KEVIN McCORRY, HOST: I’m Kevin McCorry and this is ‘Jukebox Journey.’
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Ain’t Got No Home” by Clarence “Frogman” Henry, “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” by The Police, “Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and The Mug and Artie)” by Tom Waits, “DENIAL IS A RIVER” by Doechii]
KM: We’re unstuck in time, jumping through decades and genres, meditating on a theme.
This week: Stop Making Sense.
What do you say when there are no words? What do you mean when to arrive at meaning means you’ve missed the point?
[MUSIC: “Improvised Scat Song” by Jelly Roll Morton]
KM: There’s a shared thread through popular music that cuts across styles and transcends generations — where the only principle seems to be: stop trying to grasp the principles.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: Or as Jelly Roll Morton said in a famous 1938 field recording:
[AUDIO RECORDING OF ALAN LOMAX AND JELLY ROLL MORTON:
LOMAX: “What does scat mean?
MORTON: Scat doesn’t mean anything, but just something to give a song a flavor.”]
KM: It was Louis Armstrong who put the form on the map in 1926, the idea of ‘voice’ as a play on ‘instrument.’
[MUSIC: “Heebie Jeebies” by Louie Armstrong]
KM: From there, it spread like a five-octave vocal range.
Duke Ellington put Getrude “Baby” Cox on one of his recordings in 1928.
[MUSIC: “The Mooche” by Duke Ellington, feat. Getrude “Baby” Cox]
KM: Then came the Boswell Sisters in 1930.
[MUSIC: “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” by the Boswell Singers]
KM: By the mid century, we hear the prior generations emulated by vocal greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “How High The Moon” by Ella Fitzgerald and “All Of Me” by Sarah Vaughan]
KM: In jazz, the form can feel refined and poetic — with the rhythms of Slim Gaillard swinging like a metronome for the Beat Generation.
[MUSIC: “Avocado Seed Soup Company, Pt. 1” by Slim Gaillard]
KM: The rock and roll era takes the idea and turns it to loopy waves of chaos — an act of catching delirium in the mirror.
[MUSIC: “Rubber Buscuit” by the Chips].
KM: There’s The Chips from 1956.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: The Trashmen from 1963.
[MUSIC: “The Bird Is The Word” by The Trashmen]
KM: And the 5.6.7.8’s doing a retro vibe in 1994.
[MUSIC: “Woo Hoo” by the 5, 6, 7, 8s].
KM: Then there’s Adriano Celentano — an Italian artist from the 70s who guessed, correctly, that he could make any old gibberish a hit if it sounded like American pop.
MUSIC: “Prisencolinensinainciusol” by Adriano Celentano]
KM: Stand at a certain distance and there’s an abstract art quality to it all, like gazing before a giant Jackson Pollock canvas, or reading Dada-ist poetry. If the world doesn’t make sense, if things don’t add up, why suggest otherwise?
[MUSIC: “I Zimbra” by Talking Heads]
KM: This 1980 track is considered a gateway into such thinking for Talking Heads, which culminated in their G.O.A.T.-ed concert doc four years later.
[MUSIC: “Girlfriend is Better” by Talking Heads, live from “Stop Making Sense”]
KM: Across genres, there’s also a generational backlash happening, with young telling old: ‘Oh you don’t understand me, huh, well I’ll show you just how much.’
[MUSIC: “Scentless Apprentice” by Nirvana]
KM: You hear it in Nirvana, railing against the polished corporate rock of the late ‘80s, early ‘90s.
And you can hear it in 2010s hip hop, with mumble rappers like Playboi Carti shrugging off the need to be a ‘lyrical miracle’ word wizard.
[MUSIC: “EARFQUAKE” by Tyler, The Creator, feat. Playboi Carti].
KM: Sometimes what hits the hardest is the juxtaposition of the two. Sense and nonsense in stark relief, not an either/or, but a both.
Take Minnie Riperton from 1974:
[MUSIC: “Loving You” by Minnie Riperton]
KM: Pure and simple language, followed by that which can only be expressed without words.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: I’m Kevin McCorry and this has been a Jukebox Journey on WHYY.
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