Completely made up words or expressions in songs

[Rob Not Bob]

For some reason was thinking about this topic recently. I'm not talking about new plays on words where you can tell what the songwriter meant. Or the poetic gibberish of something like a Yes lyric or Bob Dylan at his most surreal. Not even the completely made up languages of Magma, Dead Can Dance or Cocteau Twins. No, I mean where a song is mostly making sense, and then the songwriter throws in a word or expression that is completely made up and you have no idea what it is supposed to mean.

The most famous instance I could think of is probably in "The Joker" by Steve Miller, where he speaks of "the pompatus of love". I believe in "Heroin" by Velvet Underground, Lou Reed refers to "all the jim-jims in this town". And Bruce Springsteen did it twice in the same album : first in the title and chorus of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (when listening to this with me, Fiona asked me what a 10th Avenue Freeze-Out is and I confessed I didn't know ... then when watching the Wings For Wheels documentary, Springsteen confessed he had no idea what it meant either, "... but it's important!"), and secondly on "Born To Run" (the same song where he rhymed "visions" with "engines"), where he mentions "hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard". As best as I can find out, there are no such things as "hemi-powered drones".

Can anyone think of any others?

[bradm]

The most famous instance I could think of is probably in "The Joker" by Steve Miller, where he speaks of "the pompatus of love".

There's some background on this at:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html

The big one I can think of is "supercalifragilisticexpealidocious" from the Disney song of the same name (from the movie version of "Mary Poppins").

Aloha,

Brad

Edited January 8, 2008 by Guest

[Jay Funk Dawg]

"...if there's a bustle in your hedgerow"

[d_rawk]

I believe in "Heroin" by Velvet Underground, Lou Reed refers to "all the jim-jims in this town".

I've heard on the one hand that 'jim-jims' is just something he made up, and I've heard that a 'jim-jim' is/was NY slang for a con-artist (or characters of similar ill-repute). The urban dictionary - not always reliable - seems to back that up (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jim-jim):

n. a person of poor social standing, widely disrespected and completely untrustworthy, a hustler or con artist.

For my part, I can't think of any fun examples of made up words or expressions in songs. I suck.

[AD]

i don't know if this is completely made up, but isn't everything 'made up'? anyways, this is nonsensical to me

musha ring dumma do damma da

whack for the daddy 'ol

whack for the daddy 'ol

there's whiskey in the jar

[bONES]

from M.I.A.'s Bucky Done Gone

I'm flithy with the fury ya

[Esau.]

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus

- Crabalocker

- Fishwife

Although, if your using "hemi-powered drones" as an example, I suppose you could include these from 'I Am The Walrus' as well :

- Semoline pilchards

- Elementary penguin

[phishtaper]

As best as I can find out, there are no such things as "hemi-powered drones".

HEMI's were the high performance engines used in muscle cars in the 70s. Chrysler has recently re-introduced them into Pick-ups and Chargers.

The lyrics that I never understood were the ones in the middle of Bohemian Rhapsody.

[hamilton]

i don't know if this is completely made up, but isn't everything 'made up'? anyways, this is nonsensical to me

musha ring dumma do damma da

whack for the daddy 'ol

whack for the daddy 'ol

there's whiskey in the jar

Isn't it just port-a-beul? Which, of course, means that yes it's completely made up - but not entirely without purpose.

[AD]

did you make up 'port-a-beul'?

[hamilton]

i don't know if this is completely made up' date=' but isn't everything 'made up'? anyways, this is nonsensical to me

musha ring dumma do damma da

whack for the daddy 'ol

whack for the daddy 'ol

there's whiskey in the jar[/quote']

Isn't it just port-a-beul? Which, of course, means that yes it's completely made up - but not entirely without purpose.

Sorry, I'm being mega-geeky.

Port-a-beul is a style of Gaelic music in which the singer uses words or sounds to substitute for the sounds of the instrumentation - kind of like when you're singing in the shower, and you get to the guitar solo and you start going, "Wah-wah-wah-WAAAAAHHHHHH, wah-wah-wonkedy-wonk-wonk-WAAAAAAH!" Except, of course, that instead of some rock song, it would be in the form of a reel or a jig or a strathspey or whatever. Anyway, the song itself is like 200 years old and of Gaelic origin, so it kind of fits - especially considering that fiddles and bagpipes were banned after the 1745 uprising with Bonnie Prince Charlie and all that.

Don't ask me why, but I remember all of this crap from a university course. Of course, I can't remember what I had for breakfast, but that's a different matter altogether.

[phishtaper]

i thot port-a-beul was a type of mushroom

[rubberdinghy]

"...if there's a bustle in your hedgerow"

This makes sense to me.

[hamilton]

"...if there's a bustle in your hedgerow"

This makes sense to me.

Me too.

[AD]

that's pretty interesting, i did not know about that.

thanks for the lernings!

[Davey Boy 2.0]

...Though Louis Armstrong's 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies" is often cited as the first song to employ scatting, there are many earlier examples. One early master of ragtime scat singing was Gene Greene who recorded scat choruses in his song "King of the Bungaloos" and several others between 1911 and 1917...

[hamilton]

Of course, it could just be nonsense, too. I just kind of assume that when I hear that sort of thing in traditional Irish or Scottish music that it's either port-a-beul or else some misheard/misspelt Gaelic.

[Cully]

great thread!!

[celticwolfsun]

Quinn the eskimo (the mighty Quinn)

just ain't my cup of meat

I love this expresssion!

[Cully]

Manfred Mann's Earth Band lyrics - Blinded By the Light

The whole song is filled with great expressions.

Blinded by the light,

revved up like a deuce,

another runner in the night

"And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart to see if it was safe outside

And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride"

[phishtaper]

"deuce"? uh-oh. i think i may have offended a few people over the years ...

[Rob Not Bob]

Manfred Mann's Earth Band lyrics - Blinded By the Light

The whole song is filled with great expressions.

Blinded by the light,

revved up like a deuce,

another runner in the night

"And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart to see if it was safe outside

And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride"

Springsteen again. I always figured this was just some sort of jumped up racers lingo, but then again, I didn't even know what a hemi-powered drone was

Edited January 8, 2008 by Guest

[Rob Not Bob]

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus

- Crabalocker

- Fishwife

Although, if your using "hemi-powered drones" as an example, I suppose you could include these from 'I Am The Walrus' as well :

- Semoline pilchards

- Elementary penguin

I always thought a fishwife was the wife of a fishmonger or a female fishmonger, hence "screaming like a fishwife".

My understanding was that "I Am The Walrus" was Lennon's response to critics poring over Dylan's more surreal lyrics, trying to find meaning. Lennon figured he would give them a song that was complete nonsense, and critics would debate endlessly on the "true meaning" of the lyrics. So far, he seems to have been right.

[Rob Not Bob]

"deuce"? uh-oh. i think i may have offended a few people over the years ...

The only funny Vacant Lot sketch I ever saw involved a debate over the lyrics of "Blinded By The Light", with nobody getting it right until one guy gets frustrated with everybody else and explodes with the correct lyric.

"Wrapped up like a loofah sponge ..."

[bONES]

I believe Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan would often sing vocal expressions and not necessarily real words.

That dude was dope!