was the show-stopper. I know it from Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys (2006), the two-CD set produced by the late Hal Wilner. What lingers, as always, is rhythm and pure sound, not meaning (a good lesson for poets). The song is traditional, without a known composer or lyricist, and with many variations. A “hog eye” was a barge used on rivers and canals in the U.S. in the nineteenth century. Here’s the portion of verse that came back to me, almost free of sense:

 

“Sally in the kitchen, punchin’ duff,

And the cheeks of her arse goin’ chuff, chuff, chuff”

 

Duff has at least twelve clusters of meaning (not counting the beer brand on The Simpsons), according to the OED. Given the context in the song, it might be “a boiled or steamed sweet pudding, usually containing fruit, and made in a bag.” The dictionary tells us the word originated as “nautical slang,” and goes on to refer to “plum duff.” We also learn that duff can mean “the buttocks; the backside,” as in “Get off your duff.” “Punchin’ duff” suggests a salacious euphemism.

 

Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary defines chuff as a “coarse, fat-headed, blunt clown,” making it appealingly useful. The word has eight primary meanings in the OED. The first resembles Johnson’s: “applied opprobriously, with a fitting epithet, to any person disliked; esp. (a) a rude coarse churlish fellow; (b) a miser, a close avaricious man.”

 

Unexpectedly, it can, like duff, mean “the buttocks or backside; the anus.” As used in the song, the closest meaning seems to be the verb form: “of an engine or machine: to work with a regularly repeated sharp puffing sound.” The Dictionary cites D.H. Lawrence’s use of the word three times and notes the frequent appearance of “chuff-chuff,” which suggests onomatopoeia. As mentioned earlier, meaning in song is almost beside the point. It’s all about sound.