Friday 23 October 2009

Prisencolinensinainciusol: Grammelot?



A cult revival via MetaFilter: Prisencolinensinainciusol, an unusual pop song from 1973 by the Italian singer, actor and director Adriano Celentano. I've mentioned "auteur du mondegreens" - phonetic transliteration of songs into other languages - a couple of times before, as well as the garbled English of Aserejé ja de jé de jebe refrain of the Ketchup Song, but this goes even further into unintelligibility as a mix of complete gibberish peppered with stock phrases such as "all right", "my man", "baby", etc.

Prisencolinensinainciusol, which was released internationally as a single - see Billboard - imitates very accurately the sound of the Afro-American influenced English of US pop songs of the era. Despite the weirdness, it's being acclaimed as proto-rap, having come out several years before rap as a genre became formally known with the 1979 release of the Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight (itself the phonetic origin of the refrain of the Ketchup Song.

Here's Centenano singing it in 2006; it'd be great if anyone who understands spoken Italian could tell me what he's saying in the inteview afterward, as it might be enlightening about the origin. I notice a couple of comments mention the term "grammelot" - a form of macaronic, onomatopoeic gibberish particularly used in Italian satirical theatre by exponents such as Dario Fo - and this is probably the closest analogy to the language of Prisencolinensinainciusol. Much the same is said in the Prisencolinensinainciusol entry at the Italian pop website Galleria del canzone, which likens the style to halfway between jazz 'scat' and Fo's Grammelot.

As to what, if anything, it might mean, the Galleria del canzone piece explains how people have striven for meaning, such as believing the title to be an acronym or reading significance into the original accenting on some record covers: Prisencolinénsináinciúsol. The most widely quoted explanation comes from the song's intro on the Formula Two TV show, where Celentano explains in the guise of a teacher (quote trimmed for conciseness)
"Questa canzone è cantata in una lingua nuova che nessuno capirà; avrà un solo significato: AMORE universale ... Io ho capito che oggi nel mondo non ci capiamo più. Proprio è difficile, non c'è dialogo ormai... E quindi ho ritenuto opportuno fare una canzone sul tema, cioè sviluppando il tema dell'incomunicabilità... Noi non comunichiamo, siamo Incom… Ho voluto sviluppare questo tema lasciando come riferimento una sola parola, che vuol dire 'Amore universale'… Se voi dovete fare un gesto d'amore verso qualcuno basta che diciate Prisencolinensinainciusol...

This song is sung in a new language that nobody understands and will have only one meaning: universal LOVE ... I understand that today in the world we do not understand each other any more. It's difficult, there is no dialogue now ... And then I thought it appropriate to do a song on the theme, that is developing the theme of incommunicability ... We do not communicate, we incomm ... I wanted to develop this theme as a reference, leaving a single word, which means "universal love" ... If you must make a gesture of love for someone to just tell "Prisencolinensinainciusol" ...
Being "in-mythos", that explanation may not be reliable, but Galleria del canzone adds:
Anni dopo, Celentano ha confermato l'intento della canzone nel libro "Il paradiso è un cavallo bianco che non suda mai", affermando: "E' un pezzo che rappresenta la situazione del mondo di oggi, nel quale è difficile comunicare".

Years later, Celentano confirmed the intent of the song in the book Heaven is a white horse that never sweats [his 1982 autobiography], saying: "It's a piece that represents the state of today's world, where it is difficult to communicate".
PS: Language Log discussed Grammelot a while back: see Gibberish by any other name, Fo did it, and Maybe Jacques Lecoq did it.

PPS: Ashley Spurgeon of the music blog Nashvile Scene has transcribed what he hears of the song: see Prisencolinensinainciusol, Alright.

PPS: I just found this fuller explanation by Celentano on his official website www.clancelentano.it:
Anticipazione mondiale del rap, puro ritmo, puro nonsense, ma questa volta esercitato come una provocazione linguistica, una sfida alla canzonetta e ai suoi contenuti di “fiori e amori”. Celentano brevetta la sua lingua che mischia il gioco fonetico a un inglese più che inventato “parlato”. È quello che faranno gli african-american distorcendo le parole e adattandole alla cadenza rap (anche nella scrittura, l’inglese dei neri è distorto per marcare il proprio protagonismo culturale: night diventa nite). Adriano fa impazzire non solo l’Italia e l’Europa, ma arriva perfino alla blindata classifica statunitense.

Il singolo che segna un’epoca nella canzone internazionale esce il 3 novembre 1972 ed è tutto uno “sberleffo poetico”. Un po’ omaggio un po’ canzonatura della centralità musicale anglo-americana. Adriano canta “Prisencolinensinainciusol ol rait” e pronuncia parole come: “bebi la dai big iour”. Una canzone in “esperanto”, così contagiosa da trascinare nel tempo divi musicali di tutte le nazionalità. Da ricordare, per esempio, il coro travolgente con Manu Chao durante lo show tv “Francamente me ne infischio” (1999).
Translation?

- Ray

2 comments:

  1. Fascinating. I particularly liked the Ketchup Song. (Ketchup being a sinister plot to introduce sugar into a kid's diet by holding the honor of being called a vegetable by Ronald Reagan).

    How on earth are we supposed to translate interstellar communications (His Master's Voice) if we can't decode proto rap? As for rap, its just Bolero with salsa. I don't condemn it, that's useless, but I do wonder what's coming next? Certainly not more rap.

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  2. Ketchup Song
    I love this too. In case links haven't explained, it's because the beautiful and musical Spanish ladies who sing it are the daughters of "Juan Muñoz, a flamenco guitarist known as El Tomate (The Tomato)".

    Bolero with salsa
    Interesting analysis. I rather think the Ute Lemper "The Case Continues" (currently linked in listening) is more or less a tango cross-bred wth Ravel's Bolero.

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