Masters of Song Fu - "What is wrong?"

My entry into the latest "Masters Of Song Fu" contest will shortly appear on their site, ready and waiting expectantly for your vote. Thanks to everyone who voted for my song in the first round - a small and select bunch!

The challenge was to use only 10 words in the song, though each word could be repeated. The idea clearly being to get our brains working overtime on combining those ten words in different ways to change their meaning. Nice idea. I did try it, and will post my first attempt shortly (I have a very rough demo which I'll tidy up and post), but it just seemed too obvious. Thinking cap back on, I decided that if I couldn't fill a song with variations on ten words, then I would just fill it with a single word. A single l-o-n-g word. One with over 1900 letters.

It's the name of an enzyme, Tryptophan Synthetase, and amazingly is NOT the longest word - that is the technical name for another enzyme and runs to almost 190,000 letters - I'll leave that one for somebody else to sing as a whole album!

Instrumentation is just guitar, bass, piano and vocal. I did try some drums, but the song is so damn fast that they sounded ridiculous. And yes, I had Danny Kaye firmly in mind as I sang it!

Lyrics are as follows:-

What is wrong?
==============

"Doctor,what is wrong with me?"
"You need some methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylseryl-
leucylphenylalanylalanylglutaminylleucyllysylglutamylarginyl-
lysylglutamylglycylalanylphenylalanylvalylprolylphenylalanyl-
valylthreonylleucylglycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamyl-
glutaminylserylleucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucyl-
isoleucylglutamylalanylglycylalanylaspartylalanylleucylglutamyl-
leucylglycylisoleucylprolylphenylalanylserylaspartylprolyl-
leucylalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonylisoleucylglutaminyl-
asparaginylalanylthreonylleucylarginylalanylphenylalanyl-
alanylalanylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanylglutaminylcysteinyl-
phenylalanylglutamylmethionylleucylalanylleucylisoleucylarginyl-
glutaminyllysylhistidylprolylthreonylisoleucylprolylisoleucyl-
glycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasparaginylleucylvalyl-
phenylalanylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartylglutamyl-
phenylalanyltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamyllysylvalyl-
glycylvalylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylvalyl-
prolylvalylglutaminylglutamylserylalanylprolylphenylalanyl-
arginylglutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasparaginyl-
valylalanylprolylisoleucylphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolyl-
prolylaspartylalanylaspartylaspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginyl-
glutaminylisoleucylalanylseryltyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosyl-
threonyltyrosylleucylleucylserylarginylalanylglycylvalylthreonyl-
glycylalanylglutamylasparaginylarginylalanylalanylleucylprolyl-
leucylasparaginylhistidylleucylvalylalanyllysylleucyllysyl-
glutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanylalanylprolylprolylleucyl-
glutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucylserylalanylprolyl-
aspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylaspartylalanyl-
glycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylserylalanyl-
isoleucylvalyllysylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhistidyl-
asparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolylglutamyllysylmethionylleucyl-
alanylalanylleucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalylglutaminylprolyl-
methionyllysylalanylalanylthreonylarginylserine."

Masters of Song Fu - "Happy People"

My entry into the latest "Masters Of Song Fu" contest is up on their site, ready and waiting expectantly for your vote.

It's a happy little ditty featuring uke, yobstick, synth (the old Crumar Performer string synth) and shaker. Comments on it so far include 'dystopian joy', 'sounds like toads playing tiny tin digeridoo' and 'there's something ominous here'!

Lyrics and chords are as follows:-

Happy People
============

[Chorus]
G
When you are happy
C
it makes me happy
G
to see you happy
       D 
to see me

When I am happy
You say it makes you happy
to see me so happy
to see you

[Verse]
Dm
    We're happy people
Gm
   We're happy people in a happy
Dm
World, we're happy people
Gm
Happy people in a happy
Dm
World.  We're happy people.
Gm
   We're happy people in a happy
Dm
World, we're happy people
C

~Chorus~

   C                          Bb               A
Apparently my joi de vivre's getting on your wick
My natural exuberance is making you feel sick
     Your grumpy face just makes me want to laugh
Even when you're drowning me for singing in the bath

   G               A7           Bb6                    A7
So turn that frown upside down, smile, your face won't crack
I'll keep on singing happy songs 'til I receive a  smack, because...

~Chorus~

~Verse~  (rinse and repeat)

Welcome Quickstoppers!

If you've arrived here via the link on the latest 'Masters of Song Fu' page, then Welcome!

On the off-chance you enjoyed my entry into the first round (which is due to be made available later this week), you can find a wealth of additional music for free download (as well as real, physical CDs) by clicking this link right here.

More details can be found at the following places:-

www.lunacyboard.com

'The Lunacy Board' have three albums of quirky, eclectic rock, one available as a free download. If you like Pink Floyd, Krautrock, The Bonzos, or other cerebral rock music, it's worth a try.

someotherscotland.blogspot.com

'Some Other Scotland' is my weekly fiction podcast, based around a warped version of current events in Scotland.

www.the-deserters.co.uk

'The Deserters' date back into the early 80's - a world away, but worth a trip for the sheer hell of it.

twitter.com/MickBordet

If you do the twitter thing, this is my feed - find out about the latest new music from chez Bordet as it happens.

Thanks for visiting, and don't forget to vote!

Some Other Scotland - An Alternative Now

I mentioned this project in passing a while ago, but since I've just completed the third episode, now seems like a good time to let you know a bit more about it.

Some Other Scotland is a podcast novel. Huh? In effect, it is simply a book read in weekly episodes, not unlike a radio show. There are quite a few of these about if you look around the internet, but I like to think this one is a little different from the rest.

Why?

Rather than the more rational method of writing, then editing, a book before reading it and broadcasting the podcast, Some Other Scotland is much more immediate. It is based on a week's news in Scotland. Every day I pick out one item of news that I think could be interesting to incorporate into the bigger story, then I post a poll at the end of that week. Listeners (YOU!) can vote for the feature story. This feature will appear in some major way in the following week's podcast, though altered in some way. This creates an alternative Scotland, full of 'paths not taken'. For example, in the most recent episode, a mansion on a West Coast island was burnt down in the real world, but in Some Other Scotland, the fire came to nothing, stopped by a new character to the story.

The first few weeks have run without much to join each story thread together, but as new items crop up in the news, changes in direction become apparent, and already I have a general plan for the larger plot.

It is my intention to run this until the end of the year, unless the story draws to a natural conclusion before then. In the meantime, please visit the link above to sign up for the podcast feed, or you can stream the story from the little widget on the right hand side of this page.

Your feedback would be very welcome.