Killer (Not French Naked Ladies)
This song “Killer” (杀手) by Lin Junjie (林俊杰) is all right, and video is kind of interesting and weird, but there’s a part of the chorus that totally seems like a ripoff of that “there’s a place in France where the naked ladies dance…” song I heard in second grade. Anyone feel me on this one?
P.S. YouTube has been really slow lately…
That tune is as old as the hills. What, you never watched Popeye or Looney Tunes? It was the standard music for anything Arabian or Persian, and often had the effect of charming snakes or turning people into them. It’s like the middle Eastern version of the Chinese tune that shows up in a cartoon whenever an Asian enters the scene
Your link color in comments is the same color as regular text, at least for me. There is an interesting link hiding in my comment above (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Riff).
I should have known better than to link to w-kip-dia. Here is a better link, plus I found the real name of your Naked Ladies tune.
Asian Riff: http://chinoiserie.atspace.com/index.html
The Hootchy Kootchy Dance, a.k.a., The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070223.html
You’re right, and the wiki entry on the song is surprisingly detailed.
That’s not French but North African (Kradoutja aka the street of cairo).
http://www.shira.net/streets-of-cairo.mid
Matt, Wikipedia gives the lyrics used by the french legion with this north African melody. That’s quite funny : “Travadja La Moukère Travadja Bono Trempe ton cul dans la soupière Si c’est chaud c’est que ça brûle Si ça brûle c’et que c’est chaud !”. Should I put the translation here ?
I didn’t watch too many Chinese video clips but in those that I saw they always showed piano. It looks like classical musical education in China is much more popular then in North America.
Ripping off western melodies in Chinese songs is nothing new. abt 2 yrs ago there was a popular song sung by a woman that rips off the Christmas carol “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” in the chorus. I can’t remember the words but I’m sure everyone who’s lived in China has heard that one – they still play it a lot. Abt 7-8 yrs ago there was also a popular song that ripped off the famous guitar riffs from G’n’R’s “Sweet Child of Mine”