re: "Stoned Soul Picnic"? page 2

For the definition of "surry" see the Urban Dictionary definition at https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=surry.

anonymous Surrey is a four wheel, usually 2 seated horse drawn carriage.It was used in the late 1800 and early 1900's

You can't be claiming that she was suggesting they ride to the stoned soul picnic in a horse-drawn carriage. "Surry" is a portmanteau of something, maybe "slow", and "hurry". Yeats she ain't.

Surry is an African language. Just put yourself in the black people's shoes in the 60's. Many of The Fifth Dimensions songs related to the group's experiences in the 50's and 60's, what else, right!

The songs have a very catchy tunes, with Merlin Macoo's voice, was solid gold. But, most it appears, had a kinda hidden message. The message was from their prospective.

Although, the group sold many records and gained much wealth, they sang songs that told the story of oppression, and then overcoming, and rising, if you listen hard enough.

I personally, love their songs for the catchy tune and Merlin's voice, but never actually looked at the actual words, until recently.

Listen to the songs from the groups perspective and the time they wrote them!!

"Stone" didn't always have to do with substance use. It was sometimes an adjective meaning something like "solid" or intensifying the verb like "really."

Consider the Stylistics' "I'm Stone in Love with You," where a drug-related definition wouldn't make a lot of sense.

I'd love to know what "surry" means. I know what "surrey" means (a four-wheeled carriage), but unless she's using that as a synonym for a car or a taxicab, I don't know. Someone else suggested it's a blend of "slow" and "hurry," which might be a groovy way to get to a stone soul picnic. :-)

Sorry to correct you; the song was written by Laura Nyro, a jewish girl from NYC - here's a quote from another website: "the members of the 5th Dimension loved this song and were shocked to find out it was written by a Caucasian 20-year-old girl from New York City named Laura Nyro."

I'm just going to put this out there:

'Surrey is a four wheel, four person, door-less horse drawn carriage.

In this concept 'Surrey on down' certainly makes sense as take a Surrey to the picnic.

And, even 'Can you Surrey' makes some sense if you interpret it as 'Can you ride a horse drawn carriage'?

I don't know if I'm right, but this is how I always interpreted the song.

On the back cover of their 'Stoned Cold Picnic' they show a horse drawn carriage, but it isn't a Surrey, but by the time they did the photo shoot it was probably hard to find a Surrey which apparently went out of style im the early 20th century.

Steve

srhubbI'm just going to put this out there:'Surrey is a four wheel, four person, door-less horse drawn carriage.In this concept 'Surrey on down' certainly makes sense as take a Surrey to the picnic.

Sorry, but this doesn't persuade me. I prefer to believe the woman who wrote the song and made up (the verb form of) the word.

Laura Nyro (18 October 1947 – 8 April 1997), the songwriter who made up the word, said: "It's just a nice word."

CJ

Surry may just be a slang combining of 'let's hurry'