L-seven phrase in Wooly Bully song

Posted by Masakim on September 29, 2002 at

In Reply to: L-seven phrase in Wooly Bully song posted by Bob on September 29, 2002

: : : Does anyone know what the phrase "L-seven" means in the song Wooly bully? I've heard the same phrase in a song by the sex pistols but can find no reference to exactly what it means.

: : : Please email if you have an answer at tustudent2002@yahoo.com

: : : thank you
: : : Adrian

: : It's a 50's slang term meaning "square". I actually own vinyl copies of both songs you mention - Wooly Bully by Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs (the other side of the 7" single is better, featuring the fabulous track Lil Red Riding Hood) and I Wanna Be Me by the Sex Pistols, from their Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle album. I'm unsure how the term originates, but I suspect it may have something to do with a 1930 model car made by Lincoln and called the L Seven, which may have been seen as desperately uncool by the 50's generation. Personally, I think it's got lots of style, but then again, times change. As a complete aside, there's a 90's post-punk all-girl band calling themselves L7.

: Take a pencil, and write L7. See how it forms ... a square?

From Cassell's Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green:

[the L and the seven when put together form a SQUARE ...; the word can be accompanied by using thumb and forefinger extended at right angles, forming an L and a 7, and when the two are combined they form a square]

_Dictionary of American Slang_ has a 1958 citation:

"L7 ... Hollywood's latest lingo for a square: form an L and a 7 with your fingers and that's what you get." A. Shaw, _West Coast Jazz_, 79.