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Johnyxxx

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Hello,

Can anybody tell me what Robin sings between cca. 2:48-2:54 (the lyrics are sometimes hard to follow but this part is absolutely uncomprehensible to me ...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P5LNKh5cLA

Thank you very much
 

MikeNewYork

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Most of it was incomprehensible to me.
 

Barb_D

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I could barely get a single word in any of it. Never could with the Bee Gees. Or Fleetwood Mac either for that matter.
 

MikeNewYork

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Barb_D

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I was around. The lyrics to "Stayin' Alive" as far as I could tell, were "you can tell be the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk blah blah blah blah Stayin' Alive blah blah blah blah
 

emsr2d2

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Apart from the fact it's "You can tell by..." ( not "be"), those are the lyrics so you clearly didn't have as much trouble understanding them as you thought you did! :)
 

MikeNewYork

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I never had a problem with Fleetwood Mac.
 

Eckaslike

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I think I may have got it. I had to turn on my ultrasonic ear attachment.

Part of the problem is that the majority of the song is from his point of view, but at the point the OP has queried the words are from the girl's point of view, as they quite often used to do in songs of yore. It's also got a bit of slang in it to make it even harder to hear.

"I'm the girl what fights a wrong
But when it up darn comes along
You nobbled [or "toppled"] me
How old are you?
Oh-oh oh-oh-oh."

That's as close as I can get.
 
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Skrej

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I can't verify the accuracy of these lyrics, as I can't understand the video either, but perhaps you can read along and see if they're plausible.
 

Eckaslike

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Skrej, those lyrics are good for the vast majority of the song.

The only problem is that at exactly the point the OP can't understand they say "incomprehensible". All other lyrics I have seen for the song just say things like "repeat to fade" at that point, because they can't understand it either. Strangely enough, to me the rest of the words are not that difficult to hear, but the bit the OP is querying is definitely very unclear.
 

MikeNewYork

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This must be due to your astute British ear.
 

Eckaslike

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Thanks Mike, but I'm sure there are plenty of American songs that I wouldn't have a clue about! It's easier when it's your own version of English, and the 1980's was when I was a teenager, so it was when I spent a lot of time listening to music. But, I only vaguely remember that song.

Skrej, the video is pretty basic really, once you know what it's based on. It's merely mimicking the classic British comedy film series called "St Trinians". The struggling private school with the out of control schoolgirls. The original films were almost a cross between panto, music hall and the Keystone cops. The pupils usually had the upper hand and were often setting traps for their teachers, making booze in chemistry lessons, having pillow fights, betting money on the horses or dogs, and running wild in the local villages where shopkeepers would board up their shops at any sign of the children on the rampage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4dLCOf7wMs Book release in 1952

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Bg4QwNQqI The Belles of St Trinians 1954

In the video Robin is a new teacher, however, because of the school's St Trinian's-like reputation the driver taking him there won't go beyond the gates. Beyond the St Trinians elements, he fancies one of the sixth formers and feels guilty...the end. Early 1980's videos were pretty basic really.
 

MikeNewYork

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That sounds like a movie I am glad to have missed. :-D
 
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