Eastbound and Down
May 7, 2009 7:54 AM   Subscribe

Meaning of the phrase "Eastbound and Down" as in the Jerry Reed song of that title.

I've googled it to know luck, get links to the Jerry Reed song or the TV show which offers no explanation.
posted by evilelf to Society & Culture (8 answers total)
 
Well, the route from Texas to Georgia in the song is definitely east. I always interpreted the "down" as the gas-pedal-down, to the floor, maximum speed.
posted by rokusan at 7:59 AM on May 7, 2009 [1 favorite]


I second rokusan, a commmon trucker term for pouring on the coal is "putting the hammer down" so saying they are "down" is shorthand for this would be my semi-educated guess. En toto, eastbound and down means they are headed east and hauling ass, in the parlance of our times.
posted by jester69 at 8:08 AM on May 7, 2009


"Down" as in "hammer down" as in "petal to the metal".
posted by dws at 8:09 AM on May 7, 2009


pedal
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:12 AM on May 7, 2009


It's CB slang as explained above. At the beginning of the movie the lyric is westbound and down as the boys are heading the other direction enroute to the Coors warehouse.
posted by Mitheral at 9:03 AM on May 7, 2009


I think the "eastbound" implies that he is pointed east, not moving east, which makes having the hammer "down" not a redundancy.
posted by crickets at 9:31 AM on May 7, 2009


My understanding of CB slang was that "down" meant signing/signed off.
posted by studentbaker at 9:34 AM on May 7, 2009


CB slang has regional differences, so there maybe difference and subtleties in specific terms (IE: Soda/Pop/Coke differences) and of course there are homonyms as well. To me East/west/north/southbound means moving that direction even if your speed is zero and incorporates the E/W/N/S orientation of the road. To explain you could say your east bound while parked facing south or even while travelling north on a nominally E-W road.

It can get tricky when you are travelling a multiplexed interstate oriented E-W of which both are nominally N-S routes and you are driving South on one and North on the other which is refered to as a wrong way concurrency. For example I-77 and I-81 outside of Fort Chiswell, VA. The interstate is oriented E-W. Heading in a westerly direction you are travelling North on I-77 and South on I-81 (Google map).
posted by Mitheral at 10:24 AM on May 7, 2009


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