Ian Anderson and The Zeitgeist Follies

Earlier this afternoon, DJ Irwin wondered aloud (and on the air) whether Jethro Tull was just a common interest between himself and Wm Berger, or whether the band was in fact a part of the current zeitgeist, and it got me wondering -- why do the Germans get all the best words?

Zeit·geist  n.  The taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period or generation.

What's English got to compare?  For the word itself, I'm drawing a blank past "Ziegfeld" and "gesundheit" - oh wait, that one's German too.  As far as the meaning goes, I suppose we've got "paradigm", but that's so mathematical in tone, and it lacks the all-encompassing fatality of zeitgeist.  Anyway, paradigm's definition is so complicated and self-congratulatory that its usage is generally limited to the kind of people who use words like "ersatz" and "natch" - out loud anyway.

scha·den·freu·de  n : delight in another person's misfortune.

"Schadenfreude".  Motherfuck...  I'm in awe of this word.  What's English for schadenfreude?  What indeed...

But let's not just look!  Jump past the Berk Breathed painting of a sneezing astronaut entitled "Gesundheit", and let's listen!  And talk about Jethro Tull some more...

• Here's Blixa Bargeld sprechen sie deutsch on the Mike Lupica program - Realaudio link.
• Here's Klaus Kinski doing it on the Pseu Braun shew - Realaudio link.
• Here's an mp3 download for you: Blue Velvet's own best fiend Frank Booth, in some defining scenes -- dubbed auf Deutsch.

And I think Kenny G was reading something in German on his show last week. 

Now, back to Jethro Tull -- can they really compete with such current starz of the zeitgeist as Warriors, Harold Lloyd and yachtrock?  A quick search of WFMU DJ's playlists yields 9 different songs played in the last year.  Pretty good, until you realize it falls short of the 10 distinct plays Yes has received in 2005.  Now compare it to an FMU stalwart like The Fall (77 plays) and we find a real answer: Jethro Tull doesn't even add up to a paradigm.  Hell, I still like 'em.

Comments

[jim]

There IS an English equivalent to schadenfreude.
I can't remember what it is, but if anyone has Insulting English by Peter Novobatzky, it's listed.

[Kev]

Two, maybe three days ago, I got an urge to listen to Jethro Tull right out of the blue.

I put on Aqualung for the first time in maybe 17 years.

There was really no reason I could think of for wanting to hear Tull again.

Now there's this post.

Ian Anderson must be working some powerful voodoo on us or something...

[listener_paul]

Ah, but Tull beats Emerson, Lake, and Palmer--9 to 8. Oops,no tie--one listing under ELP. But king of prog rock has to be King Crimson--67! No, wait, I'm shocked, shocked to discover that the real king of prog rock is none other than electric light orchestra--138 when searched under elo and electric light orchestra. My gracious.

[syntax]

I think the English equivalent you're looking for is "epicaricacy".

[L.A.]

And if that were not enough... "paradigm" is a Greek word , too(Paradeigma) (!)

[poesboes]

You have two typical German words cornered here. But really they are both constructed from two separate words. Maybe it's just something to remember and to start using in English?
Why not use Timespirit? Or Hurtpleasure? It's a literal translation of the German examples and does convey the very same meaning. Time for some newspeak!
(Ohh... I'm still looking for a good translation for the beautiful English word 'conundrum' in Dutch, German...)

[nh dave]

I work with a bunch of germans and have come to love some of their words. My recent favorite is: lebkuchenspezialitaten (I am not kidding! even has an umlaut!). It is some kinda of ginger bread like cake that is served during the holidays. Tasty little 22 letter bugger.

I do unfortunately own quite a few yes albums... So I am probably in the huge minority of the fmu listeners that really enjoyed it when scott williams broke into apologies before playing yes (may 9th).

[andrew]

Wolters' woordenboek translates conundrum as (woord)raadsel. It's a het-woord. You could also just say conundrum with a Dutch accent, there's a lot of that in Nederlands.

I suppose malice is reasonably close to schadenfreude, if used appropriately. "He took a malicious pleasure in reading passages from her stupid book aloud when drunk." I really can't think of an exact equivalent.

[Chris J]

I thought the opening of that Jethro Tull song was something by Harmonia, and then Irwin began talking about *harmonic* convergence. Oh, wow.

WITZELSUCHT: a mental condition characteristic of frontal lobe lesions and marked by the making of poor jokes and puns and the telling of pointless stories, at which the patient himself is intensely amused -- Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 28th ed.

[Blair S]

The Germans get all of the best words because they allow their philosophers, e.g. Hegel and Heidegger, to simply make them up if there's no word in the language expressing what they want to say. My favorite "germanophilosophologism" that I can recall is "aufhebung" (English: sublation), the term referring to the moment when the thesis and antithesis are brought together and lifted up into the synthesis while simultaneously retained in "self-preserving sameness". Graphically, this process of becoming is represented as fractal geometry. Both the place where this happens and the thing doing this is geist, incedentally (the world spirit). It astounds me how similar Hegel is to Vedanta despite the fact that I doubt he knew anything of it.

If that doesn't turn your crank, just think about what this word would do for Beavis and Butthead. And a new question: why do so many influential German philosophers' last names begin with H (Hegel, Heidegger, Husserl, etc.).

[dancing donkey]

'Zeitgiest' litteraly translated means 'time-ghost' and the English equivalent is 'spirt of the age', which is also the name of one of my favorite Hawkwind tunes.