Prince kicks off the breakdown in Mountains by saying, "Guitars and drums on the one, huh!"

Then at about 2:45 one of the girls (Lisa, I believe) says a line I can't understand. It sounds kind of like, "Bobby's our drummer"... In the music video, the camera focuses on Bobby Z at this point and shows Lisa pointing at Bobby, so I'm pretty confident "Bobby" is the subject of the sentence/phrase.

I Googled it and came across some suggestions -- such as "Bobby on the drum - ah!" -- which sounds close to what I'm hearing, but those online lyrics are just fan guesses, so I don't know if that's conclusive.

Anyone else think they know what she's saying?

lurker316 said:

[Bait snip - luv4u]

"Bobby on the drum, ahhhh, yeeeahhh, it's only mountains..."

I never knew what she said on this song! It still sounds like "Bobby on the come up! Huh!" Then, Prince screams. Or "Bobby on the cymbals, hunh!"

Checking the video...Wendy and Lisa sure LOOKED good! Damn...

[Edited 7/28/20 19:43pm]

it always sounded ot me like "Bobby - I'm a Drummer!"

bsprout said:

It’s corny but during this part I always sing, ‘Savion Glover!’ (famous choreographer). But I know that’s wrong and agree it’s ’Bobby on the drum-ah’

you're so dumb! i love that though! i have a TON of such random personally "remixed" pop music lyrics like that where I crack myself up listening (and often driving) alone!

someone should ask W&L on fb or twitter or IG. I deactivated mine so I can't. Susannah used to be pretty responsive when I was active

masaba said:

Bobby our drummer or Bobby on the drums. Coincidentally I feel like Prince accidentally wrote some of his most poignant lyrics in this song. The imagery of all of life's problems and challenges only being mountains and waters to pass over, is so randomly powerful it hits me hard every time. And I say accidental only because it's such a simple concept, nothing new...nor does it seem like he spent too much time with the lyrics on this one. I just love it I guess haha [Edited 7/28/20 8:55am]

Immediately after I found out Prince died I dug out my vinyl copy of Parade and put on "Sometimes It Snows In April." No emotional catharsis.

So I turned the needle back to the start of Side 2, and to hear Prince sing, "I say it's only mountains and the sea..." at a time like that? I was levelled.

I was always told that was Sheila E screaming "Bobby I'm The Drummer!", as she eventually replaced him for the SOTT era.

Tom said:

I was always told that was Sheila E screaming "Bobby I'm The Drummer!", as she eventually replaced him for the SOTT era.

First, why would Sheila be singing lead or anything on "Mountains?" It's a W&L demo with Prince lyrics.

Second, it wasn't performed on the SOTT or Lovesexy Tour (unless it showed up in the piano section).

Your theory doesn't hold water. The song was recorded late 1985, well before Prince thought of breaking up the band. It's why Dez left when he did, because Prince needed him for the next three years (PR, ATWIAD, UTCM). So the band was tell together through all that time. The last Revolution show was Sept 1986, over a year later. SOTT tour didn't start until May 1987. So Sheila didn't replace him at least until September 1986. It'd make zero sense for her to say that on a record almost two years before, and simultaneously dissing one of Prince's oldest friends and bandmembers to that point.

You should confront whoever told you that, because they lied to you.

smiler69 said:

Bobby on the drum-ah! Just an emphatic vocal on the word drum.

I believe it is "Bobby the drum-ah". But I don't think the "ah" is just a random grunt independent of the word "drum".

I think they're singing "Bobby the drummer" and pronouncing the "er" as "ah". It's not uncommon to prounce the sound "er/or/ar" as "ah" or "a". For instance, sugah (sugar), flava (flavor), playa (player), gansta, etc. Now we have drummah.

As I mentioned in the original post, I was pretty close to guessing this, but instead of "the" drummer I thought they were saying "our" drummer.

lurker316 said:

smiler69 said:

Bobby on the drum-ah! Just an emphatic vocal on the word drum.

I believe it is "Bobby the drum-ah". But I don't think the "ah" is just a random grunt independent of the word "drum".

I actually think this is just as viable as a phonetic "ahh" sound independent on the word "drummer." It could be either, and honestly both are logical.

lurker316 said:

As I mentioned in the original post, I was pretty close to guessing this, but instead of "the" drummer I thought they were saying "our" drummer.

I agree. I always heard it as "Bobby's our drummer!" with the "s" in Bobby's and the "R" in "our" and "drummer" being dropped, so it comes out as: "Bobby ou(r) drummah!"

fishwillbite said:

The actual drum breakdown sounds so much like Prince’s drumming style, I often wondered if it was in fact him playing, just credited to Bobby.

I'm pretty sure the whole song is all programmed on the Linn, even the breakdown where it changes to a higher pitched snare, and likley all programmed by Prince.

"Bobby on the drum - ah!" is the correct answer.

I've been wondering about this for 29 years

I always heard "Bobby on drummer" but always knew it couldn't be that cos it makes no sense. I guess the "Bobby our drummer" theory is the most likely.

Can't someone ask Wendy or Lisa on FB or Twitter?

fearnleyp said:

I always hear it as “Bobby, you’re the drummer!”...

Bobby already knows that, though. Why would he be telling him that?

When I was a 16yr old new Prince fan back in the mid-late 90s, I used to think the lyric was "Tommy Barbarella", not realising at the time that Tommy wouldn't join the band for another 5 years or so

What about the fact that it's really Linn Lm-1 on drums, for Mountains??

I never even noticed it was a Linn. Huh. Sounds damn good.

I always thought it was, "Party on the drummer!"