Heartland

nodubmanshouts wrote:I did a search for Saaremaa and Marian, and came up with a page which was in a very, very strange language. Anybody speak Saaremaaian?

I repeated your search. The first response was in Finnish, the following ones were in a strange language usually called... Estonian
But that's true - the language people use in that island is quite different from the language spoken in the majority of Estonia (not talking about South Estonia where they speak in their own way). The main difference appears in the pronouncing.
But I'm afraid we have gone too far from Sisters lyrics...

Perhaps the German verse of Marian was so done because Andy got frustrated trying to do it in Estonian?

nodubmanshouts wrote:Perhaps the German verse of Marian was so done because Andy got frustrated trying to do it in Estonian?

I think he decided to learn Mandarin after misfortune with Estonian
Went to Leeds and... you know, how the story continues

So what you're saying is, the difficulty of the Estonian language is directly responsible for all of our record collections?

nodubmanshouts wrote:So what you're saying is, the difficulty of the Estonian language is directly responsible for all of our record collections?

Well, it's complicated enough
If I don't mistake there's only one Heartlander who can speak it and another who have forgotten it

pikkrong wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:So what you're saying is, the difficulty of the Estonian language is directly responsible for all of our record collections?

Well, it's complicated enough
If I don't mistake there's only one Heartlander who can speak it and another who have forgotten it

And another who would happily learn it.

Big Si wrote:

pikkrong wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:So what you're saying is, the difficulty of the Estonian language is directly responsible for all of our record collections?

Well, it's complicated enough
If I don't mistake there's only one Heartlander who can speak it and another who have forgotten it

And another who would happily learn it.

Strange men rent strange flowers
Well, you are welcome
And again - what have we done with the lyrics thread...

Yeah, cmon Indrek.
Give us some easy to learn lessons.

Steve

I wonder if there were any Estonians aboard the Titanic?

nodubmanshouts wrote:I wonder if there were any Estonians aboard the Titanic?

not sure...
but there were many Estonians abroad the ferry called "Estonia"...

http://www.balticsworldwide.com/news/fe ... stonia.htm

Ooops! that's a full stop if ever I heard one.

sorry, didn't want to rape and murder this thread but...
hope you, guys, could fix it again.

Damn Fine Album!

pikkrong wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:So what you're saying is, the difficulty of the Estonian language is directly responsible for all of our record collections?

Well, it's complicated enough
If I don't mistake there's only one Heartlander who can speak it and another who have forgotten it

Plus there is one with an Estonian username.

The story of the singing in Saaramaa (OEsel, I think, in case anyone is more familiar with the German name) is really interesting. Proabably little more than a coincidence or exaggeration, but still interesting.

(@ pikkrong: I sneaked onto Saaramaa once without a visa! Even the locals needed to show identification.)

Eh, with a bit of effort, anyone can learn some Estonian. Do not let the 14 different cases fool you (or 28, if you think that there are different case endings for singular or plurals)! With a bit of German, you at least can figure out some vocabulary, as there are many borrowed words. Grammar is a different story, as Estonian is Finno-Ugric and German is Indo-Germanic (or Indo-uropean, if you prefer). Try to learn the pronunciation on Saaramaa because you do not have to learn how to say o~ (a letter which I can not write with this keyboard)!

Martin

Kus on hulamaja Tallinnas?

i once learnt basque, which has 15 cases and no tenses, so i'm willing to give it a shot....

Petseri wrote:

pikkrong wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:So what you're saying is, the difficulty of the Estonian language is directly responsible for all of our record collections?

Well, it's complicated enough
If I don't mistake there's only one Heartlander who can speak it and another who have forgotten it

Plus there is one with an Estonian username.

The story of the singing in Saaramaa (OEsel, I think, in case anyone is more familiar with the German name) is really interesting. Proabably little more than a coincidence or exaggeration, but still interesting.

(@ pikkrong: I sneaked onto Saaramaa once without a visa! Even the locals needed to show identification.)

Eh, with a bit of effort, anyone can learn some Estonian. Do not let the 14 different cases fool you (or 28, if you think that there are different case endings for singular or plurals)! With a bit of German, you at least can figure out some vocabulary, as there are many borrowed words. Grammar is a different story, as Estonian is Finno-Ugric and German is Indo-Germanic (or Indo-uropean, if you prefer). Try to learn the pronunciation on Saaramaa because you do not have to learn how to say o~ (a letter which I can not write with this keyboard)!

Martin

Kus on hulamaja Tallinnas?

Martin, actually I meant the same guy - with Estonian username , or to be more correct - I told about those 2 guys who have Estonian username
And I can confirm everything you told, particularly about õ and ö
But maybe we should start a new thread in General Chat - "Weird Creatures from Hyperborea" or "Inhabitants of Ultima Thule" (I don't mean Estonian blues rock band UT nor Swedish nazi band with the same name)? Peeps wait for information about Sisters lyrics here
Regards,
Indrek
P. S. Did you mean "hullumaja" (madhouse)?

pikkrong wrote: Martin, actually I meant the same guy - with Estonian username , or to be more correct - I told about those 2 guys who have Estonian username
And I can confirm everything you told, particularly about õ and ö
But maybe we should start a new thread in General Chat - "Weird Creatures from Hyperborea" or "Inhabitants of Ultima Thule" (I don't mean Estonian blues rock band UT nor Swedish nazi band with the same name)? Peeps wait for information about Sisters lyrics here
Regards,
Indrek
P. S. Did you mean "hullumaja" (madhouse)?

Yes, I meant hullumaja, but I guess that it is too late to edit my post to correct it.

Believe it or not, I was going to mention Ultima Thule and how Meri once tried to convince people that it refered to Saaremaa, but I figured that very few people here would know what I meant.

If you ever hear any more connections between Marian and Saaremaa, please let us know.

Martin

I suggested a while back on Dominion that there was a progression of this kind through FALAA.. I think someone pasted it on here, if you fancy digging around. Mind you, I'd say that biographism is a dangerous thing, and that it's especially dangerous to trust secondary sources.. Hell, I rarely tell anyone what my own lyrics are about, except in the most general terms..

Hehehe... George is here, boys and girls. You're all in trouble, now!

Dunno if anyone is still interested in this thread (maybe it's much more fun going off-topic) but I always took (the song) FLA to be a kind of statement to Hussey/Adams on behalf of Von to the effect of "This band's mine, OK? If you don't feel you're getting enough input you know where the door is."

There again I would also say it was some kind of statement to the fans to a similar effect - basically I see it as his manifesto. It's HIS band and therefore he can do whatever he wants with it, if you choose to listen it's up to you but it gives you no say whatsoever in what happens next.

I'm not sure how many of the lyrics I could quote/distort to fit this theory (and of course nothing says that every lyric has to relate to a single meaning) but the chorus seems to me like a strong statement of that kind.

An acquaintance-of-a-friend had a theory that Marian was a song about someone drowning in the bath. Never got the details though. I always thought it was a reference to Leonard Cohen, particularly his wife (?)