(Aside: What? Too important to work weekends? Tunaweekday.)
A cappella week. Bold choice. I assume it's ironic, what with your high-falutin' nooyawk ways. But I'm solidly in the heartland so I don't understand irony.
Monday was weak. That's a crappy song with or without music. But I knew what you were doing. You were doing the crossword. Start easy and slow on Mondays, build to a rock-solid Friday. I was looking forward to it.
You ruined your plan today. You went straight to the Sunday big crossword.
The rain and thunder was genius. The Eastern European accents actually add to the joy of what is at core a completely ridiculous song.
But it means the world to me.
You may remember I was in Africa a bit as a youngster. 1986, eighth grade at the boarding school dormitory, we boys wore out a cassette tape playing "Africa" again and again. I've never heard wild dogs cry out in the night, but in eighth grade I was well on my way to a stellar career in solitary company.
A quick note on the lyrics: We had some of them wrong back in '86, at least according to the Internet today. I'm not convinced our version wasn't an improvement on Toto's original. We thought it was, "I'd best the rains down in Africa," not, "I bless the rains...." Seems like trudging through the wet, cold mud and raging rivers and such would be more evocative of passion. And we thought Kilimanjaro rose like a "leopress" over the Serengeti. A "leopress" being a poetic lady leopard. Come on, Toto, Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus over the Serengeti? Are you deliberately mixing cultures and metaphors (well, similes)?
Final note, Wednesday's gospel tune is angry, seriously angry. Not only with Mr. House's growl, but the lyrics cite biblical disappointments and conflicts. And, of course, Revelation is a pretty angry book, full of horror and destruction. I like it.
(Aside: What? Too important to work weekends? Tunaweekday.)
ReplyDeleteA cappella week. Bold choice. I assume it's ironic, what with your high-falutin' nooyawk ways. But I'm solidly in the heartland so I don't understand irony.
Monday was weak. That's a crappy song with or without music. But I knew what you were doing. You were doing the crossword. Start easy and slow on Mondays, build to a rock-solid Friday. I was looking forward to it.
You ruined your plan today. You went straight to the Sunday big crossword.
The rain and thunder was genius. The Eastern European accents actually add to the joy of what is at core a completely ridiculous song.
But it means the world to me.
You may remember I was in Africa a bit as a youngster. 1986, eighth grade at the boarding school dormitory, we boys wore out a cassette tape playing "Africa" again and again. I've never heard wild dogs cry out in the night, but in eighth grade I was well on my way to a stellar career in solitary company.
A quick note on the lyrics: We had some of them wrong back in '86, at least according to the Internet today. I'm not convinced our version wasn't an improvement on Toto's original. We thought it was, "I'd best the rains down in Africa," not, "I bless the rains...." Seems like trudging through the wet, cold mud and raging rivers and such would be more evocative of passion. And we thought Kilimanjaro rose like a "leopress" over the Serengeti. A "leopress" being a poetic lady leopard. Come on, Toto, Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus over the Serengeti? Are you deliberately mixing cultures and metaphors (well, similes)?
Final note, Wednesday's gospel tune is angry, seriously angry. Not only with Mr. House's growl, but the lyrics cite biblical disappointments and conflicts. And, of course, Revelation is a pretty angry book, full of horror and destruction. I like it.
Can't wait for Thursday!