KHAARTOUM SINGS a GEORGE WASSOUF SONG: 'ENTA GHERHOM' with ENGLISH SUBTITLES...
Really this was an AMAZING LEARNING EXPERIENCE preparing the TRACKS and TRYING to CREATE a 'MIDDLE ROAD' VOCAL between a total PASTICHE of GEORGE WASSOUF and making my OWN INTERPRETATION so it wasn't just a COPY.
Hey! Check out MY BACKING VOCALS on 'ere!!! I am 'TWELVE PEOPLE' from BASSES, TENORS and SOPRANOS singing out as a MULTI-TRACK 'CHOIR'[!] on: "Enta ajmal qalb shooftoo fi al zaman da enta enta" ["You are the most beautiful heart I have seen in these times, you, you"]...etc.TECHNOLOGY and the STUDIO really AMAZED ME here that ONE PERSON can SOUND 'LIKE' a WHOLE CHOIR of MEN and WOMEN [well...IF the AUDIENCE are NOT LISTENING 'carefully!]...
Wow it was a HARD SONG to SING...His SMOKER'S THROAT and DRAWLING DICTION using EGYPTIAN ARABIC for COMMERCE and MEDIA REASONS [even though he is SYRIAN][I used SYRIAN ARABIC instead! The 'PROPER' version!]...Oh and GEORGES forte which is PATHOS that PEOPLE HEAR and then FEEL IN THEIR HEARTS...Whoar! What a SONG...Indeed, during one trial session, I wasn't getting the style and I really felt more and more 'LOST' in the RECORDING and I had forgotten about the ADDED 'CHOIR'...I heard 'THEM' [me!] SINGING BRIGHTLY in the BACKGROUND and was felt, "OH LEAD ME ON! YOUR SINGING IS SO BRIGHT!"...Not remembering is was MYSELF PROPPING UP the BACK END of the ORCHESTRA! Ha! Wild! It was a DIFFICULT PROJECT but REALLY, ONE LEARNS a LOT about STUDIO and VOCALS by TRYING DIFFERENT STYLES.
GEORGE WASSOUF [b. 1961] is a SYRIAN BORN CHRISTIAN SINGER. He was a CHILD SINGER and BECAME FAMOUS WINNING a TALENT SHOW on LEBANESE TV in 1980 when he was 19. WASSOUF is a real CULT FIGURE and says he is INSPIRED in his STYLE by the Late TURKISH ARABESK SINGER: MÜSLÜM GÜRSES. It is INTERESTING that SAD TURKISH BALLADS are TRANS-MUTATED into ARABIC POPULAR SONG by GEORGE.
In terms of LYRICS, like TURKISH ARABESK, the THEMES of 'YOU'RE DIFFERENT MY LOVE' are about FATEFULNESS...I feeling of being a VICTIM of FATE and HAVING LITTLE PERSONAL POWER in terms of FINANCES and FAMILY CONSTRAINTS . Migrant workers and lower classes tend to 'publicly' [!] like GEORGE, middle classes may like him but NOT 'publicly'. As a lot of ARAB SOCIETY is quite CLASSIST. Working class Arabs feel the PATHOS of the WORDS as being SHIPWRECKED by DESTINY. FAMILY DECISIONS on MARRIAGE and EMPLOYMENT may also IMPRISON many in the ARAB WORLD who are ATTRACTED to WASSOUF'S PAINED EXPRESSION of 'SINGING THEIR PAIN'. INSINCERE MIDDLE EASTERN SOCIETY and INSINCERE UNRELIABLE PEOPLE are the MAIN THRUST of the LYRICS. The FALSE FRIENDS and FALSE LOVERS. Many EGYPTIAN FILMS deal with the ideas of being ABANDONED by a FIANCÉE or FRIEND who MARRIES for MONEY, or FINDS an ASSOCIATE with MORE MONEY and STATUS. The EFFECT here is to RELY and CLOY MORE to THE FAMILY which can be, in a sense, ANOTHER PRISON and SOURCE of INSINCERITY plus OBLIGATION. In 'ENTA GHERHOM' GEORGE has FOUND one reliable and sincere friend who has helped him trust and get well from the heartache of HURT from INSINCERE and UNRELIABLE PEOPLE in his ENVIRONMENT.
MUSICALLY the LYRICS are RATHER CLEVER. The SONG is quite HARD to SING because unlike VOWEL-HEAVY TURKISH, ARABIC is CONSONANT HEAVY. 'ENTA GHERHOM' is a VOWEL PLAY of PHRASES with HARD CLOSED and FRICTIVE CONSONANTS with ONLY ONE OPEN VOWEL which is SHOWCASED in GREAT CONTRAST...The word for 'THEM'...The particle 'HOM' ... So the SINGER has this HARD GRATING SET of LINES and this sudden BURST of the ONE VOWEL on 'HUM' which also is, in the story, an ACCUSATIVE of 'You are different from THEM'. Really CLEVER SYLLABIC WRITING in the LYRICS. The TONALITY is ARABIC SCALE, and QUITE a HARSH STRAIN is USED in the SONG giving a METALLIC sort of QUARTER TONE PULL on the PITCHING that quasi-replicates CRYING and LAMENTING and SIGHING from SPOKEN LANGUAGE for DRAMATIC VOCAL THEATRE.
The INSTRUMENTATION has a similar DELIBERATE URBAN HARSHNESS that we find in COOLIO'S 'GANGSTA'S PARADISE' RAP with its METALLIC KEYBOARD VIOLINS that REPRESENT POOR KIDS who WANTED 'REAL VIOLINS' but LIVE in a FAKE UNDERCLASS WORLD of IMITATION GLAMOUR and SCRAPING CHEAP VIOLIN SOUND that is the TUNELESS RASPING VOICES of STREET DOGS in their GHETTO. Similarly, the WASSOUF ORCHESTRA is CREATED as URBAN, is SHAMELESSLY KEYBOARD STRINGS and AWKWARD and THIN TEXTURE DRUMMING and HAPHAZARD 'BASS' to ADD SOME 'WARMTH' to the TRACK but is LAYERED not HARMONY. As COOLIO, it is the SOUND of THE GHETTO, the MIGRANT WORKER, the TRAPPED MIDDLE CLASS in DEAD END GOVERNMENT JOBS and ARRANGED MARRIAGES they PLAY 'HAPPY FAMILIES' publicly in. But in their hearts and in themselves is a SORROW and DREAMS of a LOVE and a REAL LIFE and a REAL VOCATION and FREEDOM that MAY COME ONE DAY in the FORM of a GOOD FRIEND or a SECRET LOVE?
