This evening - Wednesday, June 24th - we'll be holding a special live streaming listening party. We'll be playing all 21 Challenge 3 tunes. The event begins at 7:30 pm EST, and you can access it by going to http://www.nutsontheroad.net/audience Come on out, support your fellow artists, and then go place your votes if you haven't already. -Ken
Sadly, I can't make it this time... I'm volunteering with Vacation Bible School at church this week. Let me know how it goes!
We've been reading a lot of comments about what everybody thinks about everybody else's songs. I know there are a lot of Song Fu-ers in the JoCo forums. Anybody else care to turn the spotlight on themselves?
"Acceptance" is the seventh song I've written for Masters of Song Fu. I was thinking about what I think about each of them, and how I think they compare with each other. It's an interesting line of thought, because so many of my songs (I think!) are so different from each other. (And yet -- I know that I definitely do have a distinct "sound," if not a distinct "style.") So I spent some time thinking about what I've submitted to Song Fu, and I've come to the realization that I need to do a couple of _different_ categories if I want to rank them...
If I were to rank my songs based on which were my "favorites," the list would look like this . . .
1) All For This Moment 2) It All Makes Sense At The End 3) Extreme Mad-Libs (Song Fu Edition) 4) (Happiness) 5) Blue Moon 6) Acceptance 7) Whispered In Your Ear
But if I were to rank them based on which ones I'm the most _proud_ of, or the ones I think are the best _crafted_, the list would look like this . . .
1) Blue Moon 2) It All Makes Sense At The End 3) All For This Moment 4) Extreme Mad-Libs (Song Fu Edition) 5) (Happiness) 6) Acceptance 7) Whispered In Your Ear
"Blue Moon" isn't my "favorite" of the bunch, but it is the one I worked the hardest on, and it's the one with the most going on "behind the scenes." (You can read about the "science behind the song" by clicking on the "Blue Moon" button on my web page.) It also has one of the strictest rhyme schemes, and took a lot of time to write because it has four distinct sections, with very little that repeats throughout the song. I'm really proud of what I turned out with "Blue Moon," and none of my other Song Fu songs have come close to what I achieved with that one.
"All For This Moment," on the other hand, is just gorgeous. And subtle. And lush and romantical. (And, ironically, written the weekend before the Monday of my divorce hearing.) It wasn't as challenging to write; it doesn't rhyme at all; it's half as long as "Blue Moon" (but _twice_ as long as "Acceptance"!) -- but it's my favorite to listen to.
("Whispered" was just weird. I mean, I like it -- and it does an excellent job of giving voice to Daniel Quinn's Mother Culture. But still -- it's weird...)
"It All Makes Sense At The End" is just wickedly good fun, in my opinion -- and it's also the only song with a title that's also part of the lyric! "Extreme Mad-Libs" was a conscious attempt on my part to write something that had a "Jason Robert Brown" sensibility to it. "(Happiness)" is another song that I love to listen to -- but it's boring as hell to play on the piano, and impossible to sing alone. (It's also another song that, while being well-structured, hasn't any rhyme scheme whatsoever.)
So -- that's my two cents. I'd be interested in hearing what other Song Fu-ers think about their own contributions to this mad little adventure in which we find ourselves. (Would any of them be equally interested in sharing?)
"All For This Moment," on the other hand, is just gorgeous. And subtle. And lush and romantical. (And, ironically, written the weekend before the Monday of my divorce hearing.)
Edric, first let me echo JoAnn -- I'm truly sorry to hear about your divorce.
It's an interesting question, and one that I want to spend some time thinking about before responding. I may type up a blog post and link it from here -- sort of a "Lessons Learned". I'm not sure if I'll get to it this week, though.
I want to add that, after finding myself consistently voting for your songs in Song Fu 3 and 4, regardless of the lyrical content or musical accompaniment, I've come to the only logical conclusion -- your voice must be so hypnotic that I would vote for you even if you chanted a phone book! (well, OK, so you know how to write good melodies, too...). :-D
BTW, any word from the listening party on when the final challenge between Berg & Jerry and Master TBD will be announced? (or who the master will be?)
A. Aalfs, from Eaton Rapids. C. Aaron, from Delhi Township. Richard Aaron, from St. Johns. Richard J. Aaron, from Lansing. J. Aarup, from Aurelius Township. M. Elizabeth Aastad, from Mason. R. Abad, from Lansing. L. Abar, from Lansing.
== Ukelele joins in ==
Verse 2:
Sonny Abashe, Getachew Abatekassa, Terressia Abbas Farha Abbasi, Shahzeman H. Abbasi, M.D., Tony Abbate, Barbara Abbett, William Abbett, and James Abbey.
== Cute kid chorus ==
Chorus:
The Abbotts: A., Betty, C., C., and C.R.,
Carol, Christop, Daniel, and Daniel,
Deborah, Donald, Doug, E., and G.A....
== Holy crap! Where did all these dingoes come from!! ==
Nice idea though Edric... Okay.. my take on my stuff...
Well, given that I've only done one (and Red Nose Fu) we're only taking 4 songs.. BUT I cant help but include Widge's Pee Song and The Saga of Ken plume as being *Fu-esque* purely because of the way they were written and why.
So... Just so it will give me more to write ! (Yeah, cos, like, I NEED an *excuse* !) ;' )
So... Order of creation: 1)What makes you feel happy! 2)I wish I could tell you (I Love You) 3)Put Your Red Nose On 4)Widge's Pee Song) 5) It All Makes Sense At The End 6) The Saga of Ken Plume
Order of Likingness.... (This is difficult!) 1 & 5, 6, 3, 4, 2
Cant choose between 1 and 5. 1 was not only helped, but really was hung onto, Borba's wondrous musical stylings and the kazoo solo (well.. dual tracked) I just cant help grinning myself when I hear it! (And I did when I was recording it too!) 6 - Well... It was written in a rush, and recorded similarly. (One day I may do it properly) but I just 'feel' good about this song. Although I would probably re-write it a little (And I like the "patriot act" line! ;') ) 3 - I struggled and struggled with this one. I made a HUGE mistake when I sent it out to you guys for input as I only realised how SLOW I had recorded the bits I wanted you to do when I started getting them back! So it literally became a song of two halves! I think it worked, but it was a struggle. 4 - Took as long to write as it did to sing it through. And then to record it. Total time about 10 minutes. This is another that NEEDS re-recording, the only problem with this song is, (well.. its also a bit narrow 'audience-wise'... if you dunno who widge and Ken are it means little!).. but.. this song...it kills people... I'm worried what a *better* recording would DO!!) 2 - What can I say about this song... Excellent input from Colleen, (If I hadn't have HAD that I might have dropped out at that round), but.. I just STILL don't know exactly why it doesn't work for me... I think it might be that it needs more instrumentation to it, and I just can't DO what I hear in my head... I think It may be cos I tried to write a 'serious' song only using 10 words.
Final Challenge (and Molly's master status) has been revealed! Congrats again to Molly (and to Berg & Jerry, though they may not see it here)
Write a song about a journey. This journey must include 3 main characters. Your song can be in any style you choose.
Thats it. The only other directive is that your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 45 seconds. Your song must be submitted in mp3 form (128-192kbps) either via e-mail (to songfu @ quickstopentertainment.com - remember to remove the spaces) or a file upload service (like RapidShare or YouSendIt). Deadline for submission is 11:59pm EST on Friday, July 17th, 2009.
Voting on the Final Challenge will commence on Monday, July 20th, 2009.
Also: ******This Challenge is also open to all Song Fu Challengers from any previous edition of Song Fu who would like to do an out-of-competition shadow entry. ALL SUBMITTED ENTRIES WILL BE FEATURED.*****
It's looking like I'll be shadowing the final Song Fu round. I've got the words and music figured out, except for the bridge (which is going to be crucial, I think), and I started recording instruments last night. It's called "Passengers", but I won't tell you what it's about. I'm really liking it.
Here's a rough preview of the chord progressions I'll be using without the melody (since I haven't recorded vocals yet). I also haven't had time to arrange which instruments are playing when. I'll probably add a flute for part of it as well. There's a 4-bar intro, followed by a verse (at 0:12) and a chorus (at 0:39).
For fun, I tried adding a phaser effect to the ukulele, and I think it will be staying. Let me know what you think!
In the 17th century, the passenger pigeon was one of the most abundant birds in North America, with flocks numbering in the billions (with a "b"). Their numbers declined throughout the 19th century, and the last one, named Martha, died in a zoo in 1914 -- as far as we know. There were a few unconfirmed sightings after this, though, and this song chronicles the migration of the last three.
Lyrics:
[Verse 1] Summertime is finally gone in upper Michigan, Leaves are changing shades of gold, and falling once again. The weather's turning cold, and winter's moving in, So spread your wings and fly, our migration must begin.
[Chorus] We're migrating to sunny Florida, We're the only three, Just you and him and me, We're migrating to sunny Florida, Three birds of a feather, Seeking better weather.
[Verse 2] Now it's time to take a break in central Tennessee, So we'll roost here by this lake, and high up in this tree. A person's down below, he's watching you and me, I think he's taking notes, he looks surprised by what he sees.
[Repeat Chorus]
[Bridge] Every night I find I'm wishin' That we three weren't the last passenger pigeons, Cause the livin's pretty lonely When you're one of the only of your kind.
[Verse 3] Used to be when we flew by, the sight would fill the sky, Our flock would block the sun, and stretch a mile wide. But since the people came, a billion birds have died, And now we're all but gone, we're the last three still alive.
My shadow entry has been submitted, as well. In order to divert attention from this fact, here's a quick rundown on the song fu according to Jutze (as Edric proposed):
My "favorites":
1) A Mallful of Brains 2) Natalie Portman's Doormat 3) March 2003 4) Joey Dumps Pacey 5) It All Makes Sense At The End 6) God of Bingo 7) The Moon Is Made of Cheese 8) Reunion Street 9) Shadow Journey
The ones I'm Most _proud_ of, or the ones I think are the best _crafted_:
1) Natalie Portman's Doormat 2) A Mallful of Brains 3) It All Makes Sense At The End 4) March 2003 5) Joey Dumps Pacey 6) Reunion Street 7) The Moon Is Made of Cheese 8) God of Bingo 9) Shadow Journey
Both lists are somewhat similar. The first two songs are certainly the best if you ask me.
The Moon Is Made of Cheese Too much of everything. The song could have done with less overdubs. I'm happy with what I got out of the moon-subject, though.
A Mallful of Brains Based on a three-chord ukulele riff I had lying around, it turned out a great song, imho. Recording it was fun and I managed to keep the lyrics simple.
God of Bingo Too bad I overestimated the number of Jimmy Simpson fans.
It All Makes Sense At The End I'm really proud of the one take guitar solo.
Reunion Street Could have been better if a talented musician had played and arranged it.
Natalie Portman's Doormat Hooray for finger-picking skills. The song turned out better than I had hoped. Once again, I only used half the tracks I recorded for the final version - always a good sign.
March 2003 The verses are too many/long, but I'm satisfied with the concept and enjoy the chorus. Still, I could have used more 'marching band' sounds in between, I guess.
Joey Dumps Pacey Juggling with chords and for the first time a somewhat tolerable drum machine.
Shadow Journey For the first (and certainly last) time I had nothing until a few hours before deadline. I made up the lyrics and the chords on the fly. It took many attempt to arrive at something that didn't totally suck. The story got changed as it got later and later. First I had three sperm cells on their journey; then an evil genius abducting JoCo to the moon; then a ride in an elevator with JoCo and Felicia Day. Then Styx. At one point the hooded man was homosexual. Also, I wasn't able to pronounce the word "hooded" correctly. In the middle of the night I finished the version you're about to hear, only to realize now that I forgot a line about "Only one of us can get to heaven, the other has to go to hell." So right now the conflict is elusive and the lyrics don't make too much sense. As for the music, you get an idea what it sounds like when I'm in songwriting mode...
It's driving me crazy too. The challenge page says voting would begin Monday, which was yesterday, so we're now one day late. Which isn't exactly a new thing, but I was hitting refresh yesterday way too often. :-)
Maybe Molly convinced Ken to postpone the deadline so she could lay down a bass line on her new bass guitar. I'm just kidding!
ETA: What really gets me, though, is that I never received a confirmation e-mail from Ken that my submission was received, like I usually do.
I didn't get a confirmation, either. But as I implied earlier, my song is crap. I hope Ken has mercy and omits it. Anyway, the challenge was obviously inspired by the flight to the moon. So I had expected the songs to go online on Monday. Then again, @KenPlume stayed up till dawn... maybe he's just too busy with other stuff (my money on that); or one of the two real finalists didn't make the deadline and Ken is being lenient. Or he needs a calendar.
Nope. Thanks for your keen interest, though, JoAnn... (And thanks, too, for the reference, Angelastic!) :-)
No -- I don't shadow. I didn't accrue enough votes, and that's fine -- so I just let the "winners" do their thing. (Assuming MoSF #5 starts sometime before this calendar year expires, I will be back for more competition...)
However, if you watch on my web pages -- I'm thinking about re-recording a "blast from the past" at the end of this week. It dates back to 1995, from my old MSU days.
My roommate that year was from New York -- and Jewish. He was dating a mid-western girl who, well -- wasn't. She liked country music. He didn't. (But he still liked her.) He wanted to write her a song, but hadn't the musical skills. So I was "commissioned" to bridge the gap.
My mom says it's her favorite song that I've ever written. If I get it recorded, I'll probably post it Saturday or Sunday. (Which means, you might be able to hear it before you're able to hear Molly's and Jerry's and Berg's...)
WooHoo! One shiny "Joe point" for JoAnn for being the first "non-me" person to leave a comment on my site!
In other news -- Ken really _may_ be close to a release! He's taken the two "where are they already?" comments down from the (currently) most recent Song Fu page...
No Molly song "due to extenuating circumstances"... I hope everything's alright for her.
Also, I remember the original final challenge page saying something to the effect of shadow submitters may also get a little something... Well, my email from Ken had this extra bit added to it:
For submitting a shadow entry, you also get a prize... Please drop me your mailing address...
Oh that's disappointing, I was looking forward to a new Molly song.... hey remember when JoCo dropped out of Song Fu, due to the extenuating circumstance of having a baby? You don't suppose Molly.... nah.
@Jmonkee: Joe (Covenant) had a moving kidney stone. In hospital starting June 30th -- had operation on July 4th. In his words (on Twitter) -- "The Op was a triumph... They've written their notes here, HUGE SUCCESS! ... ... And believe me, i am STILL ALIVE!"
@JoAnn: Mr. Bacon has never said anything to me _after_ the fact (which is fine -- I'm just amazingly grateful he recorded those lines for me in the first place!) -- but back when I originally made the request for him to record the lines, his publicist wrote the following in the e-mail in which he sent the .mp3 of "Kevin's part" . . .
Edric - it takes a lot of ingenuity and time to figure out how to find someone like me who represents an actor like Kevin Bacon - I am impressed - so is Kevin - yours is such an unusual request that there was no way Kevin couldn't do it - so attached is the recording - hope they all love it - have fun at the wedding.
If you haven't been following along -- it seems that speculation is ramping up about whether or not there might be a MoSF #5. Russ posted the question on his Facebook group. riddle raised the spectre in the comments of the most recent Song Fu page. I wrote a couple of somewhat lengthy comments myself this morning. (Not about a #5, but in response to other postings...) Ken's always been kind of a "black box" -- so who knows what he's thinking...
But -- whether or not Ken starts it up again, I posted the idea that we take a moment -- even as we're sad that the ending of #4 was a bit of a let-down -- to thank Ken for all he's done for Masters of Song Fu. In MoSF #3, we had a chance to do this at the big listening party at the end. But since we've had listening parties at each ROUND of MoSF #4, I don't know if we're going to get a nice communal opportunity like that this time. But I've really had a blast doing Song Fu, and I'd miss it (and you guys!) a lot if it were gone. So I appreciate that Ken brought us all together. Might be a good time to send him a wave of such sentiments, if you feel the desire...
(On other fronts -- I finished the recording of the song "late last night" plus "early this morning." If I can finish getting the sheet music redone today, it might be posted as soon as tomorrow!)
Okay. Tonight, because I'm being FORCED to - I will be doing a Covenant of Joe Show.. http://bit.ly/iifkd - roughly 10:30 pm GMT... watch this space for further details.
I haven't seen anything that would indicate that Ken doesn't expect to run another MoSF. Maybe a bit of a breather in between them? Sure. That's understandable. But from what little I've seen he's always seemed very excited to be able to provide this venue. It is frustrating to see so many people complaining about relatively petty things.
This is still a pretty new thing, and I think Ken is just trying out different formats. Last time, he tried separating into a master and challenger "tiers" for lack of a better term, and allowing 5 votes for the challengers. But that lead to default wins for P&S once the others dropped out. This time he tried putting off the master until the final challenge, which also led to a default win. There's maybe still some wrinkles to iron out of the format, bearing in mind that RL happens.
I haven't decided for sure whether I'll participate in #5 or not. Depends on what I do this Fall. I'm considering taking a LOA from work to focus on finishing all of my remaining Masters classes at the University. That might leave me with either more or less free time. If the next competition starts before then, I'll almost certainly sign up and compete in at least the first challenge. Depending on how busy I am or am not, I may or may not become one of your attrition figures.
I will say that before Song Fu started I had no idea that I was capable of writing a decent song in a week. I thought it would surely take me at least 2-4 weeks. As it turns out, I can create a decent song about 50% of the time. So I've definitely enjoyed that learning process. (I also had to realize that the votes don't directly correlate to the song quality.)
Seems to me that the very nature of the contest invites Masters to get bored with it pretty quickly. After all, they're the ones with the least to prove because they already pretty much know what they're doing. Maybe the first time or so the contest seems fun, but I can see how anything else in the Master's life could easily bump the contest off the top of the to-do list. Contrast this with the Contenders, most of whom are trying to prove to themselves that they can do it and who have a vested interest in measuring themselves up against the rest of the pack. The Master, not so much.
I wish the could do something to entice Coulton back into it, since it seems to be just the sort of deadline thing he needs to force him to write great songs (see Space Doggity, Always the Moon, and of course Monkey Shines, not to mention Big Dick Farts a Polka).
I think the master/challenger line is pretty blurry, I'm not sure they need it. Some of the challengers do master-quality work anyway. Just lump everybody together. Let Paul and Storm, Molly, JoCo, or whoever get in there and mix it up directly with everyone else.
I didn't either FORCE Joe to broadcast tonight...just begged him a little to sing Happy Birthday to me- thats all! I was so pleased when I got 36 minutes of different recordings of birthday songs (plus a long lead up of other spiffy songs I liked). Then he finished it off with him singing the traditional version of Happy Birthday...traditional like a male version of Marilyn Monroe that is! I suspect he was off his pain meds for most/all of the show though so he could stay awake and clear, which was extra sweet because I KNOW how horrible kidney stones hurt from my experience. Thank you so much for the best part of my birthday today!
I still think it would be cool if they got a panel of "Masters" to be judges, American Idol style. And Ken needs to go back to a more manageable number of contestants.
Um, sorry, but I've been really busy & inactive on this front lately, especially during this last one, and I don't know what happened that Ken is rethinking Masters of Song Fu!? I'm a bit concerned... I still really want to participate in it!
Okay, now I *have* to seriously participate in the next one...
I might be missing something, but I'm not sure it was any one thing, so much as a lot of little things.
- The voting system had a technical glitch in the first round leading to a few unfortunate accusations of cheating. Then when duplicate votes were removed, there was another round of ugly comments resulting from that. This was probably the biggest issue. - Overall, I think a number of comments were either too harsh, or were taken as being more harsh than they were meant to be. (must use more smileys :-) - In the second round, there was a big debate in the comments over the appropriateness of entering a political song. - "Deadlines" for when things were to be announced were occasionally missed by a day, leading to some complaining. - There was a high attrition rate throughout (but when isn't that the case?) - Culminating in the unfortunate lack of a song from Molly in the final round. But hey, Real Life happens. We've all been there. - There was wild speculation that a number of these issues might make it seem like we were ungrateful, and that Ken wasn't planning another one.
For anybody missing Song Fu and wanting to take part in a similar one-off that has a rather different audience, have at look at Great Hites.
It is normally a writing podcast focused on short stories based on a weekly prompt (as per Song Fu), but for a special event they are doing a musical episode. The topic is "Wiener Dogs" and the deadline is August 31st. The folks there are a welcoming crowd, so pop in and give it a shot!
Comments
We've been reading a lot of comments about what everybody thinks about everybody else's songs. I know there are a lot of Song Fu-ers in the JoCo forums. Anybody else care to turn the spotlight on themselves?
"Acceptance" is the seventh song I've written for Masters of Song Fu. I was thinking about what I think about each of them, and how I think they compare with each other. It's an interesting line of thought, because so many of my songs (I think!) are so different from each other. (And yet -- I know that I definitely do have a distinct "sound," if not a distinct "style.") So I spent some time thinking about what I've submitted to Song Fu, and I've come to the realization that I need to do a couple of _different_ categories if I want to rank them...
If I were to rank my songs based on which were my "favorites," the list would look like this . . .
1) All For This Moment
2) It All Makes Sense At The End
3) Extreme Mad-Libs (Song Fu Edition)
4) (Happiness)
5) Blue Moon
6) Acceptance
7) Whispered In Your Ear
But if I were to rank them based on which ones I'm the most _proud_ of, or the ones I think are the best _crafted_, the list would look like this . . .
1) Blue Moon
2) It All Makes Sense At The End
3) All For This Moment
4) Extreme Mad-Libs (Song Fu Edition)
5) (Happiness)
6) Acceptance
7) Whispered In Your Ear
"Blue Moon" isn't my "favorite" of the bunch, but it is the one I worked the hardest on, and it's the one with the most going on "behind the scenes." (You can read about the "science behind the song" by clicking on the "Blue Moon" button on my web page.) It also has one of the strictest rhyme schemes, and took a lot of time to write because it has four distinct sections, with very little that repeats throughout the song. I'm really proud of what I turned out with "Blue Moon," and none of my other Song Fu songs have come close to what I achieved with that one.
"All For This Moment," on the other hand, is just gorgeous. And subtle. And lush and romantical. (And, ironically, written the weekend before the Monday of my divorce hearing.) It wasn't as challenging to write; it doesn't rhyme at all; it's half as long as "Blue Moon" (but _twice_ as long as "Acceptance"!) -- but it's my favorite to listen to.
("Whispered" was just weird. I mean, I like it -- and it does an excellent job of giving voice to Daniel Quinn's Mother Culture. But still -- it's weird...)
"It All Makes Sense At The End" is just wickedly good fun, in my opinion -- and it's also the only song with a title that's also part of the lyric! "Extreme Mad-Libs" was a conscious attempt on my part to write something that had a "Jason Robert Brown" sensibility to it. "(Happiness)" is another song that I love to listen to -- but it's boring as hell to play on the piano, and impossible to sing alone. (It's also another song that, while being well-structured, hasn't any rhyme scheme whatsoever.)
So -- that's my two cents. I'd be interested in hearing what other Song Fu-ers think about their own contributions to this mad little adventure in which we find ourselves. (Would any of them be equally interested in sharing?)
:-)
:-( I'm sorry to hear that, Edric
It's an interesting question, and one that I want to spend some time thinking about before responding. I may type up a blog post and link it from here -- sort of a "Lessons Learned". I'm not sure if I'll get to it this week, though.
I want to add that, after finding myself consistently voting for your songs in Song Fu 3 and 4, regardless of the lyrical content or musical accompaniment, I've come to the only logical conclusion -- your voice must be so hypnotic that I would vote for you even if you chanted a phone book! (well, OK, so you know how to write good melodies, too...). :-D
BTW, any word from the listening party on when the final challenge between Berg & Jerry and Master TBD will be announced? (or who the master will be?)
"The Phone Book"
Music and lyrics by Edric Haleen
Verse 1:
A. Aalfs, from Eaton Rapids.
C. Aaron, from Delhi Township.
Richard Aaron, from St. Johns.
Richard J. Aaron, from Lansing.
J. Aarup, from Aurelius Township.
M. Elizabeth Aastad, from Mason.
R. Abad, from Lansing.
L. Abar, from Lansing.
== Ukelele joins in ==
Verse 2:
Sonny Abashe,
Getachew Abatekassa,
Terressia Abbas
Farha Abbasi,
Shahzeman H. Abbasi, M.D.,
Tony Abbate,
Barbara Abbett,
William Abbett,
and James Abbey.
== Cute kid chorus ==
Chorus:
The Abbotts:
A.,
Betty,
C., C., and C.R.,
Carol,
Christop,
Daniel, and Daniel,
Deborah,
Donald,
Doug,
E., and G.A....
== Holy crap! Where did all these dingoes come from!! ==
=== HELP!!! ===
===== OW! Get 'em off!! GET 'EM OFF!!! =====
;-)
;' )
Nice idea though Edric...
Okay.. my take on my stuff...
Well, given that I've only done one (and Red Nose Fu) we're only taking 4 songs.. BUT I cant help but include Widge's Pee Song and The Saga of Ken plume as being *Fu-esque* purely because of the way they were written and why.
So... Just so it will give me more to write ! (Yeah, cos, like, I NEED an *excuse* !) ;' )
So... Order of creation:
1)What makes you feel happy! 2)I wish I could tell you (I Love You) 3)Put Your Red Nose On 4)Widge's Pee Song) 5) It All Makes Sense At The End 6) The Saga of Ken Plume
Order of Likingness.... (This is difficult!)
1 & 5, 6, 3, 4, 2
Cant choose between 1 and 5. 1 was not only helped, but really was hung onto, Borba's wondrous musical stylings and the kazoo solo (well.. dual tracked) I just cant help grinning myself when I hear it! (And I did when I was recording it too!)
6 - Well... It was written in a rush, and recorded similarly. (One day I may do it properly) but I just 'feel' good about this song. Although I would probably re-write it a little (And I like the "patriot act" line! ;') )
3 - I struggled and struggled with this one. I made a HUGE mistake when I sent it out to you guys for input as I only realised how SLOW I had recorded the bits I wanted you to do when I started getting them back! So it literally became a song of two halves! I think it worked, but it was a struggle.
4 - Took as long to write as it did to sing it through. And then to record it. Total time about 10 minutes. This is another that NEEDS re-recording, the only problem with this song is, (well.. its also a bit narrow 'audience-wise'... if you dunno who widge and Ken are it means little!).. but.. this song...it kills people... I'm worried what a *better* recording would DO!!)
2 - What can I say about this song... Excellent input from Colleen, (If I hadn't have HAD that I might have dropped out at that round), but.. I just STILL don't know exactly why it doesn't work for me... I think it might be that it needs more instrumentation to it, and I just can't DO what I hear in my head... I think It may be cos I tried to write a 'serious' song only using 10 words.
Well... Thats me!
I'll count the E. before the dingo attack for my son, Ed, though...
Here's a rough preview of the chord progressions I'll be using without the melody (since I haven't recorded vocals yet). I also haven't had time to arrange which instruments are playing when. I'll probably add a flute for part of it as well. There's a 4-bar intro, followed by a verse (at 0:12) and a chorus (at 0:39).
For fun, I tried adding a phaser effect to the ukulele, and I think it will be staying. Let me know what you think!
ETA: My new favorite chord: DMaj7
Passengers.mp3
Description:
In the 17th century, the passenger pigeon was one of the most abundant birds in North America, with flocks numbering in the billions (with a "b"). Their numbers declined throughout the 19th century, and the last one, named Martha, died in a zoo in 1914 -- as far as we know. There were a few unconfirmed sightings after this, though, and this song chronicles the migration of the last three.
Lyrics:
[Verse 1]
Summertime is finally gone in upper Michigan,
Leaves are changing shades of gold, and falling once again.
The weather's turning cold, and winter's moving in,
So spread your wings and fly, our migration must begin.
[Chorus]
We're migrating to sunny Florida,
We're the only three,
Just you and him and me,
We're migrating to sunny Florida,
Three birds of a feather,
Seeking better weather.
[Verse 2]
Now it's time to take a break in central Tennessee,
So we'll roost here by this lake, and high up in this tree.
A person's down below, he's watching you and me,
I think he's taking notes, he looks surprised by what he sees.
[Repeat Chorus]
[Bridge]
Every night I find I'm wishin'
That we three weren't the last passenger pigeons,
Cause the livin's pretty lonely
When you're one of the only of your kind.
[Verse 3]
Used to be when we flew by, the sight would fill the sky,
Our flock would block the sun, and stretch a mile wide.
But since the people came, a billion birds have died,
And now we're all but gone, we're the last three still alive.
[Repeat Chorus]
My "favorites":
1) A Mallful of Brains
2) Natalie Portman's Doormat
3) March 2003
4) Joey Dumps Pacey
5) It All Makes Sense At The End
6) God of Bingo
7) The Moon Is Made of Cheese
8) Reunion Street
9) Shadow Journey
The ones I'm Most _proud_ of, or the ones I think are the best _crafted_:
1) Natalie Portman's Doormat
2) A Mallful of Brains
3) It All Makes Sense At The End
4) March 2003
5) Joey Dumps Pacey
6) Reunion Street
7) The Moon Is Made of Cheese
8) God of Bingo
9) Shadow Journey
Both lists are somewhat similar. The first two songs are certainly the best if you ask me.
The Moon Is Made of Cheese Too much of everything. The song could have done with less overdubs. I'm happy with what I got out of the moon-subject, though.
A Mallful of Brains Based on a three-chord ukulele riff I had lying around, it turned out a great song, imho. Recording it was fun and I managed to keep the lyrics simple.
God of Bingo Too bad I overestimated the number of Jimmy Simpson fans.
It All Makes Sense At The End I'm really proud of the one take guitar solo.
Reunion Street Could have been better if a talented musician had played and arranged it.
Natalie Portman's Doormat Hooray for finger-picking skills. The song turned out better than I had hoped. Once again, I only used half the tracks I recorded for the final version - always a good sign.
March 2003 The verses are too many/long, but I'm satisfied with the concept and enjoy the chorus. Still, I could have used more 'marching band' sounds in between, I guess.
Joey Dumps Pacey Juggling with chords and for the first time a somewhat tolerable drum machine.
Shadow Journey For the first (and certainly last) time I had nothing until a few hours before deadline. I made up the lyrics and the chords on the fly. It took many attempt to arrive at something that didn't totally suck. The story got changed as it got later and later. First I had three sperm cells on their journey; then an evil genius abducting JoCo to the moon; then a ride in an elevator with JoCo and Felicia Day. Then Styx. At one point the hooded man was homosexual. Also, I wasn't able to pronounce the word "hooded" correctly. In the middle of the night I finished the version you're about to hear, only to realize now that I forgot a line about "Only one of us can get to heaven, the other has to go to hell." So right now the conflict is elusive and the lyrics don't make too much sense. As for the music, you get an idea what it sounds like when I'm in songwriting mode...
Jutze
;' )
Twelve . . . days . . . since . . . final . . . challenge . . . revealed . . .
Songs . . . still . . . not . . . posted . . .
.
.
.
Losing . . . momentum ? ! ? . . .
Maybe Molly convinced Ken to postpone the deadline so she could lay down a bass line on her new bass guitar. I'm just kidding!
ETA: What really gets me, though, is that I never received a confirmation e-mail from Ken that my submission was received, like I usually do.
No -- I don't shadow. I didn't accrue enough votes, and that's fine -- so I just let the "winners" do their thing. (Assuming MoSF #5 starts sometime before this calendar year expires, I will be back for more competition...)
However, if you watch on my web pages -- I'm thinking about re-recording a "blast from the past" at the end of this week. It dates back to 1995, from my old MSU days.
My roommate that year was from New York -- and Jewish. He was dating a mid-western girl who, well -- wasn't. She liked country music. He didn't. (But he still liked her.) He wanted to write her a song, but hadn't the musical skills. So I was "commissioned" to bridge the gap.
My mom says it's her favorite song that I've ever written. If I get it recorded, I'll probably post it Saturday or Sunday. (Which means, you might be able to hear it before you're able to hear Molly's and Jerry's and Berg's...)
;-)
Anyway -- stay tuned. http://happinessboard.com/Edric_Haleen.html -- now with a new-and-improved "Comments" section!!!
In other news -- Ken really _may_ be close to a release! He's taken the two "where are they already?" comments down from the (currently) most recent Song Fu page...
:-)
http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2009/07/21/song-fu-4-winner-announced/
MoSF #5, anyone?
Also, I remember the original final challenge page saying something to the effect of shadow submitters may also get a little something... Well, my email from Ken had this extra bit added to it: say-wha???!!!!!
8-O
Wish Joe would get better though, sigh.
Hey, has Kevin Bacon ever commented on your video of the wedding? Now THAT would be COOL!
What's wrong with Joe?
@JoAnn: Mr. Bacon has never said anything to me _after_ the fact (which is fine -- I'm just amazingly grateful he recorded those lines for me in the first place!) -- but back when I originally made the request for him to record the lines, his publicist wrote the following in the e-mail in which he sent the .mp3 of "Kevin's part" . . . :-)
And that wedding video is awesome.
But -- whether or not Ken starts it up again, I posted the idea that we take a moment -- even as we're sad that the ending of #4 was a bit of a let-down -- to thank Ken for all he's done for Masters of Song Fu. In MoSF #3, we had a chance to do this at the big listening party at the end. But since we've had listening parties at each ROUND of MoSF #4, I don't know if we're going to get a nice communal opportunity like that this time. But I've really had a blast doing Song Fu, and I'd miss it (and you guys!) a lot if it were gone. So I appreciate that Ken brought us all together. Might be a good time to send him a wave of such sentiments, if you feel the desire...
(On other fronts -- I finished the recording of the song "late last night" plus "early this morning." If I can finish getting the sheet music redone today, it might be posted as soon as tomorrow!)
:-)
From Twitter: Let's help welcome him back, shall we?
This is still a pretty new thing, and I think Ken is just trying out different formats. Last time, he tried separating into a master and challenger "tiers" for lack of a better term, and allowing 5 votes for the challengers. But that lead to default wins for P&S once the others dropped out. This time he tried putting off the master until the final challenge, which also led to a default win. There's maybe still some wrinkles to iron out of the format, bearing in mind that RL happens.
I haven't decided for sure whether I'll participate in #5 or not. Depends on what I do this Fall. I'm considering taking a LOA from work to focus on finishing all of my remaining Masters classes at the University. That might leave me with either more or less free time. If the next competition starts before then, I'll almost certainly sign up and compete in at least the first challenge. Depending on how busy I am or am not, I may or may not become one of your attrition figures.
I will say that before Song Fu started I had no idea that I was capable of writing a decent song in a week. I thought it would surely take me at least 2-4 weeks. As it turns out, I can create a decent song about 50% of the time. So I've definitely enjoyed that learning process. (I also had to realize that the votes don't directly correlate to the song quality.)
:-)
I think the master/challenger line is pretty blurry, I'm not sure they need it. Some of the challengers do master-quality work anyway. Just lump everybody together. Let Paul and Storm, Molly, JoCo, or whoever get in there and mix it up directly with everyone else.
http://happinessboard.com/Edric_Haleen.html
:-)
Get better Joe! ((hugs))
And Ken needs to go back to a more manageable number of contestants.
12:22 EdricHaleen: Any chance there's any word on a new edition of Masters of Song Fu?
12:26 uncascroogemcd: The last one burned pretty bad. Lot of unfortunateness. I'm regrouping. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
12:37 uncascroogemcd: I am thinking on all fronts about it. I should have an announcement one way or another in the next few weeks.
12:38 uncascroogemcd: And I appreciate your enthusiasm for it - it means a lot.
Okay, now I *have* to seriously participate in the next one...
- The voting system had a technical glitch in the first round leading to a few unfortunate accusations of cheating. Then when duplicate votes were removed, there was another round of ugly comments resulting from that. This was probably the biggest issue.
- Overall, I think a number of comments were either too harsh, or were taken as being more harsh than they were meant to be. (must use more smileys :-)
- In the second round, there was a big debate in the comments over the appropriateness of entering a political song.
- "Deadlines" for when things were to be announced were occasionally missed by a day, leading to some complaining.
- There was a high attrition rate throughout (but when isn't that the case?)
- Culminating in the unfortunate lack of a song from Molly in the final round. But hey, Real Life happens. We've all been there.
- There was wild speculation that a number of these issues might make it seem like we were ungrateful, and that Ken wasn't planning another one.
Did I miss anything?
It is normally a writing podcast focused on short stories based on a weekly prompt (as per Song Fu), but for a special event they are doing a musical episode. The topic is "Wiener Dogs" and the deadline is August 31st. The folks there are a welcoming crowd, so pop in and give it a shot!
WooHoo!!!
.
From Twitter: (KenPlume) See you all there!!!