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Hubba hubba murder. Slang songs of the forties
05/12/09
I've sort of fallen in love with the 40s station on Sirius radio. Not only is the music great; it serves as a primary source on the greatest generation (each of us has an ancestor from that era. Kind of weird, if you think about it).
These two songs, "Murder, He Says," one version sung by Anita O'Day and another by Betty Hutton, and "Hubba Hubba Hubba" allow us, for example, to listen to the era's slang in a proper context, if not quite in the wild.
First up is "Hubba Hubba Hubba, Dig You Later," by that most laid back of singers, Perry Como. You'll notice, as in this song by Wanda Jackson, a different understanding of the necessities of warfare, from that in our own day, although "Hubba" lacks the sheer triumphalism of the Jackson song. Callous, perhaps, but showy expressions of regret don't make people less dead, assuming that minimizing collateral damage is some kind of priority (then again, perhaps such a consideration makes for a less effective effort). I wonder if a people with a "forties" sensibility would have made such a hubbub over sleep deprivation, waterboarding, and the use of bugs in the interrogation of murderous terrorists?
Hey, that's Carmen Miranda!
Next up is "Murder, She Says." It's probably one of popular culture's first encounters with "anti-language" or speech where words mean the opposite of their original intention. Modern examples include "wicked" and "bad" for "good," as in, "He's a bad a**." Tori Amos has a very nice version of the song on the soundtrack to Mona Lisa Smile.
Anito O'Day with Gene Krupa:
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