Lost in Translation Vol. 13 REVEALED

The one person I expected to get this week’s song not only came through, he published an entire post about the song this week!!

May 18, 2025

I’m currently relaxing in a bed in breakfast after tackling a nine mile walk, my sixth consecutive day of walking as I follow the path of Hadrian’s Wall across the north of England. The wall, built in AD 122 during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, represented the northwest boundary of the Roman Empire and was designed as a physical barrier to slow the progress of "reivers" (raiders) and “barbarians” from the north in what is now Scotland. The 84-mile path following the remains of the wall is one of 16 National Trails in England and Wales and sees over 10,000 people walk its length every year.

I'm blessed to be hiking the trail with my best friend. Although we’ve known each other since we were five years old, we only reconnected 15 years ago after being out of touch for a quarter century. What an amazing gift to have a lifelong friendship reignited by finding each other on social media; I’m grateful to be sharing this experience with him. Including diversions off trail to our daily accommodations, we'll end up covering just under 100 miles in eight days of walking from Wallsend (near Newcastle-upon-Tyne) on the east coast to Bowness-on-Solway on the west coast. After six days of walking we've logged 70 miles with 28 left to go over the next two days. The weather has been gorgeous and the scenery has been breathtaking. The embarrassment of riches available to walkers in the UK never ceases to amaze me; six weeks into our relocation I'm feeling so blessed to be living here.

And now what you’ve been waiting for! It’s time to provide the answer to Monday’s Lost in Translation.

The Translated Lyric

Here’s the lyric I provided:

There is no problem I can't solve.
Because I can
If your husband is causing trouble
Go away.
Don't let it affect your mind.
Because the problem is over
Migrate
I said the problem is solved.
Migrate

The Original Lyric

And here’s the original lyric as it was before being passed through half a dozen languages:

There's not a problem that I can't fix
'Cause I can do it in the mix
And if your man gives you trouble
Just you move out on the double
And you don't let it trouble your brain
'Cause away goes troubles
Down the drain
I said away goes troubles
Down the drain

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The Song

Given the popularity of this song on the dance floor—albeit 40+ years ago—I wasn’t sure whether or not it would be considered obscure. But regardless of the perceived difficulty of the track, I had a strong expectation that it would sit firmly in the wheelhouse of one loyal reader, someone who had, in fact, known the correct track for two previous installments but had come in just a little too late with the answer. My faith in Pe, who writes the marvelous Substack The Twelve Inch (Disco/80s), was rewarded as he opened up the comments on the post with the correct answer. Not only did he have the correct answer, but it turned out he was working on a post about this exact song to be published later in the week!

Friend of Joy in the Journey, Andy of The Vinyl Room also came in with the correct response, shortly after Pe, with what I initially found to be a rather cryptic response: “I’ll let you guys figure out how I came to know this song so well.” My imagination was running wild! How DID Andy come to know about the song? I had all sorts of wild and wonderful theories forming in my mind when Pe filled in the blanks that Andy’s favorite artist, Mariah Carey, had covered the song in the early 2000s on a version I’d never heard before.

For those that didn’t see the responses in the comments or weren’t able to figure out the correct song, the lyrics come from the rap section of the Indeep track “Last Night a DJ Saved my Life” from their 1983 album of the same name. The single was released in 1982 and peaked at numbers 10 and 2 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop singles and Club Singles charts respectively. It also saw significant success in Europe where it topped the charts in Greece and reached number 2 in Belgium and the Netherlands. But I’ll let Pe tell you the whole story—check out the post below—if you’re not subscribed or following him, you’re really missing out!