Pompatus
The word "pompatus" is used in the lyrics of Steve Miller's 1973 pop-music song "The Joker":
- Some people call me the space cowboy.
- Yeah! Some call me the gangster of love.
- Some people call me Maurice,
- Cause I speak of the Pompatus of love.
"The Joker" is not the first time Miller spoke of the Pompatus. The published lyrics to the song "Enter Maurice," which Miller recorded the previous year, show:
- My dearest darling, come closer to Maurice
- so I can whisper sweet words of epismetology
- in your ear and speak to you of the pompitous of love.
Miller did not invent the word. All of his song-writing shows strong rhythm and blues influences, and a 1954 song called "The Letter" by the Medallions had the lines:
- Oh my darling, let me whisper
- sweet words of pizmotality
- and discuss the puppetutes of love.
The song was composed by Vernon Green as a description of his dream woman. "Pizmotality described words of such secrecy that they could only be spoken to the one you loved," Green explained. He coined the term puppetutes "to mean a secret paper-doll fantasy figure who would be my everything and bear my children."
ALSO USED BY SOUTH PARK. Death is following the kids on a tricycle. Grandpa: Come back here you pompatus son of a pansy! Kids: Ahhh! ...
Referenced By
Medallions band | The Medallions | Vernon Green
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