flips and gasmeters

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... Yes, I was parsing it as "vas vilst du" ... indeed the rest does sound
>a bit more like Romance ....

Apparently this piece was performed by others too. On the Web I find
various versions of the title, including "Vol Vist Du Gaily Star", "Vol
Vilst Du Gaily Star", and (once) "Vas Vilst Du Gaily Star". So I suppose
that the "vol vistu" is supposed to be Yiddish, or at least that people
thought it was at the time ... but what could "gaily star" be? Maybe this
is a mixture.

Slim Gaillard apparently used several languages, supposedly including
Arabic, in his pieces. I see one entitled "Bei mir bist du schön".
"Boot-Ta-La-Za" (the tune has been said to resemble "Yosl, Yosl") has
incomprehensible (to me) lyrics -- [pseudo-]Hebrew/Arabic? ... The title
word sounds to me more or less like /butalizaX/ or /butalizaH/ with a
terminal back fricative and primary stress on the 4th syllable (I think).

-- Doug Wilson