The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Some good points, JB. There are much bigger fish to fry in the world. And yes, this is very much so the nature of the beast (which is why I haven't even considered quitting doing stuff like GoM).

The thing I agree with you most on is that we should be enjoying these songs. So who made the best GoM tune, folks?

I'm split between Glenn Case f/ Plat and The Hell Yeahs.

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ah, man. jb is hilarious and bitingly insightful when you aren't on the receiving end of his writing.

Frankly, I don't think there's been a whole lot of overreaction in this thread. This fight is a system designed for giving and receiving, and it's perfectly acceptable to be disappointed with finding yourself on the short end of that deal.

And if these fights are not important enough to get worked up over (or to voice a desire for accountability), then maybe they're not important enough to bother with in the first place. Given Eddie's posture entering this project, it doesn't seem out of line at all that he'd wash his hands of the whole thing.

What's more, saying "Jeez, it's just a sidefight, why all the overanalysis" would be like cheapening the original intent to better match the final results.

All this said, I like these fights, and I wanna do another one. And if my song-gift-person wishes to substitute a delivery of beer and donuts for my pending cover, that would be perfectly acceptable.

No worries John. Though now I'll be trying to guess which you picked. 25% chance, not so bad (compared to lottery odds, anyway).

Unless there's another Pat in this GoM... In which case, let's band together and record under the name "Patty Cake". We'll do Sanrio influenced songs of Patty Hearst's trial transcripts in the general style of Cake. I'll bring the doughnuts, you bring the beer, heh.

jimtyrrell wrote:And if my song-gift-person wishes to substitute a delivery of beer and donuts for my pending cover, that would be perfectly acceptable.

Man, I wish I could go down to the donut shop and liquor store and just drop off some mp3's!

Geoff WreckdoM wrote:Telstar is awesome

Man, I really got into that song, I'd even go so far as to say it defined my Christmas this year. I just played it round and round, there's something so hypnotically spacey about that melody, I was wishing by the end that I had a full orchestra to go completely overboard with. I have to thank you as well for choosing an instrumental, that way there was a fighting chance the result would be acceptable.

I wanna thank The Rinky Dinks again for my cover too. It's so good, I love that song and I'm glad I chose it cos all my other choices are a bit dirgy, but I'm still so surprised that you've (to my mind anyway) managed to improve on the Nick Drake version. Even I couldn't have been bothered to work out the finger picking but you got it spot on and then there's all the other parts adding texture but in a really minimalist and tasteful way; also I love the Irish twang in your voice. I know whenever I listen to Nick Drake from now I'll be thinking "Rinky Dink would've had a glockenspiel there that would sounded sweet". rock.

Without Niv and Eddie neither of these covers would exist which is something I don't even want to think about. y'all should listen to Rinky Dinks cover. Would it be weird of me to suggest that the slackers are the people who lose out most here? regardless of what we think of them, cos in the end they did nothing and it's always better doing somehting than nothing.

Heather & Phil, you have my sympathies, but after 3 GoM's you have done 3 kick-ass covers, I don't believe that they weren't as rewarding to do as whatever you would have got in return. This is beside the point of GoM but it's something.

Heh, giving and receiving.

Damn.

WreckdoM. That rocked.

wormsweater wrote:

Niveous wrote:Wormsweater- you were just in the It Belongs To Me fight. You had the time to do a song for yourself recently but you left someone else in the lurch. That's low.

This is very true. We're sorry to Niveous, our Coveree, and Eddie. If we're put on a blacklist, that is totally fair... I would like to make excuses, but I can't. I could have done the cover by myself, but I wanted my band-mate to help me make it sound better, and I'm having a hard time getting him to help me. (That wasn't an excuse, I just said I could have done it myself; we don't want stuff to sound like a joke unless it is.) We're trying to finish it, and we won't send it in to be part of the voting, we'll just send it to our song-giver.

Shuu, If I would of known I could of helped you out, or done a collab, if you wanted to. We probably live 20+ miles from each other.

This is our first GOM and because we left it to the last minute we nearly didn't get it finished.
Anyway, we'd like to thank FurryPedro for including a Nick Drake tune in his selections as we're both fans of Nick Drake and it gave me a chance to mess about with my new variax (changing between alternate tunings at the flick of a switch without having to fiddle with tuning pegs being one of its features). You've been very kind in your reviews, which is greatly appreciated, Mrs Rinkydink deserves the credit for this cover as I only twiddled the knobs and played guitar (which is surprisingly easy when its tuned to ND's tuning). we're really glad ya like it

And a massive thank you to The Hell Yeahs for our gift of 'Sometimes you just can't win', it is a brilliant cover, an excellent interpretation while still keeping the spirit of the original. Supafine
We also would like to cover one of your GOM tunes not only because yer stocking is empty or because you gave us a great cover, but cause we wanna

Regarding the argument about signing up for GOM and not making a GOM, which is worse:
not receiving a GOM or receiving a really bad GOM?

on the positive side Heather and Phil, you're now getting 3 or 4 (or more) gifts, although some of the people who have stepped into the breach might not deliver, so you may still only get one GOM and a bit later than expected

I remember when i was wee, all our christmas presents were bought from a catalogue and they never arrived by christmas, usually a few weeks later, oh how we cried, (ah the pathos) but when they arrived it was like christmas all over again only better cause we actually had presents

So, no posts since last week. I guess this whole GOM idea is fairly dead. Any word on voting and stuff?

luke, thanks for the blue velvet cover. I put it there as kind of a safety, and you went in weird and unexpected places with it. which is cool. I like the original's melody. the Bobby Vinton version was perfect for the movie Blue Velvet, and yours would be appropriate in Lost Highway. good job. sorry i didn't mention anything earlier, but i've been busy and hadn't heard it on decent speakers and needed to warm up to it.

Rachael, if you're out there, let me know if you liked Say Yes!

Heather. Redmon. wrote:So, no posts since last week. I guess this whole GOM idea is fairly dead. Any word on voting and stuff?

I was kind of waiting to see if maybe your original giftgiver would step up. I didn't want to turn in a version of the same tune they had just gotten around to working on.

That said, I think all reasonable grace periods can be considered over. A gift is in the works, Redmons.

As for voting, since there are too many songs for a Silly Poll, I say toss your votes up right here on the thread.

My vote is for WreckdoM's "Digging in the Dirt"

(Narrowly beating out "Pillars" & "Sometimes You Just Can't Win")

I had been tired of the original thanks to all the FX commercials but the WreckdoM version revitalized the song for me.

Okay. Mine is done, minus collaboration.

Jim Tyrrell, this one is for you!

Sorry for the delay. I will gladly buy you donuts and beer if we meet again in Atlanta. (or if someone invents beer&donutpal.com)

http://kni.songhole.org/mp3s/Ken_Wires.mp3

Ken

This is great! Thanks so much, Ken! You kicked this song's ass.



And hey: Here's one for the Redmons!

What Difference Does It Make?

Wow Jim! That was great! It was very true to the original and I especially liked the the ending. You nailed the "oh my sacred one" part. Thank you for the gift! You went above and beyond!

Yeah - good work Jim, though the first few seconds made me think you were about to break into Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster"

jimtyrrell wrote:

And hey: Here's one for the Redmons!

Ah man!!!! we're covering that one too, hopefully finished tomorrow.

Jim of Seattle, you're probably disappointed. Why? Because those meddling kids (uncapitalized) came along and shat all over this beautiful riverboat folksong, Shenandoah. You're probably thinking, Damn, why couldn't someone like jb or a Durand or, heck, even Those Meddling Kids, have been you're gift giver?

Well, instead you got Phunt. More specifically Egg, but who's keeping track.

Now I don't intend to make good by posting this, because this one isn't exactly regular either. It's just another weird, disjointed phuntsong. But it just so happens that we made this other version of Shenandoah, and it might as well be posted. Consider it a supplement to GOM 2007.

Our unknowing collaborator is Johnny Cashpoint. Phil Redmon and Brian F have a tiny bit of input, too.

Disappointed isn't really the right word. More... bewildered. I keep meaning to ask you guys to explain me your cover. It's bizarre. And short. And WAY better than not getting one. And Egg's PM was right - even completely totally utterly weirding that song can't wreck it. But I'd love it if someone would please explain it to me!

Now as for this other cover, why didn't you put that one up there in the first place? This one's way cooler. Way. Thanks! And I've felt bad that I haven't written you back to say THank You for the first one. I've kind of had a task in my internal inbox to go back again and listen a couple more times to see if I can "get it".

Hey, everybody. I got TWO versions of my cover. Thanks, Phuntsters!