h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm looking for some material for a project I'm doing. Basically it's looking for a fun way to teach English to bored foreign schoolkids.


Has anyone noticed any songs where the words either

a. illustrate a difficult point of grammar (prepositions of time, conditional sentences, use of progressive and simple present?) or
b. use colloquialisms that won't be found in school books or dictionaries because they're too colloquial, too new, or too rude? or
c. offer a basis for discussion (Zombie by the Cranberries, Daniel by Elton John, Leningrad by Billy Joel) or
d. are commonly misunderstood by non-English-speakers (No Milk Today by Herman's Hermits) or
e. (my favourite) songs where some foreigners (usually Scandinavians) have written a song and even produced and released at great expense and which contains incomprehensible English

Examples the newer the better please (despite the age of the ones I quote). Thanks very much for any ideas and I hope we have fun pulling this lot apart!!

Also I am looking for allusions to typical cultural events (they're nearly all listed in "! just called to say I love you" by Stevie W

Also I am looking for allusions to typical cultural events (they're nearly all listed in "! just called to say I love you" by Stevie W

(a.) "If you were the only girl in the world"

(b.) "Ebeneezer Goode" includes lines like "Anybody got any Veras?"

(c.) "My Generation" - on the grounds that the Generation the Who are talking about are now the orthodoxy they preported to rebel against.

(d.) "American Pie" is quite easily misunderstood.

(e.) Absolutely anything by Bjork...I'm convinced she writes her lyrics by just opening the dictionary at random;
"Take on me" by Aha - what the heck was that all about?

Hmmm I'm sure there's loads more
*pops off to a sold dark room to think*

Thanks for starting the ball rolling. I keep bumping into you. Hope it's safe in that dark room. Is there a button there, too, saying "Do not press this button"? Maybe I could come to Ireland for my holiday this year if it's full of intelligent people.

I think the fact that you keep bumping in to me is as much to the local work ethic as anything else

Should you visit Dublin, in addition to that which I listed as the tour my mum (aka Wandrin'Star) did this weekend just gone on my home page, you should find yourself in the pub "The Merchant O'Sheas" where there's very good local singing and set dances.

A bit of revision (including a version of "The Fields of Athenry" which I'm trying to learn at the moment) can be found at http://www.geocities.com/~jdcjr/Songs/ which might also fit the original question of the thread.

Ten years late...

a. (illustrating grammar)
--> If I had a hammer: conditional clauses
--> Still lovin' you (by the Scorpions): wrong use of a conditional clause: "If we would go again all the way from the start, I would try to change...". Teachers' wisdom would have it be "If we *went* again..."
--> Blowin' in the wind: formation of questions

b. (colloquialisms)
--> The Bad Touch (by The Bloodhound Gang): sexual euphemisms

c. (basis for discussion)
--> Small Town Boy (by Jimmy Summerville / Bronski Beat): experiences of oppression against homosexuals
--> Hurt (as sung by Johnny Cash): deliberate self harm
--> The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave): death penalty
--> Where the Wild Roses Grow (Nick Cave): killing someone for beauty

d. (commonly misunderstood)
--> Born in the USA (Springsteen): obviously not an hommage to the States
--> Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams)*: the narrator actually feels miserable at the present time
--> Jump! (by Van Halen): the song is about suicide

e. (incomprehensible English)
--> Loser (by Beck): I have NO clue what the lyrics are about, and this is *not* due to something lost in translation
--> Lassie Come Home (by Alphaville): probably just another case for "Whatever does the artist want to tell us?"

Y.

* Shame on me for mentioning the mostly abominable Adams and the mostly brilliant Springsteen in one paragraph.

I was going to suggest If I Were a Carpenter for conditionals...

How about We Didn't Start the Fire - for topical discussion and possibly some colloquialisms

You could also offer Fernando by Abba as one of the very rare examples of their incorrrect use of English (Since many years I've never seen a rifle in your hand) which also offers a topic for discussion (or even Money Money Money - "must be funny, in a rich man's world" I think not)

er... that's it for now.

Incomprehensible English?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
...etc.

All the same - undoubtedly one of the greatest songs of all time - possibly the greatest.

Here is some English that is either so colloquial that it is beyond me to understand - or the artists were trying really hard to write lyrics in English with only a limited understanding of the language. Your call

Artist: Camouflage
Place of origin: Germany (and Australia, it seems)

Song: The Great Commandment

Sample:
"The great commandment shows the contempt
between the world and their embarassing pavement
believe the scholars read the readings realize the man who says anything
the great commandment"

Y.

Have you tried putting it in a translating programme to see if it makes sense in another language?

Looks like someone's tipped all the scrabble tiles out and rearranged them.



Or they've used this.... http://www.magneticpoetry.com/poetgame/create.cfm?k=4

Oh, I remember back when I held the record in my hands. On the sleeve notes there were translations of the lyrics into Italian and German. The band being German, I suppose the German version was what the lyrics *were supposed to mean*. I cannot remember much of it, but some parts stuck:

For "the world and their embarrasing pavement" they had something that would be "the world and its disgraceful poverty". How the poverty (Armut in German) / poverty mix-up came about, I have no idea, but at least I have some idea about the "their" part in the quote/unquote original lyrics. In German, the phrase would be "die Welt und ihre erbärmliche Armut". "Ihre" is one of those words that have different meanings, among which are "your", "yours", "her", "their", and "its". So they simply picked the wrong word out of a list. (My students tend to do that a lot...)

Oh, and there is the line "realize the man who says anything" which I think was meant to mean "recognize the man who has nothing to say." I think.

Fun all the way around

Y.