Listen Along: Spotify Playlist
Let’s start with the somewhat familiar: Slang.
Polari, the cant language favored by 19th-century theatre and later by the gay subculture, is just one example. Polari can be heard in the lyrics of David Bowie’s Girl Loves Me and Morrissey’s 1990 single Piccadilly Palare. These examples operate as tributes to a code that both represents and protects.
In 1938, Cab Calloway released the Hepster’s (Hipster’s) Dictionary that defined the jive slang heard throughout Harlem and its music scene.
The playlist includes Calloway’s Kicking the Gong Around - a term that is code for smoking opium. Clearly, the OG Hepcat had provided a sterilized one-sheet to the public.
In 1998 rapper Big L released his own kind of dictionary for the Hip-Hop scene with the verses of Ebonics (Criminal Slang).
Take the opening bars:
My weed smoke is my lye, a key of coke is a pie
When I'm lifted, I'm high, with new clothes on, I'm fly
Cars is whips and sneakers is kicks
Money is chips, movies is flicks
Also, cribs is homes, jacks is pay phones
Cocaine is nose candy, cigarettes is bones
Ugh, a radio is a box, a razor blade is a ox
Fat diamonds is rocks and jakes is cops
Then there are the artists that utilize a kind of communicative sound - intentional or not. Under the arguably “not” category, you have the Kingsmen’s Louie Louie - famously investigated by the FBI for its largely unintelligible lyrics or Future’s “Fuck Up Some Commas" -what has come to be called "mumble rap."
In the intentional category, you have the non-lexical vocables: La La La and whatnot. Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) by The Rolling Stones is an example within rock and roll music.
This list also includes the following genres :
Yodeling: Jimmie Rogers - Blue Yodel Yodel No 1.
Blackfeet Music: Black Lodge Singers- Crow Hop
Other Native American Music, including AIM (inter-tribal music): Blackfire- American Indian Movement Song
Pygmy Music: Baka Pygmies - Song for Gathering Mushrooms
Bodameru (and other music of the Maldives) - Folheymaa - Kathimagu Seedha *note: I could not find a reliable source for a particular song in this genre that contained vocables, and I don’t know anything about the Maldivian language, so this may not be the best representation. I did want to include at least a song within the form which has an exhilarating tendency to crescendo.
Traditional Irish Music: Here, it is known as “lilting” or mouth music. Josie McDermott - The Collier’s Reel/Bank of Ireland- Lilting.
Highland Scots Music: Kathleen MacInnes- Gaol Ise Gaol (She’s My Love). * Again, I am not sure that this song mainly contains vocables. The majority of the song is Gaelic, and this genre certainly does, and regardless this particular song is a banger. This form within Highland Scots music is known as Waulking Song, a folk form sung by women fulling cloth. Often beating the tweed rhythmically. For a definite version, I have to turn to Youtube:
This video contains several vocable examples to be discussed momentarily, including Lilting, Jigging, Diddling, Chin/Cheek Music, Puirt a Beul (Mouth Music), reel à bouche, and cainntearachd (chanting).
Traditional English Music: Shirley Collins: The Tailor and the Mouse. In England, these vocalizations are known as Diddling.
Puirt à Beul: Traditional Irish/Scottish Music: Julie Fowlis -Puirt à Beul Set: Ribinnean Riomhach.
Nigun: Jewish Religious Music. It often includes vocalizations such as "Bim-Bim-Bam," "Lai-Lai-Lai," "Yai-Yai-Yai," or "Ai-Ai-Ai-Ai," is often described as a prayer. You can find a wide variety of Nigunim on Spotify. I included an upbeat dance number by Mendi Jerufi and a slow, reflective one by Avraham Fried. Sorry, I don’t have the song titles; I haven’t figured out how to copy Hebrew letters from Spotify.
Joik: This is traditional shamanistic music from Northern Europe. The chanting is meant to invoke a person, animal, or place. Marja Mortensson- Kruanavaaji- The Green Valley.
Ululation: A trilling, high-pitch, accompanied by rapid back-and-forth movement of the tongue and uvula. It is commonly heard in musical traditions of Africa, the Middle East, and Central/South Asia. Kel Assouf -Lehiyet.
Jazz Scat Singing: John. Ella Fitzgerald- One Note Samba. The form was briefly revitalized into popular Western culture by Scatman John.
Beatboxing: Vocalizations often imitate drum machines and/or turntables and are closely associated with Hip Hop. Rahzel - Southern Girl. It can and does, of course, show up in other genres. Syd Barret utilized the technique on Pink Floyd’s Pow R. Toc H..
Konnakol: South Indian vocal percussion. Sri B. R. Somashekar Jois, Sri B. C. Manjunath- Konnakol Crosstalk.
Doo Wop: Rhythm and Blues variant with nonsense sounds. The Nutmegs, Griffin - Story Untold.
There are undoubtedly countless examples that I have missed here. I recorded the album Kamehameha for the Baltimore art rock band Ponytail. Pitchfork writer Jess Harvell described the vocalizations of singer Willy Siegel as “cries, coos, shrieks, growls, and a full array of preverbal (or is it post-verbal?) noises.”
(Ponytail - Start a Corporation )
And then there are those that have chosen to sing in their own invented language.
The inspiration for writing this was last week’s post, in which I briefly mentioned Paul Chain. Chain uses a made-up phonetic language (Paul Chain-Roses of Winter). There are a surprising number others who have come up with their own languages.
Kobaïan is the language created by Christian Vander of the Zeuhl prog-rock group Magma (Magma -Üdü Ẁüdü). One of the most famous bands to originate a language is Sigur Rós. For the album ( ), vocals are sung in Vonlenska, also known as “Hopelandic.”
Like The Residents, the group DVAR is anonymous. They also sing in an invented language, likely attributed to the being DVAR, through whom they claim their music is delivered.
Many bands have chosen this path, so I’m going into list form again. This information is taken from a post by NecroDevil on the RateYourMusic site. I’m just going to elaborate.
Raketkanon: This is a great Belgian band. Iggy Pop is a fan which makes sense. There is a lot of chaos and unpredictability in their music. Their album Rktkn#2 was engineered by Steve Albini.
Included songs: Mido and Florent
Cocteau Twins: If you’re wondering why you can’t seem to understand anything Elizabeth Fraser is singing, it’s because it’s some kind of Glossolalia often. I can’t say I can tell the difference between available language and gibberish in this context, so I include the song Lorelei which sounds like nothing I’ve heard before. Here is a quote from Fraser:
"They're not proper… It’s like the Cockney rhyming slang or something. Writers like John Lennon. Writers that just kind of made up their own portmanteaux that caught on, and people still use them. They don't mean anything, though. That's the thing. You know all the transcendent sounds. It's all sound all the way through."
I assume she’s talking about songs like Dig a Pony, though there are plenty of other examples in the Lennon songbook.
Ekova- French-based musical trio. Their lyrics combine Celtic, English, and Persian with lots of nonsense in between. Ditama.
Shambles - Bulgarian Death metal. Growls in the Elvish language Tura Leagan. Unfortunately, none of their early albums are on streaming platforms—primitive Death Trance. Not to be confused with the power-pop band The Shambles. I don’t see how that would be possible, though.
Enya - Occasionally sings in the made-up language of Loxian, and the song Sumiregusa from the album Amarantine is one such example. It was invented by her lyricist Roma Ryan and has six different alphabet systems. There is a whole cultural backstory to the Loxian people. This one runs deep.
Gabriela Robin (Yoko Kanno) - The song Cats on Mars from the Cowboy Beebop soundtrack is an example of Kanno’s language Gablish.
Yuki Kajiura is a Japanese Composer who is known for her anime soundtracks. In many instances, she utilizes a made-up language called Kajiurago. The song Sis Puella Magica is Latin for Be a Magical Girl; however, the lyrics are Kajiurago.
This is very much a partial list.
I am left with a few initial feelings after this brief immersion into slang, gibberish, dadaist poetry, and glossolalia. Having just re-read Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, I am perhaps more sensitive to dualities this week. I can’t help but think of inclusivity and exclusivity regarding this topic. Many of the non-lexical vocables are universal. Many have a tradition of correctness and regional possessiveness, but in other ways, they act as an extension of the universalist nature of music itself. While all genres in that category are distinct, they are also essentially all the same. They are all calling out in pure spirit and freedom in which there is really no wrong.
Slang is a different creature. It is language nested within language, representing the division of a whole. It often functions as a protective spell for those forced to face that division's trials. Cruelty creates a linguistic evolution that is exclusionary of the oppressor. They may try to decode this patois, but it is its nature to avoid being caught. If slang becomes familiar, it ceases to be slang, and another will take its place—Reefer, Grass, Weed, Doja, and so on. The oppressor has their newspeak, but nobody longs to understand it. Shorting, going long, blue chip, deuce, it’s all about keeping score and ultimately winning. The game is rigged; there is no reason to lack confidence.
Fictional languages are islands of comfort - an imagining of a different world. These places are often the refuge of the nerds, geeks, and goths - the indoor kids of Wet Hot American Summer. These worlds already exist as much as they are created. They are themselves a form of slang, though one that very few actually want to learn. Having an in-depth knowledge of Klingon or Sindarin is not cool by mainstream standards. It is able to remain stable in its meanings, having no threats forcing its evolution. It is possible to become a real language with all the grammatical constrictions.
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