Music Question: The Playful Charm of Songs with Gibberish Lyrics Next: My weekly new music radio show. Week 998 Musical thoughts: Tim by the The Mats turns 40. Norm
Chris, I love this list of gibberish songs. I'm shocked I never knew the Beck and Blues Traveler songs are gibberish, but I guess it's because I'm not really one to listen closely to lyrics. (Or, as you say, we are dolts!) Those two songs are brilliant, as is Weird Al's pallindrome Bob Dylan parody.
I do know the Mairzy Doats song because my mom used to sing it, and she also did some secret language from her high school years. (The crazy 40s!)
Well, Chris Bro (if that is your real name), you’ve outdone yourself here. I thought the muppets reference was a stretch, but you reached all the way back to the forties for the great Mairsy-Dotes. Keep the faith alive! I had no idea about the Yankindromic Bob or its great video( with “Allen Ginsberg” in the background).
"What made this album so unique was that the music was derived from the melody and rhythm of spoken words – specifically, the Irish way of talking. Naturally, all spoken words have a pitch and rhythm inherent within them, and whilst the music featured did borrow from Irish traditional idioms, it was by no means traditional. One of the project’s interviewees described it as ‘a kind of folk minimalism on the cutting edge of folk crossover’."
If you listen to this piece, for example, it starts with a clip from an interview played as speech, and then it gradually gets mixed with the music and the speech never becomes gibberish, but it does ask you to think about and go back and forth between hearing the semantic content -- the meaning of the words -- and hearing it as just an element of the music: https://youtu.be/NfcmugvDd-c
I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I agree, it's very good, and an interesting experiment.
Yes, music is life; it really feels driven by trying to explore the idea of what catches the ear as music, and to work in the space between something that feels composed and also like hearing fragments of music in the world.
Fun to re-read both the post and comments (not all of which I'd seen the first time around).
Strange to check the date and see that it was less than a year ago. I would have guessed longer ago . . . Perhaps it just feels that way because it was prior to the election.
How about "Sussudio" as a gibberish title or Michael Jackson's "mama say, mama sa...." rant in "Wanna Be Startin' Something"?! (Both songs I love, by the way!)
I like where your heads at. I mean I did include loser and hook and I am the walrus. I love the idea of just made up portions! Maybe another post. Made up names - seems like there might be a few. Sussudio is a great call.
Phil has disclosed in interviews that, when he writes the words, he'll often use a "bookmark" word or phrase, as a placeholder, until he can, perhaps, find a more usable or workable word! If/when he can't, he's been known to just shrug, and keep the placeholder word!
The Weird Al tune made me think of They Might Be Giants’ “I Palindrome I”. https://youtu.be/-gW513E8_6I?si=2uC6CtC1pljF4qqx
So many. Might need another post!
Thank you
Chris, I love this list of gibberish songs. I'm shocked I never knew the Beck and Blues Traveler songs are gibberish, but I guess it's because I'm not really one to listen closely to lyrics. (Or, as you say, we are dolts!) Those two songs are brilliant, as is Weird Al's pallindrome Bob Dylan parody.
I do know the Mairzy Doats song because my mom used to sing it, and she also did some secret language from her high school years. (The crazy 40s!)
So great to see George Wendt in Cheers.
Yes. That Bob song is amazing.
Haha. I love that from your mom! That’s brilliant.
Well, Chris Bro (if that is your real name), you’ve outdone yourself here. I thought the muppets reference was a stretch, but you reached all the way back to the forties for the great Mairsy-Dotes. Keep the faith alive! I had no idea about the Yankindromic Bob or its great video( with “Allen Ginsberg” in the background).
Bob is crazy good on so many levels. I almost deleted Mairsy-Dotes too. I think it was lynch that saved it.
That's a fun topic; both "Prisencolinensinainciusol" and "Bob" are great.
There was a fun discussion a while back on Steve Goldberg's stack -- https://earworm.substack.com/p/de-do-do-do-de-da-da-da
In comments Richard Elliot has a number of other examples here: https://earworm.substack.com/p/de-do-do-do-de-da-da-da/comment/68804694
I suggested two parody videos. From Red Dwarf "Tongue Tied" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jnTzBeQJag
And the Key and Peele Funk parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccvB00h6EnI
Thanks for linking to my post, Nick! Yes, there are clearly enough gibberish songs for a couple dozen articles.
Fun to see a whole bunch I hadn’t thought of in your piece, Chris.
Thank you for reading!
From the list I added to Steve's post, I'd pick out two more Dylan parodies to go with Weird Al's: 'Like a Dribbling Fram' by Race Marbles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX_vVDopM4k) and 'Blues in Bob Minor' by Robert Wyatt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onieIPXIogc). Nonsense classics both.
I was reminded of this album yesterday. I thought both you and Chris might find it interesting and that it relates to the concept of gibberish songs: https://klofmag.com/2023/08/revisited-gerry-divers-speech-project/
"What made this album so unique was that the music was derived from the melody and rhythm of spoken words – specifically, the Irish way of talking. Naturally, all spoken words have a pitch and rhythm inherent within them, and whilst the music featured did borrow from Irish traditional idioms, it was by no means traditional. One of the project’s interviewees described it as ‘a kind of folk minimalism on the cutting edge of folk crossover’."
If you listen to this piece, for example, it starts with a clip from an interview played as speech, and then it gradually gets mixed with the music and the speech never becomes gibberish, but it does ask you to think about and go back and forth between hearing the semantic content -- the meaning of the words -- and hearing it as just an element of the music: https://youtu.be/NfcmugvDd-c
I have no words. That was brilliant. Music is life. Thank you so much for sharing this. For thinking of me. That’s so bloody cool!
There is so much to listen to.
I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I agree, it's very good, and an interesting experiment.
Yes, music is life; it really feels driven by trying to explore the idea of what catches the ear as music, and to work in the space between something that feels composed and also like hearing fragments of music in the world.
Nice! And thank you. Never heard them before. Thanks for adding to the list.
That Wyatt song was great.
Awesome. Thank you. That was great. And what a comment section!
Fun to re-read both the post and comments (not all of which I'd seen the first time around).
Strange to check the date and see that it was less than a year ago. I would have guessed longer ago . . . Perhaps it just feels that way because it was prior to the election.
Time is a funny fickle thing.
How about "Sussudio" as a gibberish title or Michael Jackson's "mama say, mama sa...." rant in "Wanna Be Startin' Something"?! (Both songs I love, by the way!)
I like where your heads at. I mean I did include loser and hook and I am the walrus. I love the idea of just made up portions! Maybe another post. Made up names - seems like there might be a few. Sussudio is a great call.
Thanks! 🎸🤘👊
Genesis was great for songs like ABACAB and Paperlate. No one knew what those songs were about!
Yup! And it works. Just glad McCartney didn’t keep Scrabbled Eggs.
Phil has disclosed in interviews that, when he writes the words, he'll often use a "bookmark" word or phrase, as a placeholder, until he can, perhaps, find a more usable or workable word! If/when he can't, he's been known to just shrug, and keep the placeholder word!
ABACAB is one of my favorites by them. Blew my little brain when someone told me it was the chords!
You are an impressive writer, Chris! Not to mention an incredible musicologist.
Too kind. Thank you! 🎸🤘👊
Thanks for reading. And taking the time to comment. Very cool of you.