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So I’ve noticed one of the bloggers I enjoy reading, posting to a music link-up called Song Lyric Sunday. Given I like to do posts on music, I finally thought I’d join in.
So I decided I was IN this week.
And then the theme, given our host had a particularly wintery week, was “cold”.
At first, you’d have heard crickets from me on that theme if it weren’t too cold for them.
I’ve already posted my favourite winter song “Hazy Shade of Winter“, refuse to do Christmas songs, and anything else I could think of was, well, depressing and all about cold-hearted folk that I didn’t really want to reflect on in the glass half-full land of January.
So I hit Google and YouTube and after some fun music surfing landed on this one:
50 Words For Snow – Kate Bush (2011)
The album, also entitled 50 Words for Snow, is entirely devoted to thoughts and things winter. Other songs on the album include “Misty”, about a romantic fling with a snowman (That would certainly be cold. There’s a short animated video) and Wild Man, which tells the story of sightings of the Yeti in the Himalayas (brrrr).
But getting back to today’s song choice, the video is a bit long at 8:32, but you can just sort of let it flow over you in the background as you listen to Stephen Fry play the lexicographer indulging Bush’s desire to hear … 50 words for snow. As follows:
1 drifting
2 twisting
3 whiteout
4 blackbird braille
5 Wenceslasaire
6 avalancheCome on man, you’ve got 44 to go,
come on man, you’ve got 44 to go.
Come on man, you’ve got 44 to go,
come on man, you’ve got 44 to go.7 swans-a-melting
8 deamondi-pavlova
9 eiderfalls
10 Santanyeroofdikov
11 stellatundra
12 hunter’s dream
13 faloop’njoompoola
14 zebranivem
15 spangladasha
16 albadune
17 hironocrashka
18 hooded-weptCome on Joe, you’ve got 32 to go,
come on Joe, you’ve got 32 to go.
Come on now, you’ve got 32 to go,
come on now, you’ve got 32 to go.
Don’t you know it’s not just the Eskimo.
Let me hear your 50 words for snow.19 phlegm de neige
20 mountain sob
21 ankle breaker
22 erase-o-dust
23 shnamistoflopp’n
24 terrablizza
25 whirlissimo
26 vanilla swarm
27 icy skid ski
28 robber’s veilCome on Joe, just 22 to go,
come on Joe, just 22 to go.
Come on Joe, just you and the Eskimos,
Come on now, just 22 to go.
Come on now, just 22 to go,
Let me hear your 50 words for snow.29 creaky-creaky
30 psychohail
31 whippoccino
32 shimmerglisten
33 Zhivagodamarbletash
34 sorbetdeluge
35 sleetspoot’n
36 melt-o-blast
37 slipperella
38 boomerangablanca
39 groundberry down
40 meringuerpeaks
41 crème-bouffant
42 peDtaH ‘ej chIS qo’
43 deep’nhidden
44 bad for trains
45 shovelcrusted
46 anechoic
47 blown from polar fur
48 vanishing world
49 mistraldespair
50 snow.
I think my favourite is number 44.
What’s yours? Did she miss one?
This has been my first contribution to Helen Espinosa’s Song Lyric Sunday.
If you enjoyed it, consider checking out her blog – This Thing Called Life One Word At a Time – and some of the others sharing songs on the theme.
Happy January! Stay warm out there.
I love this for the shear fact that there are so many different words for snow. It makes me hopeful as a writer that there are still words out there to discover.
I didn’t realize the theme would be a tough one… sometimes I think of themes without first pausing to wonder if there are really any songs out there. I chose to go a more metaphorical route, but your contribution is stellar. Even the music felt somewhat wintry.
Thanks so much for playing along. I look forward to many more contributions. 🙂
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It was a great theme for the season – it just stumped me for something I hadn’t already posted previously and so forced me to go find something new… Which was fun – so thank you!
And the lover of language in me just loved this one too 🙂
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It’s always fun to go searching for music. 😉
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I also found this fun cover of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from Lada Gaga on the Muppets a few years ago I toyed with using. Much campy fun there: https://youtu.be/ZtoW4aV-CIc
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Haha, considering there is some dark stuff floating around today, it’s nice to hear some campy fun. 😉
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Yes – it appears many people went with cold poetic angst today. Brrrr!
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There’s just something about it, though… 😉
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It’s always interesting to learn tidbits of other languages and even synonyms for common words we use here. Fun and educational for sure. I’m sure you’re freezing your little butts off up there in Canada right now!
Again, thanks for stopping by. I’ll follow and hope to see more content soon!
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I certainly thought this was an interesting find. As for the weather up here – I haven’t been outside yet today so I don’t know. But it lightly snowed last night which means it can’t be THAT cold.
And thanks for the warm comments – I will try to join in again on this hop. It was a fun post to do.
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Ah, I haven’t heard Kate Bush in ages and only really know a few songs. That album is new to me and I am going to check it out. Thanks!
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It was new to me too – but I like the lilting way it just kind of flows along. I listening to the song on repeat last night as I wrote the post. A fun way to spend a bit of time once the kids were asleep 🙂
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🙂
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#20 is so evocative! All our snow is melting right now, so it’s slidgy slush. 😉
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20 is pretty good! And slidgy slush gives me a pretty good image too!
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I think my favourite word to describe snow out of the ones used in this song is psychohail (#30). There are days in Ottawa when the snow can be that crazy!
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Yeah – I have certainly experienced that. I am not a winter fan – but all the different descriptors here almost make it bearable.
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I think she made half of those up! 19 is my favorite.
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I wondered that too – re: making it up. But I love the whimsy of listing them all regardless. 19 is an interesting pick. I pictured a French snow loogie. An interesting visual 🙂
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It made me laugh and tipped me off that they were making up at least some of them. I looked up anechoic, which seemed too scientific. Turns out it means a layer that deadens sound. Which is pretty accurate, but could be many things, not just snow. Many of them are poetic, like 43 and 48, but I had to go with the one that was most fairy-tale-ish, to me. 🙂 I thought of yeti’s sneezing over the world.
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I love the image of yetis sneezing. Bless and thank you!
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You play well with others, my friend!
Well done.
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I do try! Thanks for visiting 🙂
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