In the spring of 1974, when Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets" was a radio staple and I was 12, John Macurdy confided to me that one of the mystery lyrics went, "She's got electric boobs/I know her tubes." He seemed certain, plus he'd begun to get facial hair, so I was persuaded. I wondered what kind of tubes a woman might have, much the same way I wondered what the "out" in the locker-room phrase "eat a girl out" could describe.