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Ed speaking European languages

memememe Posts: 4,693
edited October 2006 in Given To Fly (live)
I have to say... from the words he told us in Italian in Verona and Milan...to listening to bootlegs where he speaks in languages I don't understand...

does anyone else think he eerily sounded like Pope John Paul II :o?
Being Italian I am familiar with those Easter morning wishes in all languages and the similarities are striking :p

It cracks me up all the time :D

Anyway... can anyone tell me what he is saying in the Prague bootleg before Small Town?
... and the will to show I will always be better than before.
Post edited by Unknown User on

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    Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,253
    What I want to know is do most singers do that? It makes great sense to do that, but since I only really follow Pearl Jam, I don't know if other bands who go to other countries make the effort to say something in the language of the country of the show. For those who follow other bands, is that just par for the course?
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
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    memememe Posts: 4,693
    it's not.

    I mean, a few words maybe, but not every single thing they say.
    And he was very talkative!
    ... and the will to show I will always be better than before.
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    justamjustam Posts: 21,394
    It seems to be pretty considerate of the audience and a nice bit of effort from him.

    (I wonder who translated what he wanted to say? He must have had to practice it the night or day before.) :)
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&
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    Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,253
    justam wrote:
    It seems to be pretty considerate of the audience and a nice bit of effort from him.
    I think so, too.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
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    vesnavesna Posts: 27
    meme wrote:
    I have to say... from the words he told us in Italian in Verona and Milan...to listening to bootlegs where he speaks in languages I don't understand...

    does anyone else think he eerily sounded like Pope John Paul II :o?
    Being Italian I am familiar with those Easter morning wishes in all languages and the similarities are striking :p

    It cracks me up all the time :D

    Anyway... can anyone tell me what he is saying in the Prague bootleg before Small Town?


    That is exactly what people said, and it was mentioned in papers also- that Eddie Vedder spoke to Zagreb crowd in croatian sounding like Pope John Paul II.
    And Zagreb fell in love..
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    C2V3NC2V3N Zagreb, Croatia Posts: 449
    vesna wrote:
    That is exactly what people said, and it was mentioned in papers also- that Eddie Vedder spoke to Zagreb crowd in croatian sounding like Pope John Paul II.
    And Zagreb fell in love..
    oh man, I am listening ed right now, sounds so funny, so like pope when he speaks croatian :D
    one, two, three, four, five against one
    five, five, against one
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    PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    After Lisbon someone said the same thing about him speaking in Portuguese sounding like JP2.

    can't tell you for French...'cos I never listened to JP2...switching channel if he came on..

    As for other bands doing it...well the guy from My Morning Jacket did...to the extend of learning to say 'thank you'...and that's it..:rolleyes:

    We cracked up every gig with Gitta when he said it...
    EVERY show was the same: 'thank you' in whatever the language was..then 'we are MMJ from...' in English...and that's it.
    I think the only show he said anything else was the last in Pistoia where he thanked PJ (and we thanked god it was their last!...though there was a very funny tag from the audience going on during that last set :D.. ).
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    einatshauleinatshaul Posts: 2,219
    Love it!
    Can't wait to hear him go "Shalom! Anachnu smechim lihiot po sof sof!" and so on...
    So beautiful for all the locals to get this effort,from him, and the way he broke his teeth on Greek, priceless...
    I desire peace where I live
    https://www.facebook.com/Bring.Pearl.Jam.To.Israel
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    ronyrony Posts: 212
    i would have loved it if ed spoke irish at the point.

    it just would have been kinda cool even though only about 5% of the crowd woulda understood what he'd say.......just a "conas ata tu?" woulda been nice.
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    cropdustresscropdustress Posts: 4,339
    vesna wrote:
    That is exactly what people said, and it was mentioned in papers also- that Eddie Vedder spoke to Zagreb crowd in croatian sounding like Pope John Paul II.
    And Zagreb fell in love..


    Yeah, lots of ppl have said it, esp the way he pronounces words and all, but I think his Croatian was REALLY good. :) Hey, its meant to be. :D

    Im also one of those ppl who admire him for doing this in all Euro languages, countries they played, and its a thoughtful thing to do. Very respectful and nice of him, when he addresses the crowd in their own native language. I really think its a great thing to do, and I dont think many artists do such thing.
    One more reason why PJ is the best!
    "I surfaced and all of my being was enlightened"
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    memememe Posts: 4,693
    That is absolutely hilarious. I really thought it was just me.
    The way he spoke Italian... absolutely... unmistakeably John Paul II.

    Let's keep this thread up... I'm sure he'd get a kick out of this :D
    ... and the will to show I will always be better than before.
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    ScarletstarletScarletstarlet Posts: 70
    meme wrote:
    does anyone else think he eerily sounded like Pope John Paul II :o?

    Meme,I've thought the same!
    AH AH AH.
    He speaks italian exactly like pope john paul II.
    Lol.
    He's was so so so funny...
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    pantelis79pantelis79 Posts: 156
    His Greek was fine!! It was very emotional for me.
    2006/09/30 Athens, 2007/06/12 Muenchen, 2007/06/13 Katowice, 2007/06/18 London, 2009/08/13 Rotterdam, 2009/08/15 Berlin, 2010/06/30 Berlin, 2010/07/10 Lisbon, 2011/09/03 Alpine Valley, 2011/09/04 Alpine Valley, 2012/07/07 Stockholm, 2012/07/08 Oslo, 2012/07/10 Copenhagen, 2014/06/16 Amsterdam, 2014/06/17 Amsterdam, 2018/06/18 London, 2018/07/01 Prague, 2018/07/03 Krakow, 2018/07/05 Berlin...
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    memememe Posts: 4,693
    Scarletstarlet wrote:
    Meme,I've thought the same!
    AH AH AH.
    He speaks italian exactly like pope john paul II.
    Lol.
    He's was so so so funny...


    I was thinking... now he's going to go: "frateli e sorele..."

    :D
    ... and the will to show I will always be better than before.
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    i am mine, you arei am mine, you are Posts: 49
    I heard him speak french in paris. but since i don't understand french i didn't understand a shit o what he was saying. it was cool though.

    i would really want to hear him speak Swedish :) but since they wouldn't come to sweden i guess i'll never get the chance to do that... too sad. it would have been really amusing i'm sure.
    oh yes it would have been.

    why didn't they come to sweden (or anywhere in scandinavia) by the way? that is really sad.
    But i am sooooooo glad i saw them it paris.
    it rocked!
    Good-bye for now.
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    StephSteph Posts: 13
    meme wrote:
    Anyway... can anyone tell me what he is saying in the Prague bootleg before Small Town?
    He wasn't saying anything funny as it may seem. People were laughing becos of the grimaces on his face (and prolly the cute pronunciation). I think we all knew what the speech was about, but to be honest, from what i know, noone really understood (including me).

    This is what it sounds like:
    "Toto je pro Cechy co...[cracks up while saying hrajeme]...hrajeme v Praze. Chtel bych vam povedet: rad bych vam podekoval - za to, ze nas opet mate ve stovezate Praze."
    >>
    "This is for Czechs who we play for in Prague. I'd like to tell you: I'd like to thank you for having us back in hundred-spired Prague."

    I myself don't like these kind of "Bono-like" things that much on concerts so i appreciate it wasn't anything political-related but just a pure love :)
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    PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    Steph wrote:
    He wasn't saying anything funny as it may seem. People were laughing becos of the grimaces on his face (and prolly the cute pronunciation). I think we all knew what the speech was about, but to be honest, from what i know, noone really understood (including me).

    This is what it sounds like:
    "Toto je pro Cechy co...[cracks up while saying hrajeme]...hrajeme v Praze. Chtel bych vam povedet: rad bych vam podekoval - za to, ze nas opet mate ve stovezate Praze."
    >>
    "This is for Czechs who we play for in Prague. I'd like to tell you: I'd like to thank you for having us back in hundred-spired Prague."

    I myself don't like these kind of "Bono-like" things that much on concerts so i appreciate it wasn't anything political-related but just a pure love :)
    What was even more funny than his grimaces at trying to read the stuff, was Mike, Stone and Jeff looking at him and laughing in a 'what the fuck?' way :D they looked as baffled as we were (non-native people)
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    Riot_RainRiot_Rain Posts: 348
    Pop John Paul II!! Hehehe!

    Maybe if Ed had said "Bedankt voor de bloemen" in the Netherlands...

    It means thank you for the flowers... the square in Rome used to be covered in Dutch flowers :D

    EDIT: and that is what the Pope used to say, which was the point of this post (I've forgotten to bring my brain today, sorry!).
    Like a cloud dropping rain
    I'm discarding all thought
    I'll dry up, leaving puddles on the ground
    I'm like an opening band for the sun
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    memememe Posts: 4,693
    ahah... yeah... standard JP II quote in Italian is "frateli e sorele"... "borthers and sisters" the Polish way :p
    Riot_Rain wrote:
    Pop John Paul II!! Hehehe!

    Maybe if Ed had said "Bedankt voor de bloemen" in the Netherlands...

    It means thank you for the flowers... the square in Rome used to be covered in Dutch flowers :D

    EDIT: and that is what the Pope used to say, which was the point of this post (I've forgotten to bring my brain today, sorry!).
    ... and the will to show I will always be better than before.
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    pajopajo Posts: 3,292
    He spoke Croatian several times during the show and only had difficulty with one sentence (could be because it was a sentence about Bush spending millions in Iraq). But he really did well (although he did sound like JP2 :)) and even managed to pronounce some extremely difficult Croatian words really well.
    Someone asked if he rehersed it the day before - the answer is NO. His secret trick is that he gets someone to write the sentence in Croatian and then writes his own 'pronunciation' above it. E.g. when he said 'drago nam je da smo u vasoj zemlji' he wrote 'zemlee' over the Croatian word 'zemlji'. Someone got this paper afterwards so that's how I know.

    And my dear Italians, I'm sorry to say that he spoke Croatian better than he did Italian at some shows. Did you notice how sometimes he spoke Italian better (e.g. Bologna) and sometimes not so well (e.g. Milano). But this could just be my impression bcs Bologna was my first show on this tour so I thought everything was perfect! I thought it had to do with the wine drinking (the more wine he drank, the worse he spoke - maybe in Milano he switched to the nice vino italiano :)).
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    PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    I'd forgotten about it but listening to the boot in Verona:
    you invented a lot..you also invented, I believe, the word Encore
    .
    .
    .
    :confused:
    not.

    wrong country mate, it's French :rolleyes:
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    Riot_RainRiot_Rain Posts: 348
    Pegasus wrote:
    I'd forgotten about it but listening to the boot in Verona:

    .
    .
    .
    :confused:
    not.

    wrong country mate, it's French :rolleyes:

    Then again:
    "Someone asked for the etymology is of the French word encore (Italian ancora, Rumantsch aunc).

    The bizarre but apparently uncontested etymology is Latin hinc ad horam '[from] this [hour] to [that] hour'."

    Looks like the ancient Romans invented it! Hehehehe ;)
    Like a cloud dropping rain
    I'm discarding all thought
    I'll dry up, leaving puddles on the ground
    I'm like an opening band for the sun
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    porcherporcher Posts: 62
    i loved hearing him speak croatian, it was funny and a really sweet gesture. plus, is it just me or was he always /with euro crowds/ hesitant in talking to crowd in english - respectful of the fact that he actually is abroad? i always liked that. except that we understand him perfectly either way :D

    hail hail the lucky ones...
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    StereotypeStereotype Maribor, Slovenia Posts: 885
    It's not just you. It seems like he is not so sure if we'll understand, but Eddie !!honestly we really (and I can say that for I think more than 75% of Europe) understand you!!!
    I'm from Slovenia and in such a small country you can not afford to speak just your language. I understand English, Croatian, German or Austrian, Serbian, Italian and Slovene. And I can't even brag, because that's normal here.

    But!!! I also think that Eddie speaks native languages of the country they play in > intentionally - to create a special bound with the audience.That is very sweet and nice and as I said before..he is very good at it.I think that all musicians have a good ear for languages.
    Croatian was almost perfect. He did strugle with the word prijatelj (a friend) but L-J must be hard if you're not from around here...
    Would like to hear him speak Slovenian some day:)
    The worst enemies of music? Money and Mathematics. Combined with music, they both do the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do. Money makes music cheap, mathematics makes it stupid and predictable.

    ____

    Zagreb 2006/ Munich 2007/ Venice 2007/ Berlin 2009 / Venice 2010 / 2 x Berlin 2012 / Stockholm 2012 / Milan 2014 / Trieste 2014 / Vienna 2014 / Florence (EV) 2019 / Padova 2018 / Prague 2018 / Imola 2022 / Budapest 2022 / Vienna 2022 / Prague 2022 

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    Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,253
    Stereotype wrote:
    I understand English, Croatian, German or Austrian, Serbian, Italian and Slovene. And I can't even brag, because that's normal here.
    Ohmygawd! I'm so jealous. I used to be able to read the Spanish subway signs, but I can't even do that anymore.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
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    ZimzuMZimzuM Posts: 209
    some of his efforts were hard to understand but at lesast he gave it a go
    2/3/98 Melbourne, 18/2/03 Melbourne, 19/2/03 Melbourne, 20/2/03 Melbourne, 4/9/06 Lisbon, 5/9/06 Lisbon, 7/9/06 Madrid, 9/9/06 Marsielle, 11/9/06 Paris, 7/11/06 Sydney, 8/11/06 Sydney, 10/11/06 Brisbane, 11/11/06 Brisbane, 13/11/06 Melbourne, 14/11/06 Melbourne, 16/11/06 Melbourne, 20/11/00 Melbourne
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    ScarletstarletScarletstarlet Posts: 70
    Pegasus wrote:
    I'd forgotten about it but listening to the boot in Verona:
    .
    .
    .
    :confused:
    not.

    wrong country mate, it's French :rolleyes:

    it cames from the latin word "ad hanc horam" (till this hour)

    Two thousand years of history in the rubbish....

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire
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    lgtlgt Posts: 720
    So funny! I was going to point it out as well.

    You beat me to it :)

    Ed: Ops forgot to quote ScarletStarlet's post...
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    given to grungegiven to grunge Posts: 244
    meme wrote:
    I have to say... from the words he told us in Italian in Verona and Milan...to listening to bootlegs where he speaks in languages I don't understand...

    does anyone else think he eerily sounded like Pope John Paul II :o?
    Being Italian I am familiar with those Easter morning wishes in all languages and the similarities are striking :p

    It cracks me up all the time :D

    Anyway... can anyone tell me what he is saying in the Prague bootleg before Small Town?

    OOO yeah, he sounded GreaT!
    A lot like pope the II.
    I love it when I hear Edie speaking Croatian, because it's an honor too for me as Croat!
    Proud to be Croat!!!!
    First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - Mahatma Gandhi
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    PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    Scarletstarlet wrote:
    it cames from the latin word "ad hanc horam" (till this hour)

    Two thousand years of history in the rubbish....

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire
    it might come from Latin (which is not Italian anyway, there's a much Latin in French, Spanish or Romanian as in Italian..an awful lot in English too) ..but the word Encore still is French :p...I'll forgive him, I was quite drunk too in Verona ;)
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