MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Geil (Bruce & Bongo)
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3:50
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/geil-bruce-bongo-2382
Description

This is a carefree funny dance song composed by British duo Bruce and Bongo, based in Germany.

Transcript

On Friday the thirteenth of December, Bruce & Bongo discovered Germany's most successful word: GEIL.

The disc-jockey's geil - the disc-jockey's geil
I said the disc-jockey's geil - geil - geil.
Everybody's geil
Everybody's geil
I said everybody's geil - geil - geil.
We're so geil
Music's geil

Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil .
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil .

Forty - love
Forty - fifteen
Forty - thirty -
Dd deuce - dd deuce.
Advantage b be - advantage b be -
Advantage bb Becker - advantage bb Becker -
Advantage bb Becker - advantage bb Becker .
Bb boris is geil - bb boris is geil -
Bb boris is geil - bb boris - bb boris.

Ggggg-geil
Affen sind geil - affen sind geil - affen sind geil -
Affen affen geil – gggg-geil
Affen affen geil – gggg-geil
I said, affen affen geil – gggg-geil
gggg-geil, gggg-geil

Ich bin geil - du bist geil
Wir sind geil - geil - geil.
Everybody's geil
I said everybody's geil
Everybody's geil - geil - geil.
We're so geil - you're so geil.

Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil .
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil .

We're so geil - you're so geil - I'm so geil - geil.
We're so geil - you're so geil - I'm so geil - geil.

I lose control 'cause I'm a creature of the night.

We're so geil - you're so geil - I'm so geil - geil.

Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil .
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil -
Everybody's geil - gggg geil .

Explanations

Note: This song talks a lot about the most famous tennis player of the time, the German man Boris Becker (his picture appears on the video several times), so there's quite a bit of tennis language here. The way score is called in tennis is quite curious, if you want to read more information about it click here.

GEIL= /gaɪl/ Cool / sexy / horny (see the tab SongMeaning for further explanations on this word)

DISC-JOCKEY= The person who plays music in a disco (today usually known simply as DJ)

FORTY – LOVE= In tennis scoring, the number 0 is pronounced "love" (coming from French "l'oeuf" = the egg, referring to the shape of the number).

DEUCE= /dju:s/ (from old French "deux", number 2, pronounced in old French /dɜ:s/) In tennis scoring, when two players both have a score of 40. Two consecutive points would need to be scored to win the game.

ADVANTAGE= Yet another call for tennis scoring.

AFFEN SIND GEIL= (German) monkeys are cool / horny


ICH BIN GEIL= I am cool
DU BIST GEIL= You are cool
WIR SIND GEIL= We are cool

Meaning

All the song revolves around the German word GEIL. This word was quite special because at the moment of its "discovery" by Bruce and Bongo it was changing from a sexual meaning to another one, and that change of meaning was actually speeded by the success of this song.

The word GEIL (pronounced /gail/ in German) appeared in the 15th century with the meaning of "sexually arounsed, horny", but in the 1970s it began to change its meaning to "sexually attractive" (sexy). By the '80s it began to be used as "attractive" in general, so it became a colloquial term meaning something like "cool" in American English. This song, released in 1986, helped to speed that change and make it really popular, so the word quickly lost its offensive character and sexual connotations, but at the time of releasing this song the word still had a double meaning (cool / horny), so it was still offensive for older generations.

The music video is today generally considered to be cheesy and slightly camp, although this was probably done intentionally to give the video a novelty factor matching that of the song.