Toe the line 1813 publication had used the term "toe the mark" which had the same meaning as "toe the line's" modern usage, where the author wrote "He began to think it was high time to toe the mark." An 1828 publication also used "toe the plank" with a similar meaning. Over the years the term has been attributed to sports, including toeing the starting line in track events and toeing a center line in boxing, where boxers were instructed to line up on either side of to start a match. However, the earlier boxing term was "toeing the scratch", referring to a
1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) whole collection of records, sampling tons of stuff and putting it all together, and it ... was a real rush of excitement, when we were doing it... When we put that record out, we knew what we were doing was illegal, but we thought it was gonna be such an underground record, nobody would ever hear about it. So the first thing that shocked us is that British rock papers gave a big review. "1987" is built around samples of other artists' work, "to the point where the presence of original material becomes questionable". The album is raw and unpolished,