[Vocabulary] licking, grinding, humping

[constantinusphilo]

This sentence from the Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason is unclear to me:
The band is playing Marvin Gaye, guitars licking, drums thumping, the leitmotiv of Parker’s arrival. John Kennedy is grinding with Marilyn Monroe, the strange spectacle of history humping, and all the other couples have given them a wide berth, the quarantine of social lepers.


'Grinding' probably means 'dancing energetically', 'history humping' means, as far as I can guess, 'history exerting itself', and 'licking' is a kind of metaphor meaning 'light unsteady sound' or something of the kind.

 

[emsr2d2]

Guitar lick

 

[constantinusphilo]

I don't feel that they use it technically here, it may be just a metaphor. What about the other ones?

 

[Tarheel]

Well, the guitars aren't doing the licking, and the drums aren't doing the thumping. The reader is supposed to understand that it's the guitar player and the drummer who are doing those things. As for grinding, that word is sometimes used in a sexually suggestive way.

 

[probus]

That book seems to have a puzzlingly large number of very unusual usages. I have never seen or heard lick used as a verb with respect to guitar music. It's a noun only, and the guitarist rather than the guitar plays it. The only dance context in which I've encountered grind is strippers, who used to do a move called the bump and grind. History humping has me completely stumped.

 

[SoothingDave]

I believe he means it was quite an historical event to witness a president of the US and a movie star engaging in sexually charged dancing.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, I think the grinding here is a sexual reference to the (purported) affair between Marilyn and JFK. The humping is also sexual too, I believe.

(By the way, did JFK and MM really have an affair? Does anyone know?)

 

[5jj]

(By the way, did JFK and MM really have an affair? Does anyone know?)

I did an internet search once (don't ask why) not too long ago. I could find no hard evidence anywhere of an affair.

 

[probus]

I once attended a banquet where Joe DiMaggio was the guest of honour. Afterwards I queued up to get his autograph. I was dying to ask him how Marilyn was in bed, but in the end my nerve failed me. Just as well, no doubt.

 

[Jemima23]

Not a teacher.

This is creative writing, and the authors clearly have chosen these particular words here to paint a vivid image in a reader's mind, so it is not meant to be interpreted literally.
A bit offtopic, but the sentence reminded me of Hunter Thompson's style of writing.

 

[Rover_KE]

(By the way, did JFK and MM really have an affair? Does anyone know?)

I'd bet the farm on it.

 

[Tdol]

I did an internet search once (don't ask why) not too long ago. I could find no hard evidence anywhere of an affair.

Or not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqolSvoWNck