Bumping And Bomping Along With Your Favorite Songs – (Especially When There Are No Lyrics)

Most of us sing along with the lyrics to our favorite songs.

We don’t have to be in tune (thank goodness).

We don’t have to know all of the words.

It’s perfectly acceptable to sing “la la la’s” or random collections of vowel sounds to fill in those gaps that we don’t quite remember. 

But what about those songs where just singing the lyrics isn’t enough?

Where we feel the need to sing along with the instruments, as well?

As Virgindog pointed out in the comments for Jon Deutsch’s excellent Flash Friday Review of “Tequila…”

…it’s nearly impossible not to sing along:

“Baa daht da da daa daht dat da! Baa daht da da daa daht da!”

I’d never really thought about it before.

But there are just some songs where it seems necessary to vocalize the instruments.

The first one I think of is “Baba O’Riley:”

I am going to sing, “bommmm… bom bommmm…” along with the piano part in the intro. Every time.

Every. Single. Time.

It’s the same with “Seven Nation Army:”

Except that one is, “bommm… bom BOM bom bom bommm… bomp…”

Huge difference. Really. I promise.

“Low Rider” (the one by War) always gets: “bump bump bump bump bump bump bump – bump bump bump bump bummmp… ” when the blues harp comes in.

{Parenthetical query:}

Why, in that particular song, is it “bump,” when the others are clearly: “bomp”?

I don’t know. I didn’t write them, I just sing them.

“Hello, Goodbye” always gets a “waaaohhh” along with the guitar after the “I don’t know” lyric. 

I’m not sure why this happens for certain songs and not others.

I only know it’s unavoidable for those songs.

And V-Dog and I are not the only ones to participate in this phenomenon.

It’s now possible to hear stadiums full of people on both sides of the Atlantic sing “woh, oh, oh” to “Sweet Caroline.” It’s become an unofficial lyric.

Movie and TV show themes seem particularly prone to this phenomenon.

“Nana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana…”

…and you know what comes next.

(Yes, this is vocalized once at the end. But everyone sings it with the instruments as well).

Have you ever gone swimming in the ocean without someone in your group singing “dunn dunn, dunn dunn, dunn dunn, dunn, dunn”?

If you have, your friends have more restraint than mine.

And even people who were not yet born in the 60’s know:

That when something weird or unexplainable happens, you immediately sing “doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot…”

I mean, I think it’s some kind of rule.

I could go on and on, but I will have mercy and stop.

You are probably going to have at least one of these stuck in your head all day. I can’t be responsible for any more.

Can you think of any other songs where everyone sings along with the instrumentation?

Or do you have any that are personal to you?

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