busker

[Larry Horn]

At 7:20 AM -0400 5/25/0, Grant Barrett wrote:
>On Thursday, May 25, 2000, Bruce Dykes <bkd at graphnet.com> wrote:
>
>>>I first heard this word in the US circa 1985/1986, when "Walk of Life" was
>>>released as the second single from Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" album.
>>>One of the characters in the song is a busker, and they explained the term
>>>in many of their interviews.
>>>
>>>I rather suspect that while you may find sporadic references prior to that,
>>>you'll see a surge around that time, especially in the pop music press...
>
>That might explain my knowledge of the word, and that of my friends, while
>so many
>others have never heard of it or consider it unusual. I spent a number of
>years as a
>music journalist and a disk jockey, and many of my friends are of a
>similar type.
>Though I still believe a New Yorker would be more familiar with a word
>than one might
>guess.
>
>Grant

Ditto (mutatis mutandis).  I've had a fun tape of the Cambridge (U.K.)
Buskers for many years (if it's recorded music, I'm not sure it's
officially busking, but it's an enjoyable medley of classical and pop hits
played on accordions and related instruments, and all very much in tune)
and it appears in at least one song by an American singer, the Texan Nanci
Griffith.  The song "St. Olaf's Gate" is set in Norway, although from the
perspective of an American, and contains the line "The buskers in Oslo all
play the same tune."

larry