Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Difference between revisions

Ner hner ner, ''your gleaming swords...:''|[[Discworld|Ankh Morpork]] Anthem, [[Terry Pratchett]]}}

 

 

This is that song where the lyrics [[Motor Mouth|move so]] [[Patter Song|quickly]] or are [[Mondegreen|so]] [[The Unintelligible|garbled]] that you know only the one word or phrase that is shouted very clearly.

Any and all foreign songs with a token English word when listened to by a person only fluent in English will often fall into this as well. For instance, Japanese songs with [[Gratuitous English]].

 

 

Note, it's not being able to decipher the lyrics rather than not being able to remember them.''' Also, if you're going to put in an example, put down what the one special word or phrase that everybody absolutely gets is.''' If you can't do that, then put it in [[Indecipherable Lyrics]].

For the record, the lines immediately preceding in "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" are "The other night, I tripped a nice continental drift divide, Mount Saint Edelite"<ref>Or "The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide, mountains sit in a line", as it appears in ''[[Rock Band]]''</ref> It was difficult even for R.E.M. - Michael Stipe didn't finally memorize the lyrics to the song until around a decade ''after'' it first appeared on an album. He brought up a lyric sheet to do the song live before that, and there are several instances where he lost the sheet and had to make do... until he got to Something Something Leonard Bernstein.

 

 

* The [[Trope Namers]] as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OENjixZd_Oo covered] by Canadian folk band [[Great Big Sea (Music)|Great Big Sea]] is, believe it or not, even worse for the confusion; the speed is upped about 30% and a number of additional instrumental tracks (like the fiddle) are added. And it's so much ''fun''!

** Kids probably know the lyrics in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents (Animation)|The Fairly Odd Parents]]''

{{quote| "La cucaracha, la cucaracha! Enchilada blah blah blah!"}}

{{quote| La cucaracha, la cucaracha, dunnanunnanunnanuh!}}

** Being a traditional song, it has several versions that differ from the 4th line onward:

** The word is ''ningen'', which is Japanese for human, but most people probably heard it as the N word.

*** This is a rather interesting case since the only lyrics people think they understand are probably 'Hey, hey ningen sucker *japanense gibberish* ningen fucker'. Turns out it's actually 'Hey, hey! Ningen sanka ai nige ningen fuan ka?' This was most likely [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|intentional]] [[Mondegreen]].

* [[Duran Duran (Music)|Duran Duran]]'s "Hold Back the Rain", being a mishmash of decent enunciation and indecipherable mushmouthery (and [[Word Salad Lyrics|the lyrics don't make a lot of sense in the first place]], further confounding efforts), is full of this. Like the end of the chorus: "Na da gerroh so help me, please... ''hold back the rain''!"

* While much of Gucci Mane's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5awfGwc9Fs I'm a Star] is easy to decipher, the second verse absolutely murders any sense of lyrical comprehension. Good luck understanding anything without the assistance of subtitles.

* [[ESPN]].com's [[Bill Simmons]] [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100330 did a running diary] of [[Professional Wrestling|WrestleMania XXVI]] and demonstrated why rapping and wrestling don't mix.

{{quote| '''0:01:''' For our first match, tag-team championship belts are on the line: R-Truth (a rapper/wrestler) and John Morrison (an entertaining Jim Morrison ripoff) challenging the champs, The Big Show and The Miz (carrying two belts apiece, for some reason). R-Truth came out prancing and singing his hit song, "What's Up?" The lyrics go like this: "Shshshn cnbcnsbdb fhdehsh fhdhs dhdhan dbdjdndjd dbdbdbdbdb shshsnhs ffrhdhhjs xbcxbbffgfhhj WHAT'S UP? WHAT'S UP? WHAT'S UP? WHAT'S UP?" I don't think he wrote that one with Burt Bacharach and Carly Simon.}}

** The irony is this song was written with the sole purpose of taking the piss out of grunge, and it ended up becoming an archetype for it.

* "Prisencolinensinainciusol," by Adriano Celentano - mostly because aside from a few [[Title Drop|Title Drops]] and the occasional "all right," "baby," and one carefully enunciated "girls," it's complete [[Word Puree Lyrics]].

* [[Radiohead (Music)|Radiohead]] at times. Karma police<ref> arrest this man, he talks in math, he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a de-tuned radio</ref>, I-dont-know-the-words, this is what you get, this is what you get...

** "Myxomatosis" makes "Karma Police" sound like a sparkling triumph of enunciation. "Zmugma cafkeebone, owning half a head. To see it to shut up, towallis noofow frehhh. He said I benawaiyawaaaa. Asleplyfoolala.<ref>The mongrel cat came home, holding half a head. Proceeded to show it off, to all its newfound friends. He said I've been where I liked, I slept with who I liked.</ref> She ate me up for breakfast, she screwed me in a vice."

** Pyramid Song. If you can understand anything after the first line or two then congratulations. "Awehaahwetehwenemelaohboy" <ref>I give up</ref> indeed.

** "I'm a creep, amawanooow."

* The song "If I Should From Grace With God" by the Pogues featured in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE10VC82ZZU this car commercial] is damn near indecipherable. About the only lyrics that can be clearly heard is the title of the song itself and "Let me go, boys..." The Pogues could be this trope for several songs.

* Sephiroth's [[Leitmotif]] from ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]''. ''[[Ominous Latin Chanting|Something indecipherable, probably Latin, something something something]]'' '''SEPHIROTH!'''

* Letter's To Cleo's "Here And Now" has a chorus that's mostly unintelligible due to Kay Hanley going into [[Motor Mouth]] mode: "ah huh huh ba ba, ba ba ba ba ras ababa ska, ah huh huh ba ba, ba ba ba ba sherbanowa sherbanowa HERE AND NOW! HERE AND NOW-OW-OW!"<ref> translation: the comfort of the knowledge of a rise above the sky above could never parallel the challenge of an acquisition in the here and now, here and now</ref>

* OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass", due to its Wall of Sound-like orchestration and heavy echo effects on the vocals, is largely indecipherable except for the resounding chorus of [[Refrain From Assuming|"WHEN THE MORNING COMES!"]]

[[Category:Music Tropes]]

[[Category:Something Something Leonard Bernstein]]