Somebody Tell Me - first trial & live performance [HU] [SP] [EN]

This is a recording of not only the first performance of Valaki mondja meg at Itínera Theater, it's also our first attempt at singing and playing it together. So it's as raw as it comes. Thankfully, with its three verses in three languages, it is long enough to turn it into a successful experience by the time we reach the English version, so it's worth sitting through it.

I love working on the theater, even if we're not building the main theater building yet. That's because the theater does not require a building, unlike the other way round.

Most people attracted to this place are already predisposed to the performing arts. Others have nothing to do with the theater, they are brought here more by an interest in sustainability and natural building, but even they tend to discover that deep down we are all actors in one way or another. This is in part thanks to our "meetings" which are brim-full of theatrical exercises, no matter if we just need to discuss simple housekeeping issues or the strategy of our next steps in the build. After dinner, however, it's the music that dominates our passion and creativity.

Those of us who are not musicians also realize quickly that we are all performers at heart. Many of us have played an instrument at some point in our lives, and the simple and comfortable environment gets us to drop our inhibitions and bring to surface whatever talents, skills, and passions may have been hidden and forgotten deep below. And even though we may not have the level of musicianship as our well practices friends, there are infinite options for percussion and vocalization.

While working we tend to listen to recorded music, which quite often propels our inspiration to try out a song on the guitar when it's time for it. Otherwise, we just sing along, which doesn't get in the way of pounding tires. If anything, it helps with work. And even though playing together in the evening is mostly improvisational jam, there have been a couple of actual songs we always come back to playing.

One such song that has emerged this way, was from the Hungarian rock opera I detailed in my last post. The Hungarian lyrics were just begging to be shared, and instead of explaining them, we tried to come up with a translation that's close in meaning as well as the rhythm of the original song. Once we had translated it, the next step was to play and sing it, together of course. And we had at least a couple of vocalists for each one of the three languages. The next step will be to translate the song into French, Italian, and maybe German.

Please Visit my Previous Posts in my Music Monday Series:

Somebody Tell Me - Translating a Hungarian Song Into [EN] and [SP]
In Country: Folks Songs of Americans in the Vietnam War
Images Conjured up by Tom Waits' Music
Polynesian Salt Water Music
Folk Songs from Your Home Village - Hungarian Regional Sound Archives
Party Tunes from the Wild East - The "Russendisko" Experience
Gloomy Sunday - The Hungarian Suicide Song
Memorable Weirdness - What Do You Want A Japanese To Do Again?
Songs of the Mexican Revolution: La Adelita
Accordion-Rock You May Not Know (But Really Should) - Los Tabascos
Beyond the Boundries of Styles and Genres - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
No Prophets in Their Own Land - Rodrigo y Gabriela
The First Hip-Hop I Actually Liked - Things Fall Apart by The Roots
The Harder Sound of the Middle Ages - Corvus Corax
Party Like There's No Tomorrow, Cry Like Everything Is Lost - Hungarian Gypsy Music
Classic Canadiana: Stan Rogers
Floating Into the Night by Julee Cruise
Obligatory Line-Dance at Mexican Parties - El Payaso de Rodeo
The Sound of the Hungarian Zither