Posted in Jutze 52 | March 14th, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #11 – Canada
This is a rather cryptic song that will hopefully become obsolete rather sooner than later. Hint: It’s not about Bryan Adams. The music is based on a little picking figure with the first three notes of the g# minor scale. I just built the rest of the song around it. Just like last week, I haven’t excelled in my playing. Still, it was a good exercise and maybe someone else beside Patrick will be able to make sense of the lyrics.
Canada, why did you do this to me?
Canada, why couldn’t you just leave it be?
Canada, how could you go this far?
Canada, oh Canada If it weren’t for Rush I’d just give up on you
Still it seems this time the joke is on you
Canada, I know you meant no harm
Canada, this ain’t no call to arms Still I think you owe the world an apology
It’s not too late for you to see
Posted in Music | March 9th, 2010 | Comments Off on Schnitzel Soup and Vodka
This is yet another song fu contribution. The challenge was to write a song that contains a recipe in some way. The music was clearly inspired by Eläkeläiset. The lyrics for the chorus came somewhat natural; the rest is a collection of ingredients, some of them intentionally sung in German. Finally, I could use some live drums. I had recorded them five years ago for a song I never released online.
“Schnitzel Soup and Vodka” is my last entry for song fu for the time being. The contest consumes quite some time and to be honest, I’m not very pleased with my latest efforts. Sure, “Kingdom of Rain” had possibly the best story line I’d come up with in ages. And the present polka was surely fun. But I’ve had enough exposure to present my case. Don’t get me wrong, I love song fu and the other contestants are great people. I’m happy to be part of it and perhaps I’ll do shadow entries in the future. We’ll see and hear.
For now, please check out the link below. There are plenty of interesting contributions; for starters I recommend Mike Lombardo, because he’s a talented musician and his tune is very entertaining. There’s more, but I’m signing off now, saving my “Best of Song Fu”-list for another post.
Here is a secret that I’m going to share with you
The perfect meal to eat before you’re getting drunk
This recipe comes straight from the heart of Mother Russia
It keeps any hangover away
You need some schnitzel soup and 17 potatoes
The soup is easy – just get a lot of meat
Then put it in a pot and add a little water
Boil it for a while until it’s through
When it’s Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
If you like it sweet you add some apfelstrudel
And if you’re hungry you should add chunk of cheese
And when the soup is boiling you add a few more items
Paprika, tomatoes, sauerkraut and beans
You have to eat a lot for the soup to be effective
Five full plates at least
When it’s Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – drinking all day and night
Vodka! Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the morning
Vodka, vodka – drinking all day and night
Posted in Jutze 52 | March 7th, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #10 – Reis
This is a song about a bag of rice that fell over and changed the world. I toyed around with some harmony vocals in the chorus. It doesn’t sound very good, but the week is almost over. So here it is.
This is the first song of a few that was inspired by ideas from a couple of friends. I had asked for advice, because by now I have run out of ideas. I mean, the weekly effort is taking its toll. In fact, I’m usually producing two songs in batch-mode in order to have every other weekend off. I still have one song in reserve and I already finished the final song #52.
In China fiel gerade ein Sack mit Reis um
Einfach so ohne Befehl oder Anweisung Er fiel einfach um
Und das war ziemlich dumm
Denn leider hatte ihn dort irgendjemand
Neben dem Roten Knopf angelehnt an die Wand Und dann fiel er um
Und das war ziemlich dumm
Und dann machte es bumm
Und dann machte es kawumm
This is an instrumental piece that could easily be incorporated in a lonely movie scene. I started out with the acoustic guitar part, double-tracked it and added some high piano notes to augment the atmosphere.
Posted in Jutze 52 | February 21st, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #8 – Communication Removal Is Due Tomorrow
This is actually the song I made for the second round of Song Fu #6 (listen and vote!). The task was to write a song that doesn’t contain any rhymes. Years ago I had written a song in German entitled “Morgen kommt der Kommunikationsentferner”. I reanimated the lyrical idea and translated a few of the original lines into English. The chords of the verse also remained the same. Still, I think it became a completely different song. For instance, it used to be a ballad; now it’s a rock song.
The song fu-version of this song (entitled “Communication Removal”) is 45 seconds longer; it contains more instrumental mayhem as well as an additional line about Mike Lombardo and Nickelback. I had originally planned to have a chorus going “And as of now my rhymes are out of order”, but that didn’t fit the rest of the song, so I scrapped it.
Some trivia: For the music box in the outro I punched arbitrary holes into a sheet of paper and pulled it through the little machine. Other instruments I recorded for the outro were ukulele, harmonica, melodica and tin whistle.
Posted in Data analysis, Jutze 52 | February 14th, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #7 – Lonely Hearts Ad (Bootstrapping)
This is another example of why I like the 52-second format: If this lonely hearts ad was any longer, people would actually start taking it seriously. I was somewhat uncertain about the exact wording, the organ in the background and the main chord sequence (D G E A was in there at one point). But I think, the song works in its present form (p < 0.05). The concept of the song was inspired by an old statistics lecture that featured remarks about Love@Lycos, matching algorithms and bootstrapping.
Posted in Jutze 52 | February 7th, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #6 – Jutze’s Jig
This one was written on the spot today after I had decided that the song I had prepared during the week will only be released at the very end as song #52. Last night I saw the Dubliners live in St. Gallen. (They played a wonderful show including favourites of mine like “The Rocky Road to Dublin” and “The Town I Loved So Well”.) So I was in the mood for some Irish folk. Please excuse the cheap keyboard sounds. Just keep in mind that me playing a real fiddle would have sounded much worse! Anyway, it’s just a 52-second tune, so please bear with me and my artificial orchestra. (The guitar is real.)
Posted in Jutze 52 | January 31st, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #5 – Gives Girls the Edge
This one was inspired by Self-discipline gives girls the edge: Gender in self-discipline, grades, and achievement test scores (Duckworth & Seligman, 2006). I had the title in mind while I was writing the chorus. Once I had the whole song, I figured I could just write some lyrics about the actual article. A 52-second song certainly cannot do a whole scientific paper justice. But maybe it’s entertaining; and maybe it spreads a tiny bit of knowledge from academia into rock music.
Gotta do, gotta do her homework
Gotta do, gotta do her job
Gotta pay, gotta pay attention
Gotta pay, gotta pay her bills
It seems there is one thing, one thing that Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge Gives girls the edge Gives girls the edge Self-discipline gives girls the edge
It seems that boys don’t have the one thing that Gives girls the edge Gives girls the edge Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge
Self-discipline gives girls the edge
Posted in Jutze 52 | January 24th, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #4 – Your Love Is Like a Serving of Fries That’s Too Large
This one was inspired by Paul and Storm as well as Tim Minchin. It took me some time to shorten it to the appropriate length. Who needs middle parts, anyway? I can imagine this one a little bit slower with a Beatles-vibe, especially if I were to add drums. My current recording is raw, just the keyboard and the vocals, all in one take, using one microphone. Thus, also no stereo mix this time. I had wanted to write a chorus that is more subtle, more like “Let’s pretend it’s there, even though we know better” or something like that. But it’s Sunday already and my initial song idea still has no lyrics. The video below shows me recording the track. Nothing spectacular, just the 37th take, give or take a few.
Your love is like a serving of fries that’s too large
Your love is like King Henry’s seventh wife
Your love is like a useful guidance counsellor
Your love is like the afterlife It doesn’t exist
It doesn’t exist
I looked everywhere
Around the world
It’s just not there
Life ain’t fair
Your love is like good plot ideas in Episode I
Your love is like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
Your love is like the holy father and his son
Your love is like the rhyming end of this line, yeah It doesn’t exist
It doesn’t exist
I looked everywhere Even under your chair
It’s just not there
Life ain’t fair
Posted in Jutze 52 | January 17th, 2010 | Comments Off on Jutze 52 #3 – Castle Ruins in November
This is actually the first 52-second piece of music I wrote specifically for this collection. I stumbled over the first few notes on my keyboard. Eventually, I continued the idea on the acoustic guitar. I added a second track with just the chords. Still, the composition might well work in a film as background music. The title is somewhat arbitrary. But hopefully it conveys the atmosphere.