The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Has songfight ever had a telephone-game style sidefight? I think that would be kind of cool ... someone could start with a song, then send the tracks to someone else, then they work on it and send it on ... etc etc etc. At the end the song would be pretty strange, but awesome. I don't know how awesome you guys think this is, but I think it sounds kind of interesting.

I don't know if anyone's done it already, but I've been interested in participating.

I remember a while back when someone's Web site collected a bunch of sounds from 'fighters based on other random sounds that were submitted. I don't remember the URL or the result of that though.

Are you thinking that the first person in the chain would write a full song, or rather a track or two, or just lyrics (no recording) before passing to the next person?

Also, would the next person in the chain be re-recording parts (essentially covering/reinterpreting and embellishing the previous track), or rather be able to use some subset of the previous source track(s)?

Disclaimer/plea: whatever happens, let's please make the rules clear and in one spot, if/when it's ready to bake.

Plat wrote:Are you thinking that the first person in the chain would write a full song, or rather a track or two, or just lyrics (no recording) before passing to the next person?

Also, would the next person in the chain be re-recording parts (essentially covering/reinterpreting and embellishing the previous track), or rather be able to use some subset of the previous source track(s)?

Disclaimer/plea: whatever happens, let's please make the rules clear and in one spot, if/when it's ready to bake.

I think we can try and figure out the rules in this thread and change the details of it all as time goes on. I think it would be cool if there was about two sections you do, then you send it on. The next person can't alter the first one, but they can add to the second one and add a section if they like. Then it's sent on, and it continues. They could embellish, and rerecord stuff I guess. Another idea could be that someone could make a full song, then send it to the next person and the next could rerecord their own interpretation of the song - change lyrics, rerecord the whole song, just add tracks or whatever and send it on. I don't know ... what kind of rules were you thinking of?

jolly roger wrote:Has songfight ever had ... someone ... start with a song, then send the tracks to someone else, then they work on it and send it on ... etc etc etc.

http://www.songfight.org/artistpage.php ... _the_temps

tviyh wrote:

jolly roger wrote:Has songfight ever had ... someone ... start with a song, then send the tracks to someone else, then they work on it and send it on ... etc etc etc.

http://www.songfight.org/artistpage.php ... _the_temps

If that's the only one, I think it might be worth doing.

I don't know what I'm thinking .

If using previous-generation tracks is fair game, we'd probably see less change; the 5th person in line might still hear the 1st-generation guitars. And maybe that's just as fine/interesting, but it's not exactly like the telephone game. In telephone, the message is relayed only by the previous person in the line -- no earlier recordings are played.

Hopefully it won't be required to reuse all previous tracks, if old tracks ARE used at all; just a few generations in, and the mix will get very cluttered (which, yes, I can achieve using only my tracks too ). If tracks are reused at all, I propose setting a limit to this.

It'd be cute, though hard to enforce, to limit how much the previous message could be studied. For example, if you give me a track and I can study it for N days, I can probably cover it reasonably well. But if you only let me listen to it for, say, a half hour -- or just twice -- you can bet I won't catch all the lyrics, or melody, or chord structure, etc, and the next person is going to hear something very different.

Maybe a quick turnaround due-date (i.e. a chain of Songskirmishes) would be a good way to force the spontenaity and give some wiggle room for liberal reinterpretation/lyric-mushing, but the production values on each submission would probably be worse.

I wonder if there's any DRM technology that would (more or less) let us unlock the source file for 30 minutes of study, then prevent playback.

</rambling>

Those are some great ideas. I think it'll be cool to see these ideas develop a bit, but first I need some sleep.

Plat wrote: I remember a while back when someone's Web site collected a bunch of sounds from 'fighters based on other random sounds that were submitted. I don't remember the URL or the result of that though.

It ws Fluffy's 'Project' I think part one got finished, but he wasn't that happy with the outcome of Part Two, and didn't finish it.

j$ wrote:I think ... he wasn't that happy with the outcome of Part Two, and didn't finish it.

http://beesbuzz.biz/music/project/two.php

Sounds a little like SFO.

tviyh wrote:http://beesbuzz.biz/music/project/two.php

Yes! This is what I was thinking of. Thanks to you both.

We did something like this a long time ago. I think JoS organized it? I don't remember. But I played the harmonica. It was cool.

feldspar wrote:We did something like this a long time ago. I think JoS organized it? I don't remember. But I played the harmonica. It was cool.

I believe that was the aforementioned W2 and the Temps. I think you played on "I Want To Get Better" (which I would link to if I could find online....or my CD of the song)

w2 and the temps was a JoS inspired bit where i think jim split up the responsibilities, and the track was passed around in a particular order within one weeks time. someone wrote the lyrics, someone wrote the arrangement, each instrument was someone different, etc. i played bass. i remember roy castle sang it, and motherfunker played guitar i think. and jim played on it. i can't remember who else. "lizard wizard". i thought it came out pretty good all things considered.

I really dug "I want to get better". Jon Eric helped on that. So did Jute Gyte and Humbert.

And me.

I was on one of them. Can't remember which - the one that was less popular!

Blue tore JoS a new one over a song that had been written that took longer than a week being entered in a fight. Those were the days

If anyone wants to actually do this, then just post a reply saying you call this round. I figure I might as well get this thing rolling and anyone that wants to do this can jump on board. Here's the rules.

1. Song is posted
2. Random person posts on the board that they call this round, then they cover the song that is posted, changing any things they dislike (music and lyrics), adding sections, and overall making their own version of the song. Original tracks can be used but don't have to be.
3. New version song is posted.
4. The next person claims the round, etc etc. Things go on as long as we want them to, but once you've done it, you can't do it again.

I just did a cover of a Rone song, and since it wasn't a hxaro, I figured we could use it.
Here's the first song. Whoever claims it first covers it. If you want to do it, call it quick.

Yeah, it was an interesting experiment. But not one I'd be interested in doing again.

count me in.

Pencil Me In for This...