Keep the motor runnin'/Keep the motor clean

[b.a.d.]

Saw them several times in songs, but couldn't find the exact meaning. Please, help.

[jlinger]

Keep the motor runnin' may refer to a fast getaway, from, say, a bank robbery. The driver keeps the motor running so the robbers can jump in and speed away. It also has sexual inuendo, as in keeping up a sexual interest in something.

I've not heard of keeping the motor clean as a idiom, but it may suggest that a clean engine (human or mechanical) is more efficient. Perhaps clean means drug-free?

[b.a.d.]

Thanks! Dug-free, indeed may be one of the meanings. Now I guess that is what Skid Row's "18 And Life" was about - "He kept his motor runnin', but he never kept it clean."