And no, I have no idea what that word means either. Actually, even after watching the video a number of times, I have no idea what any of it means. There's a Weird Al Yankovich morphing into Harpo Marx who has found his voice, Cher with a cameo for a split second, then Deborah Harry takes over...and the whole thing is pounding with a silly rock beat that drives home the unassailable truth that rock and roll is a British/American invention and everyone else should just leave it the hell alone!
Trust me. You just have to watch it.
OLL RAIGTH!
Written/performed by an Italian I think. It's nonsense meant to sound like english sounds to foreigners. Cool, you kind of get the feeling that you ought to know the words.
ReplyDeleteWell then, we need Rachel to weigh in ASAP. She could decipher it for us.
DeleteAh, looking for the rare Rachel comment sighting.
DeleteRG! I've been a real shit lately about commenting, here or on my own blog or anywhere. I thought when I moved back here that I'd do more of it, but something about living with my parents for so many weeks (!!!!!) and general shock and awe of the reverse culture shock has weirdly silenced me. Mostly it's the Not Having My Own House. I need my own space again, my own house again. I'll just leave it at that.
DeleteAlso, I blame Buttercup. She and I communicate almost daily and she calms me down and diminishes my need to get on the internet and say shit. I just say it to her and call it a day. BAD BUTTERCUP. Heh.
Hah. Once you get settled in, she'll have encourage you to be just a little wound up as an inducement. She exploded with posts over the weekend, so I got a chance to knock the rust off a bit. It was great.
DeleteI was doin' OK until he pulled out the harp.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think that was more Peter Wolf than Weird Al.... But the class wasn't dressed for Catholic elementary school...
No...even the little bows in their hair weren't enough to suggest a parochial environment...
DeleteHahahah!!!
ReplyDeleteRG is right. I've seen this video before, I think I even posted it on my blog when I first moved to Italy. It is indeed an Italian variety show performance from the 70s, and is supposed to be what English sounds like to Italians, at least.
The girl at the beginning says, "Listen, professor sir."
Professor: "Yes, tell me."
Girl: "How do you ever write a song in foreign words that you don't understand?"
Professor gives the thumbs up and the nonsense begins. Most of the sounds in the words in that whole song are completely foreign to Italians and are just what English sounds like to them. Notice for example the hard "H" sound - Italian doesn't have that. Also, they're really drawing out some of the vowel sounds in a ridiculous way, in particular the O's. Italian doesn't have a drawling O the way we do, it's more short and more like an "aoh" sound than our "owe". Etc.
All that aside, I'm mesmerized by the creepy dancing and the freaky outfits. THE SEVENTIES WERE FUCKING AWESOME.
I knew I'd seen it someplace before but I couldn't remember where. Makes sense that it would have been at your place.
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