Requests in German

Though my German does improve every day, it is still difficult to understand people while I am playing and singing (strangely!). Often someone will come up to me and ask me in German if I can play a particular song and I have no idea what they are talking about. I often feel rude when I have to explain that I don’t understand and then try to decode their English to work out what they are asking. (Often it is to play Happy Birthday for someone at midnight, so I have started looking for the all-important word “Geburtstag” – not as helpful if someone is asking for something by Eric Clapton, though.)

The funniest moments with requests often comes from the requester’s misunderstanding of the English lyrics. The other night I was asked to play a song by Bill Medley (?!?) that contained the line “Because I love you darling… woah I love you darling…”. It took me a very long time to work out that what she wanted was “You’ve lost that loving feeling, woah that loving feeling”…

Reminds me of that joke asking Stevie Wonder to play “A Jazz chord!”…