I went to a lovely birthday party last night. The company was most entertaining, the food was delicious, the cake, wow. For post dinner party time amusement, the host had rented a karaoke machine.
I don’t like to sing in front of people I don’t know. I’m too nervous. But that did not stop me from picking out all the things that were wrong with the karaoke playlist that came with the setup. Lest you think I’m an uncharitable b*tch, my sentiments were echoed by more than one person present, including the host who had rented the machine. Overlooking the lack of Eagles songs, of Billy Ocean (Get Outta My Dreams and Into My Car), of Torch and Twang (one Patsy Cline does not count) my date and I derided the lack of a set of karaoke tunes for the disaffected.
The artists we felt were missing? Lou Reed, Tom Petty, Fiona Apple, Nick Cave, Billy Bragg, to name a few. There was no Llyle Lovett (If I had a boat), there was one Blondie song (Heart of Glass, but where’s Rapture?) there was no LA Woman by the Doors. There was no Freebird with the text “Insert air guitar solo here.” New York New York and My Way were on the list, but where was Come Fly with Me for the wanna be Old Blue Eyes? There were no Peggy Lee tunes.
It occured to me as I was looking over the list (and being snarky) that this was someone’s job, this business of picking the most popular Alan Jackson or Shakira tune for inclusion in the karaoke kit. A little fishing on the web turns up a vast selection of possibilities – Marvin Gaye and U2 and Sinead O’Connor. That’s more like it. Cue up the Prince and get out the Raspberry Beret, okay?
I dropped in to see some neighbors earlier today and told them about my karaoke experience. “Yeah,” they said, “you need to be in a small space, you have to know everyone, and you need to be doing some serious drinking. That’s the key to karaoke.” They recommended a place called Seattle’s Best Karaoke. Squeeze in with your pals and bring your own booze. I checked out their list and wow, they seem to have an awful lot of stuff that I thought was missing from last night’s set – including two Lou Reed songs – and some stuff I hadn’t thought of. Ella Fitzgerald. Duh.
I have terrible stage fright. I’ve been working on it, not because I have any great ambition to perform, but because I would like, when someone asks me in an airport or at a bus stop if that thing is a ukulele and how bout a tune… I would like to be able to not freak out. A uke friend told me that I should play in front of people whenever I get the chance, that I’d get used to it. A nice idea, I think, but I still turned down the mic at karaoke.
Tomorrow, though, is open mic at the ukulele club holiday shindig. And yes, I’m going to play.
[tags]karaoke, ukulele[/tags]
Fight that fear!
If we were not so susceptible to stage fright, then I doubt that we’d be such ferocious bloggers. I think it’s a fairly common trend:
– Hate the spotlight=Blog.
– Love the spotlight=”I’m as free as a bird, now…And this bird you cannot change…” [All together, now!]
I admire you. I could never in a million years perform at an open mike. I often find myself lip-synching during a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”
Guess I’ll go blog, now. Good luck, tonight. May the Flea be with you.
Sal
Obviously karaoke is a compelling experience for many, since it’s so damn popular. But I have never intentionally listened to anyone singing it. Wincing from the drunken hack jobs being performed at radio station-sponsored booths as I’ve wandered through various PDX outdoor fests turned me off of that. Nor would I EVER sing it myself because I would never subject anyone to having to listen to my horrible voice. (And by “anyone” I mean first and foremost, ME.) Maybe it’s the drinking…if I drank, maybe I wouldn’t mind that most people sing so horribly. But listening to karaoke while sober? The WORST. 🙂
re stage fright…just keep doing it and maybe it’ll get better. Although I’d never sing in public (I barely even sing “Happy Birthday” in public group settings), like a lot of shy people, I actually sort of like to be onstage…SOMETIMES (depends on what I’m doing, of course!) 🙂
Well, break a leg, or a string, or whatever it is they say in the world of ukuleles. You are SO brave. I get stage fright even leaving my house sometimes. If I lived in Seattle I’d totally go see you perform and ask for your autograph afterwards.
When I was teaching ESL in Vancouver a bunch of my Asian students took me out to a karaoke restaurant after my last day of work (just before I got married and moved to the stupidest place ever). I think most of the songs were in Chinese, so I got out of having to get up on stage by saying that I didn’t know the words. 🙂
Thought I’d mention that your “ContentMedia” link is broken — which is schade, because I’m an unemployed content developer in educational media and was soooo curious…! 🙂
Seattle has a karaoke club??? Heck, Seattle has a ukulele club??? I must be a complete and total fuddy-duddy!!
Carol
I’m coming a bit late to this conversation, but I had an interesting karaoke experience this summer I’d like to tell about. I was in Toronto for a couple of weeks and spent a day at Ontario Place — kind of like Seattle center meets Wild Waves. Half of the park at the time was devoted to the Chinese Lantern Festival, an exhibition of silk and wire art (as well as a huge chinaware dragon) that came alive with light, sound and motion during nighttime hours.
In the middle of the whole event the sponsor had hired a karaoke concession set out in a wide spot between two of the walking paths where you could sing for a chance to be entered in a prize drawing. Perhaps it was the sense of anonymity of the tourist or the good Canadian beer I had with dinner at the park, but I found myself signing up to sing. I have been to karaoke a couple of times before with other folks doing the singing, but I had never tried it myself.
So I sang — and blew half the first verse — but what the heck. I was flattered by the enthusiam of the applause I received, but the most remarkable thing was that someone from the impromptu audience tracked me down afterward and asked the name of the song and group that it came from. The lyrics had touched him in some way that evening in that place. What a rush!
I don’t know whether I’ll do karaoke again, but I’ve got a great memory of my debut. By the way, in case you were wondering, the song was Simple Plan’s “Welcome to My Life.”