A: It is on Boxed. It was made for the original TB, but didn't make it. From the Boxed booklet: "At the time, the result was considered a little too bizarre to place on an album by a complete unknown, so it was replaced by an instrumental version. Now (release of Boxed) seems as opportune a moment as any to take the antimacassar off the original, which can be heard in all its magnificent foolishness at the end of side two."
Credit: Jose Luis Gonzalez, JLuis@ThePentagon.com
A: Ommadawn is a nonsense word as it is only a phonetic spelling of the Irish word for idiot. It was Clodagh Simonds who wrote the words she would chant on the album. Obviously she had to make up some words quickly and the first thing that came into her head was:
"The cat is in the kitchen, drinking milk, I am the idiot singing"
When Mike saw or heard what she had sung he was curious about that word written as Ommadawn and then thought it would be a good name for the album. Its working title up until then was Pickles On My Glockenspiel - I bet you're glad he changed that! Anyway, Ommadawn strictly speaking has no meaning unless you know the truth behind the naming of the album. Mike divulged this to only a couple of journalists at the time - the rest of the time he said it was just a nonsense word - it was just one of his ideas to remain mysterious.
And just to repeat it: Amadan (with an accent or "Fada" over the last 'a', to give the long 'a' in the "aw" sound) is Irish/Gaelic for fool.
Also: nobody knows what Amadan means, so it was useful as a HIDDEN MESSAGE or something similar. This fact of hidden message links to Amarok and the morse codes, and also the fairytale (idiot, nincompoop).
By the way: more about what kind of fool Amadan is: The amadan are Irish fairie fools. They should be avoided as if touched by him, the victim will be paralyzed down the side touched, or possibly paralyzed forever. Thus the amadan is sometimes called the stroke lad. He may strike whomever he fancies, but criminals and those who linger by fairie haunts under moonlight are especially vulnerable, and is particularly active during the month of June. The only protection against him is to call upon God. Amadan Mor and Amadan na Bruidne are the best known.
Amarok is defined as Amarach (again with a fada over the second 'a' to extend the 'aww' sound-pronounced in Munster Irish, "Amarok" is exactly what the word "Amarach" sounds like) meaning "tomorrow" in Irish/Gaelic in Sean Moraghan's book, I have also seen it defined as "morning" or "genius" but these just don't seem to fit Irish Gaelic words. Mike himself simply says it's just a nonsense word but it could mean "I am a rock" referring to his staying power. I think this is a load of rubbish - Mike just didn't want to answer the question IMHO.
Finally amaroq means wolf in Inuit ("Greenlandish"). In an interview MO once said, that he heard the word in a television program from the north about wolves, and liked both the sound and the meaning of it. If anyone has details on this interview, please let the maintainer know.
Credit: Matthew J. Sorell, msorell@ctin.adelaide.edu.au, Svend Aage Petersen, obi@get2net.dk, Matthieu Dhennin, dhennin@hol.fr, Tom English,tenglish@iol.ie, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, Jose Luis Gonzalez, JLuis@ThePentagon.com, Chris Miller, cmille1@grfn.org
A transcription of the chant:
AB YUL ANN-I IDYAD AWT EN YAB NA LOG A TOC NA AWD TAW MAY ON OMMADAWN EGG KYOWL OMMADAWN EGG KYOWL
This is a transliteration of the chant. After listening to it some Irish knowleagdeable people decided that the first section is incomprehensible and for now shall be ignored. The second part is different however. underneath is included a translation into written Irish:
Ta me an Ommadawn eg Cheoil Ommadawn eg Cheoil.
However upon close listening its been decided that the EGG is actually a LE and the passage is written in Irish thus:
Ta me an Ommadawn le Cheoil Ommadawn le Cheoil.
Athough its language has been disputed this line is certainly Irish. It is too much of a coincidence that KYOWL is the same sound as the Irish word cheoil, which means music. Significantly this line translates as
I am the fool with music, fool with music
The more accepted translation up till now is
I'm the Fool and I'm laughing
However as Ommadawn is acknowledged as being a Gaelic/Irish word, than it does not make sence for the rest to be in a different language. If so, for laughing the word Gairre, would have been used.
Credit: Noel O'Riordan, nor@iol.ie
Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com
A: Oh, don't ask! The suggestions are many, and the opinions are hard to change. But the two most popular text versions seems to be:
Some like the city, some the noise,where you replace **** with either chaos or cars.
Some make **** and others toys.
If I was to have the choice,
I'd rather be on horseback.
Credits? No. People disagree with each other and themselves, so I don't know who to credit...
Part 4 is Ben Jonson's Ode to Cynthia, from "Cynthia's Revels", again with re-arrangements and an occasional word change. You can see this one here: http://www2.united.dk/privateroom/lise/cynthia.html.
Credit: Jim F.Glass, yqg023@rdyne.bna.boeing.com, Gregory Adams, greg@essex1.com, Ron Kostecka, U22866@uicvm.uic.edu
A: This answer used to be in the FAQ. But as it really isn't a frequently asked question, and it takes up a lot of space, it now has it's own page, among other obscure lyrics. Go to http://www2.united.dk/privateroom/lise/radio.html.
A: Maybe Mike was influenced by the murder of John Lennon, which might have found a way into the song, but it was not written for it. Mike himself said he don't know exactly, it should be taken without a deep meaning. When Mike was interviewed for the mailing list, this question was asked too. He replied that the song was originally inspired by a very old film called "Houdini", a Paramount picture filmed in 1953, directed by George Marshall with Tony Curtis in the title role. Additional information on: http://uk.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Houdini%20%281953%29.
Credit: Goyta' F. Villela Jr., gfv@brazilmail.com, Gareth Randall, gwr@easynet.co.uk, Marcus Junglas, Junglas@student.uni-kl.de.
A: Apparently, as a child he used to like stargazing in his back garden. One possibility is that the line "Saved by a bell" refers to Mike's career fortunes being turned around by the success of Tubular Bells. From that, we could infer that the "suffer in hell/but you were too blind to tell" couplet is a reference to the mental problems that his success exacerbated, and the fact that he was in a kind of denial about them until forced to confront them - and the fact that he *did* successfully confront them is covered by "But you made it through so well".
Another possibility: that "Saved By A Bell" is Mike having a rant at RB. Hearing it and reading the lyrics, it makes perfect sense. Particularly since the lyrics talk about constellations etc., but don't include "Taurus" (Mike is a Taurus). Then of course the Chorus is pretty overt: "Saved by a bell, suffer in hell"...
Credit: Christophe Olivier, chr.olivier@hol.fr, Gareth Randall, gwr@easynet.co.uk, Alex Ringis, who used to be at ringis@starwon.com.au
A: Auf der Autobahn 2 von Hannover in Richtung Oberhausen. It continues with "... zwischen Autobahnkreuz", followed by a few words that can't be understood because the music starts. Any ideas how it goes on? By the way, these German words mean something like On highway 2 from Hannover going to Oberhausen.
I'll try. It started as a "usual" bank holdup with taking of hostages
in Gladbeck (which is in the Ruhr area in Germany) and ended up with the
death of a hostage, a young girl named Silke Bischoff, several days
later. Silke was shot by one the two hostage-takers in the getaway
car while the police tried to free her. The really remarkable (sounds
cynical, I know) was the way the german media handled this event. They
made a kind of saturday evening entertainment show of it, they made
interviews with the gangsters while they were sitting in their getaway-
car, pressing a pistol against Silke's temple. The police had several
opportunities to end the drama, but they couldn't encroach(?), 'cause
wherever the gansters appeared, they were surrounded by a bunch of
camera men and reporters.
The connection to the (maybe traffic) news cite in Hostage is, that
the gangsters drove from Gladbek to Oberhausen, to Bremen, even to
the Netherlands I think.
Credit: Wolfram Roesler (who used to be at wr@bara.oche.de), Joern Brackhagen, j.brackhagen@itzehoe.netsurf.de, Wolfgang Koch, wolfgang.koch.koeln@t-online.de.