Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Difference between revisions

 

 

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

 

* The [[Trope Namers]] as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OENjixZd_Oo covered] by Canadian folk band [[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''!

** Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Homer the Moe", where R.E.M. makes a guest appearance (already without Bill Berry at the time) and Homer further [[Mondegreen|Mondegreens]] their song:

Birthday party, Cheetos, pogo sticks and lemonade<br />

You symbiotic stupid jerk, that's right, Flanders, I'm talking about you! }}

* "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by [[Nirvana]] - Most people can only pick out "here we are now" and something about "stupid and contagious" (and maybe the endless repetitions of "hello") Despite the lyrics being quite clear on the verses, no one seems to know them.

** The [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Weird Al Yankovic]] parody, ''Smells Like Nirvana'', lampshades and notes this by having a section where Weird Al deliberately mumbles garbage while on the video subtitles go from translating it into actual words to translating it to "bargle nawdle zouss" before finally descending into "[[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped|???]]". Then he continues with "with all these marbles in my mouth"... spitting out said marbles.

Buy our album! We're Nirvana! }}

 

But I don't know what I'm saying! }}

** [[Panel Show|Music quiz]] ''[[Never Mind the Buzzcocks]]'' had a round where the panel tries to sing along to a song like this, and they [[Mondegreen|mostly get it wrong]]: for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" they guessed "Here we are now, eat potatoes."

** [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]] were asked to cover "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on a radio show[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdJuW7UqtOY&feature=related (listen here)]. It's even harder to understand than the original, because John Flansburgh tries to sing it despite [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|not knowing a single word of the song]].

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' parodies Men at Work's most famous song, "Down Under".

LOOK AT ME WITH A BRAND NEW HYUNDAI. ("You'd better run, you'd better take cover") }}

** There's also Peter's Christmas album. Among others, he mangles one line from "Little Drummer Boy" into "I brought these gifts for you, they're [[Ass Shove|up in my bum.]]"

* The [[Covered Up]] of Traffic's "Feelin' Alright" by Joe Cocker. Can't understand anything but "Feelin' Alright, not feelin that good my self..."

* "Telephone Call From Istanbul", along with many other [[Tom Waits]] songs.

* [http://www.kissthisguy.com/1829song-blinded-by-the-light.htm The infamous cover of] [[Bruce Springsteen]]'s "Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Most people think can only pick the title out of "She was blinded by the light, revved up like a Deuce, another runner in the night" due to the enunciation of many of the lyrics.

** Made even more irritating by the fact that the original lyric is "Cut loose like a deuce." Apparently Mann couldn't figure out the lyrics to the song he was covering, in a cross between this trope, [[Adaptation Decay]], and [[Did Not Do the Research]].

** Notably, the Eric Prydz song "Call on Me", which sampled the chorus of "Valerie", inadvertently lampshaded this trope -- in that Prydz sampled the lyric "Call on Me" as pretty much the only lyric that was understandable from the original song. And even ''that'' isn't recognized perfectly: see the [http://jamestown.ytmnd.com/ "Colony" fad] on [[YTMND]].

* "[[Robert Burns|Auld Lang Syne]]" is a difficult one because the original poem was in Scots which made it too hard for the Sassenach to ken its meaning apart from the first line "Should auld acquintance be forgot...". So then people tried to make English versions but more than one were made so nobody knew the same version and since the only time you sing it is when you're drunk at 00:01 on New Year's Day, in a large crowd of people who all have different versions with the only guy who really knows it being that one really keen Scottish guy, you never actually learn any of those version and just stick to "ouagh aaugh AAAUGH Aaughu AAUUGH '''AAUGH'''".

*** There's even a middle verse that never gets sung because few people know it even exists, let alone the words to it.

* The chorus of "Stayin' Alive", by [[The Bee Gees]]. "muttermuttermuttermuttermuttermuttermuttermutter STAYIN' ALIVE! STAYIN' ALIVE!" The falsetto doesn't help either.

* And an oldie along the same lines: Does anyone know more of the lyrics to "La Cucaracha" than simply the title phrase?

** Kids probably know the lyrics in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]''

** The grasshoppers in ''[[A Bug's Life]]'' don't know them either.

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

4d: marihuana pa' fumar. /mari'wana pa fu'mar/ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}pe1q7yj4pBk#t{{=}}2m21s marijuana to smoke]. }}

* Raise your hand if you ever figured out the rest of the chorus ''besides'' "MMMBop". Didn't think so. (It's [[Scatting]].)

** "you know a yaddayaddayaddayaddaeIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIaaaa oh....B-B-B-Bennie and the Jetssssssss....."

*** From 27 Dresses:

Oh, oh, buh, buh, buh Bennie and the Jets }}

* The beginning of [[Nightwish]]'s Fantasmic basically goes "Wish upon a star, nwlasfjdkcldnsfcnsal, take my [[Mondegreen|ham]], nwsdlkjncklcxfndskjl..."

** Oh, that's nothing. Wait till part 3.

Well, yeah, that one's a wordgasm about the [[Disney Animated Canon]] sung in stereotypically unintelligible "I'm-a twenty-years-trained real-life opera-singer", so it also fits under [[Indecipherable Lyrics]] for two distinct reasons, and [[Word Salad Lyrics]], which thus also makes it Troperrific, which [[Heavy Meta|fits]]. They're 'good'. }}

** It's all over in older Nightwish songs. Can anyone understand anything Tarja says the first time they listened? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg5_mlQOsUQ I thought not.]

* Aaron G., who frequently does vocals for Naoki's songs in ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'', has a [[Motor Mouth|talent for really fast rapping]]. The lyrics to ''Dynamite Rave'' scroll quite fast on DDR 3rd Mix's karaoke lyrics, and later games removed the lyrics display altogether, so for most people singing along, the rap section's lyrics might as well be "Techno rave, mumblemumblemumble mumblemumblemumble mumblemumblemumble... [[Title Drop|DYNAMITE RAVE]] mumblemumblemumble..." It helps that the [[Title Drop]] is in all caps in the official lyrics.

* ''[[Persona 3]]'s'' main battle theme, "Mass Destruction" has rapping. Fast rapping. Other songs in the game sung in English by Japanese people, like the opening theme song "Burn my Dread" are an example of this too, but not as bad as this:

** It happened again in [[Persona 4|the sequel]]- although 'Reach Out To The Truth' is a much better battle theme, it's almost impossible to make out any of the lyrics other than "I face out, I hold out, I reach out to the truth of my life" and "can you let me out, can you let me out, can you set me free from this dernernerIdunnotherest".

*** To add insult to injury, it's also frequently heard as as [[Mondegreen|"All the LESBIANS, oh yeah LESBIANS,]] can you SET ME FREE" and then descends into glarble territory.

** In the same game, the theme of [[The Hub]], "Backside of the TV." Aside from "Duhduhnana, duhduhnana, FEEL NO PAIN" from the intro, and "Somethingwhatever, cantunderstand, WHATCHU GONNA DO" in the rapping segment, the song is fairly incomprehensible without looking up the lyrics.

** Continued again in the remake of [[Persona|the first game]], though with singing instead of rap:

** And yet again in Persona 3 Portable, with the rapping back.

*** Most tracks with lyrics in the Persona series can be applied to this trope due to swapping between English and Japanese sometimes ''mid-sentence''. The opening "Soul Phrase" might seem [[Mondegreen|incomprehensible to some, Japanese to others, but is actually thickly-accented English.]]

* [[System of a Down]]'s "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKhEoytKk6U IEAIAIO]" was made for the ''sole reason'' of taking this trope to eleven, so as a result, the original REM song sounds really clear and articulate in comparison.

* 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.

* [[Blur (band)|Blur]]'s "Song 2" goes, "WOO-HOO!" The rest of the refrain consists of semi-distorted English-sounding rambles. The verses are slightly easier to understand, but [[Chorus-Only Song|it's not like anyone knows those anyway.]] Considering the refrain was used nigh-everywhere in adverts and the like, especially in America, it gets this treatment a lot.

** 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.

* ''[http://youtube.com/watch?v=0B2bhOavNYQ GOLD RUSH]'' from ''[[Beatmania IIDX]] 14: GOLD''. Thanks in part to the fact that the lyrics are entirely in English but sung with a thick Japanese accent, about the only two discernable phrases are "Make it! Make money!" and "'''TWO DEE ECKS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!!'''" The [http://youtube.com/watch?v=BijUMQWpi_0 remix] used in ''[[Pop N Music|Pop'n Music]]'' also adds "'''SENGOKU RETSUDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!'''" to the list.

* "Rap is a Man's Soul". It's almost impossible to make sense out of the verses (even if you ''know'' the words). However, most of the people here know the chorus.

'''[[Memetic Mutation|RAW, RAW, FIGHT DA POWAH]]'' }}

** "Libera Me (from Hell)" is worse, unless you're fluent in Latin.

* Song 10 by Zebrahead. Even worse that the band never put the lyrics in with the album, claiming the lyrics don't exist. The only words everyone can agree on are "YEAH! WESTSIDE!"

* Terry Pratchett's [[Discworld]] series has this ''in-universe'' - the official anthem of the City of Ankh-Morpork has a first verse and a chorus, but the second verse...

Ner hner ner, your gleaming swords...'' }}

** And those are the ''official'' lyrics, based on the logic that nobody remembers the second verse of a national anthem anyway.

** Somethingaboutalienscomingdownandcalmingaguydownwithadrinkandanorangesliceandtellingme '''[[The Call Knows Where You Live|you are the chosen one.]]''' - "Rosetta Stoned"

* Lampshaded in Argentinian comic strip ''[[Mafalda]]'':

'''Mafalda:''' So? Many people like dogs and nobody understands what "woof" means. }}

* The pre-chorus of "Always" by Erasure, made famous from [[Robot Unicorn Attack]] seems to go "When it's cold outside, da da da da daaay, HOLD ON THE NIGHT, THERE WILL BE NO SHAME!"

** The [[Covered Up|original version]] by Robert Johnson is somewhat slower and easier to understand.

** "By the Way" is pretty fierce, too, except for the chorus.

** Usually pretty much all of their older songs fall in this trope, really. Try understanding anything in "Fight Like A Brave" except the chorus for example.

* Throbbing Gristle's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPrTUC7BDn4 "Hamburger Lady"]. Utterly lyrically incomprehensible.

** "Tubes in her arm" and "the night nurse" is maybe the most anyone can catch [[Nothing Is Scarier|which is half of why the song is so disturbing.]] Most of their recordings are fairly primitive for studio work, so you get this in spades. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X9ygjkIPf8 "Zyklon B Zombie"]and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8riZnope7Ak "Hit By A Rock"] have only the [[Title Drop]] decipherable as a couple of extra examples that are also creepy listening. TG managed to make this into a horror trope.

* [[Marilyn Manson]]'s "The Beautiful People". Most people only know the words "The beautiful people, the beautiful people".

* [[Disturbed]] singer David Draiman's style has a way of doing this for three reasons:

2. His voice is weird-sounding to most first-time listeners.<br />

3. His style involves [[Scatting]] to create a vocal melody to work best with the song then applying lyrics later, making him occasionally mumble the lyrics since this is how he first experienced it (which created the scat section in "The Game"). }}

* The song "Born Slippy .NUXX" by Underworld may be one of the most recognizable dance songs of the 90's, and is especially popular in England. However, it features heavy echo/reverb effects over the vocals, and most people are only able to pick out the word "boy" at the end of a few lines, as well as the famous "Shouting 'Lager, lager, lager lager'" bit.

* [[In-Universe]] example for the animated adaptation of ''[[Dr. Seuss|Horton Hatches The Egg]]'':

* This was Bernie Mac's response to Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" when he hosted the 2001 Billboard Music Awards.

* ''[[MIA]]'' has had a number of songs that fit this trope. There's "Paper Planes": "I fly like peppah get high like planes, if you catch me on the corner Ima meesim mihmah nay / if you come around hey- I'm naked all day / I get one dom inna simpah neffa way..."

* ''[[The Doobie Brothers]]'' has, at the very least, "China Grove", which this troper admits to not even understanding the refrain of for years: "Well the people 'n' the peep, noo joo me cross<ref> Well, the preacher and the teeacher, Lord, they're a caution</ref> / they are the talk of the town... People are some kind the strange / damn Mrs. Perkins again<ref> The lyrics are different, though, as the first verse says, "The people of the town are strange, / and they're proud of where they came", and the second verse says, "They say that the father's insane, / and dear Mrs. Perkins' a game."</ref>.... WOAH-HO, CHINA GROVE!"

** "Something something OH OH, got some Wild Wild Life, something something something OH OH, got some Wild Wild Life." Problematic because the song has multiple choruses, with "Wild, Wild Life" being the common thread lyrically for all of them - mixing up pieces from each chorus is common.

* ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' has one of these in-universe. The first verse of their mission song is:

Dum da da da dum da da da SPACESHIP! }}

* Every [[wikipedia:Patter song|patter song]] ever written! Gilbert and Sullivan? To begin with, the Major General song and ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQGrQPZMLK8&feature=related It Really Doesn't Matter]'', in which they actually lampshade it--the line "this particularly rapid unintelligible patter isn't generally heard" is repeated several times! [it should be noted here that, theoretically, while the ''actors'' are singing, for the most part the ''characters'' aren't supposed to be, rendering this line even more amusing] Admittedly, the singers in this sort of situation are generally of a degree of skill such that they ''do'' enunciate every word clearly, but at that speed? And even if you can hear and understand it (not a given in a theater!) that doesn't mean that you know the words; most people likely can't recite much of the Major General song beyond "I am the very model of a modern major general"!

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd2e0Sv2J9k SASKATCHEWAN] by Les Trois Accords. The song is probably insanely easy to sing along to in French, but all English singers can do is SasKATchewaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

* "99 Luftballons" (which translates to 99 Air Balloons, NOT 99 Red Balloons, but that's [[Berserk Button|a whole different issue]]), is sung entirely in German except for two words.

* Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" is Kentucky's state song that is sung before the Kentucky Derby. Most Kentucky schoolchildren know few of the lyrics other than "My Old Kentucky Home" and "... [[Have a Gay Old Time|gay]]...", which they of course shout at the top of their lungs.

* "Get Free" by The Vines - The verses are perfectly intelligible, but once it gets to the chorus, you're most likely only going to be able to make out "come in, come in, come in" and ''maybe'' "you know you really oughta". The excerpt of it in [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Weird Al Yankovic]]'s "Angry White Boy Polka" does make things a lot clearer.

** "Hunt the hare and turn 'er down the rocky road: all the way to Dublin. Whack-fo-lal-de-ra." (Those 'noises' are called lilting.)

* [[Todd in the Shadows]] declares this on Flo Rida.

** And [[The Rap Critic]] calls this on Mystikal (even comparing him to [[Looney Tunes|Yosemite Sam]]), saying the only line he understood was "I came in here with my dick in my hand!".

* To those who don't know Swedish, "dance-a ????? clap-a ?????? ????? [[Caramelldansen]]!"

** In the song's favor though, at least the words are understandable. Plus, it has an overarching theme (although that doesn't help at all either).

* Inverted with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5xMqb_Aomg the Speed Test]. It's the same thing over and over and starts out fairly slow, but start at 5:10 and see how many words you can make out.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsFpUW48Tnc Manamana] hole in the ceiling/Bagibasef to you from the essence of my being/And I sing to my God songs of love and feeling/Mawansheownow

* [[Into the Woods|Into the woods nuhnuhnuhnununuhnuhnuhnhunh, Into the woods nuhnuhunhunuhunuhunuhunh journey!]]

* [[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'s ending. "Yami wo kirisaku, OH DESIRE! Something something something something..."

* 'Round Christmas time, Fairytale of New York becomes this, if only because most people who are singing along are [[Drunken Song|almost always drunk]].

** [[Michael McIntyre]] picked up on that one:

* [[Interpol]] in "Say Hello To The Angels" - "When I'mfeelinglafhllgtwawgeguyseweuawiocomesblrghargawygrerhhwaioeawerhjhfme INTO MY AIRSPAAACE, MOVE INTO MY AIRSPAAACE"

* Moxy Fruvous' Johnny Saucep'n - My name is Johnny saucep'n aklflhslkkljlkgjijismmfkldsjmunstersdkflskflskfdkldsjfkldkscabbage and the crawfish claws

* J-Pop/Rock band The Pillows do this, featuring a few songs that have Japanese verses and English lines within the choruses. Sometimes English words are thrown in randomly for kicks.

* Done deliberately in the [[Expository Theme Tune]] of [[Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness|Kung Fu Panda Legends Of Awesomeness]]:

KUNG FU PANDA! }}

* 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.

* "Hilikus" by early [[Incubus (band)|Incubus]], due Brandon Boyd's fast rapping: "History has a tendency to blohkkadappappaladopeppelisaboutbaddelissadogoodta, fordehqwyegqwamme<ref> block out the popular beliefs about the leaders of the time, so glisten with my</ref> syllables irhqwmehiqwaebdatto, webbeeaeguyeawguheddoteieaeibm<ref> and ponder the thought, maybe they should have had to dedicate more</ref> to it, GO!"

* In theory, the theme to ''[[The Neverhood]]'' has lyrics. In reality, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXQ2lvgpHiE it sounds like this]:

* Unless you are a German-speaker or a singer, the only line you probably remember from [[Franz Schubert]]'s setting of Goethe's "Der Erlkönig" is "Mein VAAAAAATERRR! Mein Vaaaterrr!"

* One of the ghosts in Osohe Castle in ''[[Mother 3]]'' sings his own version of the song that the ghost at the piano is playing, admitting that, while he likes the song, he doesn't quite have the lyrics down.