Abagond

Zeus, circa 450 BC.

Here is the first line of the Lord’s Prayer through time, from Proto-Indo-European to Modern English:

• 3000 BC: *ph₂tḗr nōs yo h₁ésmi n̥ dyḗw (Proto-Indo-European)
• 2500 BC: *phātēr nōs yo esti en dyēw
• 2000 BC: *fadēr unsar sa is in himiną (Proto-Germanic)
• 1500 BC: *faþēr unsar sa ist in himinō
• 1000 BC: *fader unsēr sa is in himin (North-West Germanic)
• 500 BC: fader unsēr sa is in himin
• 1 AD: fader unsēr sa is in himin
• 500 AD: fæder ūre se is on heofonum (Old English)
• 1000 AD: Fæder ūre, þū þe eart on heofonum (Old English, West Saxon)
• 1500 AD: Oure fadir that art in heuen (Middle English)
• 2000 AD: Our Father who is in heaven (Modern English)

Pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA):

• 3000 BC: /pʰaˈtɛːr noːs jo ˈhɛs.mi n̩ ˈdjeːw/
• 2500 BC: /ˈpʰaː.teːr noːs jo ˈes.ti en ˈdjeːw/
• 2000 BC: /ˈfa.dɛːr ˈun.sɑr sɑ is in ˈhi.mi.nɑ̃/
• 1500 BC: /ˈfa.θeːr ˈun.sɑr sɑ ist in ˈhi.mi.noː/
• 1000 BC: /ˈfa.ðer ˈun.seːr sɑ is in ˈhi.min/
• 500 BC: /ˈfa.ðer ˈun.seːr sɑ is in ˈhi.min/
• 1 AD: /ˈfa.ðer ˈun.seːr sɑ is in ˈhi.min/
• 500 AD: /ˈfæ.ðer ˈuː.re se is on ˈheo.vo.num/
• 1000 AD: /ˈfæ.ðer ˈuː.re θuː ðe æɑrt on ˈheo.vo.num/
• 1500 AD: /ˈuː.rə ˈfa.ðir θat art in ˈhɛ.vən/
• 2000 AD: /ˈaʊə ˈfɑːðə huː ɪz ɪn ˈhɛvən/ (RP)

Manuscripts: I did a separate post on that. It goes century by century but only goes back to 995 AD – just the last 1,000 years, not 5,000 years.

Notes:

1. This is according to ChatGPT, which in my experience is only 80% right. So this is meant only to give you a rough idea. For entertainment purposes only!
2. Dates are approximate.
3. The * means it is a scholarly reconstruction of an unwritten language (a barbarian tongue).
4. “Our father who art in heauen” is how it appeared in 1611 in the original edition of the King James Bible. In the 1800s, u and v became separate letters and Victorian religious sensibilities capitalized “Father”.
5. The th sound in father goes back to at least 1500 BC, even when written with a d.
6. The v sound in heaven goes back to 500 AD, even when spelled with an f or a u.

Remarks:

In 2500 BC you can see the beginnings of both “Jupiter” and “Pater Noster” (the Latin name for the prayer):

2500 BC: *phātēr nōs yo esti en dyēw

*phātēr nōs -> Pater Noster (= father our)

*dyēw + *phātēr -> Jupiter (= sky father)

The *dyēw (sky) also became Deus (the Latin word for God), Zeus (the Greek god), and the Tue in Tuesday.

By 2000 BC, Proto-Indo-European in Germany and Italy had become separate languages: Proto-Germanic and Proto-Italic. In time they would turn into Latin (by 700 BC in Rome) and English (by 500 AD in England), among other languages.

Far more profound than any of this is how the meanings of the words have changed. Both Proto-Indo-Europeans and Christians worshipped a sky father, called Jupiter by the Romans, Zeus pater by the Greeks, God the Father by Christians, and Abba by Jesus. But they were not the same god at all. No one “had a personal relationship with Zeus” unless they were a god or a demigod. He was cruel and distant, not a stern but loving father of mercy and forgiveness. Praying to Zeus was left to the professionals – priests.

– Abagond, 2025.  

See also:

• The Lord’s Prayer in English through time – the last 1,000 years according to old Bibles
• human history: the last 6,000 years
• Proto-Indo-European
  • Romance languages: a brief history – the last 3,000 years
• The British through time: the last 10,000 years – following the skulls, not the language
• White Americans: the last 15,000 years – following this same thread of language back through time
• God – the Abrahamic sort
• Zeus
• ChatGPT
• RP
• Authorized King James Version of the Bible (AV/KJV)
• brief history of: a paragraph, punctuation

580

Remarks:

This came out late in 1968. In 1969, at the end of February and beginning of March, it was the number one song in the US for two weeks among both Blacks and Whites, two months after the Earthrise picture came out (pictured below). Above is the official video, which came out many decades later, in 2013.

Sly Stone passed away this year.

Requiescat in pace.

See also:

• songs: the 1960s
• WWSD – What Would Sade Do?
• The oneness of mankind
  • Apollo 8
  • A Lesson Before Dying
  • There is absolutely nothing wrong with being black
• 1968 in 28 pictures

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Sometimes I’m right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I’m in

[Chorus]
I am everyday people, yeah, yeah

[Verse 1]
There is a blue one who can’t accept the green one
For living with a fat one, trying to be a skinny one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby

[Refrain]
Ooh, sha-sha
We got to live together (Ooh, sha-sha)

[Verse 2]
I am no better and neither are you
We are the same, whatever we do
You love me, you hate me, you know me and then
You can’t figure out the bag I’m in

[Chorus]
I am everyday people, yeah, yeah

[Verse 3]
There is a long hair that doesn’t like the short hair
For being such a rich one that will not help the poor one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby

[Refrain]
Ooh, sha-sha
We got to live together (Ooh, sha-sha)

[Verse 4]
There is a yellow one that won’t accept the black one
That won’t accept the red one that won’t accept the white one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby

[Chorus]
Ooh, sha-sha
I am everyday people (Ooh, sha-sha)

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Last updated: December 26th 2025. 

Some books I read – or tried to read – in 2025:

John Burgon: The Revision Revised (1881): I read a dozen or so books like this during my KJV-only jag that my White Evangelical media diet turned into. This points out, in detail, what is wrong with the Revised Version (1881) translation of the Bible.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925): I am only reading this now – on its 100th anniversary! A look at the US as it was a hundred years ago – among the well-to-do in New York and Long Island. All-White everything. No Harlem Renaissance, for example.

Scott M. Coley: Ministers of Propaganda (2024): By far the best book I have read about White Evangelical Protestants in the US. You know, the Real Americans who twist everything, including the Bible, history and Trump’s tweets, into whatever they want it to be. Needs a post of its own!

John Brunner: The Stone That Never Came Down (1973): This and the next one come from Lost book covers, part II. I found them on Amazon with the very same covers and reread them. Both are still good.

Carl Sagan: The Cosmic Connection (1973): I am less in wonder at the world than when I first read this, but Carl Sagan is good at getting across his own wonder.

Larry Niven: World of Ptavvs (1965): DNF (did not finish). I used to love Larry Niven! But now I find him unbearable. I am not the only one who thinks his later books are bad. But this is one of his early books that I loved – and now I cannot even get past page 96!

Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (1963): DNF. This was a good book till chapter 13 when I read:

“That morning I had tried to hang myself.”

Having already read about her gruesome electroshock therapy, I could not bear to go on. This is supposed to be a book about how White women in the US had it so bad in the 1950s.

Brian Gronewoller: Perpetua et Felicitas (2023): this is the stand-in for the many Latin novellas I read throughout 2025.

Hans Ørberg: Lingua Latina per se Illustrata: Pars I: Familia Romana (1996), aka LLPSI. This covers the first four years of Latin at US or UK schools. It does it in 328 pages by only using Latin. Because I took Latin at high school and university, I was able to cover four years in a few months. At school they teach you the grammar but do not give you enough free reading for it to really sink in – thus Ørberg and the Latin novellas.

Studia.DK: Amore a Siena (2025): I read this during my brief Italian phase in late 2025. I got my reading level up to B2 on the CEFR scale (high intermediate). But as part of the Diaspora, it is better for me to devote my energies to Portuguese.

Jules Verne: Le torno del mundo in octanta dies (1872) -“Around the world in 80 days” in Interlingua (a sort of standardization of Romance languages). Rereading this to help me in reading in Romance languages.

James Weldon Johnson: The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912): Now on a Harlem Renaissance jag.

– Abagond, 2025.

See also: 

• books
  • books I read in 2023 – or the books I wanted to read: it only goes up to January 11th!
  • books I read in 2022
  • books I read in 2021
  • books I read in 2020
  • books I read in 2019
  • books I read in 2018
  • books I read in 2017
• White Evangelical Protestant media diet
• Lost book covers, part II

556

Remarks:

Still my favourite Christmas song, but this time sung by someone other than Stevie Wonder. The video is from 2020.

Merry Christmas to all my commenters and lurkers!

See also:

• songs: the 2020s
• Stevie Wonder: Someday at Christmas

Lyrics:

Someday at Christmas, men won’t be boys
Playing with bombs like kids play with toys
One warm December our hearts will see
A world where men are free

Someday at Christmas, there’ll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found what life’s really worth
There’ll be peace on earth

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday in Christmas time

Someday at Christmas, we’ll see a land
With no hungry children, no empty hand
One happy morning people will share
A world where people care

Someday at Christmas, there’ll be no tears
When all men are equal and no man have fears
One shining moment, one prayer away
From our world today

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmas time

Someday at Christmas, man would not have failed
Hate will be gone and love will prevail
Someday in a world that we can start
With hope in every heart

Someday
Someday
Someday

Source: AZ Lyrics. 

Last updated: December 18th 2025. 

Songs in Italian that I have posted on this blog that I can remember (there might be a few others):

In Italian:

• 1940s:
• 1950s:
• 1960s:
  • 1960: Mina: Il cielo in una stanza
  • 1967: Rocky Roberts: Stasera mi butto
• 1970s:
• 1980s:
  • 1981: Alice: Per Elisa
  • 1984: Mina: Estate
• 1990s:
  • 1995: Andrea Bocelli: Con te partirò
• 2000s:
• 2010s:
• 2020s:
  • 2025: Olly, Juli: Questa domenica

Italian-influenced:

• 1977: Donna Summer: I Feel Love *
• 1983: Irene Cara: Flashdance – What a Feeling *
• 1986: Nocera: Summertime, Summertime
• 1989: Black Box: Ride On Time
• 2001: In-Grid: Tu est foutu

* = via Giorgio Moroder.

– Abagond, 2025. 

See also:

• songs in Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian
• Italian

511

Some notes to myself about how to write from a Black Default, as a corrective to the White Default of Western media:

• Target demographic: Black people. Unless you want to be a Negro whisperer, like James Baldwin or Ta-Nehisi Coates, there is no need to worry about what White people know or feel or think. White feelings are a trap. The White gaze is a trap. Avoid them.
• Media diet: Your output is going to be affected by your input. So mainly consume Black media: Black writers, Black films, Black music, Black news, etc. Use White media as a dietary supplement at most.
• Especially read:
  • Black history and news – as told by Black people!
  • Black writers who avoid the White gaze – like Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Jamaica Kincaid, Chinua Achebe, and Bessie Head.
• Beware of ChatGPT: Not only is it not always right, it is BAFT: By And For Them: White Americans – from its spelling to its mealy-mouthed morals.
• Decolonize your mind: Needs a post of its own! In the meantime, at least know about respectability politics, dis-Africanization and internalized racism.
• Avoid Whitespeak: 
  • copspeak
  • Eurocentric words
  • etc.
• Stereotypes: be aware of them but do not be trapped by them, like my son who does not eat watermelon around White people.

• “When I say people, I mean Black people”:
  • White people are White – not American or British or Canadian or Southern or “we” or “everyone”, but White. Just White. Plain old White. If place or nation is somehow important, then, yes, White Southerners, etc. But their geographical theft, both physical and terminological, cannot go unnoticed. White is to be foregrounded, never the unsaid, taken-for-granted “neutral” background. It is not neutral at all! CNN is not the news, it is the White news. Etc.
  • Black people are people. You do not have to point out their race. And, where “race does not matter”, then use Black examples, not White ones: Black history, Black literature, Black news, Black opinion, Black media, Black beauty, Black hair, Black hand models, etc.
• Bechdel Test for Race. If you only want to write about racism and White people, at least be aware that that is what you are doing.
• Story selection – choose those that concern Black people. But do not make the opposite mistake of choosing only “Black issues”. Black people are affected by “normal” stuff too, like inflation or global warming – though not always in the same way as the target demographic of US media (White people who can afford a new car).

• Diasporic frame – never narrow yourself to just the US or UK or any one nation. Think in terms of the bigger picture: Africa and the Diaspora. Its history, its news, its common concerns, etc. Half the Diaspora is in Brazil! These ten nations have 59% of Africa and the Diaspora:
  1. Nigeria: 206 million
  2. Ethiopia: 109
  3. D.R. Congo: 103
  4. Egypt: 101
  5. Brazil: 96
  6. South Africa: 60
  7. Tanzania: 60
  8. Kenya: 48
  9. US: 47
  10. Uganda: 46
• Be Afrocentric – Do not pretend to write from nowhere or from both sides or try to be “universal”. That is what White writers (and ChatGPT) do to hide their White Default.

Suggestions: Leave your own suggestions in the comments below!

– Abagond, 2025.

See also:

• style guide
• White Default
  • The Vast Talking Machine
  • The Whiteness of ChatGPT
• Black Default
  • What if there were a Black Default?
  • If English had a Black Default
• The map of Black people
• related:
  • Langston Hughes: The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain – on wanting to be a writer, not a Black writer
  • Stamped from the Beginning – on how not to persuade Whites out of their racism
  • I do not write this blog for white people

598

“The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man” (1912) by James Weldon Johnson became one of the classics of the Harlem Renaissance when it was reissued in 1927. Despite the title it is a novel, not an autobiography. Johnson wrote his actual autobiography years later as “Along This Way” (1933). The story is based on his own life and people he knew.

Johnson is probably best known for writing “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, the Black National Anthem. Same guy.

In 1912 it was put out by a small publisher in Boston as a true story by Anonymous. In 1927 Alfred A. Knopf, a big publisher during the Harlem Renaissance, put it out under Johnson’s own name as a novel and used British spelling. That is how “colored” became “coloured”. In 1912 Johnson was a US diplomat and did not want to lose his job for saying the Wrong Things About Race. By 1927 he was an NAACP bigwig and was expected to say a thing or two about race.

Massive Spoilers – not: because the end is given away in the beginning. The “Ex-” in the title means he was a coloured man and then he was not. Meaning that he had passed for White! “Coloured” was a common name for people of visible African descent in the US back then.

Tragic Mulatto – not: In US fiction, people with one or more drops of African blood (Blacks) who try to pass as pure European (White) often come to a bad end. But not our hero! With just a bit of moral discomfort, he winds up as a White man who owns several apartment buildings in New York and is married to a White woman and has two White children. Only his wife knows his Secret. He had discovered that so long as he is not too friendly with Black people, Whites will assume that he is White.

His moral qualms – not! Or not much. Not after he saw a Black man burned at the stake in the South. A lynching. Like Dorothy with her red shoes at the end of “The Wizard of Ox” (1939), he used his white skin – and a train ticket – to leave the nightmare world of the Jim Crow South and flee to New York City.

Regret: He regretted that he could no longer use his time, talent and education to help Black people. He knew he was a sell-out. But when he looked at his two White children and thought about their future, it removed all doubt.

Shame, not fear, he says is what drove him into the White race after seeing the lynching.

It is surprising how little some things have changed in 113 years: Washington, DC already had a large Black middle class, a form of Black music was already all the rage in the West (ragtime), and criminals were already making all Black people look bad.

I read it on Kindle for 49 cents – but now I do not have a marked-up copy I can easily flip through. A mistake.

– Abagond, 2025. 

See also:

• Lift Every Voice and Sing
• Harlem
  • Harlem Renaissance
• Jim Crow
  • lynching
• Tragic Mulatto
• passing for white
  • One Drop Rule
  • Nella Larsen: Passing (1929)
• coloured
• NAACP
• ragtime
• Kindle
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – also deals with feelings of racial betrayal, but still throws his lot in with Whites.

556

Remarks:

This song has been brought up twice before on this blog: as a song that No Doubt covered in 2003 and as the sort of music the record companies wanted Sade to sing – and would have sung if all she wanted was fame and fortune, if she did not believe in herself.

It came out in 1984. It went to #31 on the US pop chart and #46 in their native UK. But, like many songs that appear here, it did go to #1 on the US dance chart.

See also:

• songs: the 1980s
• No Doubt: It’s My Life
• Sade
  • WWSD – What Would Sade Do?
  • what she sang instead:
    • Sade: Smooth Operator
    • Sade: Your Love is King

Lyrics: 

[Verse 1]
Funny how I find myself in love with you
If I could buy my reasoning, I’d pay to lose
One half won’t do

[Pre-Chorus]
I’ve asked myself, how much do you
Commit yourself?

[Chorus]
It’s my life, don’t you forget
It’s my life, it never ends (It never ends)

[Verse 2]
Funny how I blind myself, I never knew
If I was sometimes played upon
Afraid to lose

[Pre-Chorus]
I’d tell myself, what good you do
Convince myself

[Chorus]
It’s my life, don’t you forget
It’s my life, it never ends (It never ends)
You might also like
[Instrumental]

[Pre-Chorus]
I’ve asked myself, how much do you
Commit yourself?

[Chorus]
It’s my life, don’t you forget
Caught in the crowd, it never ends
It’s my life, don’t you forget
Caught in the crowd, it never ends
It’s my life, don’t you forget
Caught in the crowd, it never ends

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Since the pandemic this blog has taken a nose dive! I want to get back into the habit of writing here regularly: at least 100,000 words a year. That comes to at least 4 posts a week on average. Back to my pre-pandemic levels, in other words. It will be choppy at first, especially with the holidays and all, but once I get back into the habit, it should be fine.

It takes three weeks to establish a habit. I have blocked out some time in my daily schedule where no one is likely to bother me or need me except in emergencies. Posts will go up, when there is one, at 12:00 GMT (7:00 am EST), Monday through Friday. Music posts on Sundays at 12:00 GMT.

This has not become a music blog!!! Despite appearances. Music posts are easy to do and so they have become a sort of heartbeat post – a sign of life. If they suddenly stop without explanation, then it means I am dead, in jail, or in dire health. My little candle has been flickering but it still burns!

I still have to write about:

• the remaining 14 chapters of The 1619 Project
• 1619 (the year itself)
• the remaining 35 centuries of Egyptian history (from the -1400s to the present).
• media diet reviews:
  • 1968 media diet
  • White Evangelical Protestant media diet
• genocide in Gaza
• racism on Love Island
• books I read in: 2023, 2024, 2025
• Promised Posts

among other things.

Suggestions: If there is something you want me to write about, please tell me in the comments below!

– Abagond, 2025. 

Remarks:

In the film “Purple Rain” (1984), Prince sings the song for Apollonia (shown above), but in real life he sang it for Vanity. She passed away in Februray 2016, Prince just two months later, both age 57. It is hard to believe they have been gone so long.

Requiescant in pace. 

See also:

• songs: the 1980s
• Prince
  • In memoriam: Prince
• Vanity 6: 3 x 2 = 6

Lyrics: 

[Verse 1]
Baby, baby, baby
What’s it gonna be?
Baby, baby, baby
Is it him, or is it me?
Don’t make me waste my time
Don’t make me lose my mind, baby

[Verse 2]
Baby, baby, baby
Can’t you stay with me tonight?
Oh, baby, baby, baby
Don’t my kisses please you right?
You were so hard to find
The beautiful ones, they hurt you every time

[Bridge]
Paint a perfect picture
Bring to life
The vision in one’s mind
The beautiful ones
Always smash the picture
Always, every time

[Verse 3]
If I told you, baby
That I was in love with you
Oh, baby, baby, baby
If we got married
Would that be cool?
You make me so confused
The beautiful ones, you always seem to lose
Baby, baby, baby, baby

[Outro]
What’s it gonna be, baby?
Do you want him?
Or do you want me?
‘Cause I want you
Say I want you
Tell me, baby
Do you want me?
I gotta know
I gotta know
Do you want me?
Can I tell you a story?
Sometimes you lose
Let me tell you
Sometimes
Sometimes
Sometimes you win
Yes, you do
I say sometimes
Sometimes
I get so confused
Yes, I do
But I say right now
Right now
I know what I want
I want you
Baby, baby, baby
Listen to me
I may not know where I’m going, baby, woo!
Look here
I said, I may not know what I need
One thing
One thing’s for certain, baby
I know what I want, yeah
And it’s to please you, baby
Please you, baby
I’m begging down on my knees
I want you
Yeah
I want you
Baby, baby, baby, baby
I want you, woo!
Yes, I do

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Remarks:

I saw his son singing this song the other day at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York. This song sounds so timeless I am surprised that it only goes back to 1995! And that it only placed fourth in the Samremo Festival in Italy! But it was a huge hit in France, Belgium and Switzerland and later, in duet form with Sarah Brightman, worldwide, selling 12 million copies, a million more than “Kung Fu Fighting” (1974) – despite never seeming to chart in North America outside of Quebec.

See also:

• songs: the 1990s
• also Sanremo:
  • Alice: Per Elisa – #1 in 1981
• surprisingly new songs:
  • Edwin Hawkins Singers: Oh Happy Day
  • André Rieu & Mirusia: Ave Maria (a la Franz Schubert)
  • Carl Orff: O Fortuna (Carmina Burana)

Lyrics: (English translation in the video above)

[Strofa 1]
Quando sono solo
Sogno all’orizzonte
E mancan le parole
Sì, lo so che non c’è luce
In una stanza quando manca il sole
Se non ci sei tu con me, con me
Su le finestre
Mostra a tutti il mio cuore
Che hai acceso
Chiudi dentro me
La luce che
Hai incontrato per strada

[Ritornello]
Con te partirò
Paesi che non ho mai
Veduto e vissuto con te
Adesso, sì, li vivrò
Con te partirò
Su navi per mari
Che io lo so
No, no, non esistono più
Con te io li vivrò

[Strofa 2]
Quando sei lontana
Sogno all’orizzonte
E mancan le parole
E io sì lo so
Che sei con me, con me
Tu mia luna tu sei qui con me
Mio sole tu sei qui con me
Con me, con me, con me

[Ritornello]
Con te partirò
Paesi che non ho mai
Veduto e vissuto con te
Adesso, sì, li vivrò
Con te partirò
Su navi per mari
Che io lo so
No, no, non esistono più
Con te io li rivivrò
Con te partirò
Su navi per mari
Che io lo so
No, no, non esistono più
Con te io li rivivrò
Con te partirò
[Outro]
Io con te

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Remarks:

This became a huge hit in Italy in 1967, going to #1 and selling 3.7 million copies. It was so big Roberts starred in a film of the same name. The song did not chart outside of Italy. Roberts himself is from the US. He got his start in music while serving overseas in the US Navy. He had some success in France, even bigger success in Italy. In time his music circled back to the US by way of spaghetti Westerns: he sang the theme song for “Django” (1966), which you can also hear at the beginning of “Django Unchained” (2012).

See also:

• songs: the 1960s
  • Wilson Pickett: 634-5789
• more expat music:
  • The Flirtations: Nothing but a Heartache
  • Ritchie Family: American Generation
• songs in Italian
  • Mina: Il cielo in una stanza – went to #1 in 1960
  • Mina: Estate
  • Alice: Per Elisa – went to #1 in 1981
  • Olly, Juli: Questa domenica – went to #1 in 2025
• Django Unchained

Lyrics:

Stasera mi butto
Stasera mi butto
Mi butto con te
E faccio di tutto e faccio di tutto per stare con te
Quante volte io credevo che, e invece no, e invece no
Tu guardavi tutti meno me
E io credevo invece che
Ho deciso che mi buttero’ e qualche cosa combinero’
Questa volta non ci sono se
Fermi tutti adesso tocca a me
Stasera mi butto
Stasera mi butto
Mi butto con te
E faccio di tutto e faccio di tutto per stare con te
Se per caso tu non credi che e,invece si’,e invece si’
Dal momento che mi vedi qui, mi sembra chiaro,e invece si
Ho deciso che mi buttero’
Ma devi fare qualcosa anche tu
Questa volta non ci sono se, io non ballo adesso tocca a te
Stasera mi butto
Stasera mi butto
Mi butto con te
E faccio di tutto e faccio di tutto per stare con te
Stasera mi butto
Stasera mi butto
Mi butto con te
E faccio di tutto e faccio di tutto per stare con te
Adesso tocca a te
Adesso tocca a te
Adesso tocca a te!!!

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Remarks:

An English-language song that was a huge hit in western Europe but is little known in the English-speaking world itself. It came out in 1985 and reached the top five in nearly every western European country (#2 in Italy, #1 in the Netherlands, #1 in their native West Germany, etc), but in the UK it only went to #87! Beyond western Europe it only charted in South Africa (#2).

A sign that the song was not written or even thought up by a native speaker of English: Mary Magdalene is called Maria Magdalena, her German name, which had the right number of syllables for the song: seven instead of five. (The saint lost one syllable in English after the Norman Invasion of 1066, another after the Great Vowel Shift that started in the 1400s).

The first ten seconds reminds me of “Twilight Zone” (1992) by 2 Unlimited from the Netherlands, particularly seconds 33 to 47 in that song.

See also:

• songs: the 1980s
• 2 Unlimited: Twilight Zone
• Silver Convention: Fly Robin Fly
• St Mary Magdalene
  • Yvonne Elliman: I Don’t Know How To Love Him – sung in the person of Mary Magdalene
• ESL winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Lyrics:

[Verse 1: Sandra]
You take my love
You want my soul
I would be crazy to share your life
Why can’t you see what I am?
Sharpen the senses and turn the knife
Hurt me and you’ll understand

[Chorus: Sandra & Hubert Kemmler]
I’ll never be Maria Magdalena (You’re the creature of the night)
Maria Magdalena (You’re a victim of the fight)
(You need love) Promise me delight
(You need love)
I’ll never be Maria Magdalena (You’re the creature of the night)
Maria Magdalena (You’re a victim of the fight)
(You need love) Promise me delight
(You need love)

[Verse 2: Sandra]
Why must I lie, find alibis?
When will you wake up and realize
I can’t surrender to you?
Play for affection and win the prize
I know those party games too

[Chorus: Sandra & Hubert Kemmler]
I’ll never be Maria Magdalena (You’re the creature of the night)
Maria Magdalena (You’re a victim of the fight)
(You need love) Promise me delight
(You need love)
I’ll never be Maria Magdalena (You’re the creature of the night)
Maria Magdalena (You’re a victim of the fight)
(You need love) Promise me delight
(You need love)

[Bridge: Hubert Kemmler]
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

[Chorus: Sandra & Hubert Kemmler]
I’ll never be Maria Magdalena (You’re the creature of the night)
Maria Magdalena (You’re a victim of the fight)
(You need love) Promise me delight
(You need love)
I’ll never be Maria Magdalena (You’re the creature of the night)
Maria Magdalena (You’re a victim of the fight)
(You need love) Promise me delight

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Remarks:

In 1981 this went to #1 in Italy and won at the Festival of Sanremo. The reference to the Beethoven song of the same name is deliberate – you can hear the same tune in pop-rock form at the beginning. But, unlike Beethoven, Alice is jealous of Elisa! For stealing her man – and she is not even “bella”.

See also:

• songs: the 1980s
• songs in Italian
• more Latin girl jealousy:
  • Karol G & Shakira: TQG

Lyrics:

[Intro]
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh
Uh-uh-uh-uh
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh
Uh-uh-uh-uh
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh

[Strofa 1]
Per Elisa
Vuoi vedere che perderai anche me?
Per Elisa non sai più distinguere che giorno è
E poi non è nemmeno bella

[Strofa 2]
Per Elisa
Paghi sempre tu e non ti lamenti
Per lei ti metti in coda per le spese
E il guaio è che non te ne accorgi

[Strofa 3]
Con Elisa
Guardi le vetrine e non ti stanchi
Lei ti lascia e ti riprende come e quando vuole
Lei riesce solo a farti male

[Ritornello]
Vivere, vivere, vivere non è più vivere
Lei ti ha plagiato, ti ha preso anche la dignità
Fingere, fingere, fingere, non sai più fingere
Senza di lei, senza di lei ti manca l’aria

[Post-Ritornello]
Uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh
Uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh

[Strofa 4]
Senza Elisa
Non esci neanche a prendere il giornale
Con me riesci solo a dire due parole
Ma noi un tempo ci amavamo

[Strofa 3]
Con Elisa
Guardi le vetrine e non ti stanchi
Lei ti lascia e ti riprende come e quando vuole lei
Riesce solo a farti male (Riesce solo a farti male)

[Ritornello]
Vivere, vivere, vivere non è più vivere
Lei ti ha plagiato, ti ha preso anche la dignità
Fingere, fingere, fingere, non sai più fingere
Senza di lei, senza di lei ti manca l’aria
[Post-Ritornello]
Uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh
Uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh

[Outro]
Vivere
Non è più vivere
Uh, per Elisa
Oh, con Elisa

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Remarks:

For good or ill, this is the #1 song in Italy right now, as of November 2nd 2025, according to both Billboard and Spotify. It came out at the end of August and has already gone gold but has not charted outside of Italy.

See also:

• songs: the 2020s
• songs in Italian:
  • Mina: Il cielo in una stanza
  • Mina: Estate

Lyrics:

[Strofa 1]
Sono di poche parole quando si tratta di te
Ma a stare fermo qua a guardarti si è bruciato il caffè
Che te ne frega se piove? Ti puoi fermare da me
A stare zitti ad ascoltare il cielo piangere

[Pre-Ritornello 1]
Dimmi che non sono solo dei pensieri strani
Dimmi che di tanto in tanto li fai pure tu
Io non mi aspettavo mica che ti innamoravi
Ora dimmi che rimani pure se non piove più

[Ritornello]
No, io no
Che mi passa per la testa non lo so
E no, io no
Finché non ti addormenti tu non dormirò
Perché l’amore ti capita anche quando non lo vuoi
Ed è da questa domenica che è capitato a noi
No, io no

[Strofa 2]
Ci siamo detti già tutto (Tutto)
Ci siamo fatti paura (Paura)
Ma cеrte cose, giuro (Giuro)
Non le ho mai dеtte a nessuno
Lo senti questo rumore?
Che bel casino (Che bel casino)
Due calici di vino
Ti ascolterei per ore
Mi dai quasi fastidio (Vieni qua)

[Pre-Ritornello 2]
Oh, dimmi che non sono solo dei pensieri assurdi
Dimmi che di tanto in tanto mi ami pure tu (Pure tu, pure tu)
Tu che mi hai catapultato in mezzo a mille dubbi
Tu che sei rimasta qua ora che non piove più

[Ritornello]
No, io no
Che mi passa per la testa non lo so
E no, io no
Finché non ti addormenti tu non dormirò
Perché l’amore ti capita anche quando non lo vuoi
Ed è da questa domenica che è capitato a noi
No, io no
Oh no, io no

[Outro]
Non me l’aspettavo mica che poi mi innamoravo
E ora che fuori c’è il sole non me ne vado più

Source: Genius Lyrics.