Public domain lyrical hooks

[IdleRich]

I didn't know what name to call this thread but the title I came up with was an attempt to describe the things I'm talking about. I think at one point we did discuss a classic example which is the line

"known as a half-step but yours is a full climb"

But as I remember it we didn't go into any other examples (forgive me if I'm wrong).

I mean lines that have been sampled countless times, in fact not just sampled, I'm talking about phrases that are so ubiquitous that it's also common for people to just sing them or rap them themselves. Often hardly anyone even knows where they originated - and even if you think you do then chances are it will just be an early time when it was sampled - but they have just become part of the language of music to such an extent that no-one worries about that when they use it.

Off the top of my head a couple that come to my mind are

"The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire..."

"Push push push in the bush"

"D for the damager" (or D4 damager as they seem to write it)

I'm having a mental block but I'm sure you guys can help me out with some more - bonus points if you can trace the lineage through disco, electro, house etc of your chosen example.

 

[IdleRich]

Also quite interesting I think when they get changed... e.g "slipping in and out of phenomena" became "something like a phenomenon" and it's the new version that crops up now.

 

[Murphy]

Va Va Voom was an infamous Belgian club in Antwerp, named after Edith Piaf‘s rendition of a Flemish folk song but in French rather than errm Flemish, which is Vuh Vuh Vhroohm

 

[pattycakes_]

Push in the bush is Musique - In the Bush

D for damager is A.D.O.R. - One for the Trouble

Both great tunes

 

[IdleRich]

I did know what those are from (though I'm not certain about the Roof is on Fire one), I'm just saying that they are examples of things where they have become so ubiquitous that many people don't know what they are from originally and it doesn't matter cos people feel free to use them without knowing (just sampling or copying the sample, which may also be copied from a sample etc) which seems to me be would normally be a kind of no-no but it's deemed ok with these things which have become - yeah, I guess it's the right phrase - part of the public domain.

Also




So the question I'm asking is not, where do the above originate, but what others have similar status - though of course feel free to fill in the gaps or add anything you know to the history too, like I reckon the ADOR one makes sense cos it's all "A is for" and "D is for Damager" which has been corrupted to this D4 Damager thing in samples which doesn't really make sense. Not that it matters obviously.

Edit - sorry if that was rude Pattycakes, that was a perfectly good answer to what I said

 

[william_kent]

"Once I was blind but now I can see"

misquoted from the New Testament, and used in both Amazing Grace and Can's Yoo Doo Right, plus a load of others that I can't name off the top of my head*, but they're out there - there's a variation, "I can see that once I was blind," that pops up as well in multiple songs

* I'm sure I once heard it in a Primal Scream song, and thought to myself that Bobby Gillespie was stealing off Can, but then later I found out that Can's use of it isn't unique in the slightest

 

[william_kent]

my favourite has to be "throw your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care" and its variants such as "wave your hands in the air like you just don't care" - the origins of this must be pretty ancient, lost in the mists of time, because they feature in the "Bacchae" episode of the historical drama, "Xena Warrior Princess"



Xena Warrior Princess - Bacchae Nightclub Scene

 

[bassbeyondreason]

"Don't start no shit/stuff won't be no shit/stuff" is (I think) a Mardi Gras Indian chant that's spread through Southern rap and beyond.

 

[sufi]

Roof is on Fire

I was curious about that one and looked it up a while ago, the internet really seems to pedestrianise these vital cultural touchstones https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roof_Is_on_Fire
(Also didnt the odious Nelly cite this one?)

Burn motherfucker burn

 

[IdleRich]

Ah that was the earliest one I found but glad to have it confirmed, but yeah internet does remove the mystery.

Interestingly(?) I was going to distinguish lyrics such as this from ones that are utterly derivative and which have probably been invented by several people at once eg things like "wave your hands in the air like you just don't care shake your derriere" etc which are basically "moon in june" level but I can't really think of a proper way to separate what I see as the two strands... maybe they're not really different.

Not sure about Nelly but I like this one with Princess Superstar "The roof is on fire, we don't need no water I'm about to fucking come" - about two minutes into the video and judging by Jean-Claude's expression she might be right.

 

[IdleRich]

Today I needed to buy some fly spray, there were a number of options but I plumped for Raid - it was only on the way home that it struck me that when looking up the origin of the "The roof is on fire" hook I had read about a piss-take cover type thing which says "The roach, the roach, the roach is on the wall, we don't need no Raid, let the silly sucker crawl." and as a result I had Raid in my head as a reputable brand and so today I purchased it over the options. Completely irrelevant to the thread I know but I found that interesting and a little bit sinister tool.

 

[IdleRich]

Just found myself humming "There's some ho's in this house, if you see 'em point 'em out" which is a line that has been recycled countless times to become a faded palimpsest of itself.