Gibberish

Oh God, I just picked myself off the floor from laughing at the funniest pseudo-English singing since “Ken Lee”. The hilarious part of all these is that unlike “Ken Lee”, heard here are professional musicians doing renditions of English songs. In this case, it’s a Japanese rock band Triceratops singing Stevie Wonder’s popular tunes.

Wait, I have to explain. I don’t usually waste my time in youtube rummaging for videos of Japanese struggling to speak English, and today was not an exception either. Initially, I was looking for Stevie Wonder’s concert videos, but youtube had more videos of people covering his songs than those of himself singing them.

The fruitless search led me to Triceratops’ rendition of “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”:

So that was still tame in comparison to “Ken Lee”. Besides the “unorthodox” introduction where the vocalist exclaimed that he’s singing something by Stevie Wonder from the album “Tokingu Book”, and besides the funny “I’ll find myself drowing in my own tears” line, the words matched the lyrics from the original, despite the weird pronunciation. But then they went on ahead and performed “Superstition” and “Overjoyed” live, and, well, you just got to hear them.

Oh and before I post those videos, I’ll copy-paste the lyrics for referential purposes.

Superstition

Very superstitious, writings on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders bout to fall,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past.

When you believe in things that you dont understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition aint the way

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin strong,
You dont wanna save me, sad is my song.

When you believe in things that you dont understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition aint the way, yeh, yeh.

Very superstitious, nothin more to say,
Very superstitious, the devils on his way,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin glass,
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past

When you believe in things that you dont understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition aint the way, no, no, no

Notable mistakes: “Very superstition”, “When you believe in things that you don’t wanna stand”, “Thirteen may old baby”, “Seven years of Hoe Baaay…”

It becomes even worse with Overjoyed.

Overjoyed

Over time, Ive building my castle of love
Just for two, though you never knew you were my reason
Ive gone much too far for you now to say
That Ive got to throw my castle away

Over dreams, I have picked out a perfect come true
Though you never knew it was of you Ive been dreaming
The sandman has come from too far away
For you to say come back some other day

And though you dont believe that they do
They do come true
For did my dreams
Come true when I looked at you
And maybe too, if you would believe
You too might be
Overjoyed, over loved, over me

Over hearts, I have painfully turned every stone
Just to find, I had found what Ive searched to discover
Ive come much too far for me now to find
The love that Ive sought can never be mine

And though you dont believe that they do
They do come true
For did my dreams
Come true when I looked at you
And maybe too, if you would believe
You too might be
Overjoyed, over loved, over me

And though the odds say improbable
What do they know
For in romance
All true love needs is a chance
And maybe with a chance you will find
You too like i
Overjoyed, over loved, over you, over you

Notable mistakes: You don’t want to get me started, do you?! “oBARjoyed, I have built in by jassle of love”, “and though you didn’t live in my streets”, “I’ve come much too far before not to have find I got too strong to stone out of race”, “And maybe too, if you rise to speak!”