Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Zenyatta Mondatta

One of my all time favorite albums garners one of the most obscure titles in album title land. During my morning commute, my trusty iPod shuffled to Zenyatta Mondatta tracks. After having a split second flashback to 2004 when I picked up this musical masterpiece from Amoeba Records in Hollywood, I began to wonder, what on earth is a Zenyatta Mondatta? Besides the fact that it's a cool pairing of words, but what does it mean? Stewart Copeland explains, "It means everything," [Copeland] yelled back. "It's the same explanation that applies to the last two. It doesn’t have a specific meaning like ‘Police Brutality’ or ‘Police Arrest’, or anything predictable like that. Being vague it says a lot more. You can interpret it in a lot of different ways. It’s not an attempt to be mysterious, just syllables that sound good together, like the sound of a melody that has no words at all has a meaning." Well, I guess ZM beat the runner up title, Trimondo Blondomina, meaning...3 blondes and the world. I'm glad the Police went with ZM. But, hey, they could have named it anything and it'd still be one of the best reggae and punk playlists out there.

2 comments:

Vanessa Stern said...

Or it could also mean Girl Power Baby! Zenyatta is also the Philly horse owned by the M in A & M Records owner Jerry Moss. Zenyatta is the Breeder's Cup Classic Winner who beat out all the boys! She lost Horse of the Year to Rachel Alexandra and this April Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra are the 2 Philly's who will be competing against each other in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I for sure will be routing for Zenyatta!

PS-Josh and I joke that Zenyatta is such a cool name that we've thought about using it as a middle name if we have a daughter!

Vanessa Stern said...

Zenyatta Mondatta the album is on the A & M Records label!

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