19 October 2016, No. 205, Adriano Celentano, ‘Prisencolinensinainciusol’

I like songs with vocals that aren’t language. Non-lexical vocables seems to be the term, but that mostly refers to scatting and “ooh wee ooh, la la la” type noises, and that’s not quite what I mean. I’m talking about more guttural nonsense like e.g. the caveman bits on the Tubular Bells LP or “Seel Hole” from Download’s beautifully jarring Furnace LP. I’ve been told I ought to listen to Sigur Rós, but I’ve never gotten around to it.

Far from being some kind of made-up emotive thing, though, today’s tune features a lingua phony that’s meant to sound like English. It doesn’t, really, except for that one line that ends with the word girls, and there are other actual English words interspersed. All right is a refrain, and he says baby once or twice. Plus which “Prisencolinensinainciusol” from Adriano Celentano occupies the No. 205 spot in edited form, and the GW Ruff Edit includes some added English extras courtesy of Instant Funk, ending with the chant from “I Got My Mind Made Up.” Say what?