Musical Musings

Subject: Musical Musings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Jun 11 - 07:20 PM

In "Maloney wants a drink" there is a line that (if you have only heard, and never seen written down), can be read in two different ways:

"Salome," said Maloney, "that's a trick that never fails" -and-
Salome said, "Maloney, that's a trick that never fails"

Both work perfectly well for the context.

There is another song that does that, but I've forgotten what it is. Points for who comes up with it...

And while we're on the subject of context...
In one of Woody Guthrie's songs that I learned back when I was truly bilingual, and English and French were equally contextually appropriate in my family, that has a line that goes (talking about California during the Dust Bowl era as a destination for hopeful migrants):

It's a paradise to live in *or see*

Pronounced owe-see in Cisco Houston's kind of Ozark/Okie accent.

As a kid I heard that line as "it's a paradise to live in *aussi*" (with the "aussi" meaning Also in French). Worked perfectly well for the context, and I only heard it the "right" way recently...

Which means that for decades I've been singing a song without noticing that one of the words was in another language that the songwriter wouldn't have just suddenly changed into...

And speaking (well, writing, as I was earlier) of reading the lyrics versus hearing them, I know a French song called Sarah which is a lament for an older sister gone off to America, and in one of the verses they are all having dinner, missing her, and I had heard a particular line (can't remember my html so pls imagine accents on the last e unless an elf wants to edit, love them elves) as "tous accables" (all burdened) but it turned out to be "tous attables" (all seated {at the table}) -

And in my mental image, they all sat up straighter!

None of these are really threadworthy, but they are forum-appropriate thoughts... and I do hope that somebody comes up with the folk song that has the ambiguous lines. I think it might be Irish.

There is another Irish (well, Scottish, but we had it by The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem) one that works as a weather report...

In the one where they are going to "die for Royal Charlie," they sing something in Gaelic that sounds for all the world like

Patchy fog, fog, fog
Patchy fog, fog, fog
Patchy fog, fog, fooooog
Rise & follow Charlie!

Then there are all the hidden references in other songs sung in brogues (not the footwear, the accent)...

But I digress momentarily into the Rocky Road to Dublin, where in early verses Our hero gets a brand new pair of brogues, and in a later verse he's told his Connaught brogue wasn't much in vogue, and I can't convince my kid that those lyrics demonstrate both meanings of the word Brogue. He thinks the Dubliners didn't like the guys *shoes* and the singer just isn't being grammatical. I think they didn't like his foreign (from another county) accent... a ruling please?

Back to the thought..

-Well, no, never mind.

Next time my train of thought rolls around I'll try to board it and see if I left anything behind.

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 Jun 11 - 08:35 PM

There is a deliberate French/Breton pun in Tri Yann's "Kerfank 1870" - the Breton conscript is saying (in Breton) that he wants to go home (ger) not (in French) to war (guerre).

http://www.tunewiki.com/lyrics/tri-yann/kerfank-1870-s614085.aspx

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Jun 11 - 09:40 PM

Love that!

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Leadfingers
Date: 07 Jun 11 - 05:00 AM

What is THIS thing called , love ?

WHAT !! Is THIS thing called Love ?

What IS this thing called love ?

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Jun 11 - 10:28 AM

Nice, leadfingers! I like the first one...

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: kendall
Date: 07 Jun 11 - 11:31 AM

What's that in the road, a head?

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 10:15 PM

Aha, I remembered the other one, it's in Blackbird by the Beatles on the white album!

You were only waiting for this moment to arise =

You were waiting for this moment so that you could arise, or
You were waiting for the arising of this moment.

Which is it supposed to be, or is it supposed to be ambiguous?

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 10:37 PM

Kendall, I remember my dad saying that once as we were driving in Vermont on the way to summer camp. I nearly peed in my pants laughing.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Jun 11 - 01:37 PM

I was also thinking about songs that were about something totally else and then there was music within the song, as in Woody Guthrie's talking dust bowl blues, about getting everybody into one of them Ford machines and trying to get to California, and when they wreck the car "well man alive I'm telling you That the fiddles and the guitars really flew" - and suddenly the Okies are musicians. Not that we didn't know that already, but still, you see what I mean.

Any others like that? I know of songs that mention other songs, like And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda or that great country song where they yell "everybody solo!" (where the mentioned song, but not the song itself, is Bonaparte's Retreat). But I couldn't think of any others that just happen to mention that the characters in the song are musicians although that isn't what the song is about at all.

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: death by whisky
Date: 18 Jun 11 - 02:45 PM

"When the moon hits your eye like a big piece of pie" No one had heard of or seen a pizza in Kerry back then.
In the Metallica song (not folk), my nearest and dearest sang the line "obey your master" as "you boring bastard"We laughed like drains.
Whats that about? Laughing drains.

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 02:13 PM

Yes, and I've heard "I never will play when I'm sober no more" for The Wild Rover.

You might have to explain about the drains...

Would that be leaking like the Welsh?

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 02:23 PM

In another, very similar thread, in '02, I posted the following:

This wasn't a mistake, I did it on purpose.

Our group was working on Utah Phillips' Faded Roses of December, and instead of singing:

"I'd rather have a heartache to remember, than a fickle love that doesn't mean a thing,"

I sang:

"I'd rather have a hardon to remember, than a feeble f*** that doesn't mean a thing."

Now my wife is afraid to sing it in public, because my lyrics are easier to remember and she's afraid she'll sing them by mistake.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Musical Musings
From: death by whisky
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 02:47 PM

Cant explain the drains, I was looking for help on that one.On a number of occasions IVE introduced a song to the audience, started of on the wrong intro and had to carry on rather than stop and astart again.Leeky Welsh drains laughing...