Take it easy, Greasy

Posted by Joe on July 29, 2009 at 18:44

In Reply to: Take it easy, Greasy posted by ESC on July 29, 2009 at 16:19:

: : In the Philadelphia of my youth, a common phrase meaning "calm down" was "Take it easy, Greasy, you ain't got far to slide." A baseball reference?

: Variation. I have a very poor memory for names and a whole lot of other things. But a good phrase -- I remember. Alexandria, Va., circa 1970, I was riding around in a car with my new roomie, her friend and the friend's little boy who was being rowdy. The mother said to her son, "Take it easy, Greasy. You've got a long way to slide."

Language in thought and actioný - Page 123
by S.I. Hayakawa - Juvenile Nonfiction - 1941 - 350 pages

Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, one of the founders of the boogie-woogie style of
piano-playing, used to admonish his friends: "Take it easy, greasy there's a long way to slide!"

Other earlier usages are from Jazz music, etc.