VH1-UK just came up with this highly entertaining poll: "What is your favourite lyric ?". The results are in and U2 came on top with "ONE" and the line "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers". I could not happier because.... well let's see: it's only my favorite band, my favorite song, my favorite humanitarian cause and one of my favorite personal memory:
Here is the story:
last year in Chicago's Vertigo concert, U2 shut down all the lights in the stadium, ask all 69,000 of us to turn on the lights of our cellphones, and as Bono played the 1st notes of ONE, all the flags of the world were coming up on the screen behind him with names of people who signed the "ONE" petition. Then, the malagasy flag came up as Bono was singing along with the crowd: "we get to carry each other" and if you don't think I had goosebumps all over me th entire time, then you don't know me at all. I mean: ONE, Madagascar, on my birthday, in Michael Jordan's stadium, sometimes the stars are just aligned perfectly.
The truth is, as far as "chair de poule" moment is concerned, there was another moment. It was in a smaller venue: Le Mirail, Toulouse; packed with 300 people and it was Mahaleo singing: "anaraka anao, tohy ny aloka, ka tsy y fandaho, ratsy andro tena maloka, fa raha mbola misy ...." in unisson with the crowd. Anyone who's been to their concert know the feeling and anothe reason why I am very tempted to go NYC in October. So here is my own top 10 lines from songs of all time:
1) U2, ONE: " one life, we get to carry each other"
2) Mahaleo, Fahafahana: "fahafahana no irina ho any taniko"
3) Brassens, chanson pour l'auvergnat: " toi qui m'a donne du feu quand , les croquantes et les croquants, m'avaient ferme la porte au nez"
4) Mahaleo, aza misara mianakavy: " izay ry zanakolombelona, iaraka famelona "
5) Peter Gabriel, Don't give up: " I was taught to fight, taught to win, I never thought I could fail
6) J-J Goldman, Veiller tard:" Cette inquiétude sourde qui coule en nos veines,
Qui nous saisit même après les plus grandes joies. Ces visages oubliés qui reviennent à la charge Ces étreintes qu'en rêve on peut vivre cent fois"
7) Marley, Redemption song: " How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look."
8) FC liverpool fans, you will never walk alone: " walk on trough the rain, walk on through the pain,.. with no fear in you heart"
9) Ben Harper, burn one down: " herb's a gift from the earth, and what is from the earth is of the greatest worth.." (kidding..)
10) ANC Anthem: Nkosi sikelel' Afrika.
By the way, if you have read this far, consider youself tagged to write your own list :). I know, Mos, I know :)....
Here is the rest of the offcial list from VH1.
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hey there,
ReplyDeleteall right ! 3 of your choices, I wished I thought of them before you :), white stripes, Lennon and PF. The others I am not quite familiar but I am definitely intrigued. If there is one place where you don't have to apologize for "ecorcher la langue", it's here :). My Malagasy is so pathetic that I need therapy to get over it, my French is going a down grade year since "l'annee bac" so now I am back to grade 6 level(6eme ?) and english is my 3rd language so I cannot excpect much :). Sorry about the list gimmick, I just love making lists :)
Bob - "you can fool some people sometime, but you can't fool all the people all the time"
ReplyDeletemore Bob - "emancipate yourself from mental slavery / none but ourselves can free our minds"
indeevar - "crying crying we came into the world / but laughing laughing leave it we will" [my bad translation from hindi]
Mos, more Bob: " well, I remember when we use to sit, in that government yard in Trenchtown.." :)
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe I could not squeeze Mc Solar in there :)