Funf Freitag Frankenwursters
No, that doesn’t mean anything, don’t ask. I just think German is a language that excels when you start to insert random nonsense into it, especially if you start saying it all in a really loud, strident voice. “Jawohl! Der is some Schnitzeknodel in mein Uberschittengraben.” Just as an example.
On the subject of German, I remember two conversations with ladies about the German language which make me laugh, and I thought I might share them.
Firstly, when I was in my first year at Glasgow School of Art I remember seducing a girl at a party with my ability to speak German. Honestly. German. It was exactly in the style of Otto from A Fish Called Wanda – I could say more or less anything – niederhopfengruber, for example – and she’d act like I’d just said the sexiest thing in the world. Hilarious, slightly surreal, and so very, very first year of uni, too.
Secondly, the opposite. I was at a party with a girl up here a couple of years ago who actually is (ancestrally) German, and I mentioned the fact that, given I speak English, German and a little Dutch, I seem to speak only the ugly-sounding languages in Europe, apart from a little bit of piss-poor French. Anyhow, it appears I offended her sense of national pride because we embarked on this hour long ding-dong about whether or not German was a beautiful-sounding language, which culminated in her telling me that I just didn’t understand the German language like she did. Needless to say, I let forth I tirade of abuse at this, demanding how she had the right to tell me she understood a language better than I did when she didn’t even speak it – all in German of course – at which point things went a little quiet. Ah, I’m really popular at parties, me.
So, I think the Sarah Palin post may have tempted a great many lurkers out of the woodwork, but as per usual the Five on Friday post (as pinched from GUT) is the best and easiest way for new commenters to say hello. You don’t have to be witty or verbose, just play along with everyone else if you fancy.
1. Good example of a group singing in a language other than their native tongue.
2. Really crap example of the above.
3. Favourite foreign band who write in their own language – i.e. not English.
4. Favourite foreign word you just like the sound of.
5. Favourite country name.
Luna – Slow Song
The Wedding Present – Pourquoi Est Tu Devenue Si Raisonnable
Supergrass – She’s So Loose
Talking Heads – Radio Head
Wilco – She’s a Jar
1. Slow Song by Luna. See above, and if you listen it really does sound like a/ they actually speak German rather than just reading off a bunch of noises from a page and b/ the lyrics are well written and really, genuinely work in German. They have excellent meter, so they don’t sound like they were just vaguely translated.
2. The Wedding Present – Pourquoi Est-tu Devenue etc etc.. see above. David, just stop, eh. “…si rezonnonabllluuhhuh..” Yup, the man’s got a talent alright.
3. Not sure about this one actually. I’m going to go for the Ukrainians I think, but there must be some excellent Scandinavians somewhere.
4. Auspuff – German for vehicle exhaust.
5. Togo. Not sure why. Just always liked it.
1. dEUS – anything, but mainly Instant Street.
2. the wedding present singing in their own language! but really – maybe that crap blur song they did in French.
3. Sigur Ros
4. Bof – French kind of “whatever”.
5. Nicaragua
Bof is excellent.
Are you talking about the duet with Francoise Hardy for that reworking of To The End? That was brilliant! Barbarian!
1.Talking Heads – psycho killer (yeah i know it’s only a line but so what)
2. The Scorpions – a band i loved back in the 80’s
3. Rammstein
Ich will dass ihr mir vertraut
Ich will dass ihr mir glaubt
Ich will eure Blicke spüren
Ich will jeden Herzschlag kontrollieren
4. Beso Beso – means Kiss Kiss in Spainish
5.Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
1. Does that “combien du temps” bit in Talk About The Passion count? If not, there’s a bit in a beautiful Blue Aeroplanes song called Honey, I where a female vocalist recites all the English words to the song in French. She sounds really nervous as she speaks – you can hear her voice quivering. I like to think they’ve asked some random French-speaker to visit the studio to help them translate the song into French, and then decided on the spur of the moment to get her to perform. (I’m probably way off the mark, but that’s what I think happened.)
2. Michelle by The Beatles. Hate that fucking song.
3. Super Furry Animals
4. Boulangerie
5. Anywhere in Central America, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua. Take your pick – they all sound brilliant.
I’ve decided that Talk About The Passion does count, because it’s such a great song.
2. Dunno about a group but always loved Johnny Cash singing his early hits in German. He could really roll them rrrrrrrs
4. “Kartoffel”. Not because it’s inherently funny but because it is guaranteed to send the wife into apoplexy if I say what is the German equivalent of “Ready, Steady Go – Potato” when she’s being slow at getting ready to go out. This isn’t helped if I say that if she’s much longer her mother will be in Poland ahead of us.
1. ABBA. They had no idea what on earth they were singing. Though I’m sure they all knew what ‘Money Money Money’ meant, especially by the time they’d eventually learned English, and conquered the globe while they were at it.
2. Celine Dion maybe? Think she sang in English when she was a kid without knowing what she was singing. (And yes, I am worried that this information sprang so quickly into my head when confronted with this question!)
3. You beat me to it Euan! Sigur Ros. They even sing in a made-up language. They’re awesome.
4. Reconnaissance – part of the English language but with French origin. It just sounds good.
5. Trinidad-Tobago. Again, it just sounds cool.
1. Really like The Ruby Suns doing Tane Mahuta, sung in Maori I believe. It’s kind of just the right side of cheesy – the breezy fun beach party side.
2. Girls Aloud doing Can’t Speak French, in French. Ouch.
3. Probably Dungen. I have no idea what these guys are saying and can’t even pronounce most of the song titles but man they rock. Also love the way Camille uses French to make some lush and pretty bonkers sounds.
4. Pamplemousse.
5. Hmmmm, don’t know really. Ying guó – that’s England in Mandarin if I’ve remembered it right. Think that sounds kind of cool!
BTW, has anybody ever watched the Eurovision Song Contest with subtitles? It translates all the songs for you, it’s HILARIOUS.
1. Hello Saferide, especially when she sings ‘I’ve been on The Alta Vista, I’ve been twice on The Yahoo’ on the song ‘Highschool Stalker’, which I like very much.
2. The French bit in ‘Denis’ by Blondie, which I once asked my French pen friend to translate and he said it didn’t sound like any French he’d ever heard (i.e. it is cobblers).
3. We used to get a lot of this with the Eurovision Song Contest and I was very fond of it, but everybody’s singing in English nowadays. If I was in the least bit hip I would say Sigur Ros, wouldn’t I?
4. Uitslapen – which means to lie-in, in Dutch
5. Tuvalu. What’s not to like?
matthew – not sure if somebody at the bbc reads your blog mate but check out the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/7661067.stm
1. Jens Lekman Jens Lekman Jens Lekman
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QrbE2C3T24&feature=related
so very wrong
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b46d_zk5CKI
so very right
4. Apusskalaykey: Ghanain Twi for gold digger/slut
5. Jersey
additional category: most incredible version of a band doing a cover in their own language:
http://weirdindia.blogspot.com/2007/01/indian-beatles-singing-hindi-song_10.html
Ruth, you’re a fucking genius. Postman Pat in Norweigan? God is so very kind indeed some days.
Live translations of Eurovision songs, Katie? What sort of a vocabulary would they need for that, then? About twenty words or so? Baby I love you, I’ll be there for you, you’re so fine I want to make you mine, and so on. That’s about it surely.
Thieving BBC bastards – especially as the first three were straight from our picks the other week. And especially as we are the only people to ever have that idea ever in the history of the universe ever. Still thieving bastards though.
1. Korean indie band atombook.
2. Ummm… pretty much anyone singing in English on Eurovision (Britain & Ireland excepted I guess).
3. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci: anything they sing in Welsh, but particularly the bridge from Patio Song.
4. Not sure about ‘favourite’, but I reserve a special place in my heart for the German Schlag; If you ever needed a reason why you should be drinking your coffee black, surely the prospect of asking for Kaffee mit Schlag ought to convince you.
5. Damn, beaten to the punch on Tuvalu; Otherwise, Kalaallit Nunaat, the Greenlandic name for Greenland.
By the way, how do you say ‘GIVE ME BACK MY FUCKING MONEY’ in Icelandic?
you should say something along the lines of ‘my army navy and airforce are way bigger then yours!!!, now give me back my fucking money!!!!’
they speak good english over there…they’ll get the message
1. I’ve been listening to the Notwist a lot this week. I really like the guy’s voice. And also Iowa Super Soccer.
2. The French version of Devil’s Eyes on Buck 65’s secret house against the world makes me wince a little bit. Not sure what he was going for. Good album, mind.
3. Gorky’s is a good shout. Also, maybe Kent? They released an album in Sweden (in Swedish), then re-recorded the vocals translated into English for the UK/US release. It makes for an interesting comparison. I enjoyed the swedish version a lot better, as there’s a certain amount of mystery whe you have no idea what he’s singing about.
4. My friend once taught me Jingle Bells in Swedish.
“Byeller klang, byeller klang
Herdas dingly dong.”
Amazing.
5. I like Greenland. Just for the irony of it.
That was the early days of property marketing: the Old Norse real-estate agents had learned their mistake after they couldn’t get anyone to move to Iceland.
herdas dingly dong???
how does jingle go from byeller to herdas in the blink of an eye?!
Herdas dingly dong made me spray my cup of tea all over my desk.
Gorky’s is an excellent shout, especially Barafundle. Although I like Iowa Super Soccer actually, just haven’t got my disorganised arse in gear enough to buy a copy yet. Must sort that out this minute. I remember Kent too – that wasn’t a bad album actually.
As for give me my fucking money back in Icelandic, I’m not sure of the pronunciation but I think it’s spelled something like ‘fat fucking chance – what money?’.
it’s the dark nights
1. Good example of a group singing in a language other than their native tongue.
2. Really crap example of the above.
3. Favourite foreign band who write in their own language – i.e. not English.
4. Favourite foreign word you just like the sound of.
5. Favourite country name.
Kraftwerk or Bjork, although she’s married to a Yank.
Enrique Iglesias – phrasing is odd. Lots of Europop as well.
Does Brel count as a band? If not, Sigur Ros.
Schadenfreude is good, as is the French for lie-in: “une grasse matinee”
Tajikistan is good, as is Oman – as in O Man!
1. Marlene Dietrich. In either English or German. One of the sexiest voices known to man. Also Joan Sutherland singing in Italian.
2. I concur with Jonny, most Europop makes me cringe.
3. Edith Piaf in French, Buena Vista Social Club in Spanish, chuck some French and Italian opera in there too.
4. pinguino (penguin in Spanish, it exponentially increases the cuteness of penguins), katte (German for hangover, I find it very onomatopoetic).
5. Argentina or Madagascar.
A group of Europeans are sitting together discussing the merits of their respective languages.
“To take a single example,” says the Englishman, “what name better suggests the beautiful, delicate motion of that creature which we call a butterfly?”
“Bof,” says the Frenchman, “surely the glorious intricacy of its markings and designs is captured utterly in our word ‘papillon’.”
“Si, si,” says the Italian, “but the frame of the creature itself, the combination of grace and precariousness, is evoked to perfection by the name ‘farfalla’.”
“Or our ‘mariposa’,” adds the Spaniard, to general nods.
“Vell vot,” asks the perplexed German, “is wrong vit /Schmetterling/?!”
1.Trio, “Sunday You Need Love, Monday Be Alone”, which also now might be my fave song of the week.
2.Anything by REM, oh wait, English is their native tongue, doh!
3.Trio, NOT as seen in those ridiculous VW ads, but as here
4.Petite Mort, of course
5.Big Country, no wait, this is my fave song of the week!
1) A Norwegian friend of mine used to have a CD of a boy band who released a single about Santa molesting a little girl behind the tree. Thing is no one knew what they were saying so children started to sing it in the street. Their other big hit? ‘Cousin’. Which is about…
2) Yann Tiersens line “Monochrome Flat, Monochrome Life”. Yann you might get away with that sort of thing in French but English as slightly more round-about language.
3) Yann Tiersen. Quite brilliant in French. But for word smithery Die Arzte. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43ENQJdBLuo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opTxsniPlsQ
4) Peinlich. It’s German for embarrassing, painful, pathetic and awkward all at the same time. Sort of like watching Sarah Palin.
5) Malawi. Really does make me want to go there.
I often feel people are too tough on German. If you said Schmetterling, and Butterfly to someone who spoke neither English or German, don’t you think they’d say that they have the same number of harsh and soft syllables.
I need to find someone who can conduct that experiment with me.
I agree, Ben, they certainly sound the same to me.
But then I do have fucked-up ear drums after having hot wax dripped onto them.
Petite morte… brilliant choice.
Well ya had to go and spell it correctly, didn’t ya, ….over educated snob! xoxoxo (why does my html get so fucked completely up on your comments??)
oops sorry, should have said….
“I DO ALL COMMENTS PERFECTLY so dont tell me its that
its muthafunkin on your side homiez… please fix asap and get back to me”
hehehehe
What a dick. You know I’ve got pending friend requests on Facebook and MySpace from that chap. Fair enough if he wants to be nice now, but, erm, how did he get the impression that we would be friends, was I not mean enough? Not that we can’t be friends of course, maybe he’s a nice bloke under all the homiez stuff, but I was a little surprised to say the least.
HA! I got the same as you xoxo
Beaten wife syndrome. The more of a dick you are to someone…
Shit, that’s probably sexist isn’t it.
Don’t feel bad tart. I’m about to work on a Ballet called Petite Mort. I have asked all our Francophone dancers why the little is feminine and the death masculine. The best anyone has come up with is that it was misspelled the first time when the ballet was choreographed 10 odd years ago.
Christ I’m dull.
1. I think you can hear that ‘this is not my native tongue’ inflection in just about every word the Shout Out Louds sing and I love that very much indeed.
2. That bit at the end of ‘Stand and Deliver’ mainly because I remember a friend at the time convinced he had deciphered it and it was something really important although looking for it on the lyrics sites now it appears to have been ‘da diddley qua qua’.
3. Dunno. I’ve tried to think of something here but just can’t.
4. Ruadh. It’s gaelic for ‘Red’ and it’s the name of one of my cats.
5. Countries that have the indie cred to start their name with ‘The’! The Gambia, The Vatican… I would go on but I can’t think of any more. And I’m not entirely sure about those two, it might just be ‘Gambia’ and Vatican City, and that isn’t exactly a country, they don’t have a football team or anything. Or an entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Well ben, the feminine lies and the masculine exagerates? And it’s nice of you to still be talking to me after the Sarah Palin debacle, xoxo
The Czech Republic. Very grand. Why Gaelic Adam, is there something you’ve not been telling us?
Remarkably little.
My grandmother and her sisters were fluent gaelic speakers when they got together and we got the cats just after staying with them.
1. Jens Lekman, most definitely. And Jeff Buckley “je n’en connais pas le fin”.
2. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcLODDy9Uw
3. Gisbert zu Knyphausen. Man’s a genius. Oh and all of the above too.
4. “Beschwipst” – german for tipsy.
5. Kyrgyzstan. Incredible lack of vowels.
There seems to be an awful lot of German spoken by the people who read this. That’s slightly weird.
I’ve never heard of Gisbert zu Thingummydoodah but the name alone is brilliant enough for me.
[...] out enough of the words (yeah all it took was Da, Da, Da) to remember the name of the band. And a post over on Song, by Toad got my ass in gear to post it, so go blame him! But stop and buy the album, [...]