This morning, I listened to the second disc of a Little Richard compilation album. One of the songs included is "True Fine Mama." I'm more familiar with this phrase as it appears in Five Man Electrical Band's "Money Back Guarantee" - "It's hard to believe this is my love song / I only hope I didn't take too long / But this here's the point I've been working up to / True fine mama, I do love you."
As I heard it in the Five Man Electric Band song, I thought there were more commas in it: "True, fine, mama." Rendered in this way, it appears as if the speaker/singer is more hesitant to say it and reveals it only when pressed. But finding the same phrase in Little Richard's song, I've realized that both "true" and "fine" are adjectives, where I had thought that "fine" was an exasperated interjection.
I don't know much at all about the history of the Five Man Electrical Band, so I don't know if they were influenced by this Little Richard song or whether that's even a possibility. But in any case, it's helped me make more sense of "Money Back Guarantee," which I've always thought was a really good song.
