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Hey bop

Posted by Jim on January 09, 2002

In Reply to: Hey bop posted by R. Berg on January 07, 2002

: : : I'm translating a documentary.
: : : It says sth. about American women soldiers of WWII.
: : : Then a woman interviewed recalled the days when they were drilling and marching. She cried,
: : : "Hey up a ree bup a ree bay a left..."
: : : My question is, what's it?
: : : Are they the sounds cried by a drill instructor? You know those "ree", "bup" "bay" just can't be found in a dictionary.
: : : Thank you for your help.

: : It might have to do with this "bop" song. I couldn't find the lyrics. This is from an online source:
: : Lionel Hampton had made a record called "Hey Baba Ree Bop" and everybody yelled it and it was when Lionel would jump in the audience and whale his saxophone at everybody with sweat, claps, jumping fools in the aisles, the drummer booming and belaboring on his stage as the whole theater rocked..."Skidilibee-la-bee you, -oo, -e bop she bam, ske too ria--Parasakiliaoolza--menooriastibatiolyait -oon ya koo."

: "Hey bop a ree bop a room bam boo," or something close to that, is a series of nonsense syllables used as part of a song. It doesn't mean anything in English.

I'll vote for cadence drills. One, two, three, four. Hup,dup,dreep,four. Yur lef (your left), yur lef, yur lef, rie, lef. Used for a sustained formation march. Calling cadence is a chore. Easier to just use short, rhythmic, vocalizations with easy consonants and bridging vowel sounds in 4/4 time. Individual callers develop their own style. Any nonsense sounds work as long as a left or right shows up in the sequence to synchronize stride.

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