When I was young, hit songs were normally translated in every European country and artists on international tours sang in the local language of each stop as a matter of course, but at least in Sweden (Anglo-Saxon) music is hardly ever translated these days.
Now I stumbled on a treasure trove: FINNPICKS, where “DM” methodically goes through Finnish covers of popular music with comments in English giving bios of the artists, the history of the original version (and quite often the original artist is not the one who made the song famous) and full-length recordings of both the original and the Finnish version (or sometimes versions, when there have been notably different renditions of either). I grew up to this music.
Many covers are fairly straight-forward translations, or at least retaining the spirit of the original, but some have completely unrelated lyrics, which always makes for an amusing shock.
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Rambling recollections of an aging engineer
About Me
- kai
- Back in academia after a decade in industry, with a new generation of students.
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Blog Archive
Recently read
- A Dictionary of RAF Slang E Partridge. Clearly the inspiration for RAF banter.
- Spitfire Voices D Sarkar. Some pilots had very short careers.
- Algiers to Anzio with 72 & 111 Squadrons: Experiences of an RAF Officer in North Africa and Italy 1942–46 G Farish & M McCaul. “Me 109 Mk 9” Really!?
- Swift to Battle: No 72 Fighter Squadron RAF in Action, vol. III T Docherty. Better photos.
- Swift to Battle: No 72 Fighter Squadron RAF in Action, vol. II T Docherty. Disappointingly bad photos.
- Swift to Battle: No 72 Fighter Squadron RAF in Action, vol. I T Docherty. Not for the political analysis.
Places I keep track of
- IPMS Stockholm One of the best plastic modelling forums you'll find.
- Hyperscale More modelling stuff.
- Occasional kvetch Thnidu is a linguist and an old friend.
- Another CyborgManifesto Small and large, always with alarming skill.
- Aardvarchaeology What kind of archaeologist doesn't have a whip or even a fedora?
- Arkland Archaeology and random bits.
- Pharyngula Biology, politics and atheism. And eight-legged animals.
- Piled Higher and Deeper Mike Slackenerny, that's me. Free food, anyone?
- Something positive Magical realism in a very cynical way.
- Chicken Wings It's about birds…that fly…
- xkcd Don't miss the mouse-overs.
3 comments:
Like the German versions the Beatles laid down of some of their early hits.
Yep. Not to mention the Monty Python episode in German, which I’ve found to be quite unfunny, see e g The Bavarian Restaurant.
It doesn't seem any weirder (less weird) or more inappropriate, to me, than yer typical Monty Python sketch. After all, what's the point of a Hello, is anyone there? Mary, I can't get this thing to work.
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