Song Fu Holiday Special

13

Comments

  • Schools go back at the start of December? Surely, if the schools do anything at the start of December, they should finish, so that students won't be at school for Christmas. Or am I completely misinterpreting 'go back'?
  • in the states you are guaranteed to hear about christmas well before thanksgiving, if only from people complaining about how everyone starts talking about christmas before thanksgiving's even over.... (yes, it's nicely circular.)
  • No we start hearing about Christmas when kids go back to school (start of September). It is getting a bit silly really.
  • I think every kid thinks about Christmas when they get back to school.
  • In the middle of listening.

    Must say, though Jeff: Yours is good but I'm put off by it because the person that the woman keeps referring to is "Mr. Stevens." That's the name of my Calculus teacher (Who, by the way, is going to be on Jeopardy, starting Monday), so I'd imagine him when the name is said, and it's a bit disturbing.
  • Ah, September, well that makes more sense. Though I've noticed that people have 'end-of-year' parties in about July or something, and if you're going to celebrate the end of the year in July, why not celebrate Christmas in June?

    Well, no need to discuss that, there are already plenty of songs about how early people start talking about Christmas and playing Christmas songs ridiculously early. Even one by Paul and Storm.

    But I won't listen to them, because I have Song Fu entries to listen to, and way-too-late Christmas gifts to order.
  • ...the woman keeps referring to is "Mr. Stevens." That's the name of my Calculus teacher
    I know that Mr. Stevens is good at math. Does he own his own company and have a trophy wife? Because then it might be him. Oh yeah, and he also wears an ascot.
  • First opinion: BucketHat, Masked Stranger, whoever wrote Puffington Proper Paws 120808, and (to a lesser extent) Rusty's Rocking Jamboree should fill out the ID3 tags of their mp3s properly in future, with at least the track name and artist filled out with spaces (not underscores) and appropriate capital letters. It makes it easier to organise music, know who did what, and, perhaps more importantly for you, scrobble stuff to last.fm and/or iLike so that other people might discover your music.
  • edited December 2008
    @BEnS
    "Mid-October" scanned better.. no other reason!
    (Being really pedantic, I actually say this all happens AFTER the great pumpkin rises up...etc - which is October 31st!!)

    And the Coke Ads DO still run in the UK, so, there y'go...
    Whodda thunk that something *I* thought was totally iconic, 'isn't' as such in the country of its origin!!

    This years is the same as the last few years but its not the train
    (Sneaky use of fade on the 'year' so it could be used until at least 2009)

    @Bry... Bang On! My first draft had a few too many Peanuts references!!! ;' )
  • Finished listening... well, kind of. By the time I got to the Jesus one, I was losing interest. Might partially be because I was listening to the songs from the website, and the songs started skipping at that point. Anyway, I'd listen to about a minute or so and say "meh" and go on to the next one. I'm sorry to anyone whose song that applies to; I'll probably give them another listen later and maybe I'll like them better.

    My favorites are Jason's and Joe's. I also like Jeff's very much, but the thing with Mr. Stevens... well, it's hard to get around. I also enjoy BucketHat's, but it almost feels like it's missing something. As for the other 2 that I got through completely: Paul and Storm's wasn't at all memorable, and the one about the Latke's bored me a bit (Like the ones before, I'll probably give this another listen later)

    Jason: My only "complaint" is that when I was reading the lyrics, instead of "matinee" I saw "manitee" which made me think of Manatees, and I thought it would have been great if that was what it said. Otherwise, absolutely wonderful.

    Joe: Despite your computer problems, I thought it turned out greatly. I especially love the subliminal messages with the "buy"s. Very creative. It also love the vocals, and it also flows very well.

    If there were voting, I think I'd have to vote for Jason, but both Jason and Joe's songs have earned spots on my iPod.
  • The mid-October thing is fair enough I was just saying in an old man moany way about Christmas getting more spread out such that I felt Christmassy a couple of months ago and it has all but worn off now.

    Well touch
  • ;' )))) Ben... I AGREE with you Bud...

    ...its why I WROTE the song !!!

    ;' )) Cheers!
  • Ha!
    Another website has put a shout out for the Fu competition.. but right below the mention is a section called
    Out On Blue Six Is This Christmas Music?:
    And they have two tracks listed.... which just happen to be BOTH of my FAVOURITE ever Christmas tracks!!!
    scroll down a little...
  • @Cov: Thanks for that! :-)
  • BOTH of my FAVOURITE ever Christmas tracks
    Bit of a prog theme going there? ;-)
  • Just a touch !
    (Mike is THE man as far as I'm concerned... Well... his recent output has been a *little* dodgy...)
    And I *didn't* know that "I believe..." was actually ALL of ELP !
  • Wait a second, is Oldfield playing a freakin' shawm? Holy cow. That's hard-core.
  • Ah yes, the shawm, that most elusive of rock instruments!

    On the topic of Xmas prog - the latest online offering from Pallas is subtitled "Christmas in Atlantis" - a perfect match for Jason's Xmas Squid. :-)
  • Joe, that song polished up so nicely- I really love the vocal harmonies, they remind me of how JoCo does them. The sheer skill of the instuments and being able to put it all together like that, whew! Grats :o)
  • edited December 2008
    Well... here's the thing...
    You CAN see him playing some of the woodwinds...
    But the one with the weird flat end that you see a long shot off, note you never see the players face, only the mouth at the end. And that is NOT Mike Oldfield's mouth.
    (Mike has a very distinctive mouth due to trying to hide a "snaggletooth" he had/has.)
    That said.. Mike has always wanted to be seen as being able to get music out of any instrument...

    @JoAnn Glad you liked it m'dear! I must admit to a feeling a touch of pleasure when it all seemed to come together. (And thank you again for your input!)
    (Although the mix on the Song Fu site seems a little.. less dynamic... than the MP3 I sent. The backing keyboard seems very low...)
  • to join a Song Fu contest, you have to have some sort of viewable oeuvre, yes?
  • You just have to be one of the first dozen or so people to enter, as far as I know.

    But I have been wondering where I can view JoeCov's oeuvre.
  • No, you dont need viewable oeuvre... and the sign up says 25 doesn't it??

    But I do have some stuff at...
    this place

    and I put this up in here ages ago... Arrr!! (My Pirates Song)
  • What about the other contests? You needed some sort of music works to prove you weren't a joke.
  • Yeah?
    Didn't know that !
    Maybe it was my kind and trusting face !?!?

    ;' )
  • This is sort of tangentially related. Has anyone else listened to the Hodgman interview on Quick Stop's Holiday Havoc? I downloaded it a while ago and am just getting around to listening to it today. I'm not even halfway through it, and it's great. It starts off slow but then gets into a really engaging discussion on the creative process. It's making me appreciate Hodgman and Coulton all the more. Wonderful stuff so far.
  • @CoolJammer00: No you didn't. I haven't had to show anything yet for my two entries. They only want you to give a link to your homepage, but I doubt they check your stuff on there, if you even have music on it...
  • Very well. I don't have a website or a kitschy photo of myself.
  • Methinks Cooljammer doth protest TOO much !!!

    ;' )

    Use yer sodding mobile phone camera!!
  • You don't need a website, and a non-kitschy photo will suffice, at a pinch.
  • Someone already has the gimmick of wearing a mask. Oh wait, it's just a name. Either way, I think I'd only write a descriptive paragraph to the length of JeffM's, and even then, his paragraph basically says "He was runner up in the first one. Nuff said."

    Maybe I'll try and join the next one. This would be the first purely creative thing I'd ever done. Of course, there's a good chance I'll just crash and burn horribly, having never written or played anything original before. I think that'd just be unfair to take the spot of someone else who wanted to be in the contest, so I might do what that one guy did. Just write/record my song alongside the contest with the same rules and deadlines, but on my own accord.
  • You could always try a few of the previous challenges to get some practice writing original songs while waiting for the next round, then you'd have a better idea of how likely you are to crash and burn horribly. Although I haven't noticed any flames around other people who have been voted out in the first rounds, so I think you're pretty safe.
  • I dunno. I'm already so tempted to basically steal pay homage to all the past songs in these contests. It's not like I could do an original "song about the moon" without thinking and borrowing heavily from the deluge of material already out there.
  • Good point. Maybe somebody here could set a theme for you. Like, for instance, write a song using one word from each of these columns:
    duckqueen
    barantimatter
    traditional clothingNotre Dame
    buttercupjaybird
    pelicandolphin
    schoonermushroom
  • Damnit, now I'm just tempted to write Randy Newman songs about Mallrats and Willem and his schooner.
  • Well, it would be a good start.
  • Angelastic: Sorry, but I couldn't resist. When I saw your lists, a tune popped right into my head. Here is the Chorus:

    My duck's been eatin' mushrooms in the backyard again
    When I found him his quacks sounded like bizarre gigglin'
    And he was staring at his webbed feet
    as if he had never seen them before...
    Yeah, my duck's been eatin' mushrooms,
    that's for sure!

    CoolJammer00: I am just a hack songwriter, but I've been sucking for decades, so here is my advice on how to get to writing your first song:

    1) Rewrite the lyrics to a song, using the same melody and rhyming scheme, but an entirely different subject.

    2) Choose a different tune that you love and know the lyrics to well, then come up with a new style and melody with which to sing those lyrics.

    3) Put 1 and 2 together, and realize that if you can do those two things, you can complete a song.

    4) Start writing a song with plans to compose possibly the worst tune ever written. Plan for it to suck. If it doesn't, then great. But don't pressure yourself by thinking that your first song should compare to someone's 500th that you've heard.

    That's my two cents. I encourage everyone to try writing their own songs because it is very rewarding. Even though most of my songs aren't that great, the process of writing them can be mentally challenging and entertaining in good times, and VERY therapeutic in bad times. Good Luck!
  • I'm glad that I inspired something, and I hope you record that song, because I'd love to hear it!
  • I don't understand how you guys are even writing entire songs. Is it really that easy to find a catalog of music to edit together nowadays?
  • edited December 2008
    CoolJammer...

    Just do it.
    To hell with what people may *think*
    (Its easy to say, harder to do, but necessary if you ever want to put anything out there.)

    Personally I was dreading putting Mr Jones up and out there for people whom, although I *know*, I've not known long enough to be able to say 'Yeah, they'll get it!' And especially people who are smart enough to be into Mr Coulton, and ALSO get the nuances of his work.... That is a BIIIIG thing to live up to... But I have been really really pleased with the feedback I have received for my song!

    I think People will rarely (ever?) chose to go to a website for this sort of contest in order to slam the contestants!?

    Just do it!!!

    (But if I'm in the next one and you beat me I will be *SO* huffy !!!!!)

    ;' )))
  • Does nudity count as traditional clothing? Because it seems to be strongly associated with jaybirds. I guess I have something akin to "First of May" in mind.
  • I guess it's the one clothing-related tradition that is shared across all cultures. Go for it!
  • Was looking over the track list on this soundtrack and saw this name Jason D. Morris.
    Manfriday, is this you?
    fyi if it is you, another friend of mine is on there and he didn't know it was on Amazon either.
  • Nope. That's not me.

    :)
  • Was just thinking....
    Do we figure the Jan 12th Song Fu hasn't happened as advertised due to JoCo and P&S doing this mini tour ??
  • If that's why, that's too bad. It's supposed to be the Quick Stop Entertainment contest, not the P&S and JoCo contest.
  • I couldn't tell you if that's the reason... but I can tell you that the sign-up has just been announced. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2009/01/26/masters-of-song-fu-3-sign-up-begins/

    And also that Jason Morris and myself have signed up. It may not be the JoCo contest, but I sure hope he joins in.
  • edited January 2009
    Maybe they couldn't get enough Masters. JoCo and Paul and Storm all know the guy running the contest, so if they aren't doing it, then maybe he can't get enough people.

    edit: I might just shadow this contest like I was thinking about last time.
  • edit: I might just shadow this contest like I was thinking about last time.
    Hmm. I might too. Maybe.
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