Born to Pun: Balkan Beat Box and "9/4 the Ladies"

I am not very good at punning, which is why I like them, bad ones and all. One of my favorite newspaper comics right now is Stephan Pastis' Pearls Before Swine. On Sundays, he often puts together a very elaborate pun which culminates in the next to last panel, and the last panel of the comic usually consists of his cartoon characters heaping verbal or physical on him for the pun (he is often a character in his own strip). He has punned on "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts," "Patience is a virtue," "Don't cry for me, Argentina," and I think my favorite, "O say can you see by the dawn's early light."

Today's song is a small pun. 9/4 the Ladies is by Balkan Beat Box, and this pun refers to the time signature for the piece of music. For those of us who didn't study music, the general rhythm consists of nine beats per bar. The rhythm would go 1-2-3 2-2-3 3-2-3, or something like that. But of course the pun uses the 4 (the indicator that the main length of the note is a quarter note or crotchet) so that it sounds like "Nine For the Ladies." I don't know if there are any other hidden meanings, such as if the song was written on September 4th (9/4). But I appreciate the pun, and putting some lighthearted fun into a song title.

Balkan Beat Box is an Israeli band that is influenced by traditional Jewish, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Gypsy punk and electronic music. They were formed in Brooklyn, New York by Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat, who felt that ancient and traditional songs needed an upgrade through an infusion of hip hop in order to make them popular in dance halls and clubs. They really wanted the music that they loved to better reflect their world and the movement toward a global culture. Their artistic influences ranged from Manu Chao and Rachid Taha to Jamaican dub and Boban Marković. Their first album, Balkan Beat Box, focused on Mediterranean sounds but after the addition of Tel Aviv musician Tomer Yosef to the band in 2006 they expanded to include Arabic and Spanish influences in their second album. 9/4 the Ladies can be found on their eponymous first CD, released in 2005.