Karaoke Blog Entry

Last Night after a very long and busy work week, I had a chance to have some relaxing fun at Jack's singing the songs other people wrote. I was a bit tired but had yet another chance to sing many songs. Five again. This allows for some experimenting of new songs. So how is it that I had sung songs I have done before?

So, the first song I sang was Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" to try to get other people in the mood to sing. It went okay but it didn't get the people going. The video I found of the song looks like a promo piece from 1973.



The second song I sang was Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently". It's an old hit form 1974. Good solid pop that would be more obscure if it weren't for a commercial with a singing squirrel, birds and a fox that wails out the tune. I do this song a lot especially when my voice isn't in tip top form. The film clip is from European television. Standard fun from a dull performer with great hair. I respect great hair.



The third song took a rare trip out of the 70's into the mid 90's. Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" a great song from their only good album. It's a long song to fill in the time not being filled by other singers. I've never seen the video from the song, I had no cable at the time. I was surprised at how dull the video is. See what I'm talking about.



It's a slow night, opportunities abound for long songs that aren't "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil" fits the bill. Recently when it comes to my turn to sing, people who I want to impress leave and my performance falls flat. I can do this song well, but feel embarrassed to put some flair into the performance, and that's what this song calls for. Case in point the Stones themselves performance on "Rock and Roll Circus". It was a show recorded in 1968 and not released until the 90's. The STones didn't think their performance was up to snuff. I couldn't disagree more, look at this and remember, this is 1968!




So, I had the opportunity to do new songs and only did one. It was the end of the night and found a song I had not done. I'm a fan of Paul McCartney's post Beatles career up to the early 80's. Probably his last great song was "Take It Away" from his Tug Of War album. It's the first album McCartney released after the murder of John Lennon. I note this because McCartney has not had a great song since, despite being John Lennon's equal in songwriting skills. So I wonder how many great songs John Lennon had in him when he died. Anyway, I sang it with little enthusiasm, just trying to figure it out. The video is interesting, features Ringo Starr and a young John Hurt.

I love the song for its mellow smooth groove. Some artists in their 30's were doing this realizing they were getting older and at the time felt they couldn't rock it anymore.