It's a great song, but not the only one on Foreign Affairs - check out
"Jack and Neil" and "Sight For Sore Eyes"
Anyway, Burma Shave was a shaving product that was advertised from the 30's through the 50's with series' of signs along highways throughout the U.S.
Each little poem would be on a series of five or six signs, one line per sign.
They were an extremely common sight on highways evrywhere, so "going to Burma Shave" simply means "going further down the road".
Here are a couple samples of Burma Shave slogans from the signs:
His cheek
Was rough
His chick vamoosed
And now she won't
Come home to roost
Burma-Shave
If your peach
Keeps out
Of reach
Better practice
What we preach
Burma-Shave
Not exactly Tom Waits quality, but kind of amusing.
People were still finding some of the signs as recently as 1986.
In contemporary advertising the term "Burma Shave Signs" has come to mean any series of billboards.
It's a great song, but not the only one on Foreign Affairs - check out "Jack and Neil" and "Sight For Sore Eyes" Anyway, Burma Shave was a shaving product that was advertised from the 30's through the 50's with series' of signs along highways throughout the U.S. Each little poem would be on a series of five or six signs, one line per sign. They were an extremely common sight on highways evrywhere, so "going to Burma Shave" simply means "going further down the road".
Here are a couple samples of Burma Shave slogans from the signs:
His cheek Was rough His chick vamoosed And now she won't Come home to roost Burma-Shave
If your peach Keeps out Of reach Better practice What we preach Burma-Shave
Not exactly Tom Waits quality, but kind of amusing. People were still finding some of the signs as recently as 1986. In contemporary advertising the term "Burma Shave Signs" has come to mean any series of billboards.