Shoo be waa dum dumm

March 02, 2002

Shoo be waa dum dumm whoop whoop dum. Will doo wop ever have its comeback? What a great thing to have re-enter our musicsphere. New words being invented and sung in swinging harmony just because they fit the rhyme. I think some lounge singers mine a certain doo wop vibe when they have been singing a particular song for too long. My friend Ross coined the term "swenna" when we were teens. It applies to affected singers. We heard a cover band do "Long Cool Woman" and he said he thought the only word the singer used was "swenna". Try it to the tune of the Hollies "Long Cool Woman". "A swenena swenena swenna waswenna fo de eff bee aayyaa". The words had been contorted into the most singable yet meaningless words ever created. It was no longer about being downtown working for the FBI. It was about the singer. If you took this a little farther we could actually get back into the doo wop and turn a negative into a positive. Perhaps this could be somehow applied to the current spate of "sheyeah" bands. That is how "modern rockers" say "yeah". Its important to set your lower jaw forward, lock it in place, and sing with your lips tight and about 3mm apart. Apparently it helps to have one foot way forward, one foot way back and your hands draped over the mic stand like you were resting them on a goalie stick a la Ken Dryden. We all know the culprits. Some say it was all spawned by certain Seattle proponents of "Sheyeah" in the early 90's but I would say it dates back at least as far as David Clayton Thomas of Blood Sweat & Tears. You can't turn on the radio without hearing some"sheyeah". Its hard to tell the sheyeah bands apart. I think this may finally push us into complete gibberish in the cover bars. All the "Swenna" singers are putting their spin on the "Sheyeah" singer's songs which will result in no actual words being used and a lot of stress induced lockjaw. If we can get these guys to open their mouthes a little wider and apply some new chord changes...voila....shoo be waa dum dumm whoop whoop dum. Doo wop is back "in".