Inmar Asael
What does "slickest gig" mean? In the song "the Surrey with the Fringe on top" from the Oklahoma musical, when they sing: You will set behind a team of snow white horses, In the slickest gig you ever see! What does the words "slickest gig" mean? And also what's "Surrey" and what's "Fringe"? Apparently Surrey is a place in UK and Fringe is like an edge, but is not making sense to me: "When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!" Anyone could help?
Nov 25, 2016 4:16 PM
Answers · 4
1
Andrew's guess is right. A surrey was a type of open-sided horse-drawn carriage from the late 19th and early 20th century. If you google-image something like 'surrey carriage' you'll find lots of pictures of them. You'll also see that some of them have decorative fringes around the edges of the covering canopy. A gig is a more general term for a light horse-drawn carriage, and 'slick' means smart, smooth or stylish. So 'slickest gig' means something like 'smartest carriage'. Do bear in mind that 'Oklahoma!' was written in the early 1940s and is set way back in 1906, and - needless to say - both transportation and language has changed a lot since then. It's a classic American musical with some great songs to sing along to. Enjoy the music, but don't worry too much about the language - this kind of vocabulary isn't exactly useful in 2016!
November 25, 2016
1
I don't know, but I suspect that "the Surrey," in this case is a cart (as in horse and cart) and that the 'fringe,' is a cover over the top of the cart that protects people from rain. But those are total guesses..
November 25, 2016
He means he wants to take her for a ride in the fanciest, nicest vehicle he can imagine. If you updated it to today's language it would be "When I take you out in my Lamborghini." (But that doesn't rhyme)
November 25, 2016
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