Half a year ago Mad’R gave me the Turkish track Kalk Gidelim by Ferdi Özbeğen digitally, he suggested I could make an edit of it and here’s the result:
I became curious for the meaning of the lyrics that are sung so passionately, and I asked Barış K. to translate them for me, and he also gave me some background information about this artist and song. Kalk Gidelim is an anonymous folk song:
Aman gidelim – oh, let’s go
Kalk gidelim – get up, let’s go
Sigarayı feneri yak gidelim – light (a) cigarette (and a) torch (then) let’s go
Hop Gidelim Kalk Gidelim – jump, let’s go. get up, let’s go
Rakıyıda şaraba kat gidelim – mix the raki in the vine (then) let’s go
Oğlan adın ismail – boy, your name is Ismael (this phrase is cut out in the edit)
Aman ismine oldum mail – oh ‘Mael, I’m struck on your name
Aman gidelim – oh, let’s go
Kalk gidelim – get up, let’s go
Sigarayı feneri yak gidelim – light (a) cigarette (and a) torch (then) let’s go
Hop Gidelim Kalk Gidelim – jump, let’s go. get up, let’s go
Rakıyıda şaraba kat gidelim – mix the raki in the vine (then) let’s go
Oğlan adın Mustafa – boy, your name is Moustapha
Gir gönlüme sür sefa – get in to my heart and enjoy (good time)
Aman gidelim – oh, let’s go
Kalk gidelim – get up, let’s go
Sigarayı feneri yak gidelim – light (a) cigarette (and a) torch (then) let’s go
Hop Gidelim Kalk Gidelim – jump, let’s go. get up, let’s go
Rakıyıda şaraba kat gidelim – mix the raki in the vine (then) let’s go
So I asked if this should be interpreted as a love (making) song, and if it’s not weird sung by a man at that time (1978) in Turkey, but Barış explained me that many folk songs were also written by women, and these songs are so common, they can be sung by both men and women…
…but that in this case, “also yes, Ferdi Özbeğen was gay guy taking advantage of that folk song rule I mentioned above, but he never came out. He was a big superstar”. I got more curious, and I found out after his death in 2013, some famous guy in Turkey revealed the names of a number of superstars who are/were gay… I was reading these Turkish gossip websites, who brought this news, automatically translated and if I didn’t misunderstand, I also read somewhere Ferdi Özbeğen officially adopted his partner (because he couldn’t marry him).
This is a more traditional live version of the same song: