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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!dartvax!markv
From: markv@dartvax.UUCP (Mark Vita)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Unintelligible lyrics
Message-ID: <2527@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Oct-84 18:54:25 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.2527
Posted: Tue Oct 30 18:54:25 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Nov-84 02:40:15 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 40

<...>
 
   About unintelligible lyrics--the master of garbled pronunciation has got to
be John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Surely you've all heard
the tune "Bad Moon Risin'" which contains the line:
     There's a bad moon on the rise...
which, because of Fogerty's bizzare diction, has oft been interpreted as:
     There's a bathroom on the right....
 
   It took me years to figure out that the refrain of "Lodi" is:
     Oh Lord, stuck in old Lodi again.....
 
   There are still some lines in "Down On The Corner" and "Fortunate Son"
which mystify me.
 
   A more recent unintelligible vocalist is Stevie Ray Vaughan.  He has
kind of a rough voice to start with, and a Texas drawl which makes it 
worse.  He also has a tendency to insert interjections such as
"mah" (my) in the middle of lines, which makes it much harder to figure
them out.  Frankly, I listen to Vaughan for the guitar, and have never
been struck by any of the lyrics, so I maybe haven't cared enough to
try to fully translate them all.  However, after seeing the video for
"Couldn't Stand The Weather", which is kind of bizzare, I've become
interested in figuring out exactly what he says.  Anybody out there
have a full (or even partial) decryption of the lyrics to this tune?
 
   I really wish that record companies would make it a policy to publish
lyric sheets with all albums, unless the artist has a strong objection
to doing this.  (I don't see why they should, unless the lyrics happen
to be embarrassingly bad.)  I sometimes like figuring out lyrics
on my own, but it's frustrating when you can't confirm your guesses.
 
-- 

                                Mark Vita
                                Dartmouth College

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