it’s no secret that Ministry does not like to include lyric sheets with every album.
In the past, that’s led to some amusing situations where I was completely off the mark regarding song lyrics and song meanings.
I first heard L.O.R.A.H. on a copied cassette with no tracklist, and - for an embarrassingly long period of time - though that “Diety” was “Guillotine.” And, since the song was, after all, about The Guillotine, I also heard “he comes for me” as “he cuts for me.”
After correctly hearing some of the other lyrics about “resurrection in stereo” etc., my little brain thought that the song was a kind of cyberpunk story about people getting body parts sliced away and getting figuratively “resurrected” with techno-appendages or something.
Anyone else for misinterpreted or mis-heard Ministry lyrics?
Here is a post I did earlier. This is the lyric book that came with the Japanese edition of With Sympathy, let’s just say whoever translated these lyrics did a poor job [laugh]
Here is a post I did earlier. This is the lyric book that came with the Japanese edition of With Sympathy, let’s just say whoever translated these lyrics did a poor job [laugh]
Oh yeah, that’s genius - makes me nostalgic for Japan (as just about everything does). I too saw many of racy people there.
I’m here now, actually.
What I love is when they utilize some hip hop song on commercials and such for its catchiness, seemingly unaware that the English lyrics would make a sailor blush.
I was lazily watching a morning variety/kids’ show during breakfast and the children on the program were all about 4-7 years old and playing some game where they would take turns jumping rope. There was a rap song to accompany the activity and Lil Jon or Lil Wayne or Lil Crackhead Joe or whomever was shouting “Get them hos! Fuck them hos!”
My in-laws thought I was insane watching this retarded show and hysterically laughing my ass off.
What I love is when they utilize some hip hop song on commercials and such for its catchiness, seemingly unaware that the English lyrics would make a sailor blush.
I was lazily watching a morning variety/kids’ show during breakfast and the children on the program were all about 4-7 years old and playing some game where they would take turns jumping rope. There was a rap song to accompany the activity and Lil Jon or Lil Wayne or Lil Crackhead Joe or whomever was shouting “Get them hos! Fuck them hos!”
My in-laws thought I was insane watching this retarded show and hysterically laughing my ass off.
I’ve never fully understood the Japanese relation to hip-hop. Generally when people there get into any imported musical style, they have a knowledge of it that puts Western coverage to shame. And yet they almost completely gloss over the more “controversial” or merely “social commentary” aspects of that style; most Japanese rap that I’ve heard is just topically along the lines of “my skills are the best” or “I’m chillin’”.
Loosely on this topic, there used to be entire programs there just devoted to “mimisora” or misinterpreted lyrics - there was one equally shared between foreign mis-translations of J-pop, and vice versa, where they’d perform little skits based around the more absurd misunderstandings.
I don’t have any lyrics stories but a long long time ago I was at a dance club and I asked this girl I was talking with to dance when Everyday is Halloween came on. Of course I knew the song and I knew it was a Ministry song but I never learned the name. The girl asked me the name of it and I tried to play it cool like I knew and matter of factly said “Ah eee bop bop”.
For a time, you could also get away with saying “that song in the Michelob commercial”…
but yes, I still have nightmares of people coming up to me at the record store and making me identify a song by saying “do you know the one that goes: la dee do diddly la lo leeee…” and such. I’m almost certain at least one person asked for the song either by the “bop bop” vocal rhythm or mimicking the exasperated “Ooooh!” before the chorus kicks in. Wish I had recorded all of these great performances.
I heard “Missing” as “Messiah” especially when they played that song live and “Stainless steel providers” as “Steel but you stlll providers” in the beginning.
I heard “Missing” as “Messiah” especially when they played that song live and “Stainless steel providers” as “Steel but you stlll providers” in the beginning.
Actually, I had some definite hearing problems with a couple of the Connelly-led Revco songs - though by this time I was smart enough to know I was hearing it incorrectly, I was too lazy to inquire about the real words and the incorrect versions stuck with me.
So, in ‘Cattle Grind,’ there was a line “machine induced / peroxide boots…I mean this murder shit!”
Based on the royalties I’ve made so far, 20% of 0 is… 0!
But if I post it on Soundcloud and anybody says anything nice about it I’ll forward you the message. That happens sometimes.
Ok, it’s not anywhere close to a ‘Ministry’ lyric, but it is an all-time great of misinterpretation, courtesy of Spanish singing hero ‘El Principe Gitano.’ There’s a series of compilations called “Spanish Bizarro” that he regularly features in…for good reason.
[reply]My in-laws thought I was insane watching this retarded show and hysterically laughing my ass off.
Is your wife from Japan? I’ve always wanted to go there, looks amazing.[/reply]
Sorry I missed this the first time (very limited access when I was over there). But, yes, my wife is from Japan. She has lived in the US now for almost 19 years if my Math is correct.
We were over there this time for her brother’s wedding.
[reply][reply]My in-laws thought I was insane watching this retarded show and hysterically laughing my ass off.
Is your wife from Japan? I’ve always wanted to go there, looks amazing.[/reply]
Sorry I missed this the first time (very limited access when I was over there). But, yes, my wife is from Japan. She has lived in the US now for almost 19 years if my Math is correct.
We were over there this time for her brother’s wedding.[/reply]
Excellent, it looks like an amazing place, i’d love to go there at some point. My friend’s mum’s Japanese.
Excellent, it looks like an amazing place, i’d love to go there at some point. My friend’s mum’s Japanese.
Overall I had a great time there; though I found that ‘neutral’ attitudes towards the country are difficult to maintain if you’re there for a long period of time - you either wake up in the morning thanking the gods for the opportunity to be there, and giddily enjoying even the tiniest of actions (like being a canned coffee from a vending machine), or you wake up and feel an intense sense of claustrophobia and irritability.
My recommendation to anyone planning on living / working there is this - strike up as many correspondences beforehand with native Japanese as possible, since the situation I just mentioned can make relationships with other expats really unstable, you don’t want to rely on them as your network in Japan.
My first job there was at one of these stupid ‘conversation schools’ that is essentially a host bar for bored office ladies (and if you don’t know about host bars, watch the movie ‘The Great Happiness Space,’ which is quite an eye-opener.) My expat mates got disillusioned and sullen after working there for a while, then saw that I was developing a better rapport than they were with the locals, and then accused me of some kind of treachery for doing that - as a result I ended up getting slammed with all the harder work, more ‘difficult’ students etc., and just being given tons of shit for doing what I was actually supposed to do.
Anyway, for music afficionadoes, the country has hands-down the best record stores I’ve ever been to - despite having severely inflated prices, chains like Disk Union, King Kong or even Tower will rarely send you home empty-handed. The real treat, though, are the boutique shops with their special gimmicks - “EnBan” in Tokyo’s Koenji district has a full-service bar, the owner’s logic being that more people tend to buy records when they’re drunk [cool]
“I’m not an f-a-g” is all I can hear… it cannot be unheard
I’m always surprised that that one stuck with fans the way it did. I guess it’s because the musician in me always thought that “It’s not in F or G” (referring to the key) was funnier.
I’m always surprised that that one stuck with fans the way it did. I guess it’s because the musician in me always thought that “It’s not in F or G” (referring to the key) was funnier.
For some reason that makes me imagine a potential music education segment on some PBS kids’ show…‘Schoolhouse Rock’ as filtered through Alain Jourgensen…