“I’m going to Yah Mo Burn This Place To The Ground.”
Joelle said at some point on February 20, 2008
Yesterday afternoon, we got on the subject of Michael McDonald. Don’t ask me how, our conversations take bizarre turns sometimes. We could have been talking about chicken minutes before. Who knows? Anyway, we ended up watching this video. I, being sensible *cough*, stopped when the chorus kicked in but somehow, Ross endured the whole thing. Props to you, hon. 
So later, I’m telling mikey about this hideous video and how I didn’t realize that Yah Mo B There was really the name of the song. I thought it was just some kind of speech impediment or garbling of lyrics that I just didn’t understand. (He, of course, found this hilarious… and I admit, so do I. How did I not know this?) I asked him what he thought it meant and he said it’s probably just nonsense like “Sussudio”.
So… I have to ask… has anyone ever figured out what the hell that means? Sussidio. Whoa-a-a.
Or, for that matter… Tenderoni. Tenderoni?! Michael Jackson uses the term in P.Y.T., I think and then there a whole song by Bobby Brown called Tenderoni. I seriously don’t get that one. It sounds like a dog snack. Sexy.
Because I couldn’t find a video of Tenderoni by Bobby Brown, I bring you this guy...singing “Little Tenderoni”. The lyrics are really special.
“My little Tenderoni,
You look just like a diva
My little Tenderoni,
you’re shaped just like a pony.”
Be still my beating heart.
Moxie Design Studios™
from York, PA
Sussidio was just a silly word that popped out of Phil’s mouth. One of his daughters at the time had a crush on one of her classmates. It was the typical “I think he likes me, but I don’t know if he knows that I’m alive...” type of thing. That was the basis for the song.
Ya Mo B was based on the word Yahwei.
Why do I know this? Because I have a head-full of worthless info.
From Wikipedia,
‘Yahweh be there’
It was changed due to fears that the religiously explicit title would affect marketability.
from my pants!
THIS is what the Internet is all about!
“My little Tenderoni,
You look just like a diva
My little Tenderoni,
you’re shaped just like a pony.”
Wow. I mean, wow. Surely, even Shakespeare would be envious of all this poetic/lyrical skill!
But sadly, we’re no closer to figuring out what any of this means. Sussudio? Tenderoni? OK, I know it looks like a pony-shaped diva, but what is it? And why?
I guess it really doesn’t matter. Shamon!
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@mikey: SHAMON! hahaha! Brian up there said what Sussudio means…
@slackmistress: seriously. thank you, internet.
According to Phil Collins, when he was on VH-1’s Storytellers, Sussudio is an imaginary girl’s name. The song is about having a crush on someone when you are young. He used Sussudio as a name to encompass any girl.
OK, so who wants to explain “abacab” to me, then?
Tenderoni sounds like a canned pasta. You can get it with meat sauce or plain tomato sauce, your choice.
Enjoy new and improved Tenderoni, by Sussudio!
Oh yeah, thanks for making me look like an afficianado of lame ‘80s pop-soul. Not guilty. Honest!
Actually, the song doesn’t start out too bad- in an 80s synth-and-drum-machine-laden way (don’t get me started on the eighties!) until it gets to the chorus. Not only an annoying ‘hook’ but the backing vocals compound the irritation factor. Throw in the gratuitous key change at the end and it’s all over for me....
The god-bothering nature of the lyric aside, I really have no idea what’s going on the video, although my attention may have wandered during all the dry heaving.
Despite struggling manfully to the conclusion of Yah Mo, even I couldn’t make it through more than 90 seconds of the godawful Sussudio. Only Phil Collins could rip off Prince’s 1999 and turn it into flaccid (sus)pseudo funk. However, I’m glad I lasted long enough into the video to witness (at 0’58) what appears to be Quentin Tarantino auditioning for A Flock of Seagulls. A good look for him.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Rosco: did I? that wasn’t my intent. If I did, you totally just redeemed yourself with “(sus)pseudo”.
“struggling manfully”. haha!
from Canada
According to my many hip hop sources, a roni is
a) a virgin
b) a girl
and a tenderoni would be a sweet
a) virgin or
b) girl
Oh, those hip hop sources o’ mine.
from Pasadena, CA
All I can say is… Wow… And that I understood “Ya Mo Be There” to mean, “Yes, I am going to be there.”
@mikey: abacab is (are) the first six notes of said song (Abacab).
I can’t remember peoples’ names to save my life but THIS I remember!
from Denver, CO • Cocktail: Mojito
>All I can say is… Wow… And that I understood “Ya Mo Be There” to mean, “Yes, I am going to be there.”
ME TOO! I thought it was an Ebonics thing, maybe?
According to Phil Collins, when he was on VH-1’s Storytellers, Sussudio is an imaginary girl’s name. The song is about having a crush on someone when you are young. He used Sussudio as a name to encompass any girl.
very interesting…