“I’ll swing for you”

Lunch with my friend Dean Webb the other day. Dean is a talented and hugely knowledgeable writer who always tells me things I never knew. His tastes in food are very plain, so we always meet in one of London’s dwindling stock of greasy spoons. This time it was Speedy’s, a little place he’d found near Euston station where, he told me, they filmed all the cafe scenes in Sherlock. And that’s not all he told me. He said that the phrase “I’ll swing for you” does not, as most people think, mean to take a swing at somebody. It actually means “I’ll murder you” and I’m willing to be hanged or “swing” for doing so. Next time, I must ask him to explain the lyrics of this song. I’ve a feeling that they have nothing to do with fratricide.