Undramatizing music lyrics.

Pighead

Pighead doesn't even care if undramatizing isn't a word. It is now and that's the end of it. Anyway have you ever sat down and listened to lyrics of a song that sound fairly deep and flowery yet turn out to be anything but? Mundane even? Pighead has.

Tears For Fears- Mad World:
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

TRANSLATION: Went to work today. It was rubbish.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

More or less anything by the Arctic Monkeys, it works brilliantly though

sceptre

Ah, Pighead, you're a gem. I was going to do a few but then thought of something better.

Do these ten like the one above will ya?

http://www.xomba.com/our_ten_most_profound_songs

lordgoat

Relax by Frankie for the inverse.

Pighead

Carly Simon: You're so vain

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and


You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Translation: You're so far up your own arse, you're coming out your mouth.

Matt Holck

I would like to take this moment to point the brilliant lyrics by Tim Rice
chanted by the crowd when Jesus is arrested

Now, we have him
Now, we've got him
Now, we have him
Now, we've got him
Now, we have him
Now, we've got him
Now, we have him now
we have got him now

Pighead

Matt Holck wrote: »

I would like to take this moment to point the brilliant lyrics by Tim Rice
chanted by the crowd when Jesus is arrested

Now, we have him
Now, we've got him
Now, we have him
Now, we've got him
Now, we have him
Now, we've got him
Now, we have him now
we have got him now

Very dramatic lyrics there Holck. Could you undramatize them for Pighead please? What does it all mean?

Matt Holck

that jesus was arrested and now belongs to the crowd

DublinWriter

Agadoo, by Black Lace:
Ag-a-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, shake the tree
Aga-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, grind coffee
To the left, to the right, jump up and down and to the knees
Come and dance every night, sing with a hula melody

It's so obvious that the lyrics symbolise the Jungian Paradox between ego and self, the metaphor of pushing the pineapple illustrating the conflict within the self via the medium of tropical fruit.

stovelid

Layla by Eric Clapton.

I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down.

Layla, you've got me on my knees.
Layla, I'm begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.

Translation: I want to shag my best mate's wife.

Pighead

Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve

Well I never pray
But tonight I'm on my knees yeah
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now
But the airways are clean and there's nobody singing to me now

Translation: I'm sick of listening to shite on the radio.

stovelid

Gary Puckett and The Union Gap - Young Girl

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

So hurry home to your mama
I'm sure she wonders where you are
Get out of here
Before I have the time
To change my mind
'Cause I'm afraid we'll go too far

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

Translation: let's not be hasty. I'm sure we can reach some sort of arrangement here.

Pighead

Ben by Michael Jackson

Ben, the two of us need look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With a friend to call my own
I'll never be alone
And you, my friend, will see
You've got a friend in me
(you've got a friend in me)

Translation: I think I've fallen in love with a rat.

Rigsby

I think you guys are missing the point here. Yes, the lyrics listed here have a convoluted and fancy way of expressing something mundane. That's what song writing is about is it not ? Are you telling me that you'd rather here the mundane lyrics ( i.e. the "translations" listed here ) ? I certainly would not.

Pighead : Can you show some lyrics that you like, and are not "under dramatised" in your opinion ?

Pighead

Rigsby wrote: »

I think you guys are missing the point here. Yes, the lyrics listed here have a convoluted and fancy way of expressing something mundane. That's what song writing is about is it not ? Are you telling me that you'd rather here the mundane lyrics ( i.e. the "translations" listed here ) ? I certainly would not.

Pighead : Can you show some lyrics that you like, and are not "under dramatised" in your opinion.

Morning Rigsby. Pighead actually enjoys listening to the overblown fancy lyrics and trying to figure out what the hell they're banging on about. Remember being a kid listening to Queen and not having a clue what the hell they were talking about and thinking that they were songs were about people from from a different planet. It sort of ruined it slightly later on when I found out that Killer Queen was just a song about a classy whore!

That said, sometimes simplicity is great too. As mentioned above the Arctic Monkeys do this really well. Example from Mardy Bum:

And yeah I'm sorry I was late
well I missed the train
And then the traffic was a state
And I can't be arsed to carry on in this debate
That reoccurs, oh when you say I don't care
but of course I do, yeah I clearly do!

Rigsby

Yeah, I know what you are saying with regards to "Queen". I used to have a great time (still do ) figuring out some of "Steely Dan's" lyrics. Having said that, the lyrics here are not that much different to the "under dramitised" ones IMO.

stovelid

Earthhorse

John Cage - 4′33″













Translation: Clever, eh?

Rigsby

Not an "un dramatised " lyric to be heard .





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E

padraig_f

a few here: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1833261

humberklog

Simon and Garfunkel:

Coo, Coo Catchoo...
And here's to you Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Wo, Wo, Wo.
God bless you please Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray.
Hey,Hey,Hey.

Translation: Jayzuz YORE MA'S a fcuking ride!

Earthhorse

Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell

It ain't hard to tell, I excel, then prevail
The mic is contacted, I attract clientele
My mic check is life or death, breathin a sniper's breath
I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps
Deep like The Shinin', sparkle like a diamond
Sneak a uzi on the island in my army jacket linin
Hit the Earth like a comet, invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin
Cause in my physical, I can express through song
Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong
I drank Moet with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell
From the spliff that I lift and inhale, it ain't hard to tell

Translation: Nas has no self-esteem issues.

Rigsby

I still dont get the point of this thread

TRANSLATION : WTF are you all getting at ?

javaboy

A House - Endless Art wrote:

All art is quite useless according to Oscar Wilde
Turner 1775 to 1851
Toulouse-Lautrec 1864 to 1901
Andy Warhol 1928 to 1987 RIP
Ernest Hemingway 1899 to 1961
George Orwell, Jimi Hendrix, William Butler Yeats, Jack B. Yeats,
Richard Redgrave 1804 to 1888
Henry Moore 1896 to 1986
Henry Miller, Sid Vicious only 21
Brian Jones
Otis Redding 1941 to 1967 RIP

All dead, yet still alive
In endless time, endless art

Masters of their arts
Claude Monet 1840 to 1926
Beethoven, Bach, Brahms,
Elvis Presley 1935 to '77
Man Ray, Johnny Ray
John Donne 1573 to 1631
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809 to '92
The generation art, Joan Miro, RIP
Jackson Pollack 1912 to 1956
John Lennon '40 to '80
Henry Lamb, Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, William Shakespeare,
Brendan Behan 1923 to 1964
Tennessee Williams 1912 to 1983
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 to 1889
Pissaro, Picasso, Degas RIP

All dead, yet still alive
In endless time, endless art

Joseph Conrad 1857 to 1924
Jack Kerouac 1922 to 1969
Keith Moon 1946 to 1978
D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Mozart,
Van Gogh 1853 to 1890
Ian Curtis, Salvador Dali, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Walt Disney's
Mickey Mouse RIP

All dead, yet still alive
In endless time, endless art

Translation: Celebrity zombies walk the earth!

humberklog

stovelid wrote: »

Gary Puckett and The Union Gap - Young Girl

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

So hurry home to your mama
I'm sure she wonders where you are
Get out of here
Before I have the time
To change my mind
'Cause I'm afraid we'll go too far

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

Translation: I am not the bus driver you are looking for (I have some ethics!)
Try the guy going to Waterford.

javaboy

The Kinks - Lola wrote:

I met her in a club down in old soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola
C-o-l-a cola
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance
I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said lola
L-o-l-a lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola

Well Im not the worlds most physical guy
But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine
Oh my lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola
Well Im not dumb but I cant understand
Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man
Oh my lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola
......

Translation: I like ladyboys.

stovelid

Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red

I have never seen that dress you're wearing
Or the highlights in your head that catch your eyes
I have been blind


Translation: I haven't noticed because I've been knee-deep in the au pair for six months.

stovelid

I this thread.

Rigsby

Ok. So you can all decipher lyrics.

What else is there ???

stovelid

humberklog wrote: »

Translation: I am not the bus driver you are looking for (I have some ethics!)

Sounds like a jedi mind-wave.

humberklog

stovelid wrote: »

Sounds like a jedi mind-wave.

That's what I was going for.
Chris De Burgh one....Brilliant.
Excellent thread (even if it is an moshpit of After Hours regulars).