Boogie Woogie Blue Plate

It occurred to me that younger people will not understand half of what Louis Jordan is singing here, because he's speaking in a language that is basically dying out: Dinerese, or the slang spoken by waitresses and cooks in diners from about the early1900s to let's say the mid-1970s.

This slang was used because the workers needed to communicate to one another in a hurry and some of them may not have understood proper English. There were no computers to record the food order so this slang was developed to quickly tell the staff what was needed.

This song, a number 1 R&B hit (#21 on the pop chart) in 1947 for Louis Jordan, contains a good smattering of Dinerese. Here, verse by verse, is a translation:

"There's a gal at the local beanery, She's a pretty hunk of scenery She can make a chocolate soda go shhhh, You should come around and dig it when she's working at the spigot, You can hear her calling orders like this,"

A waitress working at a local fast-food place, Who is quite good-looking She knows how to create a chocolate soda properly so that it makes a shhhhh noise as the soda water is poured into the ice cream and other ingredients. You should come around and appreciate her talents as she makes the sodas, You can hear her calling out customers' orders to the cook in this manner:

"Give me a Ham one down and a burger rare Side of 'slaw and a 7 layer OJ up, crack two in a cup and a Boogie Woogie Blue Plate"

Make a breakfast plate of ham and eggs, with the egg cooked over-easy, and then make a hamburger plate, cook the meat rare and accompany it with a dish of cole slaw. Also, a plate of corn chips served with a seven-layer burrito. Pour me a glass of orange juice, poach two eggs and serve me a blue-plate special (meat, potatoes and a vegetable on a blue plate that is sectioned in three parts) but slather gravy all over it (the "boogie-woogie" part of the "boogie-woogie blue plate." because the cook "jazzed" up the food with spicy (usually heavily peppered) gravy.)

"Give me a triple beef on a load of hay, Combo rye and a bottle of A. Comin' through with a slab of Moo and a Boogie Woogie Blue Plate."

I would like three hamburgers, and that completes that order (on a load of hay is rhyming slang for "all day" which is slang for "that completes the order"). Then a new order for a different table: a combo (usually beef and pastrami with cheese and sauerkraut) on rye bread, with a bottle of vinegar. (A is for apple, which yields vinegar; vinegar sprinkled on food enhances the taste) Also ordering a round steak [although "coming through" could also indicate "rush this order"] and the blue plate special (defined above.)

CHORUS: "Draw one, draw two, get that coffee perkin' Draw three, Draw four hold that mayo while the chopped eggs workin'."

CHORUS: Pour one cup of coffee, pour two cups of coffee, we're nearly out of coffee so make a new pot. Pour me three cups of coffee, then four cups of coffee, hold the mayonnaise on the order of egg salad (or an egg salad sandwich) that I already put in.

"Give me a tuna wheat with a side of fries 86 on those cherry pies side of greens on the franks and beans and a Boogie Woogie Blue Plate."

Make me a tuna salad sandwich on wheat bread with a side of French Fries. We are out of slices of cherry pie. Make me a garden salad to go with a plate of hot dogs and brown beans, and a blue plate special slathered with gravy.

"Draw one, draw two, get that coffee perkin' Draw three, Draw four hold that mayo while the chopped eggs workin'

Give me a tuna wheat with a side of fries 86 on those cherry pies side of greens on the franks and beans and a Boogie Woogie Blue Plate."

This is a repeat of the previous two stanzas. See above.