Christgau Fancy Word of the Day: Bonhomie

Not reviewed by Christgau.

One of several features I plan to include in this blog is the Christgau Word of the Day. (No, I don't plan on having a Christgau Word of the Day every day.)

The point of this feature is to find words, usually those classified by the less-literate (like myself) as "S.A.T. words" (regardless of whether they would actually appear on an S.A.T. exam), that Christgau uses and which might be one reason his reviews infuriate so many people.

This time around I picked yet another word that sounds very cool but which I've never had the opportunity to use in practice mainly because up until this moment I didn't know the exact definition and didn't want to risk embarrassing myself in the company of smarter people or less-smarter people who are still smart enough to know that I'm not using the word correctly.

That word is bonhomie.

The first part of the definition sounds redundant: "Cheerful friendliness." I suppose that there are other kinds of friendliness that aren't cheerful, such as:

• Hostile friendliness
• Fake friendliness 
• Drunken friendliness
• Reluctant friendliness 
• Talking-to-the-cop-who-just-pulled-you-over friendliness
• Held-at-gunpoint / Stockholm syndrome friendliness 
• Friendliness in the way you'd be friendly to a pig that you're about to slaughter for some fresh bacon

...and so on, but my friendliness is usually cheerful. Unless it's at work, where it's just easier in the long run if you're minimally friendly to most of your coworkers.

Bonhomie comes from France, according to its listing on the Online Etymology Dictionary, based on bon (good) + homme (man). If you have even a rudimentary knowledge of French and enjoy the hip-hop music, you can say it literally means "good homey." And who doesn't want a good homey?

Christgau discusses bonhomie only twice in his CG reviews (and a few other times elsewhere), and neither case in a positive way. "Cheerful friendliness," indeed! One instance is on a 1982 live album by Queen Ida & The Bon Temps Zydeco Band called, naturally, On Tour, about which Christgau says:

Since these Grammy winners have bagged a rep on the folk circuit, where drumming is still regarded as one of the arcane arts, I feel obliged to point out that their exploration of groove is pro forma, their singing uninspired, their material trite, and their bonhomie strictly show business. Even Clifton Chenier has never made great records, and when this battle is over, it won't be Queen Ida wearing his crown. C+

The Grammy referred to in the review was the 1982 award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording. A curious tidbit about this Grammy category is the number of name changes over the years. To save you a trip to the Wikipedia page, here's its history:

• From 1960 to 1961 the award was known as Best Performance - Folk
• From 1962 to 1967 it was awarded as Best Folk Recording
• From 1968 to 1970 it was awarded as Best Folk Performance
• In 1971 and from 1973 to 1974 the award was known as Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (including traditional blues)
• In 1972 and from 1975 to 1982 it was awarded as Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording
• From 1983 to 1986 it was awarded as Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording
• In 1987 the award was split into two new awards: the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album and the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album

Got all that? Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of zydeco. To be honest, I haven't even listened to enough zydeco to not be a fan of it, but the only accordion I can stomach is from "Weird Al" Yankovic or They Might Be Giants. If you're interested in what Queen Ida sounds like, though, here's a YouTube clip of a live performance (not from the above album, though):

My favorite part of this clip is the description by the guy who uploaded it to YouTube: "This is actually a really good version of the song." I'll have to take his/her word for it, and leave it to you, dear reader, whether the bonhomie is organic or "strictly show business."

The other review in which bonhomie appears is for Tom Robinson's North by Northwest, which was also released in 1982, apparently the year for bonhomie:

Robinson's bonhomie is rarely seductive--he picks such stiff, strident, perhaps even rigid drummers that his records require effort or at least concentration. But this is where I stop wondering whether he's a fluke. Just about every one of these songs synthesizes his protest-oriented TRB phase with the more cryptic and personal musicality of Sector 27. And though Richard Mazda isn't the collaborator Stevie B. was, after five plays or so nearly every track sinks in deep. A-

I'd never heard of Tom Robinson (again, my ignorance means nothing), but if you can imagine an album released in 1982 by a British guy who is similar (according to AllMusic) to Squeeze and Elvis Costello, North by Northwest would be it:

AllMusic gives the album a review (4½ stars) worth repeating here:

North by Northwest features contributions by Peter Gabriel and a far less noisy pop/rock sound. It's an insinuating record, one that was dismissed cavalierly upon its release, but Robinson's songwriting is mostly good even when his singing (never much to write home about in the first place) is inadequate or just plain bad. 

"...inadequate or just plain bad." There goes my bonhomie!