December 14, 2004 17:50 | Culture / Political / Sing-along

Gustav

Discovered amongst the tracks of the recently mentioned Blogothèque compilations (go go go grab it!!! Junkie Brewster's rendition of "Like a prayer" alone is worth the download!) is a gem called "We shall overcome".

Here is the video version.

Gustav, who finds herself in Vienna, Austria [ ‚ô•!!! ] put out an album called "Rettet die Wale", a tongue in cheek play on translation, the way I love'em, meaning "Save the election"... Wale is german for election... Save the whale... save the election.. get it? get it? hah! Brilliant.

Great song. Listen to the lyrics closely.

Comments
Sun, Apr 3, 2005, @ 17:56
1- Alexander

Actually, the German word for "election" is "Wahl"; "save the election" would be "rettet der Wahl" in German; "the elections" would be "den Whalen". So "Rettet die wale" just means "save the whales", and calling it a pun would be a stretch.


Sun, Apr 3, 2005, @ 18:22
2- Boris Anthony

Alexander,
I appreciate the spelling correction! I smack myself on the head for forgetting the H in there.
The pun, however, is VERY present. No stretch there.
Sorry you don't see it. Perhaps you should listen to the album/song. :)


Tue, Apr 5, 2005, @ 23:24
3- Eva

Actually the right spelling for elect is waehlen, or wahlen ("mit umlaut a ")
" rettet DIE Wahl", not "der Wahl" and "the elections" would be " DIE Wahlen"


Thu, Apr 28, 2005, @ 4:39
4- indeterminacy

In the singular the two words Wal and Wahl are indistiniguishable. The Whale "a" is a long a, and so is "ah". I've been speaking German as a second language since the 80's but I still have trouble following/understanding all the references in the Gustav songs. On the other hand, that makes it a challenge to listen to.