Saturday Silliness
Apr. 10th, 2010 02:17 pmVia crazylegs on BGG, in response to the clip Pixels, which I posted the other day, there as well as here... (if you missed it yesterday, and you have any love at all for things like Pong, Space Invaders, Tetris, and so on and so forth, go back and watch it now!)
Friday Kinda Sorta Funnies
Mar. 5th, 2010 05:26 pmThese are... interesting... not so much funny, but there you go. I'm not in the most jovial of moods anywho...
... proving once and for all that anyone can play guitar...
... okay, so this one has some "embellishments" and that adds an element of the funny...
... or is it that a guitar in hand is worth two or four or a dozen for the birds...
... proving once and for all that anyone can play guitar...
... okay, so this one has some "embellishments" and that adds an element of the funny...
... or is it that a guitar in hand is worth two or four or a dozen for the birds...
Helloween - Mrs. God
Feb. 19th, 2010 10:57 amNow how can there possibly be any humor in a song entitled Mrs. God
, a tune from 2005's Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy
...
Helloween - Perfect Gentleman
Feb. 18th, 2010 03:42 pmToday's tune ~ a wee bit late in the day ~ is Perfect Gentleman
, from 1994's Master of the Rings
.
This is one of those tunes that's slightly more subtle about the humor... okay, not so much. With lyrics like:
it's kind of hard to mistake their intent. Still, I'm sure that people, being the bright burning bulbs that they are, might read them wrong.
This is one of those tunes that's slightly more subtle about the humor... okay, not so much. With lyrics like:
"I can't resist my own reflection
How would possibly anyone?"
it's kind of hard to mistake their intent. Still, I'm sure that people, being the bright burning bulbs that they are, might read them wrong.
Helloween - Dr. Stein
Feb. 16th, 2010 11:45 amAnd the humor is back. This tune
was originally released on 1988's Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2
, but is here is a performance from their forthcoming end-of-March 2010 release Unarmed: Best of 25th Anniversary (CD/DVD)
.
As with the track from Chameleon
a few days back, this one includes horns (performed in the video by scantily clad nurses). The vocalist is Andi Deris, who has been with the band since Michael left in 1993. Die hard fans of Helloween (pre-Pink Chameleons) shouldn't be too concerned about the horns ~ for the most part, Andi's more limited vocal range has been compared to original lead vocalist (and co-guitarist) Kai Hansen's, and that early material was some of their heaviest material to date. This version of the tune is, as can be gathered from the video, clearly done for fun.
We're back to humor in the lyrics with this one, wherein the eponymous doctor has some (eventually fatal) fun with cloning. As a fan of lyrics that tell a story and show change over the course of the tune, I like how they chorus shows a progression of the "funny creatures" created by the good doctor, particularly how they start off as "great rock musicians" and then "They become great politicians" (with great imagery in the video, shedding light on the truth and explaining much about politics).
For reference, here's a clip of the original performance with Michael Kiske:
( Complete lyrics under the cut... )
As with the track from Chameleon
We're back to humor in the lyrics with this one, wherein the eponymous doctor has some (eventually fatal) fun with cloning. As a fan of lyrics that tell a story and show change over the course of the tune, I like how they chorus shows a progression of the "funny creatures" created by the good doctor, particularly how they start off as "great rock musicians" and then "They become great politicians" (with great imagery in the video, shedding light on the truth and explaining much about politics).
For reference, here's a clip of the original performance with Michael Kiske:
( Complete lyrics under the cut... )
Helloween - Halloween
Feb. 10th, 2010 09:09 amA little out of season, perhaps, but this band ~ at times ~ makes a nice bridge from the humorous stuff.
Back in the late eighties, most metal liked to think of itself as either cool, badass, or sexy ~ with the exception of a small number of bands that were out and out clowns. One of the things that lost Helloween some fans (and won them, to tell the full story), was that, even when doing one of those three things, they didn't take themselves all too serious.
Witness the band's near-title-track, Halloween
, from their 1987 release Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1
. Or, rather don't. This epic tale of a holiday is rather sanitized of most humor in the butchered 5:03 video edit that is available as an independent MP3 or, apart from the imagery, in the video itself.
What you don't get, when you miss the full thirteen minutes and nine seconds of the cut on the album, is at least some of the humor... these two verses were cut out from the tune:
Back in the late eighties, most metal liked to think of itself as either cool, badass, or sexy ~ with the exception of a small number of bands that were out and out clowns. One of the things that lost Helloween some fans (and won them, to tell the full story), was that, even when doing one of those three things, they didn't take themselves all too serious.
Witness the band's near-title-track, Halloween
What you don't get, when you miss the full thirteen minutes and nine seconds of the cut on the album, is at least some of the humor... these two verses were cut out from the tune:
"Someone's sitting in a field,
Never giving yield
Sitting there with gleaming eyes
Waiting for big pumpkin to arise
Bad luck if you get a stone
Like the good old Charlie Brown
You think Linus could be right
The kids will say it's just a stupid lie"
Green Jellÿ - Flight of the Skajaquada
Feb. 9th, 2010 11:02 amWith more threatening of the coming snowpocalypse by the media, I thought it would only be fitting to (almost) wrap up the heavy metal humor with Flight Of The Skajaquada
, a heroic tale of psuedo-but-not-really-prog from Cereal Killer Soundtrack
, in which an evil snowman holds upstate New York hostage with cold and blizzards.
From what some people in that area have said, this is a common occurrence. =)
It's time to grab your magic shovel...
To wrap up, I'm going to paraphrase (or at least allude to, because I don't remember the exact wording) what a member of Green Jellÿ once said: "We'd be nothing if it wasn't for latex, Papier-mâché, chicken wire, and couch cushions."
From what some people in that area have said, this is a common occurrence. =)
It's time to grab your magic shovel...
To wrap up, I'm going to paraphrase (or at least allude to, because I don't remember the exact wording) what a member of Green Jellÿ once said: "We'd be nothing if it wasn't for latex, Papier-mâché, chicken wire, and couch cushions."
Green Jellÿ - Three Little Pigs
Feb. 8th, 2010 01:12 pmOut of all their tunes, this is the most widely known, and rightly so. This tune is from their 1992 debut album, Cereal Killer Soundtrack
.
Green Jellÿ began life as Green Jello until some lawyers from Kraft Foods said they couldn't do that, so they changed to "Jellÿ" which is, of course, pronounced "Jello." The band is really better suited to a visual medium ~ whether it's in videos like this one or in their odd live performances (check out the album's title track for the full effect... and an appearance by Toucan Son-of-Sam...)
In the heavy metal humor department, these guys really don't have any competitors ~ even Scatterbrain has a few songs that aren't meant to be jokes.
Green Jellÿ began life as Green Jello until some lawyers from Kraft Foods said they couldn't do that, so they changed to "Jellÿ" which is, of course, pronounced "Jello." The band is really better suited to a visual medium ~ whether it's in videos like this one or in their odd live performances (check out the album's title track for the full effect... and an appearance by Toucan Son-of-Sam...)
In the heavy metal humor department, these guys really don't have any competitors ~ even Scatterbrain has a few songs that aren't meant to be jokes.
Scatterbrain - Don't Call Me Dude
Jan. 22nd, 2010 08:51 amHey dude, don't call me dude...
Today's clip has a very dramatic story about mental health and the danger inherent in certain words... also, like the other Scatterbrain clip from Here Comes Trouble
, it's a classic example of metal that doesn't take it self seriously...
Today's clip has a very dramatic story about mental health and the danger inherent in certain words... also, like the other Scatterbrain clip from Here Comes Trouble
Scatterbrain - Down with the Ship
Jan. 15th, 2010 03:27 pmContinuing on with music that doesn't take itself seriously, behind the cut ~ because of a scantily clad image having been selected to represent the video ~ is Down with the Ship (Slight Return) from 1990's Here Comes Trouble
(also available as an import here
, and, at the moment, it's actually cheaper for a new copy than a used... go figure!).
Although molded with some thrash metal sensibilities and a bit of pure zaniness, fans of classic rock might find some parts of this (i.e. the verses) familiar...
The visuals are also all over the place, although the concept (record company does video without the band) has been done before (by Deep Purple, in their Call of the Wild clip from 1987), but this time it's even more over the top silly, because the parts of many of the non-band members here are played by the band members. Often in drag.
Includes indians, vikings, housewives, nuns, a chicken, cheesecake, beefcake, and the Woody Woodpecker theme.
( A video without the band... )
Although molded with some thrash metal sensibilities and a bit of pure zaniness, fans of classic rock might find some parts of this (i.e. the verses) familiar...
The visuals are also all over the place, although the concept (record company does video without the band) has been done before (by Deep Purple, in their Call of the Wild clip from 1987), but this time it's even more over the top silly, because the parts of many of the non-band members here are played by the band members. Often in drag.
Includes indians, vikings, housewives, nuns, a chicken, cheesecake, beefcake, and the Woody Woodpecker theme.
( A video without the band... )
M.O.D. - Ode to Harry
Jan. 14th, 2010 11:46 amBack in the late eighties and early nineties, there were some metal bands that, to say the least, did not take them self seriously.
M.O.D. ~ in most cases ~ and Ode to Harry ~ in particular ~ provide a good example of this. The tune is from M.O.D.'s 1987 debut, U.S.A. for M.O.D.
.
Musically, it's somewhere around about as heavy and as metal as the theme song for the Andy Griffith show or something by Burl Ives. Lyrically, it's about Fahrvergnügen Gone Wrong.
M.O.D. ~ in most cases ~ and Ode to Harry ~ in particular ~ provide a good example of this. The tune is from M.O.D.'s 1987 debut, U.S.A. for M.O.D.
Musically, it's somewhere around about as heavy and as metal as the theme song for the Andy Griffith show or something by Burl Ives. Lyrically, it's about Fahrvergnügen Gone Wrong.