That picture is at WBCN FM radio station in Boston. Now long gone, but once was the best in town. Frank is wearing a 104.1 WBCN hat. The beard is Charles Laqudara, morning DJ. An amazing talent on the FM dial. Very cool to Frank fans from Boston, from the 70's/80's!!!!
Anyone a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000? Every once in awhile, the actors make FZ references during the show. "Is that a real poncho, or a Sears poncho?" or someone may sing a phrase from the song Montana. etc.
@ Uncle Mozo - I wore my Barking Pumkin t-shirt in Japan, and had a similar experience. A student looked at it and asked... "what does Saint S**t mean?"
Ive noticed the same thing. I have about 60 Zappa releases and have spent hours listening. I hear licks from other things all the time. Its just one piece of music.
Den
I wonder how many times Frank used the main " Big Swifty " lick in the course of songs. I pretty much hear it everyewhere. In fact, after listening to The Grand Wazoo CD this past weekend, I heard in the title track. Amazing really.
I remember being at a party, wearing a Barking Pumpkin t-shirt a few years back. In the logo, the pumpkin says "Arf!!" and the cat replies something in Japanese. It was rumored that the cat said "Holy S h i t", but we could never confirm it. One girl at the party was Japanese and we asked her to tranlate. She stared intensly for a moment, and with a bewildered look said - "sacred excrement ?"
Sacred excrement!!!! We had a good laugh over that one.
Yes, it is quite difficult to translate Zappa lyrics to any language. If I was supposed to translate the lyrics to Norwegian I guess some of it would have been lost in translation because there are no good metaphors - or things the Americans find funny dont't appeal to the Norwegian listeners in the same way. We though have been quite fortunate and blessed (brainwashed :) with American entertainment from our TV sets since the early 1960 (Lucille Ball, Danny Kaye, The Cosby show, The Simpsons, Star Wars, Gun Smoke, Dynasty, Dallas, Saturday Night Live...you name it) and in Norway we don't dub the programmes (but text in Norwegian beneath), so many people get the points even if it is American humor. But still there's some material and local humor that is almost impossible to translate, but in those cases it is very interesting to get into the culture and find out what is the funny part and why. Humor can be really intelligent some times, and combined with irony it's often of studied elegance - that's where some of the Zappa lyrics come in!
One thing a lot of people don't understand is that there is not always a one-to-one equivalency between words when you translate from one language to another. A dog in English is a Hund in German. A female dog, which we have a special word for (that will get censored if I write it), is a Hundin. It doesn't carry that extra nasty connotation that we English-speaking people reserve for loose women or women who anger us. So while son of a female dog might be insulting in German, it doesn't carry the same emotional load that it does in English. That is why Zappa's translator chose Huerensohn (son of a prostitute) instead, because it carries more of the emotional load that the late, great Mr. Zappa intended.
Another example might be the name I use at an online game site, HerrSchwanzkopf, Mr. Tail-head. Schwanz means tail. Colloquially it also means that most precious piece of the male anatomy, that fleshy thing most guys fondle multiple times per day. But a German sees that combination, Schwanzkopf, and thinks tail head. I'm sure they have as many dickheads over there as we do here, but they must have a different way of expressing it, b…Read more
One thing a lot of people don't understand is that there is not always a one-to-one equivalency between words when you translate from one language to another. A dog in English is a Hund in German. A female dog, which we have a special word for (that will get censored if I write it), is a Hundin. It doesn't carry that extra nasty connotation that we English-speaking people reserve for loose women or women who anger us. So while son of a female dog might be insulting in German, it doesn't carry the same emotional load that it does in English. That is why Zappa's translator chose Huerensohn (son of a prostitute) instead, because it carries more of the emotional load that the late, great Mr. Zappa intended.
Another example might be the name I use at an online game site, HerrSchwanzkopf, Mr. Tail-head. Schwanz means tail. Colloquially it also means that most precious piece of the male anatomy, that fleshy thing most guys fondle multiple times per day. But a German sees that combination, Schwanzkopf, and thinks tail head. I'm sure they have as many dickheads over there as we do here, but they must have a different way of expressing it, because they hear Schwanzkopf and go "Huh? What's so funny about that?"
Ihre freundlichen Worten machen mich glucklich. i don't speak enough german and trying to say things (rather than just understand what is being said) is difficult for me. I would be a poor translator too.
there are other parts that sound wierd to me. the point i was trying to make was much of it is poorly translated. and they were trying to say son of a b----,not son of a whore, ugly is hesslich, if you never spoke german you just don't get it i guess. du blode hund. (i don't have the umlaut key either)
I spelled it with ue because my keyboard isn't equipped with an umlaut. Whether it's good German or not, miserable Huerensohn always made sense to me. Ugly son of a whore. Would you prefer Schweinhund?
That picture is at WBCN FM radio station in Boston. Now long gone, but once was the best in town. Frank is wearing a 104.1 WBCN hat. The beard is Charles Laqudara, morning DJ. An amazing talent on the FM dial. Very cool to Frank fans from Boston, from the 70's/80's!!!!
paul i really like that picture cool !!
Frank Zappa @ WBCN in Boston appr. 1977.
Notice the Läther cover which later was used for Joe's Garage!
Anyone a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000? Every once in awhile, the actors make FZ references during the show. "Is that a real poncho, or a Sears poncho?" or someone may sing a phrase from the song Montana. etc.
@ Uncle Mozo - I wore my Barking Pumkin t-shirt in Japan, and had a similar experience. A student looked at it and asked... "what does Saint S**t mean?"
Ive noticed the same thing. I have about 60 Zappa releases and have spent hours listening. I hear licks from other things all the time. Its just one piece of music.
Den
I wonder how many times Frank used the main " Big Swifty " lick in the course of songs. I pretty much hear it everyewhere. In fact, after listening to The Grand Wazoo CD this past weekend, I heard in the title track. Amazing really.
Sacre poo, monsieur!
I remember being at a party, wearing a Barking Pumpkin t-shirt a few years back. In the logo, the pumpkin says "Arf!!" and the cat replies something in Japanese. It was rumored that the cat said "Holy S h i t", but we could never confirm it. One girl at the party was Japanese and we asked her to tranlate. She stared intensly for a moment, and with a bewildered look said - "sacred excrement ?"
Sacred excrement!!!! We had a good laugh over that one.
Yes, it is quite difficult to translate Zappa lyrics to any language. If I was supposed to translate the lyrics to Norwegian I guess some of it would have been lost in translation because there are no good metaphors - or things the Americans find funny dont't appeal to the Norwegian listeners in the same way. We though have been quite fortunate and blessed (brainwashed :) with American entertainment from our TV sets since the early 1960 (Lucille Ball, Danny Kaye, The Cosby show, The Simpsons, Star Wars, Gun Smoke, Dynasty, Dallas, Saturday Night Live...you name it) and in Norway we don't dub the programmes (but text in Norwegian beneath), so many people get the points even if it is American humor. But still there's some material and local humor that is almost impossible to translate, but in those cases it is very interesting to get into the culture and find out what is the funny part and why. Humor can be really intelligent some times, and combined with irony it's often of studied elegance - that's where some of the Zappa lyrics come in!
One thing a lot of people don't understand is that there is not always a one-to-one equivalency between words when you translate from one language to another. A dog in English is a Hund in German. A female dog, which we have a special word for (that will get censored if I write it), is a Hundin. It doesn't carry that extra nasty connotation that we English-speaking people reserve for loose women or women who anger us. So while son of a female dog might be insulting in German, it doesn't carry the same emotional load that it does in English. That is why Zappa's translator chose Huerensohn (son of a prostitute) instead, because it carries more of the emotional load that the late, great Mr. Zappa intended.
Another example might be the name I use at an online game site, HerrSchwanzkopf, Mr. Tail-head. Schwanz means tail. Colloquially it also means that most precious piece of the male anatomy, that fleshy thing most guys fondle multiple times per day. But a German sees that combination, Schwanzkopf, and thinks tail head. I'm sure they have as many dickheads over there as we do here, but they must have a different way of expressing it, b…Read more
Another example might be the name I use at an online game site, HerrSchwanzkopf, Mr. Tail-head. Schwanz means tail. Colloquially it also means that most precious piece of the male anatomy, that fleshy thing most guys fondle multiple times per day. But a German sees that combination, Schwanzkopf, and thinks tail head. I'm sure they have as many dickheads over there as we do here, but they must have a different way of expressing it, because they hear Schwanzkopf and go "Huh? What's so funny about that?"
Ihre freundlichen Worten machen mich glucklich. i don't speak enough german and trying to say things (rather than just understand what is being said) is difficult for me. I would be a poor translator too.
Vielen Dank! Ich habe mich sehr darüber gefreut. Mir geht's gut, hoffentlich Dir auch. Vielen grüsse an Dich!
it belongs everywhere, liebling.
Does humor belong in music?
there are other parts that sound wierd to me. the point i was trying to make was much of it is poorly translated. and they were trying to say son of a b----,not son of a whore, ugly is hesslich, if you never spoke german you just don't get it i guess. du blode hund. (i don't have the umlaut key either)
Are you asking me? No, I would not have changed a single word. It is a great song! And One Size Fits All is one of the best records...
I spelled it with ue because my keyboard isn't equipped with an umlaut. Whether it's good German or not, miserable Huerensohn always made sense to me. Ugly son of a whore. Would you prefer Schweinhund?
The translator might have made som mistakes, but it is no dog...Huresohn=son of a hooker.
thats it!!! those words are not right. a dog is a hund, sohn is a son but i never heard anyone put those words together like that.