One Night In Bangkok

[Grant]

Hi Everybody,

we're trying to translate the famous One Night In Bangkok to another language.

Can you help us with the definition of the phrases of the lyrics:

Bangkok, Oriental setting

And the city don't know that the city is getting

The creme de la creme of the chess world in a

Show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies -- doesn't seem a minute

Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it

All change -- don't you know that when you

Play at this level there's no ordinary venue

It's Iceland -- or the Philippines -- or Hastings -- or -- or this place!

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free

You'll find a god in every golden cloister

And if you're lucky then the god's a she

I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One town's very like another

When your head's down over your pieces, brother

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity

To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town --

Tea, girls, warm and sweet

Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist

Whose every move's among the purest

I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

Not much between despair and ecstasy

One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble

Can't be too careful with your company

I can feel the devil walking next to me

Siam's gonna be the witness

To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness

This grips me more than would a

Muddy old river or reclining Buddha

And thank God I'm only watching the game -- controlling it --

I don't see you guys rating

The kind of mate I'm contemplating

I'd let you watch, I would invite you

But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage parlours --

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free

You'll find a god in every golden cloister

A little flesh, a little history

I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

Not much between despair and ecstasy

One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble

Can't be too careful with your company

I can feel the devil walking next to me

__________________

For example I understand what the "world is oysters" mean but most of the phrases still unintelligible for me.

I know what is the "cloister" mean but I can't understand what the author mean using this word in this song.

Thanks in advance!

[ukrules]

Most of it is complete nonsense and only present because it rhymes using the couplet 'system'.

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free

You'll find a god in every golden cloister

And if you're lucky then the god's a she

You may notice that lines 1 and 3 above have 11 syllables each and lines 2 and 4 have 10 syllables each, which is often used in this rhyming style.

It's basic crap as far as I'm concerned.

So in answer to your question, the 'author' only used the word cloister because it has two syllables and rhymes with the word cloister, nothing more.

[bonobo]

THe song is actually from the musical "Chess."  It is mostly about the lead character going to Bangkok for a chess tournament and saying he is not there for the bars nor temples, but for the tournament.

Of course, the writer wanted to get rhymes.  This is a musical, after all, and there are certain expectations of them.  but the words do have meanings.

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

You can get anything you want in Bangkok

The bars are temples but the pearls aren't free

People go to flock to the bar, treating them like the end all, but the pearls, from the oster line above, in this case, are bargirls and boys, and you have to pay for them.

You'll find a god in every golden cloister.

Cloister here refers to each bar, each small shrine, playing on the number of shrines and bars.  Once again, transposing religion with the nightlife. Nuns stay in cloisters, bargirls in their own kind of cloister.

And if you're lucky then the god's a she.

Once again, criticizing the men who come and just go to the bars, who "Worship" the bargirls.  And some men may be "worshiping" a ladyboy unbeknownst to them.

The entire song is built around these kinds of observations, and pretty much every line has meaning.

What I find ironic is that the song is played in just about every bar around when it is really a scathing denouncement on the bar scene.

[peter991]

Song Meanings is a website that attempts to give you the answer. Click here for your song's lyrics and reader understanding of what it's all about. Bonobo is right on the money.

Peter

[GuestHouse]

ukrules' line of reason would cast the whole of the world's poetry and lyric writing into the trash can.

Tim Rice made a fortune, entertained huge numbers of people with his lyrics and almost certainly had a great life on the proceeds.

One man's crap is a lot of other people's gold.

[jts-khorat]

But the queens we use would not excite you

sounds very much like wild ladyboy parties in a suite at The Oriental. But maybe I am not deep enough to get the 'real' meaning :-)

That aside, this song that summed up in total what Thailand was all about as I came here a long time ago: exotic, mysterious, and even the most mundane occasions could end in an unforgettable adventure. But alas, I have never stayed at The Oriental.

I remember it still being played multiple times every single evening I went out somewhere, even though I came here in 1997.

Only while reading here I actually found out this song is part of a musical, by the same guys who wrote Jesus Christ Superstar and songs for ABBA. Not small names in any case.

Edited April 17, 2010 by jts-khorat

[ukrules]

ukrules' line of reason would cast the whole of the world's poetry and lyric writing into the trash can.

Where much of it belongs. Of course there's some very good stuff out there amongst the rest of it.

[Ulysses G.]

It is mostly about the lead character going to Bangkok for a chess tournament and saying he is not there for the bars nor temples, but for the tournament.

Another liar. He probably posts on Thai Visa.