Ed speaking European languages

meme
meme Posts: 4,695
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.
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Comments

  • Ms. Haiku
    Ms. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,390
    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
  • meme
    meme Posts: 4,695
    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.
  • justam
    justam Posts: 21,415
    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.) :)
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&
  • Ms. Haiku
    Ms. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,390
    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
  • vesna
    vesna 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..
  • C2V3N
    C2V3N 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
  • Pegasus
    Pegasus 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.. ).
  • einatshaul
    einatshaul 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...
  • rony
    rony 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.
  • cropdustress
    cropdustress 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"
  • meme
    meme Posts: 4,695
    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.
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • meme
    meme Posts: 4,695
    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.
  • 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.
  • Steph
    Steph 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 :)
  • Pegasus
    Pegasus 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)
  • Riot_Rain
    Riot_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
  • meme
    meme Posts: 4,695
    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.
  • pajo
    pajo 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 :)).