08-02-2004, 03:35 AM
I'm not sure how much interest there will be in this, but this is a thread to post your horrible experiences with karaoke. I figure that since this is a music-oriented forum, a few other here may have given singing a whirl.
I tried karaoke for the first time last night after much encouragement (and alcohol) from my dad. It was his 54th birthday party, and since both him and my stepmother like singing so much, they decided to go to a karaoke bar. I agreed to go, on the condition that I didn't have to get up and sing.
7 beers, a white russian and three black russians later, I was up on stage doing a duet of "Back in the U.S.S.R." with my dad. My dad is usually a pretty good singer, but by this point had drank the same as I had, plus two more beers. Compounding this disaster was the line "...and Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mi-mi-mid!". My mother (and his ex-wife's) name is Georgia, so this line sent us into hysterics.
Once we finally sat down, I decided to do a solo song. My pick was going to be "New Orleans is Sinking", but the next guy up beat me to it. I changed my decision to "Courage", being that it was the only other Hip song in booklet. However, before I could send in my submission, me and dad were called on stage again. This time, we were joined by a British man who had never sang before. Our trio sang a truly terrible cover of "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers. It was basically three very drunk men singing in three different keys and never singing the same word at the same time.
After this, I went and sat next to another very drunk man, a friend of my dad's, who was wearing a fuzzy green pimp hat and rocking out like I've never seen a 50 year old man rock before. I would name him, but he's running for alderman. I finally handed my song choice to the DJ, and made the comment that they needed to get more Hip in their selection. He told me that he had just got a 10-track Hip CD(!), and brought it over to me. My first selection was "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", but I quickly hunted him down and changed my choice to "Silver Jet". I figured that in my drunken state, Silver Jet would be easier to blurt out. I sat down with my dad and told him what I was going to sing. He told me he'd never heard of it, and I replied with something like "It rocks, man! Trust me, it rocks!"
My turn came up, and as soon as I got on stage the DJ put a giant floppy foam maple leaf top hat on me. It's a tradition there that anyone who sings a Canadian song has to wear the hat. As soon as the music started a large group of men recognized the Hip and started banging thier heads in the typical frat boy way. I really got into it and banged my head too, which probably looked even stupid due to the giant floppy hat. I proceeded to belt out quite possibly the worst singing I have ever heard in my entire life. I didn't so much sing, it was more of a monotone rap. I also had trouble with the quicker lines, with "just the I-need-you-and-here's-whys of snoring Gord and Cheryl's" coming out as something like "jes' the I-need-youherewhysa snorin' Gord and SherOOOS!". It turns out that some of the word play in Silver Jet is very, very hard to sing drunk. However, the Big Ben and Wolves of Northumberland lines are a hell of alot of fun to do. The comments I got from people afterwards were more about how well I knew the timing in the song rather than in my ability to sing it.
Now that that's off my chest, does anybody else have any similar stories?
I tried karaoke for the first time last night after much encouragement (and alcohol) from my dad. It was his 54th birthday party, and since both him and my stepmother like singing so much, they decided to go to a karaoke bar. I agreed to go, on the condition that I didn't have to get up and sing.
7 beers, a white russian and three black russians later, I was up on stage doing a duet of "Back in the U.S.S.R." with my dad. My dad is usually a pretty good singer, but by this point had drank the same as I had, plus two more beers. Compounding this disaster was the line "...and Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mi-mi-mid!". My mother (and his ex-wife's) name is Georgia, so this line sent us into hysterics.
Once we finally sat down, I decided to do a solo song. My pick was going to be "New Orleans is Sinking", but the next guy up beat me to it. I changed my decision to "Courage", being that it was the only other Hip song in booklet. However, before I could send in my submission, me and dad were called on stage again. This time, we were joined by a British man who had never sang before. Our trio sang a truly terrible cover of "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers. It was basically three very drunk men singing in three different keys and never singing the same word at the same time.
After this, I went and sat next to another very drunk man, a friend of my dad's, who was wearing a fuzzy green pimp hat and rocking out like I've never seen a 50 year old man rock before. I would name him, but he's running for alderman. I finally handed my song choice to the DJ, and made the comment that they needed to get more Hip in their selection. He told me that he had just got a 10-track Hip CD(!), and brought it over to me. My first selection was "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", but I quickly hunted him down and changed my choice to "Silver Jet". I figured that in my drunken state, Silver Jet would be easier to blurt out. I sat down with my dad and told him what I was going to sing. He told me he'd never heard of it, and I replied with something like "It rocks, man! Trust me, it rocks!"
My turn came up, and as soon as I got on stage the DJ put a giant floppy foam maple leaf top hat on me. It's a tradition there that anyone who sings a Canadian song has to wear the hat. As soon as the music started a large group of men recognized the Hip and started banging thier heads in the typical frat boy way. I really got into it and banged my head too, which probably looked even stupid due to the giant floppy hat. I proceeded to belt out quite possibly the worst singing I have ever heard in my entire life. I didn't so much sing, it was more of a monotone rap. I also had trouble with the quicker lines, with "just the I-need-you-and-here's-whys of snoring Gord and Cheryl's" coming out as something like "jes' the I-need-youherewhysa snorin' Gord and SherOOOS!". It turns out that some of the word play in Silver Jet is very, very hard to sing drunk. However, the Big Ben and Wolves of Northumberland lines are a hell of alot of fun to do. The comments I got from people afterwards were more about how well I knew the timing in the song rather than in my ability to sing it.
Now that that's off my chest, does anybody else have any similar stories?
