Good morning,
The Saturday Music and Poetry is back! It’s just on Friday. Enjoy the weekend!
SONGS WITH NONSENSICAL LYRICS
I was listening to “Bohemian Rhapsody” the other day and was thinking about how many of the lyrics of that Queen quasi-operatic tune make little sense. That got me thinking about other songs that have non-sensical lyrics. They really fall into two categories. The first is a string of syllables (think Tutti Fruiti by Little Richard) and strings of words that make little sense (like the aforementioned Bohemian Rhapsody, but also the Beatles’ I Am the Walrus”). Anyway, here are a few of my favorites:
Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (“A-wheem-a-way…”
The Beatles’ “Ob-la-di Ob-la-da,” from the White Album
“De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” by The Police (check out their outfits!)
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” by The Tokens
“Mrs. Robinson,” by Simon and Garfunkel (“coo-coo-ca-choo,” Mrs. Robinson)
Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti”
Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade”
Queen’s magnum opus, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” (and I am the egg man…man, must have been using a lot of drugs when writing this)
And one of my all-time favorites for the sheer weirdness of the lyric of “ooga chaga ooga chaga,” “Hooked on a Feeling,” by Blue Swede
POETRY
Awaking in New York
By Maya Angelou
Curtains forcing their will
against the wind,
children sleep,
exchanging dreams with
seraphim. The city
drags itself awake on
subway straps; and
I, an alarm, awake as a
rumor of war,
lie stretching into dawn,
unasked and unheeded.
Who Has Seen the Wind?
By Christina Rosetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Have a great day,
Glenn
And then there is the venerable “Louis Louis” by the Kingsmen which the FCC found to be "unintelligible at any speed".