Thing a Post - The Collaborative Lyric-Writing Forum Game

edited March 2009 in Forum Games
So there's a lot of creative folks on these boards, and I decided to start something creative. This could just be a fun game to pass time, or it could potentially lead to something more interesting. This is a collaborative game (not a competition) similar to a word association thread, but with the purpose of creating song lyrics. The "rules" (such as they are) are this:

- Someone will have posted a "hook" or other interesting line.
(I'll get us started)
- The next person posts:
1. A comoplete verse and/or chorus that incorporates that line.
2. A new (unrelated) hook for the next person.

Here's where I stole the idea from, if you want to see what I have in mind. I'm still figuring out how the rules could be extended to allow continuation of lyrics beyond a single verse or chorus -- if you have ideas, post them.

Example:
Say the previous hook was "This is the hook". Then I might post:

This is the hook
For the song that I made.
It isn't well-written
But I'm not well-paid.

Next hook: "Doctor, what is wrong with me?"
And here's the first real hook...

Next hook:
"When life throws me lemons"
«1

Comments

  • When life throws me lemons
    I throw them at cars
    I don't want a life
    only guided by stars



    Next hook: "I have more to do than feel"
  • I have more to do than feel
    Seems like none of this is real
    I'm just circumstance in motion
    A blur of superficial notion
    I once wished I could connect
    To some meaningful affect
    But that has less and less appeal...
    I have more to do than feel

    Next hook: “I don't even know her name”
  • edited March 2009
    I have more to do than feel
    but there's some body stuck on me
    It ain't no fun but that's the deal
    upstairs in Brodmann area three.

    Next hook: "It's only the shellfish"

    [does this qualify as a hook? It's the second thing that came to my mind, after 'I've never been a waiter' which didn't seem hook-y enough.]

    ETA: 6 hours of no activity and then I'm ninja'd by 8 minutes? What is this, worldwide lunch break? ('Worldwide Lunch Break' is the name of my hastily-formed Band-Aid cover band)
  • edited March 2009
    Every day in the cold,
    The smoke of the coffee
    Goes up past the bold choice of her hat,
    Little smiling manatees.

    I can tell you her mood,
    Before her stride even stops
    On the sidewalk, an attitude she projects
    Sucking on lemon drops.

    And I don't even know her name.
    My fellow passenger,
    I don't even know her name.
    But she's part of my day,
    In a sun warming way.
    Why don't I ever ask her her name.
    I'll honor Angela's work and pass her hook down the line: "It's only the shellfish"

    (PS, I've thought about my [in]ability to do lyrics on and off for years, but I really have no musical ability at all. I relish this chance, like the shadowing of Song Fu, to try to bounce some stuff of you guys, so please, if you have any commentary ...)

    ETA: Changing paragraph two a little.
  • It's only the shellfish
    Just this and no more
    That has me bent over
    This toilet till Four

    I should know better
    Than to eat them in may
    Only in months with an R
    So they say


    Next hook: acorn are falling
  • edited March 2009
    It's only the shellfish that's making me sick,
    It isn't your selfishness, it isn't a trick.
    It's not as if we've not had our share of tussles
    But tonight I just can't stomach mussels.

    Next hook: "The whole world's gone to lunch"

    (ETA: Whoops, another ninja. Next person gets to pick which hook to use. Bonus points if you incorporate both!)
  • edited March 2009
    Acorn are falling
    dog are in street
    car are all empty
    none there to meet.

    The whole world's gone to lunch?
    Well that just may be,
    but where are the people,
    with invites for me?

    (Next hook...
    "Let us live for the moment")
  • edited March 2009
    Squirrels scramble!
    The acorn are falling.
    It's that time of the year
    Where gravity is calling
    Our bounty to the ground

    Squirrels assemble!
    It's time for a munch
    Now is the time that
    The whole world's gone to lunch
    And there are acorns abound!

    Next hook: "They're out of McNuggets, this is an emergency!" (Inspired by a true story.)

    ETA: I should have made my hook "Ninja Monkey'd" :D And Joe and I both used both hooks, too~
  • Wow! Two ninjas in as many.... well.. a week or so....

    Ninjoe'd !!!

    ;' )
  • They're out of McNuggets, this is an emergency!
    The basement where I was held was stocked with Tofurkey!
    I escaped the Vegans with my carnivore teeth
    gnawing quite easily through the all-cotton sheath.

    Next: "Frivolity is a stern taskmaster"
  • (wow... calling 911 was overreacting, but not offering her money back is just ridiculous. It's not as though she'd actually purchased something and then changed her mind and taken it back to the store.)
  • edited March 2009
    Sorry, Tom my work this week will be a day too late,
    I can't do what I'm s'posed to 'cause I must procrastinate,
    I can't always do what you ask, master
    Frivolity is a stern taskmaster

    (the meter changes because I had Blue Sunny Day in my head as I wrote the first two lines.)

    ETA: new hook from twitter: Doesn't feel completely like death today.
  • it doesn't feel like death today
    so hopefully if i just pay
    my taxes death will stay away
    hey wait - oh god - it's 7th may
    oh hell - but wait! a late fee might delay the day
    it doesn't feel - completely - like death today

    next:
    a liver's a terrible thing to waste
  • (Maybe it's just the way I'm choosing to hear these snippets in my head, but do a lot of these pieces sound like they're out of Monty Python movies?)
  • edited March 2009
    The forecast is calling for raining doom
    With a slight chance of blowing winds of change
    The ground is shaking with a thunderous boom
    And dark swirling clouds of” ain’t that strange?”
    Our timeline is over my dearest friend
    What we’ve had here is soon to be gone away
    But because of my feelings for you, this end
    Doesn't feel completely like death today.

    ETA: Ninja'd!! darn it!

    Three08's hook
    next:
    a liver's a terrible thing to waste
  • A liver's a terrible thing to waste.
    But Lord, I want to have just one more taste.
    So please, Oh God, with some post-haste.
    Have the cashier open these iron gates.

    Another story inspired hook: This is where jingle trucks go to die.
  • edited March 2009
    Bright mauvey shade of hot pink on the side
    Of an Aqua Maroon spotted freight hauler’s ride
    For miles their carcasses litter the road
    There’s a truck like a circus, there’s one like a toad
    These bright colored trucks really capture your eye
    Highway One, this is where jingle trucks go to die.

    Next Hook:
    Am I not happy?
  • edited March 2009
    Look at my face
    Am I not happy?
    Stop asking me please
    If I'm not happy

    I do what you say
    I say what you please
    Since that day
    I've been down on my knees

    Am I not happy now?

    ETA: Ah yes, my 'hook': "Oh my! I got ninja'd again."
  • edited March 2009
    All I do is think,
    like a psychotic shrink,
    about the perplexities of life
    but through all the strife
    I come upon the realization
    that I can't grip this alien sensation,
    this unknown entity,
    welling up inside of me.
    But if I can't feel joy
    watching my son play with a toy,
    or not cringe at something sappy,
    then...Am I not happy?

    (I'm sixteen so I don't actually have any children, that I know of!, but it seemed like it would fit together better with that bit in. Also, I meant the main subject to be asking themself if they were happy or not.)

    ETA: Grrr, it looks like I've been ninja'd by Encubed = / So the next person can go with whichever hook they like more.
    Also, we should figure out a way to keep these mix ups from happening.

    Next Hook:
    a swaggering man came walking in
  • A swaggering man came walking in,
    and beat me by just a short time.
    Oh My! I've been ninja'd again,
    by a swaggering man who could rhyme.

    Next hook: Maybe I used too many ninjas.
  • A swaggering man came walking in
    Took the stall next to mine as he gave me a grin
    I should have known by the way he swaggered
    That wide stance of his, it must be Ted Haggard

    (was that his name? don't remember)

    Next: Fourteen in a row, and I'm only half finished.
  • 28 seconds. Grrrr.
  • edited March 2009
    A blur of black
    a swift attack
    a butterknife
    that ends my life

    I was begging him "please!
    Not my arteries!"
    So he went for the veins
    And I felt the pain

    I thought one thing as I died then
    Oh my! I got ninja-d again!

    Next hook: "There was a holdup at mcdonalds yesterday"
  • what i did was wrote it up and then cut it and refreshed and since no-one had posted i pasted and sent.

    another alternative would be that as soon as you spot one you wanna pick up, post "taken" and then compose your piece and then edit and stick it in.
  • I was slavin' away
    Earnin' my pay
    Everyday

    Flippin burgers was crap
    Man I felt like a sap
    So I thought up a trap

    And now everything's going my way
    I'm done flippin burgers for pay
    Cause there was a holdup at McDonalds yesterday

    *Big Band Outro*

    .......And it was meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

    Next hook: "My monkey's going to hell".
  • edited March 2009
    There was a holdup at McDonalds yesterday,
    Fourteen in a row, and I'm only half finished.
    Then thirty two Arby's, a dozen BKs,
    I'm really going out in a flourish.

    I'll finish off every fast food place I can
    My cohorts and I on a rampage.
    Maybe I used too many ninjas?
    Is there such a thing in this age?

    We're the cholesterol killers
    The enders of fat
    And we won't stop 'til everyone's healthy

    We're the cholesterol killers
    And that's simply that
    So put down your Slurpee and drink tea!

    (I want, like, super triple bonus points for cleaning up ALL THREE hooks~)

    ETA: DAMMIT ENCUBED! :P Use his hook, I GUESS~ : "My monkey's going to hell".
  • Am I the only one who thinks we could do a series of songs made up of these mini-songs, ala They Might Be Giants' Fingertips? We could have one person record each hook then add them all together!
  • edited March 2009
    I don't see any problem with multiple people picking up each hook, it's interesting to see the different approaches.

    My monkey gets sizzled, sometimes.
    My monkey's got a gamey taste and twenty secret herbs.
    My monkey acts evil, sometimes.
    My monkey doesn't see or hear or speak like those proverbs

    but every monkey's got a mean streak,
    it doesn't matter if he don't peek,
    he'll see the evil on his own, bec-
    ause nothing ever makes a monkey love you.

    My monkey gets saut
  • edited March 2009
    (My goodness! This thread has more ninjas than a ninja convention!)

    Don't get too comfortable with everything I gave you,
    I'm going to come return someday.
    You think you have a right to all the stuff I gave you,
    But I'm going to take it all away.

    Next hook: "It's guys like me who put pennies on railroad tracks"
  • I'm the reason you'll sit on a thumbtack
    Im the reason you won't get your cat back
    I pull too many pranks
    I rob too many banks
    Your lives have failed
    Your trains have derailed
    And It's guys like me who put pennies on the railroad tracks

    Next hook "all beacuse I had too much coffee"
  • Mitch, if it makes you feel any better, I liekd your McDonalds one more than my own.
  • IranupthehilltwomilesthenwentbackaroundrescuedthreecatsandpickedupelevencentsonthegroundandI'mgoingalldayyeahbabythisismyway ...

    ... ALL BECAUSE I HAD TOO MUCH COFFEE!!!!
    Hook: "Guess I'm too hot to handle."
  • edited March 2009
    I light up their lives
    but don't have anyone,
    'cause I'm nobody's mooon
    and I'm nobody's sun, (or: I'm a nobody sun)
    I'm just spinning out here
    all alone in the cold
    'cause I'm too hot to handle
    guess I'm too hot to handle.

    For the hook I'll go with the one I thought of earlier: I've never been a waiter.
  • The girl that I love is with some other man
    She knows that I love her, and she's got a plan
    Once he croaks she says that I can date her
    But I guess I've never been a waiter

    Every single day, I follow her home
    When they leave to get dinner, I follow some more
    In my disguise, I poison the wrong fried potater
    Oops! I've never been a waiter

    Now she's dead and I'm in jail
    I really wish I could have got out on bail
    I plan my escape, to get out sooner not later
    I guess I've never been a waiter

    My mom brought me cake, my plan was real sly
    But what's inside? Nothing more than a lie
    It takes way longer with a cheese grater
    Now I've become a woman hater
    I guess I've never been a waiter

    The next one was going to be about getting *ahem* pounded by an inmate and how waiters are effeminate, but that's not true and I wouldn't want to offend anyone, plus I need to go to work now.

    Next hook: Where did all this money come from?
  • I don't remember what happened last night
    I was just drinking
    but I have this feeling
    That something just isn't quite right.

    an uncomfortable feeling in my bum,
    and a tattoo that says, "for hire"
    writ across my back entire
    and where did all this money come from?

    No I don't remember what happend last night.

    new hook: Squids feel funny in the dark
  • (Aw man, that sits out there for five hours so I finally write up a verse, only to be beaten by four minutes? I'm posting it anyway)

    Where did all this money come from?
    My uncle wasn't rich,
    My girlfriend's not a millionaire,
    It must've been my wish.

    I found an antique oil lamp,
    And thought that it was funny.
    I rubbed it's side,
    And then I cried,
    "I wish for lots of money."

    Use rob's hook, though: "Squids feel funny in the dark "
  • Aw man, that sits out there for five hours so I finally write up a verse, only to be beaten by four minutes? I'm posting it anyway)
    I think this is the most-ninja'd thread of all time, so I wouldn't feel bad about it. :)
  • Concrete blocks are dragging me down
    Some people up there want me to drown
    I feel the water taking me to my hearse
    But, all in all, the darkness is worse

    Looking down, can't even see my hand
    Something touches my leg that's as rough as sand
    I hope to god that was a squid and not a shark
    If it was, take my word, squids feel funny in the dark

    Next hook "I don't think, I drink"
  • edited March 2009
    My body crushed in sticky grips
    Flesh ripped away in bloody strips
    I’m laughing though just like the shark
    Squids feel funny in the dark

    ETA: NINJAS!!!

    Pies Hook:
    Next hook "I don't think, I drink"
  • edited March 2009
    i know how we got here - you're no fun
    yes, all i wanna do is play in the sun
    and muck about with a mustard-filled water gun
    get drunk, pass out, and have to run
    but no one else says- you're the only one -
    that i don't think

    i could give them the real world but the real world's boring
    those playing the home game are, by now, snoring
    cos soliloquizing will ever lose to whoring
    when the nielsen man tells us who they're ignoring
    so sure i drink

    i'll drink and i'll smoke and i'll screw like a rabbit
    i'll chase nuns around til one trips on her habit
    or jump from a plane, sure! i find life and grab it

    cos when this all is over and the cameras all have gone,
    will anyone else care about your silly little facts?
    ain't no one ever leaves their tube on c-span for too long
    they'd rather tv'd eat their brains and give them cataracts.

    hook: "it's not you, but it's not me either"

    dang, that's twice i've ninjaed you, gle3nn. sorry!
  • edited March 2009
    I don't think I’ll get ninja'd on this one.
    If I do I will need a strong drink.
    Though this challenge is tough it is quite fun
    Now I need some more time just to think
    This process alone is frustrating.
    Will I get it done and be the first?
    All those ninja's are out there and waiting
    And my drinking's not because of thirst
    I don't think I'll get ninja'd on this go
    But wait let me finish this drink
    The liquid is making my thoughts slow
    And slippery like an ice rink
    I need to get myself together
    Finish this and just hope it don't stink
    I don't think......
    I drink

    @%%^#! Ninja's!!!

    Three08's hook
    hook: "it's not you, but it's not me either"
  • Not my lyrics, but I feel like they belong here at this point:
    I woke up this morning and everything was different
    Something was strange in the air
    I woke up this morning and everything was different
    I knew that the ninjas had been there

    I looked all around my bedroom, underneath the dresser
    Behind the bed, but nothing could be found
    There was nothing left behind them,
    nowhere that I could find them
    No fingerprints or crumbs on the ground

    The ninjas are deadly and silent
    They're also unspeakably violent
    They speak Japanese, they do whatever they please
    And sometimes they vacation in Ireland

    The ninjas are deadly and silent
    They're also unspeakably violent
    They speak Japanese, they do whatever they please
    And if you tear off their masks they'll be smiling
    Just so it doesn't get lost:
    hook: "it's not you, but it's not me either"
  • Oh tell me who sang tales of an unsheather,
    Oh tell me so I can alert a Westmeather,
    Who gave you these lines, who earned us this breather?
    You say it's not you, but it's not me either.
  • (Next hook?)
  • The next hook is, "Oh no, I guess I forgot."
  • edited March 2009
    Oh no, I guess I forgot,
    My wallet on the way out the door.
    Now I ran out of gas*,
    And I had to skip class,
    And my stomach wants to settle a score.
    I don't want to forget my wallet anymore.

    *Petrol for non-US readers, but that doesn't rhyme.

    Next Hook: "If life were scored like golf"
  • (Ninja Convention)
    Huh? I don't see any... oh.
  • I like The Onion's ninja convention better. I'm too lazy to post the link though... :/
  • All the girls would come my way
    If life were like a swim relay
    I would truly be an ace
    If life were like a distance race
    I would be the perfect catch
    If life was like a croquet match
    And I'd be David Hasselhoff
    If life were scored like golf

    Next Hook: "I would jump if I were you"
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