Another little paean to JoCo (a project that is not a music video)

Bry

Hello, Coultonistas,

I was going to post a song to get you through the first week of Thing a Week withdrawal, but I had a lot of trouble recording it (mostly due to my persistent headaches and jittery voice). This is a week late, therefore, but it's a tribute to the Thing a Week cycle, set to a familiar tune. It can be found at my blog:

http://vaguelyamusing.wordpress.com/2006/10/13/friday-fiascos-4-the-things/

I wonder if I could convince any of you to rerecord this. My abilities with regard to music go about as far as listening to it. (I also used to be decent at music theory, and can still play a mean theoretical violin.)

I have changed the instrumentation considerably, mostly because I only know how to play the piano. If you're as dissatisfied with that as I am, imagine, as Tom Lehrer says, that I'm playing an 88-string guitar.

I shan't go into too much detail about this here -- I established my blog, after all, so I could have a place to blather interminably. I'll probably have something written about it there soon (i.e. Monday), but it probably won't be very interesting.

I owe many thanks, of course, to JoCo Himself, and also to M_pony, Birdguy, aldenc98, and everyone else involved with the chord transcriptions that I plagiarized compunctionlessly.

Comments, questions, etc., can be posted here or in my blog comments or sent to my e-mail address, which is vaguelyamusing at-the-price-of gmail full-stop com.

Orkendark

Good writing, must've been tough keeping the rhyme scheme up with the song titles as each line. Sure the sound was a little thin with just the piano accompaniment, but that's better than 95% of the people out there could do :)

Well done sir.

Kodamakitty

Yay - what a lot of fun! : D

Big snaps to you for a job well done. It seems you got more confident about half way through - in a "look ma! no hands!" joyous sort of way.

I hope your headache has subsided and I actually like the jittery voice.

Kudos!

kerrin

Great work there. I like the idea of taking something that JoCo has done and use it for a basis (that is what I did with JoCoPro after all.)

Not only did you mention all the songs, but in the order they were released! At least it looks like it, I'm not going to check.

I would offer to help with the music, but I think you have done a far better job than I would, and I can't sing either, so I'd be no help. Now if you want a video...

The only part I didn't like was the very last line, it was nothing to do with JoCo, and will date very quickly.

Kerrin

Ps, thanks for considering mentioning me in the song, I continue to feel very honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as Jonathan Coulton.

aldenc98

That was awesome, Bry! Keep up the good work :)

Bry

I am obliged to all of you for your kind words. Thank you all.

I know I'm monopolizing this thread, so I'll save some space and just link to my critical comments on this:
http://vaguelyamusing.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/monday-aftermath-4-the-things/
In addition to everything else, you can listen to an excerpt from my alternate concept for the song there. Do stop by. (I'm so lonely.)

To quickly respond to points raised here:

Kodamakitty - Thanks for the praise of my voice, although I've listened to this too much to hear any of the good things you mention. Re "look ma! no hands!" -- you are quite right and I would be perfectly happy to hear a recording done by someone with hands.

I am sorry to say that I did not actually have persistent headaches last week. (That doesn't quite read right.) In hindsight, the offending line should've read something like this:

"I was going to post a song to get you through the first week of Thing a Week withdrawal, but I had a lot of trouble recording it (mostly due to my persistent headaches, clammy palms, jittery voice, and flop sweats)."

I don't make my jokes clear enough sometimes. (Guess I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.)

Which provides a nice segue into:

Kerrin - Thank you for your compliments but especially for your critique of the ending. The last line was yet another joke that I flubbed in execution -- it's a sideways reference to the original ending of "The Presidents."

...of course, you probably got the joke and you're just telling me most politely that it's not funny. Well, I find I am beginning to be of your opinion.

You make me smile when you tell me that the last line "will date very quickly." Of all the thoughts I had while putting the song together, none of them had anything to do with its effect on posterity. ;) Before I had quite finished recording the voice part, I had already realized it was abysmally awful. I shudder to think how people will think of it in two weeks, much less the distant future.

Yes, "my" lyrics list the Things in order of release. (Lord, it would've been so much easier to fiddle with the order, he writes, thinking of pairing Shop Vac and Baby Got Back, inter alia.) As an unintended bonus of writing the lyrics, I can now list the Things in order from memory, and given any week number, I can tell you what Thing appeared that week in seconds flat.

Not, y'know, to brag or anything.

Thanks again for reading or listening. Y'all are a pleasure and a joy to create for, even when what I create doesn't make any sense.

awryone

Bry,
I got the joke, and laughed out loud.
Good work,man.

Bry

(10-year bump)

Jmonkee

Nice bump! I remember reading this way back when I first joined this forum... I'd say it holds up just fine, though there probably aren't many people who remember Mark Foley these days. You were right though; what a creep.