Bob & Earl

Harlem Shuffle

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Harlem Shuffle Lyrics

You move it to the left
Yeah, and you go for yourself
You move it to the right
Yeah, if it takes all night
Now take it kinda slow
With a whole lot of soul
Don't move it too fast
You make it last
You know scratch just like a monkey
Yeah you do real, yeah
You slide it to the limbo
Yeah, how low can you go?

Oh, come on baby
I don't want you to stumble now
You just groove it right here to the Harlem Shuffle

(Yeah, yeah, yeah do the harlem shuffle)
Oh, do the monkeyshiner
(Yeah, yeah, yeah do the harlem shuffle)

Hitch, hitch-hike baby
Across the floor
Whoa, whoa, whoa
I can't stand it no more
Now come on baby
Now get into your slide
We're gonna ride, ride, ride
Little pony, ride!

Yeah
Shake, shake, shake, shake a tailfeather, baby (whoo!)
Shake, shake, shake, shake a tailfeather, baby, one more time (whoo!)
Shake, shake, shake, shake, do the monkeyshine, baby

Submitted by

songmeanings On Feb 06, 2012

That's My Desire

Route 66

Land of 1000 Dances

Harlem Shuffle [BPM 116]

Harlem Shuffle [Stereo Single Version]

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SongMeanings

Submitter

2012-02-06 15:24:04

1 Meaning

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by rasputin1963

13y ago

This lyric is about watching a heroin addict--- deeply stoned on heroin--- shuffle through the streets of Harlem. He moves real slow... swaying to the left and to the right, and sometimes he "nods out", his knees buckle and he almost falls. He scratches like a monkey: "monkey" is code for a "monkey on your back that you can't shake", ie., addiction to a drug such as heroin or cocaine. Those addicted to opiates, after about 2 or 3 hours into their high, start itching all over... Heroin addicts scratch themselves all over. "Monkey shine" is street code for heroin. Black American artists have famously couched all matter of taboo topics into coded song lyrics, and this one is no exception.

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by PHR 3y ago

@rasputin1963 Maybe...although it also reads like a nice raunchy sexual metaphor.

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