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The Pompitous of Love Ever since the first time I heard Steve Miller sing “The Joker”, I’ve had this burning question in my mind – what in the world is the “pompitous” of love? I even went as far as looking it up in the dictionary many years ago. Much to my consternation, I found out there’s no such word as “pompitous”. This, of course, begs the question, what exactly was Steve Miller thinking when he penned these words? (Or some might ask. what was he smoking?) To answer the first question, we need to get inside Steve’s head by exploring the context in which he mentions this puzzling word. Examining the lyrics to this popular anthem of the marijuana-smoking, midnight-toking subculture gives us some insight into what Mr. Miller was trying to convey with his poetic license when he penned the words “pompitous of love”: Some people call me the Space Cowboy Here Steve is telling us clearly that he is both a picker and a grinner. I interpret that to mean that he must have had a summer job picking peaches at an orchard, for he goes on to coin the famous one liner “ Really love your peaches want to shake your tree”. This saying would go on to inspire many a face-slapping when used as a pick-up line by young men who were attempting to be suave. (At least I never had much success with using it.) But I digress. Back to the question of how we are to correctly interpret pompitous of love? Unfortunately, pompitous is a difficult word to define. Yet somehow, I think I understand what Steve was trying to say by it. I think he was trying to tell us all that we should not be pompitous with our love. I try very hard not to be a pompitous person So far, no one has accused me of being pompitous, and I hope no one ever does. I mean at least I think I hope no one ever does. Because, sometimes I wonder – maybe it is a good thing to be pompitous? And perhaps Mr. Miller was trying to tell us that we should be pompitous with our love? I found this posting on Yahoo: "pompitous' from the Latin "pompa" procession, an ostentatious display; love, from the Latin "lubEre" meaning to please; eg. "pompitous of love" a vain statement of one's sexual prowess, usu. given in an euphoric hazy cloud of blue smoke Neither is it a neologism from what I can tell, nor is it 'poetic license'. 'Pompous something-else' perhaps? Details please?Lol...Steve Miller right? He did an interview recently locally and said that it means nothing. When pressed further, he said he really can't say what it means. I guess it was an inside joke. And then there was this posting on the Songfacts website:
And then there was this:The pompitous of love originates from a line in The Medallions' 1954 R&B hit The Letter. Steve Miller was a fan of 50's R&B. On first hearing, that particular track would appear to say: Let me whisper sweet words of pismodality And discuss the pompitous of love. Vernon Green, the author of The Letter, says, "You have to remember, I was a very lonely guy at the time. I was only fourteen years old, I had just run away from home, and I walked with crutches." This uneducated kid was prone to fantasy, so he just made up the lyrics. Pismodality, to him, meant words of such secrecy that they could only be spoken to the one you loved. "And it's not pompitous," he said. "What I said was 'puppetuse,' which is a term I coined to mean a secret paper doll fantasy figure." But, now all these idiots are cruising around town singing at the top of their lungs along with the oldies radio station about the pompitous of love. If there are any linguists out there who can elucidate this word, I would be most appreciative….. I’ve tried to get the answer from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, but my repeated requests for an interview with Mr. Miller have gone unacknowledged, and he won’t answer any of my voicemail messages. I have struggled with this issue through most of my adult life and I am ultimately reaching the conclusion that the pompitous of love is just one of those things in life that are destined to forever remain a mystery.
Peace Brother is a health professional and struggling writer interested in promoting global peace and justice.
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