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Subject: Bigod 20: anyone have 4 vocoder-munged syllables from "America?"
Written By: Foo Bar on 05/06/05 at 12:52 am
Bigod 20: "America", from 1992's "Steel Works".
OK, 90% of the track is samples from historical Kennedy speeches, etc, which are pretty easy. But there are a few lines that appear to be the work of the band, passed through some vocoder-like gadget. Four syllables, and I still don't get it.
I used to think the chorus was
You should not
?? ? ?
And I'll provide
Domination
...until I read http://www.dvara.net/HK/cyberpunk.pdf
You sit back
?? ? ?
And I'll provide
Domination
...which made more sense, but the author flaked out on the same line I did :)
Subject: Re: Bigod 20: anyone have 4 vocoder-munged syllables from "America?"
Written By: Foo Bar on 12/15/06 at 1:42 am
Bumping from before my birth. Only one more on my list of sample sources, I promise.
Subject: Re: Bigod 20: anyone have 4 vocoder-munged syllables from "America?"
Written By: Foo Bar on 09/05/08 at 1:40 am
...until I read http://www.dvara.net/HK/cyberpunk.pdf
You sit back
?? ? ?
And I'll provide
Domination
...which made more sense, but the author flaked out on the same line I did :)
...except that both the author of the cyberpunk paper and I were both flat out wrong!
I've gotten my hands on the original 12" vinyl (Bigod 20: America / Photographic, ZYX 6055-12, Techno*Drome International). On the back, it reads:
One: A.M.E.R.I.C.A.
Two: Photographic
(( various credits ))
"We should stop
The endless fight
About worldwide
Domination!!!"
Having that printed on the back of the 12" vinyl cover is about as conclusive as it could possibly get for the vocoder lyrics for Bigod 20's "America".
Both my original guess and the cyberpunk thesis paper's author were not merely wrong, they were wrong enough to change the way the song works. Talk about a misheard lyric; although the meaning of the song is the same, with either of our guesses, the point was presumably to sing the chorus in irony. The real lyrics to the chorus were intended to be sung not with irony, but with conviction.
More than three years after spawning the thread, I wind up solving my own mystery. Ask not what the Google can do for you; ask what you can do for the Google.