Masters of Song Fu - Update #11 - Bad Fish (The Song From 'Jaws')

You must choose one of those 1970’s Williams-scored Spielberg/Lucas flicks (JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, 1941, or STAR WARS). and write "The Song From..." that the film never had, in the style of a 1970’s pop tune (particularly in your instrumentation).

And thus ended Song Fu...

Here is my final non-competitive effort. The instrumentation could have been a bit more lush and over-the-top, but I was running too short of time for such luxuries. The bassline is a bit more mundane than when I first recorded it, as it became the subtle reference I mentioned last time. Then I blew any subtlety away in the last few bars as the bass reveals itself much more blatantly - it's super-corny, but I just couldn't resist it. Sorry.

Click here to hear the song

I don't know whether there are plans for another run of the Song Fu challenge and, if there are, whether I should re-apply. A couple of the deadlines have been pretty tight (usually due to being away with work), but I've got 4 new songs out of it of varying quality, with inspiration for a couple more. What do you reckon?

Anyway, here are the lyrics and chords:-

[verse 1]
C              Gm7
  My, what big teeth you have, 
         Am             F
Said the swimmer to the fish
    C                    Gm7
One drop (of blood) in a million
    Am             F
And she became the dish
       C        Bb     Fmaj7   Fmaj7
of the day.
       C        Bb     Fmaj7   Fmaj7
of the d   -    a   -  y.

[verse 2]
The mayor of "Shark City" is
A sceptic through and through
Ignoring the problem until it
Swims up and bites you
on the ass

[chorus]
         C   F
It was a bad fish
       Am               Gm7->Bb
Like a piscine Jack the Rip-per
  C   F
A bad fish
 Am           Bb
A giant psychopathic kipper
 Fmaj7 x4 bars

[verse 3]
Swapping tales of scars
With buddies and a drink
You'll need a bigger boat
This one's going to sink
fairly soon

~Chorus~

[verse 4]
You'd be a much more efficient killer
If you didn't have that tell-tale fin
And you could still be alive today
If you'd swallowed that oxygen
Smile you son of a bitch

~Chorus~

Fade out on Fmaj7

Masters of Song Fu - Update #10

You must choose one of those 1970’s Williams-scored Spielberg/Lucas flicks (JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, 1941, or STAR WARS). and write "The Song From..." that the film never had, in the style of a 1970’s pop tune (particularly in your instrumentation).

The song is written, both music and lyrics, and is called "Bad Fish". It has four verses, each one of which deals with a key scene in the movie, and a silly little chorus that's somewhat scathing about the protagonist of the story.

There was nearly an accidental reference to 'The Man in the Boat', which would have been quite apt, but it interrupted the flow of the song, so it was left out. There is another subtle reference, though, which I'll leave you to work out when you hear it.

The next step is to start the recording process and dig out suitable quantities of funky 70's pop sounds...

Sharklore

I've got a few possible verses put together for the Song Fu challenge, though no music as yet, but my research into Jaws and the history of the film and book has given me inspiration for another new song. I did think about making it the challenge song, but it is a couple of steps away from the plot of the film and too serious to be done as a 70's movie-pop song.

The off-shoot comes from the story told by one of the film's characters, Quint, in a monologue not in the book and apparently substantially ad-libbed by actor Robert Shaw, about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during WWII. Having read some actual survivors' accounts of the event, there's a lot more to the story that resonates with the best and worst of human character. I'll elaborate more about it soon, once the Song Fu song is done and dusted and I can concentrate on bringing the story threads together in a way that makes sense within a song.

Masters of Song Fu - Update #9

The fourth and final challenge has been posted. The competition is now between the remaining challenger, Jason Morris, and the leading master, The Rifftones. The challenge is another genre-specific one, though the remit is a bit more limited than previous rounds:-

You must choose one of those 1970’s Williams-scored Spielberg/Lucas flicks (JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, 1941, or STAR WARS). and write "The Song From..." that the film never had, in the style of a 1970’s pop tune (particularly in your instrumentation).

I can think of a few possible options for this, but I think I'll go for Jaws as the one with most scope for writing an interesting song about. Time to put the string synth to the test - cheesy orchestral washes coming right up...

Incidentally, I actually had a dream last night that I was attacked by a shark whilst swimming in Loch Lomond (which is freshwater and shark-free), defending myself by punching it on the nose (which apparently CAN work as an act of last resort). I don't know what prompted that subject, as I've not been aware of shark-related news since this article caught my attention a couple of weeks ago, however it is too good a coincidence to ignore!

Changes Afoot

I've been away for a week, removed from phones, TV, internet and the World in general. It's been bliss. I took along my guitar, uke and micro-studio, but neither wrote nor recorded anything new. Just doodled. Sometimes that's just what is needed.

You may have noticed a couple of changes here. Firstly to the look and layout of the blog. I've moved over to the newer Blogger templates which supposedly offer more flexibility and nifty add-ons, taking the opportunity to make the blog fit in with the Lunacy Board site, thanks to the colourful header image provided by my daughter (she did this when she was just five).

You'll find a new section titled 'Common Topics' to the right hand side - this will let you look at all posts dealing with certain topics, e.g. click on 'Deserters' to see posts relating to the Deserters in some way, or for more detail about the steps leading up to the first Lunacy Board album, click on 'Eponymous Debut'. It's also a quick way to pick out all the posts with links to downloadable music. Hopefully it will make this blog easier to navigate around. You'll find these 'labels' at the bottom of each post as well, so you can skip between related posts quite quickly.

On the subject of blogs, when I first started this blog I simultaneously started a couple of others with the same content. The idea being to see which one generated most interest, was easiest to use and read. Blogger won. The others have not been updated for a couple of months now, and most likely won't be again. It's a pain in the neck to copy & paste all the details between them, but more importantly I don't think it's a great idea to have several copies floating around the web - hopefully anybody following the others will pick up from here, which will be the definitive place for my waffle outside the Lunacy Board and Deserters sites.