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Message 150: Nudnik Headache

Song 7 of Jonny Greenwood’s Bodysong soundtrack is titled “Nudnik Headache.” Nudnik is a word from Yiddish that means “someone who is a boring pest.”

The title of the album’s last song is “Tehellet,” a word for which I cannot find a precedent.

3 replies on “Message 150: Nudnik Headache”

ehm… and I thought (and feel it to be more possible) than Nudnik — is the name of some american avantgarde-composer from the 70s.
BUT, I’m not sure in the transcription – how – ’cause saw his name in russian only
that’s it!

“Tehellet” could be a certain spelling of the Hebrew word “tchellet,” translated as the color azure, or light blue. Seeing that Yiddish was used for another songtitle, this one coming from Hebrew doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Just a thought.
-Jon

Tehellet (or Tchellet in which ch sounds like the dutch G or the Greek X) is the hebrew name of the color light-blue or azure. It used poetically to mean the sky too.

Nudnik is from Yiddish for certain. It is used by Israelis to describe sombody who “would not leave you be”, somebody who ‘bugs’ you, sombody who keeps pestering you on one subject, and so on. So “Nudnik Headache” means a very annoying headache (or maybe somebody whose causing you an headache), that would not leave you or stop.

As Johnny Greenwood’s Girlfriend (wife?) is Israeli I’m quite sure those are the meanings.
She is mentioned in the “Body Song” CD booklet:
“…And to Sharona, for those six months ‘OFF’ that I spent very ‘ON’. And all her ideas I stole…”.

If you are interested in hebrew phonetics check this page out:
http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/appendix/languages/hebrew/hebrew.html

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