Talk:Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of songs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SongsWikipedia:WikiProject SongsTemplate:WikiProject Songssong articles

R&B and Soul Music

	R&B and Soul Music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject R&B and Soul Music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of R&B and Soul Music articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.R&B and Soul MusicWikipedia:WikiProject R&B and Soul MusicTemplate:WikiProject R&B and Soul MusicR&B and Soul Music articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

I don't think it's Paris, Peru,... but Paris, Beirut. Sounds pretty much the same but the latter makes more sense: from city to city and then you're already in the middle east and next is iraq, iran. (on the other hand, they speak very, very um fluent Spanish in Peru, I suppose...)

Ukraingia

In the jivin' intro, Stevie most certainly does not say "Iraq, Iran, Eurasia". He says "Iraq, Iran, Ukraingia". He's jivin' and his character in the song wouldn't know a word like "Eurasia" if it hit him in the solar plexus. That's like expecting the song's character to say "Indochina" or "Manchuria". No. Just play it over and over and it becomes pretty clear that he never enunciates anything like "Eurasia" but instead puts out the nonsense word "Ukraingia", which he's making up on the spot. That's the charm of the intro; it's jive, not a geography lesson. "Ukraingia".Jelsova (talk) 23:21, 26 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Has always sounded to me like Eurasia, and nothing like "Ukraingia". I also don't see why "Indochina" or "Manchuria" would ever be ruled out for this "character". Short of some kind of (wholly pointless) clarification from the man himself, I guess this will remain pure speculation. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:39, 7 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It is "Ukraingia", and makes more sense in the song than real places that the girl won't know exist anyway, and which don't actually exist, either. Where is "Eurasia", by the way? Vienna is a beautiful country, especially the kangaroos... "I guess this will remain pure speculation" only if you don't listen to the song again and don't realize you've heard it wrong all these years on your dad's AM radio in the kitchen.--Jelsova (talk) 22:27, 29 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Only 4 years later... pretty slow edit war, this one. Can we find any sources perhaps? Do we need a WP:RfC? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 17:57, 14 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

e.g. here's one Martinevans123 (talk) 17:59, 14 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Has always sounded very clearly like "Eurasia" to me, which unlike Ukrangia is a real place. Also, since when has Vienna either been a country or been home to kangaroos? Richard3120 (talk) 19:55, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think he's making a laboured joke about the lexical similarity between Austria and Australia. No, I don't understand it either. --Viennese Waltz 10:08, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Have changed it back to Ukraingia. Anyone with ears not listening on a 1975 AM radio but with FLAC quality will hear "Ukraingia". I am not "Ukraingian" or anything like that. It's just Stevie's jive. He glimpsed at a map and saw "Iraq", "Iran", and "Ukraine", and so he made it "Ukraingia". There is no map from the last 170 years that would have the word "Eurasia". Stevie looked at a map of the 1970s and picked the biggest countries with names that sounded cool for his song. Duh. He could not have seen "Eurasia"! I doubt he was instead reading a political treaties evaluating the causes of the colonial movements of Europe in the 19th century -- doubtful. I believe that instead it's more believable that he glanced at a 1970s map and saw these 'foreign' countries and thought 'Ukraine" would sound cooler as 'Ukraingia'.Jelsova (talk) 06:08, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Martinevans123: A quick Google returns a couple of sites supporting Eurasia:

and one supporting Ukraingia:

https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/26557304/Stevie+Wonder/Don't+You+Worry+'Bout+a+Thing

It's likely a bigger trawl might return an equal number of reliable, or possibly not-so-reliable, sources for each; some may have been generated from this article. Neither your nor @Jelsova's WP:OR count. The current description ought to be amended and referenced to explain that both "Eurasia" and "Ukraingia" have been interpreted; or it can be replaced with something along the lines of "having been to various parts of the world". Bazza 7 (talk) 13:45, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks for the info and the suggestion. Given that all song lyrics sites have now been deprecated for song articles, I am very reluctant to use any of them, although a wider web search might reveal something. Perhaps a Wonder biography might mention it. It's really somewhat trivial, of course, in terms of the song's meaning and might be best left explicitly unreported. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:51, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For what it's worth, it sounds more like Eurasia to me... [1] 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 10:29, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You know that "Stevie looked at a map of the 1970s" and that I am (still) listening "on a 1975 AM radio"? I'm genuinely surprised by the depths of your knowledge here. Duh. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:23, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well the song is from 1973 and was still played on AM radio in 1975. But whatever, the fact is those first two countries existed on maps back then, as did Ukraine -- but not "Eurasia"!, which as a word and concept works completely against the irony of Stevie's character's urban jive aspect of the intro in the song. The character is boasting about exotic countries he's visited, obviously making it up, because it is highly unlikely that many guys in 1973 from the urban centers of Black America were visiting Iraq or Iran? That is the point of that intro. That's the joke of the intro. He gets Iraq and Iran right, as countries that exist, but then you hear him seem to hesitate a bit, maybe realizing that he doesn't know any other exotic sounding countries to impress the girl! And so he makes up "Ukraingia". Do you get it? I mean, you can hear the triumph in his voice when he lands on this nonsense word-for-a-country, probably thinking he's fooled the girl. But for him to have said "Eurasia", which already includes Iraq and Iran, by the way -- and which is more of a way-too serious sociopolitical concept of western thought than an actual place with borders (which is why it's not on maps) -- would be all wrong for the smooth-operator jive attitude of that intro. I mean, isn't it obvious? I'm amazed that you keep hearing the utterly missing "Eurasia", frankly. But then my wife doesn't hear the difference between a British and an Australian accent, nor the difference between Quebec French and Parisian French. And so, I suppose, there's no accounting for sonic perception no matter how sentient it is, or is not. But, to my ears -- that word ain't "Eurasia". It's "Ukraingia". Jelsova (talk) 12:58, 20 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So you've just gone ahead and restored your version? You seem to be on your own here, and still without any WP:RS? It might be safer to omit it or add it as a footnote? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:19, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting reference perhaps?

I couldn't see where to put it, but quite memorably this song is used to conclude Howard Goodall's "How Music Works":

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlh6H65B5ls

Worth adding?

Edwardando (talk) 13:33, 7 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Great programme introduced by Howard Goodall. But who is YouTube User Xter who uploaded that? I suspect not Mr Goodall himself, nor Channel 4 which first broadcast the series in 2006: here. The YT links on his web page there suggests that Goodall is not too bothered about who uploads his material to YT. But we're meant to err on the side of caution with regard to YouTube. So, not sure. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:55, 7 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]