Re: Ba-Bush-Ka

[caen!bsbbs!nrc@harvard.harvard.edu (N. Richard Caldwell)]

st@dcs.ed.ac.UK (Scott Telford) writes:

> In article <1991Nov14.031858.3413@sti.com>, stev0@sti.COM (Steve
> Berlin) writes:
> >my favorite KaTe Songs, yet I always wince at the line "Just like his wife
> >before she freezed on him". Ignoring the possible sexist connotations of thi
> >line, what bugs me is why didn't she use the correct word, "Froze"?  It does
 
> What about the line "She couldn't have made a *worst* move"? I know it
> says "worse" in the lyrics, but she definitely sings "worst". Maybe
> she just wasn't feeling very grammatical when she wrote Babooshka?

I think there are other examples of this kind of slight corruption of 
the language to suit her needs though I can't recall them off hand. 
Sometimes the sound of a word is just as important as the word itself.
"Freezed," for example, is a tinny sort of word while "froze" would 
been a nice woody sounding word.  Caribou gooone.

|   "I think it's wonderful if they have their own intepretations. I think 
|that's really important, although it matters to me that the lyrics are 
|saying something, and I spend a lot of time on lyrics.  They're very 
|difficult. I think a lot of the power of lyric is the sounds. The whole 
|thing is just a combination of sounds and textures and definately different 
|words have a different feeling that go with them.  The way consonants
|mark things.  It's a very percussive instrument, in a way, words. And I 
|think that that's very important, that they feel and sound right" 

This shows up even more in Kate's background vocals where she is freed 
of of all language constraints and can just create images or moods with 
vocal sounds.


"Don't drive too slowly."         Richard Caldwell
                                  The Big Sky BBS (+1 614 864 1198)
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