don't give yourself away
Sep. 27th, 2002 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkWe went for a rather late dinner at the Japanese restaurant Sakura
in Frisco, one town over. Soon it transpired that Friday serves as karaoke night at this restaurant. At first, the notion of singing before strangers did not appeal. The crowd was very congenial, though--lots of college kids who could sing well, but chose to do fun stuff like a rollicking "Love Shack". Soon I was poring over the karaoke song book. What an extensive catalog this place had! But it was a pretty conventional retro set--no Joy Division, no "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", "Born in the USA" rather than "Born to Run", "Losing My Religion" but no "Radio Free Europe", "Time" but not "Comfortably Numb", Blink 182 and Green Day but no Pistols and no "I Believe" and no "ca plane pour moi", and nothing by Rickie Lee. Hell, I would have settled for Echo's "Rescue". I debated inwardly---what would I sing? I looked long and hard at "I Can't Tell You Why", because I have always been vain about my falsetto, but I wasn't sure I could hit the very highest notes in my dotage, so I passed it by (n.b.: if they'd had "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us", I'd have sung it in the key of high high C if need be). Finally, I made my choice, the kind waitress took my slip of paper to the DJ, and I was in the line. One of the waitresses came and talked to us, and it turned out her *mother* was five years younger than I am. My wife and I discussed how few alto songs there really were for her to sing, as she has a rather alto voice. When we heard someone do a very workmanlike job of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams", we pored through the books for "Rhiannon". But the book only had "Dreams". I thought about doing "Little Red Corvette", and showing my inner Prince, as this was the song I chose years ago during our law firm retreat on a boat just off Marina del Rey. I believe that regular readers of this journal will realize that I am not the sort of person who immediately strikes one as a "Little Red Corvette" man, so it was a song with which I was able to bring down the house. But I wanted to try something familiar and easy but not quite purple.
Finally, after the entire University of North Texas voice department proved to me over and over how little business I have singing (although I did learn from one earnest fellow how impossible it is to keep up with the Velvets version of "Sweet Jane" during karaoke), my turn came.
Soon I was belting "Mama told me, yes, she told me, I'd meet girls like you...." and the rest of the words to Cheap Trick's "Surrender". Now most of the kids in the audience were not born when "Surrender" came out, and the giggles in the audience seemed to be folks who for the first time "got" the silliness built into the song. I look nothing like Robin Zander, but I can sure do his more rat-voiced vocal stylings. Note to self: work on more hand gestures than a cinematic rake of fingers through hair. I got a solid round of applause and a high 5 from the manager. But my wife said I should have sung something deep timbred, as screechy is not my best vocal tone. I'm not so sure.
I still wish they had had "Love will Tear Us Apart". My goodness, I just realized--I didn't check to see if they had "Linger"! Now I'll never get to feel my inner Dolores! Hey, and what's up with a karaoke machine that has "Changes", "Suffragette City" and "Ziggy Stardust" but no "Young Americans" or "Space Oddity". Ah well, I can't complain--after all, I passed up "Amie", "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Still Haven't Found what I'm looking For", so what right have I to complain?
The problem is that it takes much caffeine to keep me active enough to sing karaoke. I must have drunk 12 diet Cokes. Estimated next night of sleep--first Thursday in October.
Happiness is having a wife who can listen to a flat-voiced spouse sing karaoke and still mention the potential for karaoke at her firm's annual xmas party without a quaver in her voice.
in Frisco, one town over. Soon it transpired that Friday serves as karaoke night at this restaurant. At first, the notion of singing before strangers did not appeal. The crowd was very congenial, though--lots of college kids who could sing well, but chose to do fun stuff like a rollicking "Love Shack". Soon I was poring over the karaoke song book. What an extensive catalog this place had! But it was a pretty conventional retro set--no Joy Division, no "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", "Born in the USA" rather than "Born to Run", "Losing My Religion" but no "Radio Free Europe", "Time" but not "Comfortably Numb", Blink 182 and Green Day but no Pistols and no "I Believe" and no "ca plane pour moi", and nothing by Rickie Lee. Hell, I would have settled for Echo's "Rescue". I debated inwardly---what would I sing? I looked long and hard at "I Can't Tell You Why", because I have always been vain about my falsetto, but I wasn't sure I could hit the very highest notes in my dotage, so I passed it by (n.b.: if they'd had "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us", I'd have sung it in the key of high high C if need be). Finally, I made my choice, the kind waitress took my slip of paper to the DJ, and I was in the line. One of the waitresses came and talked to us, and it turned out her *mother* was five years younger than I am. My wife and I discussed how few alto songs there really were for her to sing, as she has a rather alto voice. When we heard someone do a very workmanlike job of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams", we pored through the books for "Rhiannon". But the book only had "Dreams". I thought about doing "Little Red Corvette", and showing my inner Prince, as this was the song I chose years ago during our law firm retreat on a boat just off Marina del Rey. I believe that regular readers of this journal will realize that I am not the sort of person who immediately strikes one as a "Little Red Corvette" man, so it was a song with which I was able to bring down the house. But I wanted to try something familiar and easy but not quite purple.
Finally, after the entire University of North Texas voice department proved to me over and over how little business I have singing (although I did learn from one earnest fellow how impossible it is to keep up with the Velvets version of "Sweet Jane" during karaoke), my turn came.
Soon I was belting "Mama told me, yes, she told me, I'd meet girls like you...." and the rest of the words to Cheap Trick's "Surrender". Now most of the kids in the audience were not born when "Surrender" came out, and the giggles in the audience seemed to be folks who for the first time "got" the silliness built into the song. I look nothing like Robin Zander, but I can sure do his more rat-voiced vocal stylings. Note to self: work on more hand gestures than a cinematic rake of fingers through hair. I got a solid round of applause and a high 5 from the manager. But my wife said I should have sung something deep timbred, as screechy is not my best vocal tone. I'm not so sure.
I still wish they had had "Love will Tear Us Apart". My goodness, I just realized--I didn't check to see if they had "Linger"! Now I'll never get to feel my inner Dolores! Hey, and what's up with a karaoke machine that has "Changes", "Suffragette City" and "Ziggy Stardust" but no "Young Americans" or "Space Oddity". Ah well, I can't complain--after all, I passed up "Amie", "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Still Haven't Found what I'm looking For", so what right have I to complain?
The problem is that it takes much caffeine to keep me active enough to sing karaoke. I must have drunk 12 diet Cokes. Estimated next night of sleep--first Thursday in October.
Happiness is having a wife who can listen to a flat-voiced spouse sing karaoke and still mention the potential for karaoke at her firm's annual xmas party without a quaver in her voice.
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no subject
Date: 2002-09-27 09:31 pm (UTC)Joy Division--the Wedding Band
Date: 2002-09-27 10:39 pm (UTC)"and she told me all the secrets of her past and said...I've lost control again"
The wedding recessional--
"I did everything, everything I wanted, I let them use you, for their own ends"...and
the send off song at the reception--
"why is the bedroom so cold? you're turned away on your side..."
Hmmm....Ian Curtis, weddings, could work :)
I wanted Gymnopedies III as our wedding recessional, but the organist pleaded ignorance and we were stuck with Purcell yet again :). I'm only getting married this once, so I won't get to hold out for a Harry Partch second time around!
24 hour party people in Texas?
Date: 2002-09-27 09:49 pm (UTC)Yeah, I didn't know anything about Cheap Trick until last year when MTV did a "greatest songs" retrospective or something like that. "Surrender" is indeed a great song.
Had a friend who did a bang-up Prince impersonation in a local tryout for "Star Search," all those years ago.
Have never done karaoke. Driving home from work, independent of having read this post and singing at the top of my lungs, I had a revelation that "Blue Monday" would make a great karaoke song for me, and thought about the unlikelihood of seeing it in a bar's catalog.
Have you seen "Duets"? };)=
Re: 24 hour party people in Texas?
Date: 2002-09-27 10:34 pm (UTC)Karaoke is remarkably fun, and "Blue Monday" would be a great song to karaoke to. A few alterna places have songs like that, but most of the places I end up at seem more conventional. Of course, this one was odd! They had "What's Up, Pussycat", but NOT "It's Not Unusual"! What's up with that, indeed?
I've missed Duets, though I like Gwynnie and have to imagine that she'd be good in it, so maybe it's a rental. Actually, on second thought, Gwynnie's latest "men aren't good enough for me" quotes, though probably true, meant I've sworn her off for a bit, but I'm sure I'll be back.
Actually Dallas is one of those 24 hour towns, altho I live in the high tech suburbs, which are more like 24 hour broadband towns!
Cheap Trick was so fun. Sparks with a great guitarist, the Sweet only not so precious, and rarely has Beatlemania been so unashamedly embraced....I'd love to see them in concert, but I never have!
chuckling...
Date: 2002-09-27 10:46 pm (UTC)you should see duets. oddly, i have seen it on one of our premium cable movie channels 3 times. i rarely watch anything that low-key that many times! you would enjoy it, for sure.
have you seen 24 hr pp? i was just recommending it to my beloved john cusack in "high fidelity" boss, afraid that he might not be into manchester music. he's not a fan, but is aware, and wants to see it.
Re: chuckling...
Date: 2002-09-27 10:52 pm (UTC)The maddening thing now is not being unable to understand Cocteau twins lyrics, it's being able to look them up on google. In a related vein, I'll never forget when I first read all those lyrics to Murmur and Reckoning...they are so much better garbled! In REM's early days, of course, they changed from tour to tour.
Do you remember Magma? That band, kinda a Europe model for the Residents' Eskimo side,
actually invented its own language for its own saga...very odd, creepy wonderful stuff!
The problem with the C. Twins is not only are they hard to understand, but the words sound appealing...that's the story of my life...drawn to things I can't understand but know how to tap my toes to....which makes the Sundays, by the way, such a relief, because you get that Manny penumbra, but you can hear what she's saying....every movement needs a popularizer,and I don't think that the 80s cool stuff is well enough served by the Cure :)!
Magma
Date: 2002-09-27 11:01 pm (UTC)Boss mentioned that he liked Portishead. Yet another.
Re: Magma
Date: 2002-09-27 11:30 pm (UTC)I love quirky music....
no subject
Date: 2002-09-27 10:16 pm (UTC)It doesn't really matter cause I burst into song whenever I feel like it. Diana said living with me was like living in a continuous sing-a-long. Really everything is a song cue.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-27 10:36 pm (UTC)LA has great karaoke, of course...maybe you should give it a go!
no subject
Date: 2002-09-27 10:49 pm (UTC)I love singing, but I'm not professionally trained. It's all a bit of fun for me.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-27 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-28 08:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-28 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-28 08:54 am (UTC)i have one minor thing to say as a Californian. the town is not Frisco, it is San Francisco. it is not the same as calling Dallas the "big D."
Frisco, Texas
Date: 2002-09-28 09:28 am (UTC)But here the town IS Frisco. It's Frisco, Texas. It's one town over from my town.
In Dallas, by the way, we do use the term "Big D" from time to time, so it is not quite the anathema that
"Frisco" is in SF. But I do appreciate the comment, though!
Re: Frisco, Texas
Date: 2002-09-28 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-28 03:10 pm (UTC)