Johannes Schult

This one started out with vocals. The melody still hints at the title, which I just kept, because I was running out of time to think of something else. A while ago I was looking at the sky and beheld shifting clouds (see video below). It was there that I came up with the title. I intended to make it a song with space between parts and notes. It ended up being rather packed, anyway. I also admit that the verse uses the same chords as “1998” (which Manticess made for Song Fu last year) and that the middle part is basically the bridge from “The Flower Song“. The end result justifies the self-citations, I think. The main reason I omitted the vocals was that I’m not a good singer. But I also figured there’s a pattern in the previous tracks (except for the first one): every third tune is an instrumental. And I’m a sucker for patterns. And, as I said, a bad singer, who didn’t want to spend what’s left of his weekend failing to sound fragile.

#12 Clouds Are Passing by

One of Sweden’s finest punk rock bands, Ninja Dolls, visited Konstanz on Thursday night. They played a tight, quick set featuring three songs off their new “D.I.Y.”-EP along with most of the songs from “1 2 3 Go!” (which was one of my favourite albums 2009). Malin’s voice showed a little strain towards the end of the set, but overall she proved to be an excellent lead singer who handled the old material with ease. As an encore we got a nice cover version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. Other highlights were the acoustic version of “Valentine” and, well, pretty much every other song. I only missed “Run and Hide”. Still, it was an enjoyable show, albeit a rather short one. (Just observing, not complaining here – admission was free, after all.)

1. We Gave It All Away
2. Miss Young and Naive
3. You’re a Monster
4. All Mixed Up
5. Old Mariann
6. Don’t Wanna Go Home
7. Valentine (Is Just a Reason to Get Drunk)
8. Who Am I Fooling?
9. Harry’s Got to Go
10. Who’s Pretending
11. The Last Song About You (for This Time)
12. Jolene

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.

#11 Canada

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

Canada

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

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.

Download and vote over at FRED

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

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

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.

#10 Reis

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

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

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.

#9 Requiem for a Snowflake

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.

#8 Communication Removal Is Due Tomorrow

I just shut down the weather
Love doesn’t work anymore
Communication removal is due tomorrow

The shadows no longer obey the sun
All seasons are in exile
Communication removal is due tomorrow

Yesterday I made silence a little bit louder
And now I’ll turn off time
Communication removal is due tomorrow

I successfully divided by zero

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

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.

#7 Lonely Hearts Ad (Bootstrapping)

I’m looking for a woman who is capable of bootstrapping, yeah
I don’t care if she’s tall or thin or if her hair is red

It’s good for a romantic relationship to be based on common interests, yeah
Even though I’m the first to admit that bootstrapping’s uncommon

This statistical procedure
Is an important feature
Of our future late-night conversations

I’m looking for a woman who is capable of bootstrapping, yeah
If we can figure out bootstrapping we can figure out everything else

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

I just recorded a video of me playing the song at home:

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.)

#6 Jutze’s Jig

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.

#5 Gives Girls the Edge

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

(words and music by Johannes Schult)