The Mumbling Wilburys [ang]

Anna Wilbury

UGO Backtrack: Musical Mumbling
By Christian Hoopes
"The Traveling Wilburys was to mumbling what The Justice League was to superheroes."

Generally speaking, a significant factor relative to a song's popularity is the lyrics - a catchy hook, or even a not catchy one (anyone remember that "keep it separated" Offspring song back in the '90s?) can propel a tune to the top of the charts. All you have to do is get a phrase lodged in listeners' heads.

Unless you're a tremendous mumbler.

Throughout history, mumblers have made up a large segment of the marketplace - artists ranging from Kurt Cobain to Thom Thorke have sold scores of albums despite the fact that their voices are almost completely unintelligible to anyone but themselves.

Mumblers have various motivations for sounding the way they do - some may feel that mumbling is a necessary counterbalance to weak lyrics, although it seems to be our generation's lot in life that the worst lyrics are crystal clear ("Sadness is beautiful but loneliness is tragical" - Backstreet Boys).

Others may just feel that it sounds a little more artistic to blur one's words together in a kind of Bruce Springsteen/eyes closed/pained expression kind of forced artistry. These would be your Peter Ceteras, your John Mayers, and your Jay-Zs (although to be fair, Z's lyrics are somewhat intelligible; they just don't make any sense. "To try and to fail, the two things I hate/Succeed in this rap game, the two things that's great." He hates to try, and success is two things?).

But at the end of the day, there are musicians who thrive on obscuring most of their words, and the thing is, many of their words are interesting. Take Radiohead's aforementioned Thom Yorke: He says interesting (somewhat stupid from time to time, yes, but still interesting, at least on the whole) things all the time, but you can't understand any of it.

Thom (actual lyric): "I'll drown my beliefs to have you be in peace."

Thom (what you hear): I'll down herds of geese to have your babies."

And that's one of the more intelligible of his songs. When he gets really artistic, all hope flies out the window.

Thom (actual lyric): Stare into the law, the pyramid is power, if you are on the top, then it is a long drop.

Thom (what you hear): Garba flarba Flynn, ze reenadid if florwer, blarhf a zoog a toop, theee s na garr fop.

Not that he's alone. Several of his contemporaries are equally guilty.

Elliott Smith (actual lyric): Hear you scratch your skin, your sandpaper throat.

Elliott Smith (what you hear): Screera smarntooth skin, your sandpaper goat.

Matt Bellamy (actual lyric): For one moment I wish you'd hold your stage with no feelings at all.

Matt Bellamy (what you hear): For one notebook I wish you'd hold your breath with your feelings for Paul.

Kurt Cobain (actual lyric): I lie in the soil and fertilize mushrooms, leaking out gas fumes are made into perfume.

Kurt Cobain (what you hear): Zoo for feeling in old California, lee out fast for Bob's runnin' t'ward ya

John Mayer (actual lyric): I love the shape you take when crawling towards the pillowcase.

John Mayer (what you hear): I love the (something) you (something...something...unintelligible) forward the fireplace.

All of this is fine and good, but it's not like these people came up with this style on their own - they learned from the master himself: of course I'm referring to Fob Millin.

Or for the mumble-impaired among you, Bob Dylan.

Bob got his start as a folk singer in the 1960s, and eventually gained momentum writing anti-war songs about Vietnam and how the Khymer Rouge wasn't really that bad once you get to know them. OK, maybe I'm reading between the lines a little bit there, because really it's just a working theory that his songs were about anything other than shoelaces and gravy, as there is not a soul alive save Bob himself who understands a word he was saying.

Dylan was a special kind of mumbler. He had (and still has) a high-pitched, squeaky voice. He wrote some actually very good songs with terrific melodies and brilliant structures, with the only down-side being that apart from the song titles, which were printed in black and white on his records for all to see, you really couldn't tell what they were about.

Archaeologists have re-pieced several of his songs and have found out that lyrics which at the time sounded like a man going "Zee ba die zee floopin zeebeedee" actually translated out to things like "You stare into the vacuum of his eyes and ask him, do you want to make a deal? Ah, how does it feel?" which you have to admit is far more cool-sounding than "zee ba deebie zee."

Somehow, Dylan sold album after album and made it through to the '80s, his legend status intact. Clearly, there was nothing left to do but form the greatest mumbling supergroup the world has ever known: The Traveling Wilburys.

The Traveling Wilburys was to mumbling what The Justice League was to superheroes - the ultimate package deal. You had Roy Orbison, who reminded one strongly of Gene Autrey if he was blind and dressed like Johnny Cash. You had Jeff Lynne from ELO, who could take a phrase like "Our love couldn't go wrong" and turn it into "Ah ruff, wooden is gone." You had George Harrison who - OK, I can't actually say anything bad about George Harrison. But you did also have Tom Petty, who is just basically Bob Dylan with more pronounced teeth.

Together, they were The Traveling Wilburys, and had they lasted long enough they could have, dare I say, taken over the world. Listening to a Traveling WIlbury song is like having a long and strange dream similar to the 'space vortex 45-minute trippy scene in 2001: Space Odyssey. 99% of the songs sounded like "Flooza zoopa doopa flee" over and over again, but with banjos in the background. They were catchy, but you weren't really sure if they were about breaking up with a girlfriend or advocating sacrificing children to the dark lord. There was really no way to know.

Ultimately, they disbanded after Roy Orbison went on to that big sideburns in the sky, and music went back to being at least somewhat intelligible again, for a while. But for a brief moment, there was a perfect storm - a synapse wherein the planets aligned and the mumblers had full reign to say and do whatever they wanted, whatever that may be. Archaeologists believe most of their songs were in some way or another about the buttless pantsuit Cher wore on her "If I Could Turn Back Time" video. Think about that.