Lost in Translation Vol. 16 REVEALED

I upped the difficulty rating this week and it took a genre hint before someone returned the correct answer.

With a trip down to London for a concert, this past week seems to have flown by. Tina and I took the train down on Wednesday afternoon and briefly hit the outdoor stores in Covent Garden for a couple pieces of kit before heading out for an Indian meal. Thursday morning was a bit of a washout so we spent much of the morning in the hotel before heading down to Spitalfields Market to browse the antiques market, which was fun. On Friday we watched the latest Mission Impossible film (a fun action-packed no-brainer movie) before heading to Victoria Park to watch Air and Massive Attack at the Lido Festival. I hadn’t seen either band before and they both lived up to expectations.

Air played a 60-minute set and hit all of their well-known songs including “La femme d’argent”, “Sexy Boy”, “All I Need” (sans Beth Hirsch sadly), “Kelly Watch the Stars” and “Cherry Blossom Girl”.

While Massive Attack left a few classics (“Karmacoma”, “Protection”, “Man Next Door”) out of their set, they were nonetheless brilliant. Palestinian liberation and an end to the ongoing genocide featured heavily from the beginning and throughout the show with the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign given space before the show kicked off. The two minute PSC informational video along with a rousing introductory speech by actor and activist Khalid Abdalla set the tone for the evening. As is usual for Massive Attack, video by longtime collaborator Adam Curtis played as a backdrop through the show, highlighting numerous issues, including modern-day slavery in mineral mining in the DRC, the damage wrought by Zug-based hedge funds and the negative impact of conspiracy theories (on both the right and left). The music was incredible and the guest vocals by Horace Andy, Elizabeth Fraser, Deborah Miller, and Yasiin Bey were equal parts powerful and sublime.

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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:

I usually call. This is call waiting. Nothing fun.

Don't laugh, don't move, don't touch anything except the money.

But now I am learning how to make money because I am a good person.

I feel good. Maybe I will.

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The Original Lyric

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

I used to roll up, this is a hold up, ain't nuthin' funny

Stop smiling, be still, don't nuthin' move but the money

But now I learned to earn 'cuz I'm righteous

I feel great, so maybe I might just

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The Song

When I put this song through the translation algorithm I was quite excited to see just how much the lyrics were mangled while still maintaining some resemblance to the original. I expected this one to be a challenge and it was; I think my initial clue (debut album from a short-lived late 80s duo) threw people for a bit of a loop. Readers found themselves pondering artists like Communards, Roxette, Go West, Eurhythmics, Erasure and even Milli Vanilli, but the song remained a stumper until later in the week. On Thursday I threw out what I figured would be the single most important key to solving the song when I wrote “the genre of this week’s song is hip hop”. That proved to be the case for Kevin Alexander, one of our avid LIT readers and the person sitting at the top of the league table for correct responses (no there’s not an actual list!). His “Hail Mary” response, complete with the unmolested lyric from original song, proved to be the winner!

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 Eric B. and Rakim track “Paid in Full”, from their 1987 debut album of the same name. Surprisingly, given its critical acclaim, influence, and enduring popularity, this was only the fifth single released from the album. The track has been listed as one of the greatest hip hop songs of all time by numerous outfits including the BBC (#13), Consequence of Sound (#20), Rolling Stone (#10) and VH1 (#24).

Here’s the music video, cued up at the start of the lyric:

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Feel free to jump into the comments with your thoughts:

• How did you do? Were you close? Or completely stumped?

• Did you know this song already?

• Would you have been able to name the song from the original lyrics?

We’ll see you again tomorrow with a new installment of Lost in Translation. Until then, happy listening!!