Isola & Hagnesta Hill vs Isola & Hagnesta Hill

[tobbe non stop]

Oh and also I forgot that during a show in Malmö 2012 Jocke explained that 747 was partly inspired by one of my favorite books, the fantastic The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. If one took time to analyze which version of the lyrics (since it is not exactly translated) seems most inspired by the book one might find out if it was English from the beginning or not

[jazzpurist]

I think that A timekill to die for might have been written in English first since the title is actually sung in the refrain whereas in the Swedish version he never sings the Swedish title Ett tidsfördriv att dö för, instead he sings En livslögn att dö för (I'm not sure how to translate livslögn, I think it might be an idiom but life lie if you just translate to what the words mean in english

Livslögn is a word invented by Henrik Ibsen (in his drama, Vildanden), so it is of Norwegian origin. It means a lie on which someone bases their whole life on. According to wikipedia (had to look it up as I never bothered translating it to English), it exists in English in two versions: "life-lie" and "basic lie."

I should have called myself etymologinörden when I registered instead of jazzpurist as the latter is not even true.

[jazzpurist]

Oh and also I forgot that during a show in Malmö 2012 Jocke explained that 747 was partly inspired by one of my favorite books, the fantastic The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. If one took time to analyze which version of the lyrics (since it is not exactly translated) seems most inspired by the book one might find out if it was English from the beginning or not

On the H2G2G reference, in the light of how Jocke explained the song at the Kentfests (a couple finds the answer how to make the world a happy place but before they could tell anyone, their plane crashes and they die) this is most likely the part that inspired it:

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, one girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything. Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, a terribly stupid catastrophe occurred, and the idea was lost forever.

This is not her story.

It took some time until I made this connection because the last time I read H2G2G was nearly 10 year ago, but I suddenly remembered it.

[stjärnor]

I think that A timekill to die for might have been written in English first since the title is actually sung in the refrain whereas in the Swedish version he never sings the Swedish title Ett tidsfördriv att dö för, instead he sings En livslögn att dö för (I'm not sure how to translate livslögn, I think it might be an idiom but life lie if you just translate to what the words mean in english

I'm not really sure about Music non stop, because in one interview on MTV many years ago Jocke said he had to squeeze the line "music non stop" in somewhere since it's not sung in the refrain as in the swedish version. However, the songs lyrics is inspired by the short story "Why don't you dance?" by Raymond Carver (Jocke has said this a few times when the song was played live) and since the short stories' title is sung in the lyrics, it might have been English from the beginning. Or like he has said in some interviews, many times the songs are both in English and Swedish at the same time, a Swedish verse with an English refrain or vice versa or maybe an English verse and then a Swedish verse

And as for 747 I might add that one of the most famous and often cited lines in the lyrics, Ni kan skratta om ni vill, håna oss, vi rör oss ni står still (You may laugh if you want to, you may mock/scoff/taunt/make fun of us, we are moving, you are standing still) was taken from a song Jocke wrote before collapsing in bed after a night of heavy drinking and partying, called Se upp för skäggen (Watch out for the beards). When he woke up the next morning (probably quite hung over) he found the lyrics on his bedside and really liked that specific line that made it into 747

Hej Tobbe

Thanks for adding these points to the thread, interesting to read as I didn't know about them! (hehe at 'see upp för skäggen!)

One little thing- I've certainly never used the word 'timekill' in English. I'd 'kill time' by doing something.... but never 'timekill'. I've always thought that 'pastime' would have been a better word for that title in English.

Edit- on the lyrics page at kent.nu for 'Timekill' it has:

And here comes April all in blue
And good she dresses torned and too

a- torned isn't a word in English
b- this makes no sense anyway
c- is it meant to say 'And good she dresses, torn in two'?
d- that still makes no sense either!

and another one:

To stay and stall to keep in shape

a- I'm pretty sure he's not singing 'stall'
b- what it might be, I can't quite decipher
c- could it be 'stay in style and keep in shape'?

[jazzpurist]

Hej Tobbe

Thanks for adding these points to the thread, interesting to read as I didn't know about them! (hehe at 'see upp för skäggen!)

One little thing- I've certainly never used the word 'timekill' in English. I'd 'kill time' by doing something.... but never 'timekill'. I've always thought that 'pastime' would have been a better word for that title in English.

Edit- on the lyrics page at kent.nu for 'Timekill' it has:

And here comes April all in blue
And good she dresses torned and too

a- torned isn't a word in English
b- this makes no sense anyway
c- is it meant to say 'And good she dresses, torn in two'?
d- that still makes no sense either!

and another one:

To stay and stall to keep in shape

a- I'm pretty sure he's not singing 'stall'
b- what it might be, I can't quite decipher
c- could it be 'stay in style and keep in shape'?

I just want to point out that the lyrics on kent.nu are not the official ones and are often incorrect. Since A timekill to die for can be found on the English digipack version and the Japanese press version only (on the latter it is a bonus track), there are probably only a few people who might have access to the "official" lyrics of this song, if it exists at all / available in any of the booklets.
Main point is, never check lyrics on kent.nu, check always the booklet in your CDs.

And maybe if trickster reads here, he might have these rare stuff and can check if there are any lyrics included in the booklets for A timekill.

[stjärnor]

True, but I would have thought that someone might have you know, checked that the lyrics might have been at least in real words!
I do know how hard it is transcribing lyrics when all you have is the song to listen to (nevermind in another language). I spent many hours as a teenager (and long before the internet) trying to figure out what lyrics were and writing them down in notebooks! I'm just surprised no one noticed these mistakes before now!

I will admit to not actually having heard 'Timekill' AND 'What it feels like' until tonight (thanks to this account at youtube). Bad fan!

[stjärnor]

Actually something that came to me the other day when I was thinking about this thread, was that Swedish Hagnesta Hill- on the cover the name is written in Jocke's handwriting, also all the lyrics inside are in Jocke's handwriting. In the English version of HH- the cover has a typed font, and all the lyrics are also typed. I can imagine him handwriting the Swedish ones first (in nice little blocks for the booklet), and then come the English release: 'just someone type them up'!

[jazzpurist]

True, but I would have thought that someone might have you know, checked that the lyrics might have been at least in real words!
I do know how hard it is transcribing lyrics when all you have is the song to listen to (nevermind in another language). I spent many hours as a teenager (and long before the internet) trying to figure out what lyrics were and writing them down in notebooks! I'm just surprised no one noticed these mistakes before now!

I will admit to not actually having heard 'Timekill' AND 'What it feels like' until tonight (thanks to this account at youtube). Bad fan!

I listened to the song, and this is what I hear:
"to stay in style, to keep in shape"
"and good she dresses, torn in two"
Considering that the lyrics strongly reference fashion magazines, they make sense in the context. But what do I know, I'm not English either.

On the word timekill: not to WK for Jocke, but kevlarsjäl is (was) not a word either and noone is complaining.

And as for Se upp för skäggen: I thought everyone knew that story. Kent thought it too, because they referenced it on twitter a few years ago again: https://twitter.com/kenttheband/stat...06926932619267

[stjärnor]

I still don't think "stay in stall" makes any sense in English, unless I'm totally missing something obvious! (it wouldn't be the first time!)

Ohhhh, just got this link from Trickster on Twitter:

http://kentfans.com/timekill-to-die-for-lyrics.php

And here comes April all in blue
Her Gucci dress is torn in two

that makes more sense!

Kevlarsjäl, I totally get the concept of, even if it's not a real word!

Off to bed, but will listen and compare tomorrow night after work!

[jazzpurist]

I still don't think "stay in stall" makes any sense in English, unless I'm totally missing something obvious! (it wouldn't be the first time!)

Ohhhh, just got this link from Trickster on Twitter:

http://kentfans.com/timekill-to-die-for-lyrics.php

And here comes April all in blue
Her Gucci dress is torn in two

that makes more sense!

Kevlarsjäl, I totally get the concept of, even if it's not a real word!

Off to bed, but will listen and compare tomorrow night after work!

It was style, I corrected it after I noticed that I didn't update my copy/pasted "template"

Gucci is it as well. After the third time I heard "her ____ dress is torn in two" as well, but Gucci puzzled me.

[.namnlös]

Great to see the comments from tobbe in here. Some of those stories are very interesting to hear. I'd love to know more, but perhaps that's for a "things you probably don't know about kent songs" thread?

Anyhow, I've had a cursory listen to the English versions, having more or less never bothered before. For many of them, the Swedish versions do seem to fit well, whether it's an obvious rhyme (a feature of the songwriting at that point) or just a seemingly better flow of words. I agree with tobbe also, that with Swedes code mixing so much, there is a good chance that things were done in both languages at the same time. When I write music, I sing in nonsense-speak to get the melody so the language only becomes relevant when you write the lyrics properly.

I've just compared this to my non-native knowledge of the Swedish ones, and my general gut feeling about the English versions. It was too difficult for me to spot any "problems" with the Swedish ones anyway. Anyhow, I have a feeling that these songs may (possibly) have some origins in English: Things She Said, Celsius, Before it All Ends, Heavenly Junkies, Cowboys and Whistle Song. I also enjoyed What It Feels Like, just because i didn't know they did a sneaky English version of Kräm

[MaddyJ]

I first discovered the english versions of the albums but after I heard the swedish ones, it sounds weird for Joakim to sing in english
But still, there is these exclusive songs in english you can't get in swedish though, that I have seen the band play live "Just like Money", not sure about "Quiet Heart" (I need to look into my old fanzine again for the live reports), Velvet has not been played though.

Oh I so remember hearing "Staying stall" or something on "Quiet Heart" and would never understand what the hell it was. I'm so bad at understanding lyrics, even in my own language.
You don't need much to get a mistake done : the accent, the wrong pronouciation and then you come up with different words and meaning without knowing it

Basically I like all Kent's work, english or swedish, but I know for sure that Joakim feels more at ease singing in swedish and you can hear it!

[Kobbe]

I don't know if this may interest anyone here or not, but I am studying to become a translator, and I really do enjoy playing around with Kent's lyrics, so if anyone would like a more direct translation for any one lyric to see how it differs from the English version, let me know.

[MaddyJ]

Thanks Kobbe.

Actually I noticed something.
Swedish is a language I understand easily without translating and it feels amazing.

I remember in "If you were here"/"Om du var har".
"Min nytnäve i tystnad" and "I hide my fist behind me".... Which is not the same basically. Am I right? Just relying on my memory but I might remember the lyrics wrong. I used to know all the lyrics x1000 and would guess a song with a few words only.

[Kobbe]

Almost, the Swedish line is "Min knutna hand i fickan", which means "my fist in my pocket". So, fairly close to the English version.