Words "owned" by popstars. (Pete)

It's not a word so much as a phrase but Jarvis successfully stripped "My God!" of any kind of religious overtones and turned it into a general expression of nervy white male sexual uptightness.

Sleeplessness is causing my responses to be uber-indie this morning.

2. If Dylan's got 'Little Boy Lost', does Ian McNabb have 'Little Girl Lost'? Come to think of it that song was a rip-off of 'Lay Lady Lay'.

3. Key instance here, I think, is Richard Butler. STUPID. RADIO. FLOWERS.

Prince owns the year 1999.

Bob Marley owns the word "Lively" when used as a verb.

The Beastie Boys own the phrase "Kick it!".

I don't think anyone would want to go there but Robert Plant (via Zep) owns the right to use the words "Mordor" and "Gollum" in song.

The Clash owns "Casbah".

The Kinks own the name Lola and the ability to repeatedly sing about tea time.

Judy and the Dream of blah blah The Rollercoaster Ride ('Take Judy with her bow and blah blah') Judy is a Dick Slap

I've never noticed you hold your head up at a Belle & Sebastian picnic before. At least not by the time we retire to the pub.

Blur will always have the nonsense phrase "woo hoo" on their side.

I think the Stone Roses own the word "Adore". Or maybe its just that they're so adorable...

If he doesn't, Billy Corgan should own: "I'm a pathetic, overrated asshole whiner with an ego the size of the Empire State Building." I swear I heard him sing that in one of their songs. Or maybe that's just what I was thinking over and over.

Hendrix = "Haze" and "Experience(d)".

Velvet Underground should own all drug references.

Sting owns "Synchronicity".

Peter Gabriel - "Monkey".

And the Jesus and Mary Chain obviously own "Jesus". They stole it from the Doobie Brothers.

Aditionally, AC/DC owns both "Deeds" and "Voltage".

Conor of Bright Eyes is staking a youthful claim on "fever."

Will Smith is all about "Jiggy."

Puffy owns those little "Unh" noises he makes in every video.

Oh and less we forget "A-zigga-zigga-zoom."

Jarvis owns squealing, btw.

I should have known better with a GIRL like you.

Love me all the time, GIRL.

These days such a kind GIRL seems so hard to find.

I've got every reason on earth to be mad, 'cause I've just lost the only GIRL I had.

Yes yes you're going to lose that GIRL.

Asked a GIRL what she wanted to be, she said baby, can't you see?

Love you every day GIRL, Always on my mind. One thing I can say GIRL, Love you all the time.

Need I go on? And that's before 1965. Its not just a song, its their whole schtick! Beatles it is.

"give the girl a kiss"

"jersey girl"

"little girl so fine"

"this little girl"

the word "girl" is used eight times each on born to run and darkness on the edge of town. fifteen times on born in the u.s.a. alone. seems like a lot, no? well, consider this: the word "girl" was used 46 TIMES on the river.

beyond that, the word "girl" was de rigeur when the beatles were cutting their early singles in the 60s; every pop band worth their mettle was doing the same. by springsteen's time, it'd fallen out of fashion and, arguably, remained so despite his frankly amazingly incessant use of it.

this case is CLOSED.

To say that using the word "Girl" into the 70s, 80s and 90s was out of fashion is purely preposterous. It was everywhere on the charts from Neil Diamond (Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon) to Duran Duran (Girls on Film) to Motley Crue (the end-all Girls, Girls, Girls). The word has never experienced any lack of "cool" in pop.

Furthermore, the Beatles laid claim to the word by obviously writing superior songs which contain the word to the other "pop bands worth their mettle" at the time. The Beatles flat out have more popular songs containing the word "Girl". Despite the quantity of repetition, I would find it hard to assert that THE RIVER is more popular than HARD DAY'S NIGHT.

And lets not forget that the Beatles have seriority on their side. They were obviously there first and staked their claim to the word while Springsteen was still riding his trike down the Jersey boardwalk. To steal away a word from its original owner, one must display use and mastery of the word in hitmaking form far above that which would give them claim if the word were previously "unowned". Call it the principle of retention: a word that is owned by one tends to stay owned by that same one.

Dare I say that we can now crown the obvious winner? Yes, the Beatles. God bless you little Beatles, now go run along with your word before someone tries to steal it from you again!

Yeah.

My silly contributions:

I think I can absolutely state that Steve Miller *must* own 'pompitous'.

Right Said Fred owns 'catwalk'.

Van Halen owns "record machine".

Musical Youth obviously owns 'Dutchie'.

The Beatles own 'helter skelter'.

Beach Boys own 'surfer' (hey, the 'girl' argument could be made here too couldn't it?).

Elvis owns 'hound dog' and 'teddy bear'. Maybe even 'jailhouse'.

*NSYNC doesn't own 'me' unless you're talking about pronouncing it as 'mae' in which case they will be sharing it with Britney and Mandy Moore.

Now the real question of course is who owns 'baby'?

But yes, the Boss gets 'mister', 'foreman' and 'sir'. Maybe even 'Union'. Lloyd Cole once wrote 'Now I'm working hard for my union card' - but no, that can't compete.

Lloyd stakes a claim to the worthless word 'Jesus'. I think he's stolen 'Jane', too. And, um, 'whiskey' and lots of other drinking words.

Draining the, um, glass for you, Cookie.

Andy Partridge owns "manimals" and "ladybird" and "lava" and the lascivious pronounciation of "butter". Colin Moulding owns "bonfire".

Nik Kershaw owns "scullery".

Outkast, for me, own the phrase "I am for real" and the word "gasoline".

Destiny's Child, for me, own "bills".

no, i'm sorry: most tedious thing on ilm was that bowen thread, whatever the fuck that was about.

then hand it down to Lil'Bow-Wow

Britney owns "Oops"

The Shangri-Las own "love" but only if its spelled L-U-V. Despite a challenge from the NY Dolls.

Win own "freaky" and "trigger" which is more than I bloody well do at the moment.

Anyway, back to the topic. Mark E. Smith probablly owns TONS of words but arguably the most important is "Fucking". Not necessarily from his lyrics, but his use and abuse of the word in interviews and live situations is unmatched. Something about his tone that perfectly suits it.

Queen = "Bicycle" (or should I say "Bi-cycle"), "Champions" and all self-aggrandizing, sports related song imagery about beating your foe to a pulp. And how could one forget "Beelzebub"?

Sorry, but assertions to Peter Frampton's ownership of "Baby" will not be acknowledged!

I think you'll find that it's the RONETTES who own the word "Baby" as in "Be My..."

Ronettes vs. Supremes, there's a face-off to be decided...

Perhaps shane mcgowan owns "in the mo-o-ornin'"

x0x0

With Mark E Smith, you have to remember he adds the syllable "ah" to the end of virtually every word he stops on.

It's a bit obscure, but I remember a Huey Lewis review where the reviewer said Huey copied his enunciation of "des-pa-raaaa-tion" from Colin Hay in "Overkill". Every since, Colin's use has really stuck out for me.

While I'm on an early 80s kick, how about Eddie Grant's "OOOOYYY!!" from "Electric Avenue"? And Richard Butler, what a great enunciator, he almost wrestled "gas" away from Mick Jagger in "President Gas". And Robert Smith's use of "cats"-- TWICE. ("Let's Go to Bed";"Love Cats".

Who has the best "yeah"? Madonna in "Lucky Star"? The Beatles again, "She Loves You"? Mick Jagger, in between songs live ("Oh yeah"; "Well, alright"; etc) Or perhaps there's some dark-horse picks? (Mine would be Oasis "Columbia"-- "yeah yeah YEAH".)

We'll also give Colin Hay "Vegemite", and of course "Combie".

And yes, good one, Mark E. gets the "Uh" at the end of every word.

as in "Dr. Faustus, horseshoes splacking" (Dr. Faustus from "Bend Sinister")

The Beastie Boys have pilfered "yeah." And it only took them once.

I think Tool gets "sober."

David Lowery owns "fecund" like no other.

Frank Sinatra should have the word MY in his gravestone. He earned it.

Nick Cave gets "loverman," and that cool-ass bell toll from Red Right Hand. A defining moment there.

And to settle all dispute, I'm going to award Milli Vanilli with "girl." I can't hear the damn word without finishing with "you know it's true."

Queen may own "bi-cycle", "champions" and "Beelzebub", but more important, surely, is their ownership of "Bismillah!".

Otherwise... well, I suppose Madness sort of own "beyond". Joy Division/New Order own every single word ending in "-sion" or "- tion". Terry Hall must own something...ah yes, "ex-husbands and wives" (managing to use this exact phrase in two completely different songs several years apart). Stump got both "fish" and "chips" in one.

And tangent (oops) to the "best yeah" discussion, I give you the most _ridiculous_ "yeah": Charles and Eddie. "Would I lie to you baby, would I lie to you? Oh yeah!"

seriously, feel free, it makes us feel young again

Whenever I see a little house in the country, it doesn't even have to be pink, I think of Johnny Cougar Mellencamp. I suppose he owns the phrase little pink houses, not impressive.

seems to me artists more often 'coin' a phrase rather than a single word. and not necessarily a complete sentence ... just a few ideas combined together.

for the Pumpkins, it was Corgan's fascination with the image of the sacred heart, along with the word 'June' (suggesting the month, a fictional woman, seasonal change, etc.) ... not any specific egomaniacal ethos as queried by Pete in the original question.

note that I'm no Corgan defender. Their work shot downwards at a fairly even slope after Siamese Dream .. Adore was terrible

David Byrne is partial to a "Who"

(Pete)

Wow, the olden days!

Bill Callahan owns both eagle and river
Current 93 own nihil

Ramones own "wanna"