Was it "'scuse me, while I kiss the sky" or "scuse me while I kiss this guy"?
There have been loads of songs and lyrics I either didn't hear properly or just plain didn't understand. When foreign friends asked me to transcribe the English lyrics of songs for them I often found myself unable to explain what they meant.
For the last 20 years or so Brazilian, Portuguese and Spanish-language music have been big in my playlists. And as with the English lyrics, my understanding is sometimes pretty complete but often patchy and impressionistic. And I've recently realised that there's great pleasure to be had in not quite understanding things. It leaves space for words and images to establish themselves and take on a life of their own. And when you think about it, that's how everyone learns their native language as a child.
Monday, 14 May 2007
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1 comment:
What a great blog!
I started out as a pro musician and now work as a business consultant. I have a keen interest in what I call 'music for the ears & eyes'! Having also translated various songs for friends (and as part of my work) I also love the fact that meaning is often deliberately vague or obscured in many lyrics. Lyric writers I have worked with are usually interested in the sound of the lyric as much as the meaning of the individual words, so may choose words JUST for the rhythm or some desired effect, other than meaning.
We must remember also that the words have no meaning in themselves. Spoken language is mankind's greatest invention (which no single person actually invented - according to the brilliant Guy Deutscher). In speech we use sounds to represent ideas and concepts and, as my NLP colleagues are keen to repeat, adapting one of NLP's tenets: 'the sound is not the same thing as meaning'.
BILL C MARTIN
http:www.billcmartin.co.uk/
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