Tuesday, April 05, 2016

D -- Don't Cry for Me, Argentina

Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina was a part of the album, Evita. It was sung by Julie Covington, and it was later included in Evita, the musical. Based on the life of the Argentinian leader, megalomaniac Eva Peron. She was also the wife of Juan Peron, Argentina’s President.

The song supposedly involved the spirit of the dead Eva exhorting the people of Argentina not to mourn her.








I didn’t learn until much later that the song was loosely based on an impassioned speech by Eva Peron.

Being half a globe away, India was not too hot on Argentinian affairs. Nor was I old enough to be interested.

The song was very significant to me because I used to sing the chorus, infusing into my singing my own brand of passion and what I thought was soulfulness.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know the lyrics well, and so I mis-heard the lyrics, and sang what I thought I heard.

So while Julia was singing, “All through my wild days, my mad existence, I kept my promise,” what my ears deciphered for me was, “All through my wide As, my married sisters, I kept my promise.”

It never occurred to me that I was making a mistake.




I recall telling my brother, “Why don’t these pop singers pay attention to their songs? What are wide As and what do they have to do with married sisters?”


There was no Internet then, so I had no opportunity to look up the lyrics and amend the version I was singing.


So I gave the singer the benefit of the doubt. Maybe, I told myself, it was some kind of a code. Maybe it was some uniquely Argentinian eccentricity. I told my brother about my new theory, and continued to sing my version as loudly and enthusiastically as I could.



Don’t cry for me, Argentinaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I wailed.



I have no doubt that Argentina wailed ever louder in response.

7 comments:

  1. I have a few songs like that where I couldn't hear the words so I would just make them up. When I was in high school, there was a rock song (can't remember the name) and instead of the real words, we used to belt out "Toast-er, Toaster!" You can imagine those were not the right lyrics. In fact, when I found out what the real words were, they were NOT something a proper woman said so I gave up the song! I found your blog through the A to Z Challenge and really enjoyed "meeting" you. Happy blogging! www.dianeweidenbenner.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have often sung nonsense words where I couldn't hear the words, and sometimes, now I'm in a choir, I find I've been singing the wrong words even though I thought I knew them! ~Liz http://www.lizbrownleepoet.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love it. I have heard so many pop songs where I had no idea what they were talking about. It's because singers don't enunciate properly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey girl! You're my kind of DJ. I can't wait to see the rest of your line up. After I read your post I actually hear the song in my head the next few hours.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have done the very same, and do not have excuse of no internet, India, etc. I still do this, sometimes in jibberish. At Zumba I often don't get the words, even English words can be unclear, so I just danc3. One of my recent bombs a few years ago, Megan Trainor's "All about the base" I thought she was singing some unknown language until I heard it in a shop in Quebec when traveling.

    ReplyDelete
  6. haha..I loved that snippet you included about you singing in the chorus! I feel our local singers are going that way too now, aren't they?

    Shubhangi @ The Little Princess

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love misheard lyrics! I think this is how Weird Al Yankovich became so well known. He was always twisting words of songs. Hilarious!

    Mary
    Literary Gold - Free and Bargain priced books
    Jingle Jangle Jungle

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...