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Here they don’t come, America!
It’s a curious fact that you can hear uncensored American songs on Slovenian radio. They play Prince’s original Sexy M.F. here, not the “clean version.” There are also no qualms about playing anything sexually suggestive, like The Bloodhound Gang’s Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo.
Needless to say, Slovenia has its own batch of popular and sexually suggestive songs. How would they fare on American radio? On this fourth of July holiday, let’s take a look and find out!
1) The Song: Banana
The Artist: Domen Kumer
Listen:
The lyrics: Daj usedi se na banano,
da nam bo še bolj tesno
vroče punce skačejo z mano,
vse je že mokro
Translation: (Go sit on the banana
so that it’s more tight
hot girls, jump with me
everything is wet)
The verdict: Borderline. Double entendres are usually fair game as long as they aren’t too graphic. Even with the “sit on the banana” line, I think this one would make it past the censors.
2) The Song: Brizgalna Brizga
The Artist: Atomik Harmonik
Listen:
The lyrics: Izbrala si bom fanta “tizga ta velizga”
Saj brizgalna ta njegova res najlepše brizga
Izbrala si bom fanta “tizga ta velizga”
Tudi meni je lepo, ko tako zavriska
Translation: (I will choose the “biggest” guy
When it comes to spraying, he sprays the best
I will choose the “biggest” guy
I also love it when he shouts for joy)
The verdict: This one I’m not so sure about. Slovenia’s top hit of 2004 is pretty hardcore. I think a lot would depend on how they translated that line about “spraying.” Even if it was allowed to air uncensored, it would certainly make a lot of people angry and get a lot of complaints.
3) The Song: Srčna Napaka
The Artist: Frajkinclari
Listen:
The lyrics: Ne boš ti meni zizike majal
Ne boš ti meni hlačice dol dal
Ne boš ti meni not pa ven ga dal
Ne boš pr meni spal
Translation: (You won’t make my boobies bounce,
You won’t pull my panties down,
You won’t put it in and out,
You won’t sleep with me)
The verdict: Are you kidding? Never. Hell would freeze over, melt, and then freeze again before this popular song would appear on American radio.
4) The Song: Ne grem na kolena
The Artist: Saša Lendero
Listen:
The lyrics: Ne grem na kolena
Preveč sem sebe dala,
Pljuvala sem si v obraz
Ponos teptala!
Translation: (I’m not getting on my knees,
I gave too much of myself,
I spit in my own face,
My pride has been stomped)
The verdict: Fine. A friend of mine is convinced that this song is one gigantic evocation of oral sex. If it is, it’s certainly not clear enough.
5) The Song: Delam kot zamorc
The Artist: Jani Kovačič
Listen:
The lyrics: Delam, delam, delam, delam, delam,
Delam kot zamorc
Translation: (I’m working, working, working, working, working
Working like a negro)
The verdict: The only subject that is more sensitive than sex in the United States is race, and putting this song on-air would almost certainly result in the joblessness of whoever did. Especially if the DJ was as pasty white as Jani Kovačič is. Slovenes seem to see nothing wrong with it and it’s very much considered a classic.
Happy Fourth of July!
(And thanks to Mitja and Nik for their help!)
Comments
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It’s srčna, not šrcna napaka Michael.
To me these songs are all just silly, not controverse. What do you think about this American (hyper?)sensitivity over songs?
Happy Fourth of July! The neighbors are having fun with their recreational explosives and listening to evil sounding Mexican rap.
Yikes, I’ll fix the typo. And as a kind of preemptive warning, let me stress that the translations are rough.
As for what I think: It’s silly, of course — unless you’re the sort of person who believes that words can break your bones. I’m not.
On the other hand, it is a pity our law is not stricter. This would probably result in less explicit, more complicated and hidden allusions, which I think are the only interesting ones.
Talking about the bones: could it be that Joohnny Cash means more than meets the eye in: “… flesh and bone, by the telephone. Pick up the receiver, I’ll make you a believer…”
Well, if you want barely hidden sexual content, try Brown Sugar by the Charlie Watts Quartet (aka The Rolling Stones)
Do they air that on US radio?
peng: It’s definitely aired. The song is vague enough to be safe. (Case in point: I always just thought it was about heroin)
I’ve also never considered the sexual implications of the Cash song. I think you and alcessa have sex on the brain, though. Are you sure you aren’t sex addicts, like Michael Douglas?
Michael: I wish I did/I were (sounds like a nice compliment - I’ll pretend it is) even though it meant I have something in common with the old geezer Michael Douglas (?).
(But the truth is really bleak, should you wonder: I have work on the brain…)
“Work like a negro” is a very common phrase here in Spain too. I bet even a politician could use it with little fallout. But then Spain’s population is several orders of magnitude more homogeneous than that of the US.
@Michael M.: Hehehe, I’ll let that one slide, because anything I say can (and will) be used against me
However, in case of this particular song it’s not just me
The one thing all these lyrics have in common? CLASS.
Poulette: there are classes and, you know, classes… So which one?
Hey, where’s Zoran Predin’s classic “Lepa si, ko ti pride” (”You’re beautiful when you come”)? But he’s the kind of guy who can make anything sound deep.
I find it laughable when they censor just single words by blipping them out. Surely, if you find something offensive, it’s not because of a single word but because of the whole attitude.
@borut: Hats off to Predin, but he came late (if you’ll excuse the pun). A song by Sokoli (Pero Lovšin) is titled “Svršimo zajedno” - which translates as “Come Together”… I wonder if that’s what John and Paul meant when they wrote this song
Them of course there’s Mama told me not to come and many, many more
Would it be wrong of me to bring in a boombox blasting “Delam kot zamorc” for job interviews there? I think it would be a handy reminder to the employer that when they hire me they’ll get someone who works SIX TIMES (count ‘em!) harder than your average Slovene.
Add to that the fact that song has a blues melody to it and you’d have to find a personel officer with a very developed sense of humour
I’d give you a job on the spot for it (if I could afford it), but middle management all over the world are the same, ain’t they
@pengovsky: john and paul wrote “come together over me”. sounds like a gay orgy to me.
alcessa: Help is on the way!
And it is supposed to be on MY brain?
(It will be. How do I order… bye!)
Michael M.: OMG!
And you call me sex-crazy? Where do you get info like that!?
alcessa: Wait for me!!!!
Come together or cum together?
@borut: well, there you go… I guess it goes well with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
However, others have claimed that the song is not about LSD but about Litswd, a small village in southeast Wales, where John’s grandmother supposedly lived and baked cookies all day long
@Sunshine: Same thing, no?
Oh my, oh my…
How could you miss Bicikl by Leteči Potepuhi?
Here is a strophe:
Vsed se gor na stango
bova tko hitrej prsla
dej noge bl u luft, da bom lahk prtisku kar se da
se cela zemlja trese, ker tolk hitra sva
je treba pocasnej, da nav guma pocila
I wonder how Faith Hill’s Breathe got through the censors, I mean it seems pretty clear to me what it is about…
@ pengovsky: Well, no.
I understand the first one literally as in “going somewhere together”, while the second one I understand as… hmmm… well… cumming together. 
@ Pengovsky: Oh, OK, I am waiting. We all know that the not so “still waters” need to go shopping before they can “run deep”, whereas the real still waters…
How do you like my lyrics, anyone?
Matej: I’m glad you mentioned it. Bicikl was originally included but I couldn’t get my hands on the audio. I asked two friends of mine what the most sexually suggestive song in Slovenia was, and they both immediately said that.
As for PT 141: Remember this day, friends, because if that drug works anything like it says it does, Sexual Revolution 2.0 is on the way.
i’m a little embarrassed to even know this, but have you ever heard the song ‘tuna’ by game over?
www.lyrko.com/lyrics/tuna
While doing a show on college radio years ago I would regularly play Frank Zappa’s “I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth”. A jazzy little number. Of course its an instrumental, and I wasn’t allowed to give the song title. :-þ
@Sunhine: I’m threading on thin ice here, but I always thought cum is the result of coming….
@alcessa: You should run for Eurosong!
@Michael M.: Maybe we should invest in this company, no?
@markz: You’re right. You should be embarrased (only kidding ;))
@Joe: Good call! But then again Zappa’s Bobby Brown takes the cake, doesn’t it? I mean I can take about an hour on the tower of power, as long as I gets a little golden shower…, that’s porn and poetry rolled into one
So why can’t we Slovenians write such good lyrics?
Apart form the bicycle song, which is actually good.
Must be the dual…
If we can be bad at writing lyrics, it doesn’t mean we’re always bad at writing good lyrics.
how about other lyrics from Predin?
hehe
how do you guys interprete Mravljinčarji in Čeladarji
lrt2.fe.uni-lj.si/Lacni_Franz/sire03.html
by the way, bicikl was written by Adi Smolar, he had some pretty good songs, but he’s not good at music it self, so they all sound a bit the same.
When I was little (or should I say “a little younger”) I thought the USA had the most free speech there is on this planet.
After the infamous September 11, I soon found out I had been wrong. Watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report “beeping over” half of what they say (ok, just the ‘juicy words’) is kinda like the shows are coming from [enter your favorite dictatorship here].
Although I believe the songs you’re mentioning here are for the plebs, I still think it’s free speech that counts!