Stupid Question ™
July 18, 2002
By John Ruch
© 2002
Q: What does the “REO” in REO Speedwagon mean?
—Deron J. Husak
A: Of course, we must also ask ourselves, “What the heck is a speedwagon?” The answers are linked.
The Speedwagon was a workhorse-type truck popular in the early days of automobile history. It was built by the REO Motor Car Co. of Lansing, Michigan. The company was more commonly referred to as Reo, pronounced like the Spanish rio.
REO are the initials of the rather incredibly named Ransom Eli Olds, for whom the Oldsmobile is named. He was born in Geneva, Ohio in 1864. In 1897, as a pioneering automobile designer, he teamed with Samuel Smith to form the Olds Motor Vehicle Co., which later became Oldsmobile.
Olds left in 1904 to start his own company, but Oldsmobile retained the rights to the “Olds” name, so he went with “REO.” The first REO cars shipped in 1905.
In was 1909 when the REO began making Speedwagons, which quickly became famed for their power and endurance. They were used as fire and police trucks, ambulances and dump trucks, and for similar demanding duties.
A boxy affair, the truck by today’s standards looks like more wagon than speed. Production peaked in the late 1920s.
REO was nearly killed by the Depression and by 1957 was only a truck line, which was then purchased by the White Truck company. White continued producing a “Diamond-Reo” line until 1974.
The band REO Speedwagon formed in 1968 and enjoyed superstardom in the 1980s with such hits as “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” “Keep on Loving You” and similar clichés.
Their band logo, featuring wings and a prominent “REO,” references the old REO Motor Vehicle Co. logo. And the cover of their 1971 debut album is a close-up detail of an actual REO Speedwagon.
Keyboardist Neal Doughty once said in an interview that he learned of the vehicle in a college class on the history of transportation, where he saw “REO Speedwagon” written on a blackboard. Supposedly, he saw this on the very day the band began searching for a name.
Showing posts with label music etymology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music etymology. Show all posts
March 28, 2008
Def Leppard's "Gunter Glieben Glauten Globen"
Stupid Question ™
March 21, 2002
By John Ruch
© 2002
Q: “Untan Gleebin Glouten Globin”—what the heck is Def Leppard mumbling at the beginning of their song “Rock of Ages”?
—Lefty
A: This strange phrase, spoken in a comical quasi-German accent, opens the song “Rock of Ages” on Def Leppard’s 1983 hit album “Pyromania.”
According to the band itself, the phrase is actually “Gunter glieben glauten globen.” (The lyric sheet in a recent rerelease misprinted “glauchen” for “glauten”; most people hear the “t.”)
While the band’s web site reports that its members have joked about the phrase meaning, “Running through the forest silently,” it actually is just plain nonsense used in place of the usual “One, two, three, four” beat count.
The guy saying it is Robert John “Mutt” Lange, the album’s producer and co-songwriter. Reportedly, he spontaneously blurted out the phrase after getting sick of saying, “One, two, three, four” over and over. (He’s infamous for demanding multiple takes of recordings.)
Lange’s also the one who says, “Yes, it does, bloody hell!” near the end of “Love Bites” on the band’s 1987 album “Hysteria.” Def Leppard included many such in-jokes on its albums.
Lange is an interesting guy who maintains strict personal privacy despite being a renowned songwriter and producer. He’s written hits for Michael Bolton, the Backstreet Boys and Huey Lewis. His production credits include Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black,” plus albums for XTC, Billy Ocean, the Cars and Foreigner.
His most extensive writing and production work has been for Def Leppard, Bryan Adams and now Shania Twain, the pop-country singer to whom he is married and whose career he’s been molding Svengali-style by some accounts.
Exactly how Lange came up with such a weird little series of words is a mystery to many, probably including himself. To most people, it sounds like mock German, and the band chose to spell it in German style. In fact, “Globen” means “globes” in German, though Lange’s usage is probably coincidental. (Start inventing German-sounding words and you’ll surely hit on a real one.)
If you wanted to get insanely conspiratorial, you could take the “G” off the beginning of each word. This would leave you with “under lieben lauten loben”—all of which are German words. Unter can mean “under,” “in,” “between,” “among,” etc. Lieben is “to love,” “to make love,” or “things that are loved.” Lauten could be a form of the adjective “loud,” or a plural of “lute.” Loben is the verb “to praise,” and might also be used as a noun.
An extremely generous translator could wring, “To make love in loud praise” out of these words. But it’s best if we get back to reality.
Interestingly, Lange is a South African native, so it’s possible he was actually imitating Afrikaans (the Dutch-derived language spoken by descendants of early European colonists). But Robert Kirsner, a professor of Dutch and Afrikaans at the University of California Los Angeles, assures me that the words are not Afrikaans, and that it looks more like fake German to him.
March 21, 2002
By John Ruch
© 2002
Q: “Untan Gleebin Glouten Globin”—what the heck is Def Leppard mumbling at the beginning of their song “Rock of Ages”?
—Lefty
A: This strange phrase, spoken in a comical quasi-German accent, opens the song “Rock of Ages” on Def Leppard’s 1983 hit album “Pyromania.”
According to the band itself, the phrase is actually “Gunter glieben glauten globen.” (The lyric sheet in a recent rerelease misprinted “glauchen” for “glauten”; most people hear the “t.”)
While the band’s web site reports that its members have joked about the phrase meaning, “Running through the forest silently,” it actually is just plain nonsense used in place of the usual “One, two, three, four” beat count.
The guy saying it is Robert John “Mutt” Lange, the album’s producer and co-songwriter. Reportedly, he spontaneously blurted out the phrase after getting sick of saying, “One, two, three, four” over and over. (He’s infamous for demanding multiple takes of recordings.)
Lange’s also the one who says, “Yes, it does, bloody hell!” near the end of “Love Bites” on the band’s 1987 album “Hysteria.” Def Leppard included many such in-jokes on its albums.
Lange is an interesting guy who maintains strict personal privacy despite being a renowned songwriter and producer. He’s written hits for Michael Bolton, the Backstreet Boys and Huey Lewis. His production credits include Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black,” plus albums for XTC, Billy Ocean, the Cars and Foreigner.
His most extensive writing and production work has been for Def Leppard, Bryan Adams and now Shania Twain, the pop-country singer to whom he is married and whose career he’s been molding Svengali-style by some accounts.
Exactly how Lange came up with such a weird little series of words is a mystery to many, probably including himself. To most people, it sounds like mock German, and the band chose to spell it in German style. In fact, “Globen” means “globes” in German, though Lange’s usage is probably coincidental. (Start inventing German-sounding words and you’ll surely hit on a real one.)
If you wanted to get insanely conspiratorial, you could take the “G” off the beginning of each word. This would leave you with “under lieben lauten loben”—all of which are German words. Unter can mean “under,” “in,” “between,” “among,” etc. Lieben is “to love,” “to make love,” or “things that are loved.” Lauten could be a form of the adjective “loud,” or a plural of “lute.” Loben is the verb “to praise,” and might also be used as a noun.
An extremely generous translator could wring, “To make love in loud praise” out of these words. But it’s best if we get back to reality.
Interestingly, Lange is a South African native, so it’s possible he was actually imitating Afrikaans (the Dutch-derived language spoken by descendants of early European colonists). But Robert Kirsner, a professor of Dutch and Afrikaans at the University of California Los Angeles, assures me that the words are not Afrikaans, and that it looks more like fake German to him.