J’accuse cannot comment on the news of the day that comes straight from our place of daytime work and that will surely be the subject of many a discussion. The Times of Malta will definitely not be the last paper to misinterpret the court’s decision but it will be up to other legal brains to set the record straight.
So. Being occupationally incapacitated from indulging in interpetational speculation on the latest outcomes from the CVRIA EVROPEA I will indulge in the less spectacular but equally interesting flaws of perception of the lyrical and musical kind. The two subjects of my analysis will be the seventies band “Stretch” and the nineties master of beats “Gigi D’Agostino”.
A bout of browsing serendipity led me to the good old hit by Gigi called “Bla Bla”. Anyone who savours the musical creation of this Italian born turntable mini-genius will enjoy the flashback to the times when Tattingers was trendy, when shooters came in test-tubes and when Jack Coke was a trendy drink to order when chatting up the birds. This is “Bla Bla” in all it’s simplistic glory:
And the story would end here had I not also found some efforts to transcribe the lyrics to this questionable masterpiece. It seems that all websites dedicate to lyric transcribing render this juicy headbanger of a hit as follows:
A A BEN
WAREM A BEN BEN
WAREM BEN BEN BEN
WAREM A WA TWO BEN BEN
WAREM A BLA A BLA BEN
WAREM A A BEN
WAREM BEN BEN BEN
WAREM A TWO BEN BEN
Lovely. Senseless. And very Italian. Only, Gigi D’Agostino is not stupid. He is a sly, foxy D.J. who spun an old record, took one second of music out of it and produced this beat imbued babe. Gigi has no lyrics because Gigi is no lyrical Pavarotti. His is the business of sampling and remixing and spinning. The art pioneered by the great rappers Beastie Boys is here being demonstrated in its simplest of versions. Sample one phrase from a song – render it unrecognisable and add a beat and people will love it. The “phrase” actually comes from a cool piece by “Stretch” called “Why did you do it” which you can enjoy in the next Youtube clip. The piece you are looking for is in second 0.33… enjoy.
And that, my friends, is how “I’ve been thinking about what you have done to me” becomes “Warem a ben ben”.
Now get back to the Times report on the European Court of Justice’s decision. (titles have been changed since the horrible title that appeared at 10.14 this morning).
