Shocking no one, stats show Zappa once again reigns as my most listened to artist on Spotify. My playlist of his instrumentals gets heavy rotation. What was surprising is that my most played song for 2021 turned out to be this little gem...
I'm not sorry. Prisencolinensinainciusol is absolute joy and the video is pure 70's Italian cool. What's even better is the story behind the song itself. As American music was big in Italy at the time, singer Adriano Celentano figured he make a song emulating them.
However, rather than play it completely straight, Celentano decided to have a little fun with the fact that most Italian listeners didn't really understand English enough to actually understand what the Americans were saying in the songs they were hearing on the radio. So, with the exception of the phrase "all right," every word in Prisencolinensinainciusol is utter gibberish. It sounds American, but it's saying absolutely nothing. Sort of. Celentano actually did want the song to highlight our inability to communicate due to language barriers.
Scientists are still debating the origins of why we all speak in different tongues, blaming everything from environmental factors to physiological variations in the throat. Whatever the cause, Scripture, as is its wont, uses the language barrier to point out certain truths. In the tale of the Tower of Babel in Genesis, it is man's hubris that ultimately creates the barriers represented by differences in language. Basically, if we weren't such arrogant a-holes, we'd be able to find a way to communicate with to one another.
Fortunately, Scripture offers a solution by bookending Babel with the story of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit arrives, its message of peace, love, and reconciliation suddenly allows everyone to understand one another again. All we have to do is accept it. All right? All right!
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