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Earlier today, I had a look around YouTube to see if anyone had covered one of my songs or reviewed my album, and I stumbled upon this video.
The idea was done by jonnydarkmusic at first; to take the lyrics of a popular song, translate them into another language and then back into English, and then sing the translated version.
Charlie and myself spent the rest of the afternoon singing songs we’d written, translated back from Yiddish. xD
Of particular interest is this line from Don’t Look Back:
“I can see my breath in front of me, dancing in the air with yours
We both know what we want but we can’t cos we’re so unsure“
It got translated to:
“Before I can hold my breath and dance with you
We both think that we cannot know who we are“
Which, as Becky pointed out, is ‘oddly beautiful’.
Later in the day, while failing to write Trock, Charlie played this Spanish uke solo over an old chord progression I had and made it sound all fun and new, so using the broken Don’t Look Back lyrics as a basis, I wrote THE MYTHICAL TRACK 5.
It’s called Hometown. I have to fiddle with it a bit, but it’s interesting and just what I was looking for – an interesting, different middle song to bridge the gap between Living On The Underground and Dead And Gone.
(Not all the translations were so poetic. “When it gets to midnight, can you take my freezing hands and dance?” became “In the evening I opened the freezer to get a dance?“)
x
{ 24 comments }
Me and my friends once spent a lesson at school translating your songs between different languages, but I don't think we ever got anything as amazing as the freezer line.
Re to your video: Alex! If you're going to do music videos or gatherings or other stuff, please tell us earlier! I can't come now. I have to work :(
Re to the blog posts: this is a fantastic idea. I'm going to do this with some texts haha!
Alex,
When you come back to New York, you must shoot a music video! I bet all the fangirls from the 12/12 show would defintely show up(including me ^_^). There's no shortage of fangirls here. Just putting that out there, since I can't go to the music video in London, which I am angry about, since I live in NY. By the way, are you going to VidCon with Charlie?
I love the translation of “will you take my freezing hands and dance?” :)
Good luck with the rest of the album!
Oh wow, this is quite an amazing idea and totally you to use a translation song on your album, it also provides a nice bridge from one album to the next. Not that it'll need one, it's just a shweet move! :D
hahaha that's such a cool idea for a song. Maybe as a possible bonus track on the CD you could sing one of the songs translated back into english. OR it would be so funny if you actually like tried to sing in another language cause i know that yiddish is a very funny sounding language.
Hey, in a blog you posted a long time ago, you mentioned the songs on parrot stories and the specific girls you wrote them for. And I was going back to see if I could find it, but I couldn't. Did you remove them, cas of privacy and what not. Or maybe I just didn't look hard enough.
As I was reading, my eyes transposed the 'I' from the last line of the above paragraph into 'Hometown', so I misread it as 'Homie Town' and thought you were laying down some kind of rap track.
MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
I noticed that too! I was listening to the album and I wanted to look it up and it wasn't there unfortunately.
We both think we cannot know who we are should actually be a song lyric indeed :) I saw Johnnydarks cover of Fireflies…Lightning bugs doesn't really have the same ring to it…
Looking forward to seeing you on saturday :)
Hey Alex since you've been having a hard time writing a song for the next Chameleon Circuit album you should include a song about David Tennant and how he was the best doctor ever!…just a suggestion :)
I love the yiddish translations I wonder what the line in candy floss ” you spoke to the walls they told you a story ” would sound like translated.
I don't have any dances in my freezer. I haven't gone shopping in a while.
If ya had to hold your breath to dance with her. You should probably tell her to shower more often.
That's very poetic. Must be careful though, sometimes the truthful meanings get lost in translation. Yes, that does sound cliche, but still.
Yiddish? Do either of you know Yiddish? Were you using a translation engine? Or did you work with an old Jew? (I'm an old Jew, but I don't know Yiddish.)
I noticed this a while ago too, I guessed it was to do with privacy.
ok, I know this will sound a bit weird but, DID YOU SEE MY COVER??
It's of CandyFloss and it's only got a black screen with green writing on it which says something like: This is my little cover of CandyFloss by Alex Day, it's not perfect :P
My friend and I once did that with an entire exam paper. We couldn't turn it in of course, but I still have a copy of it in my desk. I wonder what the teacher would have though…(:
It's not a privacy thing, I'm proud for people to know how I felt about different girls, but people said it made them uncomfortable to know who they were about, and I don't wanna ruin my songs for people xD
I know Boston's small compared to New York, but I really hope you'll come here in 2010!
lol x] that's kind of funny
I actually prefer the (first) Don't Look Back translated lyrics to the original ones XD
how funny that i read the word “hometown” and, being American, thought of America. then i suddenly realized that you certainly aren't thinking about America. unless your talking about somewhere feeling as if it were.
but how very funny it is to just suddenly have that awareness. and to realize that you had lost it. the internet is a funny place. it really closes the gap.
oh goodness! i remember the whiners complaining on that post! they really did annoy me. “did you ever think of the girls who you're revealing this personal stuff about?” THEIR NAMES ARE IN THE FUCKING CD BOOKLET. so yeah, i'm pretty sure that talk came WAY before the blog post. and probably WAY before the album. like, you know, “hey, i wrote a song about you…” i'm sure if they had a problem with it, they would have mentioned it already. *rolls eyes*
and the ones who were like, “i don't want it explained! i liked it better not knowing! it's messed up now!” it's called don't keep reading the stupid post dumb-ass! geez! they're probably the people who complain about reading spoilers for shows who are like, “aw! i didn't see it said spoiler! it's ruined now! why did you post this?!”
oh… just… ack! think people!
but i digress. it annoys me that the reason the post was taken down WASN'T to protect someone's privacy, but to quell a few whiners. *sigh* can't please all the people, i suppose. and i guess i should just turn on your album and shut up now.
*the squids of anger have gone. the waters are once again safe and tranquil*
Hey Alex! I'd like you to know that it makes me extremely happy that you, Charlie, and Becky even watched my video. It makes me even more happy that my nonsensical lyric helped you make an interesting new song. I'm sure when I get the CD that particular song will hold a special place in my heart! haha
Also, thanks for indirectly garnering me a lot more views. Now I've made a video about this blog…will that make me gain more members of the Nermie Army? ;)
xx
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