Al TurHao 09.08.2006 05:43 |
Does anybody know who reads the passage of "Siddharta" in the BBC version of We Will Rock You? Thank You |
Kastagir 09.08.2006 08:39 |
According to link it was Herman Hess. "Some songs were re-recorded for BBC Radio. We Will Rock You was one of them. In this version is little interlude with reading from Siddhartha by Herman Hess. When Queen asssembled in the control room for a playback, they discovered remnants of a Radio 4 programme on their tape" Hope this helps..... |
Lester Burnham 09.08.2006 09:16 |
Herman Hesse died in 1962, so I don't think it was him. Besides, it's a woman's voice there, so it was probably an anonymous narrator. What that caption actually meant is that "Siddhartha" was written by Herman Hesse, not narrated by him. |
Al TurHao 09.08.2006 10:06 |
Could it be Herman Hesse himself? Could it be on those old radio shows Kastagir was talking about? :) Lester, I don't think there's a woman's voice in there. As the narration continues, the pitch is changed from low to high, which produces that particular voice change, but I think it is always the same narrator. |
Lester Burnham 09.08.2006 10:25 |
There's a very good chance it could be Hesse himself, but it really does sound to me like the narrator's voice is a woman, or at least an effete-sounding man. The pitch does change, yes, and the narrator's voice is still the same, but I have doubts that it's Hesse. That's just me, though. |
Serry... 09.08.2006 10:28 |
According to Record Collector (June 2001) - that was a woman: "An unusual aspect of Session 6 is the inclusion of a narrative passage which precedes "We Will Rock You". Immediately after an explosion, and just prior to the opening chords, a female voice cuts in briefly with an extract of a reading from Siddartha, by Herman Hesse. How did this come about? At that time, only master tapes survived from BBC sessions, while the actual tapes used to compose them were recorded over later. When Queen assembled in the control room for a playback, they discovered remnants of a Radio 4 programme on their tape. The band incorporated a segment of this unusual material into their own work. The broadcast version began in "News Of The World" fashion, then breaks for the Siddartha interlude." |
YourValentine 09.08.2006 10:33 |
The reader is a woman and English, so... Actually, I am not sure it's from Siddharta. It's possible that the text is about Siddharta but nobody could ever show me the English translation of the book matching the text the woman reads. If someone could help, it would be nice. Siddharta is one of my all-time favourite novels and I do not recognize this part as part of the novel. |
Al TurHao 09.08.2006 12:52 |
Thank you all for the explanations. Serry, you rule. ;) Yourvalentine: perhaps it was some sort of critical analysis / debate over the book itself, instead of its reading. I dunno. Cheers ALL! |
thomasquinn 32989 09.08.2006 15:15 |
Lester Burnham wrote: There's a very good chance it could be Hesse himself, but it really does sound to me like the narrator's voice is a woman, or at least an effete-sounding man. The pitch does change, yes, and the narrator's voice is still the same, but I have doubts that it's Hesse. That's just me, though.It doesn't sound like Hesse. Besides, Hesse had one of the worst cases of a German accent I know of. |
thomasquinn 32989 09.08.2006 15:16 |
YourValentine wrote: The reader is a woman and English, so... Actually, I am not sure it's from Siddharta. It's possible that the text is about Siddharta but nobody could ever show me the English translation of the book matching the text the woman reads. If someone could help, it would be nice. Siddharta is one of my all-time favourite novels and I do not recognize this part as part of the novel.It is a portion from the book Siddharta. I can't pinpoint it, but I have read the passage (in the original German) which could easily have been translated into the English featured in the BBC session. |
YourValentine 09.08.2006 15:23 |
Well, just tell me at which point of the novel you find this text and I sure find it myself. A rough description would do. |
Lester Burnham 09.08.2006 15:30 |
<b><font color = "crimson"> ThomasQuinn wrote:Yeah I know, I was the one who said it wasn't Hesse. I just said "There's a very good chance it could be Hesse himself" to be diplomatic.Lester Burnham wrote: There's a very good chance it could be Hesse himself, but it really does sound to me like the narrator's voice is a woman, or at least an effete-sounding man. The pitch does change, yes, and the narrator's voice is still the same, but I have doubts that it's Hesse. That's just me, though.It doesn't sound like Hesse. Besides, Hesse had one of the worst cases of a German accent I know of. |
thomasquinn 32989 09.08.2006 15:33 |
YourValentine wrote: Well, just tell me at which point of the novel you find this text and I sure find it myself. A rough description would do.I'm afraid I don't recollect EXACTLY where; it's been two years since I read it, and I only recall being very pleased at finding the passage. I believe it was somewhere halfway to two thirds into the book. |
YourValentine 09.08.2006 16:18 |
Very helpful. Only "somewhere in the book" would have been more specific. Still no proof that the text is from the novel. |
Bohardy 09.08.2006 19:29 |
I love how an English woman's voice can be so easily confused with a German man's. Keira Knightley and Michael Shumacher often get mistaken for one another, so I've heard. Anyway. I remember once going through Siddartha here - link - and searching for Brahmanism/Brahminism and Buddha, trying to find the passage in WWRY, but failing spectacularly. |
kdj2hot 09.08.2006 22:41 |
Lester Burnham wrote: There's a very good chance it could be Hesse himself, but it really does sound to me like the narrator's voice is a woman, or at least an effete-sounding man. The pitch does change, yes, and the narrator's voice is still the same, but I have doubts that it's Hesse. That's just me, though.You're so right and accurate most of the time that we have to razz you when you're wrong. I hope you don't be a baby about it. I don't see how that can sound like a woman to anyone, in fact it sounds a lil like Roger Taylor to me, does he sound like a woman to you, Lester? I guess so. If a source says its Hesse, thats good enough for me lol. |
Lester Burnham 09.08.2006 22:47 |
Silly fool, it's a woman. |
kdj2hot 09.08.2006 22:49 |
lol |
Lester Burnham 09.08.2006 22:50 |
Are you drunk? |
kdj2hot 09.08.2006 22:54 |
I just listened to it and it does sound a like a woman towards the end more so than the beginning but thats because theres a double track going thats sped up or something. If it is a woman I imagine she was very large and older. Not a hot young bird like Kiera Knightly |
andyhwood485 10.08.2006 03:09 |
I bought the bootleg LP which contains this version of WWRY back in the 1980's (sold it since but know have it on CD), i recall that it also had a different version of See What A Fool I've Been. The lady who does the narration at the begining of WWRY is the former Radio 1 DJ, Annie Nightingale. |
YourValentine 10.08.2006 03:49 |
Thanks for the link, Bohardy. I searched all chapters for "Buddha did not deny" and "Buddha didn't deny" and there are no results. If the online version is complete and if there are no other English translations with totally different words (but there are not many alternatives for "deny existence") it's safe to say that the spoken words are not from the novel Siddharta. |
7Innuendo7 10.08.2006 08:07 |
after skimming the paperback quite a few times last night, I also searched the web engine on the link, but NOTHING for 'mocked,' 'rituals,' 'deluded,' or 'spirit,' so I'm guessing the text is from an introduction to a particular edition of Siddartha. 'Universe' came up with only one hit but the passage was different. great question, this one's fun :) |
kdj2hot 10.08.2006 23:18 |
andyhwood485 wrote: I bought the bootleg LP which contains this version of WWRY back in the 1980's (sold it since but know have it on CD), i recall that it also had a different version of See What A Fool I've Been. The lady who does the narration at the begining of WWRY is the former Radio 1 DJ, Annie Nightingale.So Lester owns again. Man, I bow to him. But not in a sacraligious way. |
Lester Burnham 11.08.2006 00:14 |
kdj2hot wrote:And why not???andyhwood485 wrote: I bought the bootleg LP which contains this version of WWRY back in the 1980's (sold it since but know have it on CD), i recall that it also had a different version of See What A Fool I've Been. The lady who does the narration at the begining of WWRY is the former Radio 1 DJ, Annie Nightingale.So Lester owns again. Man, I bow to him. But not in a sacraligious way. |