search

Terrifically Derelict

This small yet unique question and answer between Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom was originally published on Uncut mag, Take 164, January 2011; right after Newsom's Have One On Me won Uncut's Album of the Year.
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Print

Devendra Banhart: Next to yours, any great linguist’s vocabulary looks Lilliputian. Do you remember what your first favourite word was? And what is your current favourite word?

Joanna Newsom: Hah! I remember for a long time my favourite word was “derelict”. Because I really like the Webster’s dictionary definition of it. It was highly—and probably accidentally—poetic. It had multiple layers of meaning, and I liked them all. Nowadays I kinda like the adverb “terrifically”, not for any poetic reason, but because classy old men use that word a lot. When they use it in the sense of: “Oh, I was terrifically drunk.”
I remember a documentary on the Mamas And The Papas, where David Crosby was being interviewed, and he said that Mama Cass was “terrifically fat”. It’s so incredibly disparaging, but the word “terrifically” gives it some odd quaint feel. I find that hilarious.

__________________

• This question and answer between musicians was originally published on Uncut mag, Take 164, January 2011; right after Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me won Uncut’s Album of the Year

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Print
Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.
Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.

Related

Scroll to Top