Bawdy songs make it big

Have you seen this commercial?



I sometimes have the same feelings, as those evoked by this language school advertisement, when I turn the Polish radio on. I listen to Radio Złote Przeboje (100,1 FM in Warsaw) and they fall into delights over one new song (below).



It starts: It’s the first of May / I don’t feel the same, so one would infer it’s a song about nothing, like almost all released these days, but when the song reaches its climax, the refrain goes:

I give you all my lala
But don't you tell my mama
'Coz I don't need no drama
In my life

And now a hint to radio comperes and EN->PL translators – “lala” is not a doll, nor carefree singing along, but it translates (retaining the meaning and flow, but not literally) into Polish as:

Więc zróbmy bara-bara
Niech nie wie moja stara
Bo jeszcze jedna kara
Na nic mi

This is going to be a hit in Poland and across Europe this late winter. Catchy tune accentuating the advantages of going to bed… But it’s not the first time, a few months ago one of the most popular songs was the one below.



It was played in commercial and state (the one with a mission) radio quite frequently, but I was really baffled when someone played it in Sunday morning Catholic broadcast and then enlightened listeners (mostly pensioners) called the radio and said they had enjoy its “smooth flow” (po polsku – gładko im ta piosenka płynęła).

(…) Make you want to touch it, make you want to taste it / Have you lusting for her, go crazy face it / She's so much more than you're used to / She knows just how to move to seduce you / She gone do the right thing and touch the right spot / Dance in you're lap till you're ready to pop
She’s always ready, when you want it she want it / Like a nympho, the info / I show you where to meet her / On the late night, till daylight the club jumping / If you want a good time, she’s gonna give you what you want
Baby it’s a new age, / You’re like my new craze / Let's get it together / Maybe we can start a new phase
(…)
Why don't you sit down on top of me
(…)
When she ready to ride, I'm ready to roll / I'll be in this bitch till the club close
What should I do, one thing on all fours / Now that that shit should be against the law / Different style, different move / Damn I like the way you move / Girl you got me thinking about / All the things I do to you / Let's get it poppin shorty / We can switch positions / From the couch to the counters in my kitchen

Now I won’t dare to translate, but don’t you try to tell my the lyrics are not suggestive (dwuznaczne). By the way, it does flow smoothly, love these beats.

I’m not ranting about the existence of such songs. In Polish we have some “bara-bara-bara, riki-tiki-tak / jeśli masz ochotę daj mi jakiś znak”, such as Doda’s “Party song” (below),



or the infamous Polish kitschy disco polo song “Cztery razy po dwa razy”, which symbolises the downfall of popular culture, but is disturbingly popular in Podlasie and played during almost every rural wedding party.



Perhaps there is a demand for a song which plays up benefits of sleeping around and tells that everyone deserves a good f*ck in strange places. At the end it takes a piss out of healthy students, like me. Hey, why haven’t I been to any rural wedding and why haven’t I tasted all those forms of entertainment like jolly good shag on haystack in a barn? I’ve never been and, oddly enough, I don’t regret!

Those songs exist in every language, but I’m sure no Polish radio station would let the Polish ones be played, but they blithely play the English-language ones. I somehow feel treated like an idiot. Is it their hypocrisy or ineptitude?

Politically involved songs / Utwory politycznie zaangażowane / Looking into the past

Probably everybody would agree popular music went on the dogs. Songs with corny, not to say dull lyrics like “I love you baby, love me tonight” top the charts. Most of them do not convey any, even the most simply message. That’s why I’m searching for the songs related to the breakthrough or just ordinary political events, in general related to politics. I came up with fifteen examples and divided them into three groups…

The order is random, do not treat it as a ranking!

I. U2 (my favourite band) songs

1) Sunday Bloody Sunday /1983/ (referring to the Bloody Sunday in Derry, 1972)

Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

2) Red Hill Mining Town /1987/ (inspired by the miners' strikes in the UK, in 1984 and 1985, after Margaret Thatcher’s government decided to close down the unprofitable mines)

We'll scorch the earth
Set fire to the sky
We stoop so low to reach so high

3) Please /1997/ (about unrest in North Ireland)

So you never knew love until you crossed the line of grace
And you never felt wanted till you had someone slap your face
So you never felt alive until you almost wasted away

4) In God’s Country /1987/ – a depressing and full of metaphors picture of Reagan’s America

Sleep comes like a drug...in god’s country
Sad eyes crooked crosses...in god’s country

5) New Year’s Day /1983/ - the only one song of U2 referring to Poland (inspired by the martial law)

Under a blood red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
The newspapers says, says
Say it's true it's true...
And we can break through
Though torn in two
We can be one

II. Other songs in English

1) The Scorpions – Wind of change /1990/ (pulling down the Berlin Wall, transformation in former communist bloc)

I follow the Moskva,
Down the Gorky Park,
Listening to the wind of change

2) The Hooters – 500 Miles /1989/ (the massacre on Tianannmen Square on 4th June, 1989)

A hundred tanks along the square,
One man stands and stops them never
Some day soon, the tide will turn, and I’ll be free

3) Elton John’s – Goodbye England’s Rose /1997/ (written for the funeral of Princess Diana)

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart…

4) Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A. (said to refer to the aftermaths of Vietnam war on American Society’s mentality, but I’m not sure, than used in electoral campaign, but whose?)

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

5) Bob Dylan – Blowin’ in the wind /1963/ (the anthem of pacifists, posing a string of questions about human existence)

Yes, 'n how many deaths will it take, 'til he knows,
That too many people have died ?
Yes, 'n how many years can some people exist,
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, 'n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending, he just didn't see ?

III. Utwory po polsku

1) Krystyna Prońko – Psalm stojących w kolejce /1980/ - jeden z nieformalnych hymnów „Solidarności”

Bądź jak kamień, stój, wytrzymaj,
Kiedyś te kamienie drgną,
I polecą jak lawina przez noc, przez noc, przez noc...

2) Lombard – Przeżyj to sam /ok. 1984/, utwór dość dobrze oddaje społeczne nastroje w połowie lat 80-tych, już po zniesieniu stanu wojennego, ale w codziennej szarości i beznadziei.

Przeżyj to sam,
Nie zamieniaj serca w twardy głaz,
Póki jeszcze serce masz...

3) Lady Pank – Mniej niż zero /1986/ - odwołanie do zabójstwa Grzgorza Przemyka, w maju 1983 roku

Twoje miejsce na ziemi tłumaczy
Zaliczona matura na pięć...

4) Obywatel G.C. – Nie pytaj o Polskę /1988/ - może już bez komentarza

nie pytaj mnie
co ciągle widzę w niej
nie pytaj mnie dlaczego w innej nie
nie pytaj mnie
dlaczego ciągle chcę
zasypiać w niej i budzić się

5) Pudelsi – Wolność słowa /2002/ - żeby było z przymrużeniem oka

And now getting off the track...
The next celebrations of 3rd May Anniversary of Passing Constitution bring to mind infinite wave of questions… Are we really entitled to take pride in that anniversary? Indeed, it was one of the first constitutions in the world, an upshot of concerted effort of the country’s elite. But this country had deserved the fate it met. From the its golden age, when Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania covered almost one million square kilometres area it slid into dismay and was eventually wiped off the Europe’s map. That was the fault of Polish nobility that had seen the golden freedom as the virtue of the land they inhabited. In fact, the golden freedom was nothing else but backwardness, partiality, pursuit of one’s interests, heedless of the others. In the West countries were getting richer by accumulating their income. We impoverished ourselves by squandering our wealth. Our Western neighbours were building factories, our barns were empty, but the nobility would throw lavish feasts… Under those circumstances, when Poland was in decay, partitions were inexorable… And the 3rd May Constitution was just the last gasp of crumbling state…

Would you add any other songs to that list?
Comment in both English and Polish are welcome
Zarówno komentarze po polsku, jak i po angielsku są mile widziane