"Scottish Tammurriata" - orh sings a WW II Neapolitan war song!!!

[alfstone]

Well...

...after all, just few weeks ago I had created a Scottish pipes & drums band for another song, so I had to expect that James would try to sing a version of "Tammurriata Nera" in English!  

I was rather curious about the whole thing, and...wow! James, in your version this one has become a sort of a great urban blues! And somehow it reminds me the "Graceland" album by Paul Simon...

The mix is completely different from my previous version here:

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=22123.0  

since, like all the other European users of Adobe Audition, this software has been completely screwed up by the latest iTunes/iCloud updates  

So I've begun using Harrison Mixbus. A great software for mixing, at an incredible low price, actually...I'd like your opinions about the general sound, it's a new way to work over audio files for me...

Here is the English text:

Don't understand what's happenin' sometimes
you don't believe your eyes, nay, you don't.
A baby's born and he's all black,
and his mom calls him Ciro, yeah,
she calls him Ciro!*

You may believe it or not,
You may believe it or not,
you may call him Ciccio or Antonio,
you may call him Peppe or Ciro**
but the baby's all black, black like don't know what!

Street gossips keep a-talkin' 'bout all this:
"Now, it's no uncommon case,
you see thousands of 'em!
An' sometimes one look is enough
an' the gal's left struck, yea, left struck.

Well, one look, that's fuzz,
well, she's left struck, oh yeah,
now go find who dun it,
go find who made the good shot,
and the baby's all black, black like don't know what!

The ol' wiseman in the street says "Let's talk 'bout it,
cuz if we talk about it,
then we can explain how all this gone.
Corn grows where you sow it,
and when you sow corn, it's always corn what grows up."

Yeah, go tell it to mom, yeah,
Yeah, go tell it to me too,
you may call him Ciccio or Antonio,
you may call him Peppe or Ciro
but the baby's all black, black like don't know what!

The gals from Capodichino
make love to black soldiers,
the black soldier have their cumshots
and the gals yay they get preggo.

American Express,
get me money an' hurry up
or the Police will come in
and do what they want.

Yesterday nite in Piazza Dante
I had an empty stomach,
wasn't it for smuggling,
I'd now be stone dead.

Lay that pistol down, babe,
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin' mama,
Lay that pistol down.

Cigarettes for dad,
Sweets for mom,
Biscuits for the kids
And two dollars for the gal.

The Neapolitan girls
make babies with Americans,
see you today or tomorrow
at Porta Capuana.

And Churchill, that ol' fool
stole all mattresses out,
and America to spite him
tore him all hair from his breast.

Yesterday was eatin' peelings
with my hair on my ears,
my hair, my hair,
a cup of camomile tea,
camomile tea, camomile tea,
and frisella bread with boiled meat,
frisella bread, frisella bread,
and the monk's gotten the scab,

Lay that pistol down, babe,
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin' mama,
Lay that pistol down.


*/** Typical Neapolitan names.

Thanks again James, and congrats! It wasn't easy at all, I know...  

[chunk]

Wow, this is really different. Sounds absolutely amazing. For some reason it has the feel of Patti Smith's Horses. Love it. I have to share it on my Facebook page. Not that anyone will listen to it. They don't listen to my stuff.So hey ho,there ye go

[Groundy]

Must agree with Chunk, Brilliant just brilliant.........Alex

[Hook]

Man.............I'm speechless! So freaking well done.........dude!
Rock On!

[Hilary]

And somehow it reminds me the "Graceland" album by Paul Simon..

Yes, I got that too. A song errr of it's time I guess, beautifully crafted by you both.

[Gnasty]

This is superior production.
I love the 2 tones on the guitars and I must say that is one super vocal from OrH.

Perfect collab!

[Oldrottenhead]

i must admit i did have difficulties with this song. twofold, first difficulty was trying to match up the english translation to the italian, that took a bit of time and timing of the english lyrics. secondly the translation threw up some moral dilemnas, as alfredo explained to me the translation loses lots of the nuances and subtleties of the original text. i think the translation was done by someone from switzerland lol. anyway moral dilemnas aside i enjoyed the challenge. thanks for letting me at it afredo.

[Hilary]

Mike Read will be turning it into a calipso next . . .

[Oldrottenhead]

well he might, rest assured i certainly won't be writing any songs for UKIP.

[alfstone]

Following, this is what I wrote to James concerning this song:

***

There's been a long debate about this topic, James.

http://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?lang=it&id=1308

Unfortunately you don't speak Italian, but if you could, reading the many comments about the lyrics in the web site above, you would see how many doubts and "double meanings" are inside these lyrics.

Anyway, according to the most common opinion, if you think about racism, the key phrase is:

Corn grows where you sow it,
and when you sow corn, it's always corn what grows up.

In  other words: a child, regardless of the color of his/her skin, is anyway to be loved and protected

But apart from that, we should remember that the song was written 70 years ago and during a war...

***
Alfredo