Comments on: Masters Of Song Fu #1: Round 2 Challengers Announced

By: Jason Tom

Jason Tom — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:19:59 +0000

Elain Chao all the way!

By: Desertrat

Desertrat — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:55:28 +0000

I was disappointed to hear JoCo rip off the beginning of “The Wind Beneath My Wings”!

By: wahsatchmo

wahsatchmo — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:08:32 +0000

Gentlemen, Ladies, please!

If I may offer a modicum of decorum to this spirited yet otherwise heated debate, may I suggest the following:

Balls?

By: doctorfell

doctorfell — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:09:41 +0000

Based on this past round, I hope Cloakie wins it. And I think saying what these two did was “undermining the spirit” of this competition was fitting since both were simply retooling pre-existing songs, which is boring, unoriginal, worse-than-pedestrian, etc. Looking forward to seeing them get knocked out in the next few rounds.

By: Cambiata

Cambiata — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:33:39 +0000

I loved Doc Hammer’s song, but I loved JoCo and Paul & Storm’s songs more. Also there is the point that you yourself made, that Doc Hammer’s song doesn’t really sound that much like a classic TV theme.

By: Chema

Chema — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:35:16 +0000

How could Doc Hammer lose. His song was not in the same line as classic T.V. themes, but out of the three, his was the one most likely to be at the beginning of a show. I’m thinking it lost ’cause it didn’t have much in the way of lyrics.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:34:21 +0000

@Alec: Still, a songwriting contest would imply more than covering an exisiting song and altering the lyrics, ambiguities be damned. You could write a novel in the style of J.D. Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and approach it more creatively than to change every seventh word of the original manuscript.

By: Alec

Alec — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:10:12 +0000

@ThomasT: No rub. I just took issue with the statement that the folks who erred on the wrong end of the ambiguity stick were labeled as “undermining the spirit” of the contest. Undermining spirit, to my mind, implies nefarious intent, which doesn’t at all seem to be the case here.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:19:56 +0000

Great job, Lex.

By: MitchO

MitchO — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:07:40 +0000

Jeff McDougall = WKRP in Cincinnati
Lex Friedman = Inspector Gadget

By: ThomasT

ThomasT — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:42:02 +0000

@Alec – Yes – they are acknowledging the ambiguity and resolving it in the competitors’ favor. What’s the rub?

Also, I feel dumb, but which is the second tribute/sampling song besides Jeff MacDougall?

By: Cambiata

Cambiata — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:10:35 +0000

Doing a song “in the spirit” of a TV show – even a specific TV show – doesn’t mean using the same music with different lyrics. Paul and Storm’s song is easily in the style of many of the western type TV shows from the 60s forward, but it isn’t a note-for-note rendition of the theme song to Bonanza or Have Gun Will Travel. That’s the difference. I’m SO glad they kept some of the more original people in this contest. Go Cloakie!

By: Alec

Alec — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:19:26 +0000

“There was some concern that 2 of the top Challengers used prior existing music not of their own creation within their tracks, undermining the spirit of the songwriting competition.”

Hmm. I see two tracks that pay tribute to existing theme songs, but I wouldn’t label that “undermining the spirit of the” contest. The rules state “You must do a song in the style of a classic television show.” I could conceivably see someone interpreting those rules as “You must do a song in the style of a [SPECIFIC] television show.”

Just my two cents.