ToddlerFight!

EightLeggedOedipus · Post by **EightLeggedOedipus** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:20 am

Baby Blue: Re-record the first song you ever wrote!
Pink: Re-record the first song you ever recorded.

Due: Monday 04/11/05 9:59am pst 
Rules:
1. Absolutely no added or modified lyrics
2. No structural changes to song: same chords, same rhythm, same melody
3. Instrumentation may be added, but not deleted
4. What counts as your first song is up to you. Be honest. (Think grade school)
5. A separate voting topic will be posted shortly after the deadline. It is expected you will provide background info.

optional challenge:
Post your original recording if available, and a scan of your music/lyric sheets. 

mp3 with artist's name and song title sent to
<A HREF="mailto:toddlerfight@mbeanis.com">toddlerfight@mbeanis.com</A>

Thanks to Jim of Seattle for the concept!

thehipcola · Post by **thehipcola** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:42 am

What a fantastic idea ! I'm in. I remember it clearly...4 track cassette, cheap drummachine, radio shack highball mic, livingroom. Hiss factory.

Cool!

Denyer · Post by **Denyer** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:35 am

I don't really remember it, but I'll try.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 7:53 am

Wow, I'm very impressed that you read the old boards and found that. That was a while ago. Thanks for taking this idea up! I have still thought about doing it from time to time. I'm definitely in.

This is your party, but I'll just mention that the original idea was that you could re-record your first ever song, but you could not re-write it. It had to stay essentially the exact same song. The re-recording is supposed to be only because most of us will have much better equipment than we had back then. Rewriting is NOT ALLOWED!

But like I said, it's your gig, so give us some guidelines!

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:01 am

If I can get my recording set up... well, set up, I'm in for this. It'll be a simple little instrumental piano toss-off, and I remember being intensely proud of it at the time. I was, maybe, sixteen.

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:07 am

First song ever written. Can I do the first song I ever completed? I had written lots of lyrics back in the day but it wasn't til I put together my first band in JHS that I really finished a song.

Mogosagatai · Post by **Mogosagatai** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:17 am

When's the due date, 8-Legs?

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:24 am

i'm sure i couldn't find the sheet music paper i wrote it on.
but we'll see.
-bill

thehipcola · Post by **thehipcola** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:24 am

I think I have mine still on cassette format...it would be pretty cool to hear the originals too...

Whaddya think 8L0? Can we offer up the original recordings if we got 'em? I know mine would be great for a chuckle for sure.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:52 am

This is awesome. I wrote mine in the back of a VW van driving somewhere in western Canada, I think. Summer of '72. Just gotta scratch the head a bit...

As always, I suggest that the owner of this fight (with 8 legs) post updates and status to the first post in the thread for easy reference.

LMNOP · Post by **LMNOP** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:57 am

jimtyrrell wrote:I remember being intensely proud of it at the time. I was, maybe, sixteen.

Ditto. I'm guessing if I look in, you know, that one box in the basement, I could find my original lyric sheet and hand-written piano music. Oddly, as I sit here, I can actually remember an awful lot of the words. This is going back 25-30 years for me.

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 9:17 am

I'd like to do this, but I got a lot of projects on the go right now... so, I may be in, I may not....

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 9:44 am

There wshould also be a requirement that you tell us
* How old you were when you wrote it
* How you felt about it after having written it
* If there's any meaning behind it (as in: I wrote it for Becky Sue, whom I had a huge crush on after she blew me a kiss during the Halloween carnival)

erik · Post by **erik** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:07 pm

Jim of Seattle wrote:There wshould also be a requirement that you tell us
* How old you were when you wrote it
* How you felt about it after having written it
* If there's any meaning behind it (as in: I wrote it for Becky Sue, whom I had a huge crush on after she blew me a kiss during the Halloween carnival)

I was 4.
I don't remember even writing it.
It's the song I used to sing myself to sleep with.

EightLeggedOedipus · Post by **EightLeggedOedipus** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 4:18 am

roymond wrote:As always, I suggest that the owner of this fight (with 8 legs) post updates and status to the first post in the thread for easy reference.

OK, done. Denyer confirmed that the e-mail address is working.

Denyer · Post by **Denyer** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:27 am

-sent 5mb

EightLeggedOedipus · Post by **EightLeggedOedipus** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:34 pm

Got a few questions abotu this, so I've adjusted it to a two-fight format. See main title.

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:16 pm

Ooh, I can't wait to hear this

thehipcola · Post by **thehipcola** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 8:42 am

Well, my entry hinges on being able to find the cassette with the recording I did of it. Without that, I've got nothing, don't remember the words very well. I guess that's normal for 16 years...(I hope).

The plus is I get to listen to all kinds of cool old cassettes that I have (all of which are unlabeled of course..)

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:25 am

Well this certainly sounds cool. I remember the first song I ever wrote and it was all written on my all-in-one Yamaha keyboard back almost 20 years ago. Jeez I'm feeling old. Sold it though. Needed the cash. I might be able to do it, if I remember the words. Might be somewhere in the recesses of my paperbox, somewhere....... might be a good time to clean the house...... hey wait a minute here are you trying to get us all to clean our houses 8LO?! Talk about alterior motives......... 8)

j$ · Post by j$ » Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:43 pm

One of the first songs I wrote, 'Leena the Cleaner', was when I was 13, over-dubbing on a karoake box with a record function ...

If it wasn't the first, it was the second or third, and certainly the earliest of my songs that I have memory of. Weirdly, although I don't have a recording of it any more, for some reason it has stayed with me in its entireity 'all these years' ...

I re-recorded it this afternoon, trying as hard as possible to stay in the spirit of how I remember it ... (i.e. rather underdeveloped) ... the structure is the same - the bass and the 'string' synth would have been even cheesier presets from the bottom-end-of-the-line yahama keyboard I had at the time, the guitar would have been a line-in electric (my dad's), and the drum machine would have been some cheap Boss probably ...

Lyrically clearly under the inspiration of Robyn Hitchcock who i was getting into, and also I remember around that time I had been reading about the residents in some music magazine, and so may have been an my attempt to sound like I imagined them to sound ...

Leena the Cleaner

I was weird back then, too ....

j$

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:16 pm

TheHipCola wrote:Well, my entry hinges on being able to find the cassette with the recording I did of it. Without that, I've got nothing, don't remember the words very well. I guess that's normal for 16 years...(I hope).

The plus is I get to listen to all kinds of cool old cassettes that I have (all of which are unlabeled of course..)

So glad to know I'm not alone in this regard. I have so many unlableled cassettes, and a growing number of similar type CD's, it's not funny.

In regards to this project, I have a lot of research to do. I'll be honest, I don't specifically recall my "official" first song, probably because it was so forgettable. We'll see what I can come up with, if it doesn't fit the criteria, so be it.