Congratulations to our winning Challenger, JASON MORRIS, and our winning Masters, THE RIFFTONES. The FINAL CHALLENGE will be announced on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14th.
The Final challenge has been announced, and it's gotten me excited!
"THE SONG FROM (aka 70s Cinema Pop): For this final duel between Master and Challenger, you must envision a world in which composer John Williams was never hired to write the now-iconic scores for the Lucas and Spielberg films of the 1970s (JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, 1941, and STAR WARS). Imagine instead that the filmmakers decided to go with that other staple of the 70s - a tailor-made pop tune. Think THE POSEIDEN ADVENTUREs The Morning After (The Song From THE POSEIDEN ADVENTURE), which youll find below. You must choose one of those 1970s Williams-scored Spielberg/Lucas flicks and write The Song From that the film never had, in the style of a 1970s pop tune (particularly in your instrumentation).
The song must be at least 1min 45sec, and must be an original creation.
The deadline for delivery of the song is 11:59pm EST on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21st."
I'm not familiar with 1941, but I can see this being a really cool challenge for any of the other 3 movies. I'm just sad because it would have been great to hear Paul & Storm's take on this challenge!
I'm hoping I can find some 70's pop that is a little cooler than Maureen McGovern. "pop" is such a broad classification. I mean, David Bowie was pop.. but I kinda think that's not what they had in mind.. I'm getting a more "easy listening" vibe from them.. Like Barry Manilow or The Carpenters.
Yeah but "Cinema Pop" is more specific than "Pop". I hear that description and I think "Theme from Love Story". Look at some of the nominated (and winning) Best Original Songs from that decade:
The Morning After Ben The Way We Were We May Never Love Like This Again (Towering Inferno) Evergreen (A Star Is Born) Nobody Does It Better Hopelessly Devoted To You You Light Up My Life
and of course, my personal favorite, Rainbow Connection. Hell, even '81 was Arthur's Theme (Best You Can Do), Endless Love AND For Your Eyes Only.
Here's a full list if you need to find some other inspirations:
Oh man, just the thought of the Carpenters doing the theme from Jaws as a soft rock type tune..."And we've only just begun, to diiiie, we need a bigger boat, the shark ate that one and I can not float, I think I'm gonna dieeeeeee...." Hee hee hee
Final voting! This is my favorite Rifftones entry so far, but I think they're trying a bit too hard to be funny. Still, good stuff. I really liked Jason's entry though, so I voted for that.
I specifically went for non-funny this round. unless you consider totally cheesy lyrics funny, which I kinda do. One again, the lyrics are on my Blog-tacular webpage if anyone cares.
You got a vote from me too, Jason. This one's a no brainer for me; Jason captured the 70s song feeling very well (I'd like to think my link was in some small way a factor ) but the RiffTones song sounds like it's done by the "Real American Hero" beer commercial guy.
Good luck!
(ETA: My only regret is that you couldn't figure out a way to add the classic musical communcation bit from the song.)
You know what.. I had that in there at the end, with a violin. But I could'nt get it to sit right in the mix. The last two or three notes of the communication part clashed with the rest of the song and it just stuck out like a sore thumb. It sounded like I was trying too hard to get it in there so I took it out at the last minute.
I feel the same way as Encubed, I did like the Rifftones' song but I think it was over the top, they were trying to hard to be funny. Jason's song was very nice in both lyrics and music and sounded more like what a 70's movie pop song should sound like in my opinion. So my vote went to Jason. I hope you win, man!
That was a no brainer for me too. Rifftones did a passable Neil Diamond parody but Jasons was a better song and truer to the contest as well. Great job! My one bit of constructive criticism would be with the mix. I think that the vocals could be a touch higher.
Hey Rob. After listening to it today, I think you are totally correct. I think I listened too much yesterday at too high a volume and screwed my ears for the day. My own dang fault for doing the final mix down on the last day.
Wouldn't work for me either Gle3nn, so I just downloaded the mp3's to my desktop and that worked fine.
Anyway, count me as another vote for Jason. He met the challenge better, and just made a better song... though I do agree the vocals could be higher Jason!
sounds good, man. and this is listening through headphones.
I sort of stopped caring about this contest once JoCo dropped out, but seeing as we had alot of forumers this round, I might go back and check out the cream of the crop. ManFriday's stuff is pretty good so far. I can imagine it being on the radio.
edit: Remember, the masters always have the added advantage of being famous-er.
I have all 35 tracks (1 hour 51 minutes) as an album playlist in my media player, and it makes for a pretty good listen. Comparing it with the previous competition, I think we got more good new songs out there this time round. Just unfortunate that we lost out on at least 2 new JoCo songs...
To be honest, I only listened to JoCo's stuff religiously in this contest. I'd pick up a P and S song here or there, or a RATD if I heard it was good, or even listen to Elaine Chao Finnell to see what the big controversy was. I really dug some songs I wouldn't normally listen to (Brief History of Pudding, FTW) but I listened to JeffM's stuff when he made it to the finals. Same with Jason M.
I voted for Jason, because I could completely imagine listening to his song back when I was in high school in the 70's- and mainly because I had to force myself to listen to the whole of the Rifftones, waiting for the funny parts to actually be funny, rather than painful. It seemed that they were trying for Wierd Al over the topness but never quite made it. Their sound was fine- very 70's- but the song itself left me bored. A hate song from the boat captain or from the sherrif to the shark, done as a love song like they did, or even a love song about loving to kill sharks, or a love song from the shark to his next dinner all would have been funnier. Also, I couldn't help but think "Man, I can totally imagine Jonathan doing a cover of this on stage, it sounds just like his style" when listening to Jasons.
I voted Jason. I enjoyed a lot of the RiffTones' song, but I'd been bracing for the inevitable joke the whole way through, and then that verse starts about "let's start as friends, let's take things slow," and I ripped off my headphones. Sigh. I wish to declare a moratorium on "chum" jokes in shark-related humor.
I had the two songs repeating on my media player for a while. I finally had to remove the Rifftones and just let jason's song play for a while. This ones going into regular rotation in my playlist.
ahh. It's ok. It's always gonna be a challenge for any unknown to beat out someone with a large fan-base. In any event, I had a good time, learned a lot, and got my tunes heard by a number of folks who would not have otherwise heard them.
You just gotta think....how many people voted for (famous band) cause they're famous, not cause they're good?
edit: It's not like we can do this anonymously. We can tell what JoCo sounds like, so it's not like back when Space Doggity and High came out, we wouldn't have known whose was whose.
Haha! I wish yours had won, Jason; I thought yours was clearly of higher quality. I hope we'll see you in Song-Fu 3, should it occur.
(Compare the Rifftones' gagfest, I leave it to you to decide which meanings are intended, to something like Under the Pines, which is so much funnier because it takes the ridiculous relationship somewhat seriously instead of squeezing out every tired joke possible. Even when Paul and Storm do the latter, they manage to be generally funny, which the Rifftones didn't venture anywhere near.)
I am in the new Song Fu also. I wonder who the Masters will be, since Jonathan seems to hve sworn off song writing contests and Paul and Storm are doing their Randy Newman thing ths month. Good luck to you both! :)
Comments
I gotta prove my son wrong!
GL Jason! XD
Whatever happened to the end of Song Fu 2: Electric Bugaloo?
Congratulations to our winning Challenger, JASON MORRIS, and our winning Masters, THE RIFFTONES. The FINAL CHALLENGE will be announced on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14th.
"THE SONG FROM (aka 70s Cinema Pop): For this final duel between Master and Challenger, you must envision a world in which composer John Williams was never hired to write the now-iconic scores for the Lucas and Spielberg films of the 1970s (JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, 1941, and STAR WARS). Imagine instead that the filmmakers decided to go with that other staple of the 70s - a tailor-made pop tune. Think THE POSEIDEN ADVENTUREs The Morning After (The Song From THE POSEIDEN ADVENTURE), which youll find below. You must choose one of those 1970s Williams-scored Spielberg/Lucas flicks and write The Song From that the film never had, in the style of a 1970s pop tune (particularly in your instrumentation).
The song must be at least 1min 45sec, and must be an original creation.
The deadline for delivery of the song is 11:59pm EST on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21st."
I'm not familiar with 1941, but I can see this being a really cool challenge for any of the other 3 movies. I'm just sad because it would have been great to hear Paul & Storm's take on this challenge!
"pop" is such a broad classification.
I mean, David Bowie was pop.. but I kinda think that's not what they had in mind..
I'm getting a more "easy listening" vibe from them.. Like Barry Manilow or The Carpenters.
The Morning After
Ben
The Way We Were
We May Never Love Like This Again (Towering Inferno)
Evergreen (A Star Is Born)
Nobody Does It Better
Hopelessly Devoted To You
You Light Up My Life
and of course, my personal favorite, Rainbow Connection. Hell, even '81 was Arthur's Theme (Best You Can Do), Endless Love AND For Your Eyes Only.
Here's a full list if you need to find some other inspirations:
Final voting! This is my favorite Rifftones entry so far, but I think they're trying a bit too hard to be funny. Still, good stuff. I really liked Jason's entry though, so I voted for that.
Right now, with 10 votes only, they're at 50-50.
unless you consider totally cheesy lyrics funny, which I kinda do.
One again, the lyrics are on my Blog-tacular webpage if anyone cares.
Thanks for the vote, Encubed!
Good luck!
(ETA: My only regret is that you couldn't figure out a way to add the classic musical communcation bit from the song.)
But I could'nt get it to sit right in the mix. The last two or three notes of the communication part clashed with the rest of the song and it just stuck out like a sore thumb.
It sounded like I was trying too hard to get it in there so I took it out at the last minute.
My one bit of constructive criticism would be with the mix. I think that the vocals could be a touch higher.
After listening to it today, I think you are totally correct.
I think I listened too much yesterday at too high a volume and screwed my ears for the day.
My own dang fault for doing the final mix down on the last day.
Anyway, count me as another vote for Jason. He met the challenge better, and just made a better song... though I do agree the vocals could be higher Jason!
I sort of stopped caring about this contest once JoCo dropped out, but seeing as we had alot of forumers this round, I might go back and check out the cream of the crop. ManFriday's stuff is pretty good so far. I can imagine it being on the radio.
edit: Remember, the masters always have the added advantage of being famous-er.
Also, I couldn't help but think "Man, I can totally imagine Jonathan doing a cover of this on stage, it sounds just like his style" when listening to Jasons.
Pity he was down 75 to 45 when I voted, *sigh*
In any event, I had a good time, learned a lot, and got my tunes heard by a number of folks who would not have otherwise heard them.
Next time.
Next time.
Gotta stick up for his forum-members!
edit: It's not like we can do this anonymously. We can tell what JoCo sounds like, so it's not like back when Space Doggity and High came out, we wouldn't have known whose was whose.
That woulda been cool, but JoCo probably realized that if he had done so I would have screamed like an 8 year old girl and pee'd my pants.
He was just looking out for the welfare of my pants.
(Compare the Rifftones' gagfest, I leave it to you to decide which meanings are intended, to something like Under the Pines, which is so much funnier because it takes the ridiculous relationship somewhat seriously instead of squeezing out every tired joke possible. Even when Paul and Storm do the latter, they manage to be generally funny, which the Rifftones didn't venture anywhere near.)
Charlie