musical, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

musical adj.

1. used of a horse that suffers from respiratory problems.

1908

‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When They Sigh’ Sporting Times 15 Feb. 1/3: But the cab-horse was a roarer, and the slowest of blood-stock, / And the fare said to the cabby, ‘That’s a musical old crock!’.

2. euph. for male homosexual.

1967		A. Wilson No Laughing Matter 202: ‘Suddenly I saw this dashing guards officer in Jermyn Street [...] I stopped and looked in the window of a cheese shop. And which cheese was I going to buy and did I keep house for myself and was I musical? So I said, yes, I was’.
1986		Sun (Sydney) 2 June 9: [They] rarely spoke about being homosexual, and when they did they used code phrases such as: ‘Is he musical?’ [Simes:DLSS].
1991		W.S. Gilbert Spiked 200: ‘[W]e thought you were so normal. We didn’t know you were so. We didn’t know you were musical’ [Simes:DLSS].

In compounds

musical fruit (n.) (also music fruit, musicos)

any fruit or vegetables, esp. beans or Jerusalem artichokes, that produce flatulence.

1919		G.W. Small Story of the 47th 75: We played marbles on the deck with ‘music fruit’ and rolled our eyes around like a dying calf when we lost our ‘stake’ [HDAS].
1934		A. Halper Foundry 172: BEANS! That Musical Fruit!
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Musicos, beans.
1962		(con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 125: Somebody farted. Men laughed [...] ‘Beans, beans, the music fruit, the more you eat the more you toot.’.
1974		Sanford and Son [NBC-TV] Beans, beans, the musical fruit [HDAS].
1988		M. Atwood Cat’s Eye (1989) 125: Pork and beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot.
2000		R. Ehrlich ‘The knowledge’ Guardian 9 Sept. 🌐 Beans, beans, the musical fruit. Simmered at great length with bacon, herbs, and tons of garlic.