Great songs in foreign languages?

[ma0sm]

[sarahispi]

Not to be me or anytjing, but I was there. I was also at their last ever show in Spain.

Anyway:

[crackling]

Juana Molina - Un Dia

[anon19005845]

All these songs in languages other than English make me wonder: how important are the lyrics to the song? To some they are vitally important; I get people saying “I love that song because what the writer describes is just what I went through on my first breakup…” that sort of thing. You wouldn’t get that if you could not understand the words. You might get some of the feeling if you had a translation in front of you to read while listening, but it wouldn’t be quite the same. In my case words and music are both important, but the music is the main thing. I sort of know the gist of what is being sung in the clip that I posted - I did pick up a working Portuguese during my time in Brazil - but I’m sure it must speak better to a native Portuguese speaker.

When I was hitch hiking in Europe I got a ride with three Italian guys who had a cassette of Frank Zappa playing. I can’t get into Zappa’s music at all, but I was cracking up at the lyrics of “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” and “Penguin in Bondage”. The three, whose English was hardly fluent, could not understand the lyrics and I translated some of them for them. The surprising thing was that while I considered the lyrics to be the main point, they were enjoying it just as much while hardly understanding a word.

[FormerGhost]

Lyrics are vital to some songs and not so much to others.

A good melody transcends any language barrier.

[Severed799]

Look at Converge, for instance

[loss]

[bornin69x]

[bornin69x]

I think a lot of time lyrics are not important. I have artists where I do listen for the lyrics but even then it’s often just a phrase or a line instead of pouring over the whole thing. Lots of others write lyrics that aren’t worth toffee but are still great (New Order are a good example) or have lyrics you can’t make out anyway or no lyrics at all. Music in foreign languages fit into this continuum somewhere. You can often get the sense of the song from the way it is sung and just translating the title or the odd line (not different in most European languages) gives enough.

[Cervantes]

Gotta have a bit of Envy in here.

[anon19005845]

Music in foreign languages fit into this continuum somewhere. You can often get the sense of the song from the way it is sung and just translating the title or the odd line

I always liked that song “Guantanamera” by the Sandpipers, but I wondered why they kept singing “One kind of meadow, there’s only one kind of meadow.”

[bornin69x]

If in doubt most songs fit into the following categories:

A: ‘look at that pretty girl/handsome man I wish she/he would have sex with me’
B: ‘I am happy because that pretty girl/handsome man is now having sex with me’
C: ‘I am sad because that pretty girl/handsome man won’t have sex with me/was previously having sex with me but has now stopped doing so’

You can usually tell which category the song is in by singer’s general demeanour even if you can’t understand a word.

Guantanamera has a bit of all three categories I think and also the wildcard:

D: ‘I also love my country, which I am using this particular pretty girl as a poetic metaphor for’

[Ella_Megablast]

Stereolab - Lo Boob Oscillator

[anon19005845]

An oversimplification, but this contains several grains of truth.

[anon35496508]

[anon35496508]

I love this one.

[jordan_229]

[sarahispi]

[BodyInTheThames]

[BodyInTheThames]