Reference Desk

You seem to be a karaoke pro.

You seem to be a karaoke pro. Any tips for those just getting their feet wet? Songs to avoid/bring the house down?

 

I can only give you my personal opinion as a participant and audience member, of course.  Above all, remember why you’re there—why everyone’s there.  To drink and sing.  Not to listen.  They’re listening to you while they’re waiting their turn, and vice versa.  So it’s only polite to try to provide a little entertainment.  There’s two extremes, there’s “I love this song but he/she’s AWFUL” and “I don’t know this song at all and he/she’s AWFUL”.  The former is at least cringe-inducingly entertaining.  The latter is just bad. 

 

People like to sing along, especially after a few drinks, so something nostalgically popular will probably get them going, whether you’re nailing it or not, ie. songs off of Pearl Jam’s first album.  There was a cute, petite girl with little pigtails and without a mighty baritone doing “Jeremy” a few nights ago.  She didn’t have Vedder Thunder but we didn’t much care and could barely hear her over our own bellowing.  Being continually half a measure off through the entirety of “Dear Prudence” though…no one’s gonna sing along, just groan and laugh.  I’ve mentioned the great Bad and Obvious elsewhere: Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Touch Myself”/”These Boots Are Made For Walking” are the respective gender standards.  The men tend to mutter and wander, or drunkenly shout, and the women tend to be acting (and presumably feeling) “sexy” and then pop that balloon with miserably underpowered singing.

 

If one is going to do “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Under Pressure” then one should be great.  They’re not the biggest clichés but you don’t often get a real tour de force.

 

The bottom line is that it’s better for everyone present if you sing something you can sing, something you’ve checked on before showing up or previously sung in some other situation.  Sometimes the bar is set so low that blowing everyone off the stage is pretty damn easy.  If you do that with a song they don’t know and love, well…at least you know you gave them quality.  If they do know it, you’re a friggin hero, especially if it’s something not everybody else is doing.  But whatever you choose, choose something you can put some oomph behind.  On key but meek but can be a little hard to sit through too.  And I don’t recommend, or at least don’t particularly enjoy, radical reinterpretations.  This one guy did “Creep” and it sounded like Henry Rollins was covering it.  Sing it the way people know it, because that’s why you and they like it!

 

And you’ll definitely hit a wall sometimes.  I’m awful with “Mayor of Simpleton”.  I love that song but tried it once and it just didn’t work.  I can’t sing it like Andy and don’t know how else to do it.  Boo! 

People always tell you, "write what you know."

People always tell you, "write what you know." How do you write without your writing becoming autobiographical? Who are some solid, contemporary writers of literary fiction that is realistic but not autobiographical?

I won't pretend to say I know what's good, but I can make a few personal recommendations. 

The first question really interests me in that I think it's something both writers and audiences have struggled with.  Me, I think some people take that phrase waaaay too seriously and literally.  Sometimes it sells a hell of a lot of books though, but if you've gone and written your roman a clef, where do you go from there?  There's tons of books that are transparently based on someone's experiences (it's usually right there in the jacket bio).  And thus someone's managed to transcribe their experience and change the names.  I've groused about the number of novels written by publishing publicists about publishing publicists, but it's not an isolated thing.  If I may advise, I think a writer should be inspired by what they know.  You can take that all the way into magical realism and such, in how Neil Gaiman roadtripped around America and explained what he experienced through mythology in American Gods.  But you can also simply take your job, trip, family and give yourself an interesting framework.  Catch 22 didn't happen to Joseph Heller, but he had a world to put a story in. 

Write about feelings that you know, not precisely what happened.  Write about things that happened to other people you know.  Write about an environment that you know, but come up with an interesting story first!  "I was in Chicago in the early 90s, I know where my characters would be in that setting" (something that the relocation of High Fidelity pulled off nicely and unobtrusively).  Write something that's informed by what you know, otherwise, why not just be an essayist?  And there's nothing wrong with that at all.  Me, I can't make up an original story, so I'd be just as guilty of hacky autobiographical fiction if I tried. 

There's simply tons of realistic fiction for children and young adults, adult fiction seems to have a genre majority (although Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell are doing alright writing what they know) and you can probably cherry pick any number of Newbery or Pulitzer winners for plots that sound interesting to you.  I tend to like my realism humorous.  Recent fun has been had with King Dork, I Love You Beth Cooper, Millard Fillmore Mon Amour, Which Brings Me To You and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.  Of course there's also the aforementioned High Fidelity and the rest of Nick Hornby's books.  I don't think Nick exactly lived Rob Fleming's life, but he knew where he lived and worked and felt, and I knew how he felt too.  After all, a setting's just a setting--real, relatable feelings and situations are what stick to the reader. 

how do I explain who Robyn Hitchcock is to people unfamiliar with his work?

How do I explain who Robyn Hitchcock is to people unfamiliar with his work?
I don't think he has any radio hits to draw upon and I don't think his cameos in the Manchurian Candidate remake were memorable enough to stick with people the way Jonathan Richman's in There's Something About Mary does. I don't want to >have< to refer people to Wikipedia.

You could say a true believer of Bob Dylan, Syd Barrett and Roger McGuinn who is profoundly British Eccentric, a boss guitarist with a jangling Telecaster and deadpan, surrealist humor.  Or you could say to think of "Reckoning" by a nutty English guy.  But these are words, just like Wikipedia.  So go for the other internet gratification:

The "Uncorrected Personality Traits" and "Birds In Perspex" clips that are also listed if you go to the actual page are also well worth checking out.  Too bad none of the real promo videos seem to be out there.  "So You Think You're In Love" ought to appeal to anyone who'd see it!   

In short, is it even possible to listen to any of the Barron's 'electric tonalities' other than the Forbidden Planet score?

OK..I love the score that Louis and Bebe Barron made for Forbidden Planet (sounds that are referred to in the credits as 'electric tonalities') and I have the soundtrack CD, but I want to hear more. Unfortunately, even though they were fairly prolific, I can't find any recordings of any of the other stuff. In short, is it even possible to listen to any of the Barron's 'electric tonalities' other than the Forbidden Planet score? I will be so happy if this is true!

You'd think, right?

The first thing I thought of was this radio story from last year:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4486840

While they kept on composing, even after their divorce, and you can find lists of compositions, there don't seem to be any commercially available recordings except Forbidden Planet.  Every recording I turned up with their work on it was a compilation featuring that score.  The 2000 piece "Mixed Emotions" is just under six minutes and doesn't seem to be anywhere either.   

But never trust a librarian who says "it doesn't exist".  And I never do. 

P.S. While we're on the subject, "The Male Monster From The Id" by The Chills is a really good song.

If you were making a mix tape/cd of covers, what would you definitely include on it?

  Personal prejudice vetoes apply of course.

What's a good criteria?  Not making you run for the original.

(featuring guest memory-jogger T. Stubblefield)

Tindersticks "Here"

Robyn Hitchcock "Kung Fu Fighting" (Understudy: "Eight Miles High")

The Wedding Present "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family"

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "I'm Gonna Kill That Woman" or "Tower of Song"

Roy Orbison "The Comedians"

The Clash "Brand New Cadillac"

Manfred Mann "The Mighty Quinn"

The Gourds "Gin & Juice"

The Pastels "Different Drum"

Ted Leo "Since U Been Gone/Maps" or "Six Months in a Leaky Boat"

Bauhaus "Telegram Sam" (live "Gotham" version)

Luna "Indian Summer" or "Season of the Witch" or  "Bonnie & Clyde" (either version)

Quincy Jones "Peter Gunn"

Sloan "On the Road Again/Transona Five"

Bettie Serveert "I'll Keep It With Mine"

Dean Martin "Houston"

Rowland S. Howard & Lydia Lunch "Some Velvet Morning"

Love and Rockets "Bound for Hell"/Grant Green "Go Down, Moses"/The Animals "House of the Rising Sun" (bit of a cheat as they're 'Traditional', but still...)

John Zorn w/Boredoms "T.V. Eye"

Buddy Holly "Bo Diddley"

Depeche Mode "Route 66" (Beatmasters Mix)

John Cale "Hallelujah"

Devo "Satisfaction"

Elvis Presley "The Impossible Dream"