Yma Sumac or Nina Hagen??

Anyone else ever notice how much Nina Hagen sounds like Yma Sumac??

And throw in Diamonda Galas...

Patty Waters sounded like a demented Yma Sumac.

What's your favorite Yma Sumac album? I've grown kind of weary of Yma except for "Miracles." That album's so whacked I'll always love it. It makes me think of a group of early 70s long sideburned, mustachioed, Peruvian narcoguerillas getting floopy on ayahuasca and jamming out with some kind of birdgod woman spirit guide. If that makes any sense.

I grew up listening to Nina Hagen's "New York, New York." I decided then and there to blow-off days for nights of clubbing. I saw (and meet) her hanging at an underground party in the (glorious) 80's and then saw her at Atlas approx 5 years ago.

She was (and remains?) Queen of the scene!

On 2004-05-25 15:54, Swanky wrote:
And throw in Diamonda Galas...

My wife likes to occasionally assult me with the Schrei X LP. Creepy!

-Z

DOH!

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2004-05-27 22:05 ]

Maybe the question should be Yma Sumac or Amy Camus.

Nina is doing a gig here in Chicago next month.

Aside from the fact that they both do extreme thigs with their voices, paricularly in the realm of radical jumps in pitch, I don't see any similarity bwtween Yma and Nina.

They both do reside in my CD collection, however.

Now, I think I read that the Amy Camus legend was untrue, and that Yma's real name is indeed Yma. But what IS true is the Lene Lovich is from Detroit, not (as her image would suggest) some unidentified country east of the iron curtian.

And what does Lene have to do with Yma? About as much as Nina does.

But Nina and Lene?
Well, all I can say is theat their collaboration for the Animal Rights charity LP was a good idea; badly executed.

-JT, professor of musicology.

On 2004-05-27 10:39, tikibars wrote:
Well, all I can say is theat their collaboration for the Animal Rights charity LP was a good idea; badly executed.

-JT, professor of musicology.

Amen to that! This thread had me stopping by Nina' site. I watched the video for that song. They both just seemed to be stumbling around most of the time. Add to that the annoying Frrreeee Heee Heeee Heeee. Skinny Puppy's "Testure" was a much better anti-testing song/video IMHO! Probably a little to hardcore for the average pETA member.

-CB, destined to repeat 1986

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2004-05-27 11:16 ]

I always wondered if Yma sang that lo/hi vocals in the Hawaiian Warchant track in the Enchanted Tiki Room ride at Disneyland. Anyone know offhand?

Diamonda does in fact count Yma as an influence. So she took Yma in a far flung direction!

Anybody ever see Tom Rubnitz's video "Made For TV", essentially, channel-surfing on cable? It was obviously when the ability to do so was still failrly novel, so he made a video of a small sampling or two of every channel out there, as though someone were hitting the remote after a few seconds on each channel. The catch was: every single actress AND actor you saw was actually Ann Magnuson (of Bongwater fame, plus numerous supercool movie and TV roles).

It was GENIUS. She was soap operas, televangelist ("Tammy Jan"), commercials, talk shows, Telemundo, game shows, and - bring it back to the topic - MTV. The "MTV" segment was of "Lina Hagendazovitch," with her song "Scream Queen." She was a perfect blend of Nina AND Lena, writhing around a cemetery in a long white gown with even longer black braids and stark black eyeliner. The song was, of course, super operatic highs and growly lows - argueably full-on Yma, with Germanic undertones.

Here's a Googled item on it:

MADE FOR TV
1984, color and b&w, 15:15
Rubnitz's award-winning collaboration with Ann Magnuson, who is featured in dozens of cameos that highlight the stereotyped representation of women on television. "[In] Made For TV Tom Rubnitz created a television video about television. Punctuated by the static of purported channel hopping, it is a 15-minute portrait of pop American culture.

"As the screen flickers from channel to channel, the actress Ann Magnuson appears as a teary television missionary appealing for money, as a newscaster with an almost plastic face, as a mad grotesque romping through a cemetery in a rock video and as a sincere drinker of great coffee." (The New York Times)

I'd kill to see the piece again.

Not sure Lena/Nina would enjoy being called "a mad grotesque," though.

Incidentally, you can see the director Rubnitz in the B-52's Love Shack video (which also featured RuPaul, then just a "Superstar!"). He's the one veeeeery sloooowly shaking the cocktail shaker. I think he directed this video, too.

It was also he who did another piece on "Wigstock" (the first video on it), plus another amazing one on "Frieda," a giant Barbie - well, actually, a girl wearing a full-sized Barbie you-can-style-her-hair head, on top of her own head. The effect was a VERY tall Barbie with pretty narrow shoulders. Anyway, "Barbie" becomes a huge singing star with her hit song (lifted straight off a Playschool 45 single), "My Mother Has a Housecoat." There are scenes with her in discos, with ABBA's "Dancing Queen" as her own soundtrack. Lotsa ABBA, as I remember. She falls in love with a guy with a similar guy-doll head on top of his head. We all said it looked just like David Byrne.

[ Edited by: Formikahini on 2004-05-28 08:09 ]

Hanford, yes it is Yma Sumac...and I think Tangaroa might confirm that it's her voice you here doing the octave jumps and bird calls in the tiki room...it's only during one part...

Tiki Bars.....

You don't hear any similarity?

Put on "the voice of ixtabay" and then follow it with "nunsexmonkrock"....the semi-operatic bird call effects she does with her woice, and the low growly sounds she gets..the "octaves" as you say, are exactly the influence Nina gets from Yma sumac! No one besides those two singers make that sound!

Thanks Mick! Great info. I'll email Tangaroa about it ....

~Hanford

On 2004-05-27 11:12, Turbogod wrote:

On 2004-05-27 10:39, tikibars wrote:
Well, all I can say is theat their collaboration for the Animal Rights charity LP was a good idea; badly executed.

-JT, professor of musicology.

Amen to that! This thread had me stopping by Nina' site. I watched the video for that song. They both just seemed to be stumbling around most of the time. Add to that the annoying Frrreeee Heee Heeee Heeee. Skinny Puppy's "Testure" was a much better anti-testing song/video IMHO! Probably a little to hardcore for the average pETA member.

...the only problem with the message in the Puppy song (as is the case with ALL of their music) is that you can't understand a damned word he is saying. So the message is ineffectual.

OOhhh, I just sounded like an annoyed grandparent!

On 2004-05-31 10:02, tikibars wrote:

...the only problem with the message in the Puppy song (as is the case with ALL of their music) is that you can't understand a damned word he is saying. /quote]

Dig It. However, I did like the industrial sound.

On 2004-05-31 15:08, christiki295 wrote:

On 2004-05-31 10:02, tikibars wrote:

...the only problem with the message in the Puppy song (as is the case with ALL of their music) is that you can't understand a damned word he is saying. /quote]

Dig It. However, I did like the industrial sound.

"Dig It" indeed.

Actually, THAT is an intelligable lyric!

Heck, I lived on a bus with that guy for two weeks, and I STILL don't know what the hell he is singing about most of the time. Guess I should have asked him when I had the chance.

I do beleive that Nina Hagan was Influenced and inspired by Miss Yma Sumac.
I love Yma sumac as a person and artist.I've heard a few Nina Hegan songs but
i don't like them as much. I like Nina Hegan for her Personality and Stage "weirdness" . Shes a very interesting person.... but i just don't like her much
as an artist singing wize.

On 2004-05-25 15:54, Swanky wrote:
And throw in Diamonda Galas...

I love Diamonda Galas. Coincidentally, her late brother Philip Dimitri-Galas opened for my band in 1979 with a brilliant performance piece. I might also throw in Ursula Dudziak.

[ Edited by: Shipwreckjoey 2006-07-02 19:18 ]

I met Nina Hagen at a party in the fabulous 80s at a loft-downtown.
She enjoyed being the coolest of the cool and did not bother to be particularly polite; however, she is the coolest of the cool, she is not one of us.

I saw her again in the 80s at Atlas, hanging with Angelyne.