Karaoke is definitely something else…
December 4, 2003, 5:50 PM
D-Hall had their “Breakfast for dinner and Karaoke” night this evening, and it definitely was fun. And I didn’t know about it coming into it, but it still was fun.
After eating dinner, I decided to look through the catalog for songs that I knew well enough to try and sing. Then I thought, Why don’t I try my hand at it? So I really went hunting.
Now all my really favorite songs are oddball songs that most people haven’t heard of, but I do enjoy some mainstream songs. I originally wanted to sing something by Valdy or Bruce Cockburn, but they didn’t have it in their catalog. So back hunting I go. They didn’t have Five O’Clock World by The Vogues in there, and so I finally found two I felt really confident in singing, and went to choose.
I had narrowed it down to the Macarena and Macarthur Park. Both songs I knew quite well. I ended up choosing Macarthur Park, because of what version Macarena was. It was the Bayside Boys Mix, and besides the fact that it wasn’t my favorite version of the song (preferring the all-Spanish versions of the song), the English lyrics were definitely written for a female. I think people would start to talk if they heard me sing:
Now don’t you worry about my boyfriend,
The boy whose name is Vitorino,
I don’t want him, couldn’t stand him,
He was no good, so I… ha-ha, ha ha ha…
Now come on, what was I supposed to do?
He was out of town,
And his two friends were soooooo fine…
I think you would agree. People would start to talk.
So I went with MacArthur Park. I submitted my card for the song, and then after two more songs, and lots of pacing and rehearsing the song in my head, it was my turn. So I’m in D-Hall, and I’m up with the wireless mic in front of the karaoke monitor. It took me a second to get started, but once I got the hang of it, I really got going, singing:
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing flowing down…
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
’cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Let me tell you, I had fun. During the musical interlude, I kind of danced up there and was swinging the wireless around, and I think that my audience enjoyed it, too.
One thing interesting was that to do it well, you really have to cast off your inhibitions about it. I finally was able to do that once I got started, and had a lot of fun as well. Basically, I was able to forget that the audience was there, and pretend I was back at my computer, singing along with the MP3 that I have of it.
And I think I did much better than Drew Carey did on his show, where he sang Macarthur Park and played the accordion at his boss’s church fundraiser. And if Drew didn’t do a good job, he’d end up on his boss’s “crap list”. Lewis ended up getting him out of it by setting off the fire alarm. So yes, I did a better job than Drew Carey, and no one had to set off the fire alarm for me.
They really did put on a show for the whole karaoke night, too. The people they got to put it on had all kinds of lights and lasers, and even a smoke machine! It was very cool, indeed.
And hey, now I know I can do it, and that makes me happy. Who knows… maybe I’ll do it again some time.
Web site: The full lyrics to Macarthur Park
Song: What else? Macarthur Park, of course.
Quote: Me blathering on to these two random girls at a nearby table while I was waiting to sing, to pass the time until it was my turn, since I was rather nervous: "This song is one of those songs that my parents used to listen to when they were younger. I'm sure they'll be proud of me when I tell them I sang one of the songs they used to listen to up on the karaoke machine. And this song is totally crazy, singing about cakes and dresses, and such..."