The Intergalactic Highway

Now, I don't necessarily mean having a voice that can rival the vocal range of a Stevie Wonder. I'm just wondering if any of us going to BotCon at least has a good ear for keeping a tune on-key, because this wacky idea came to mind earlier tonight, as a late birthday present for Scott McNeil (his birthday was September 15).

I'm actually 75% completed writing a song parody (or "filksong", if you prefer) tentatively called "Shoot Me Axalon Down, 'Bot", which -- as you might guess -- uses the tune to "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport"; I only need to write up two more verses. What I'm thinking about doing is, if our BWInt-&-Hangar Alliance at BotCon gets a chance to meet up with Scott when it's convenient (as in, not holding up autograph lines or distracting him from things when he's scheduled to get to a panel room), we could sing this parody to him for his birthday gift from us.

As it stands now, I've finished writing the refrain (which I want to be done in multi-part harmony, just like the actual "Kangaroo" song) and five out of the seven verses; in four of those completed verses, each of them represents one of Scott's characters in BW. An option I'm thinking about, should enough people feel brave enough to do it, is possibly having a few of us do solo verses, ideally fitting with a favorite character (i.e. Sapphire singing Rattrap's verse, Sinead on Dinobot's verse, etc.). And I might need one of us to do the bassline, since it will be a cappela.

And to really make this work even better... the wobbleboard. Because (a) the template for this song is from Australia, and (b) so is Scott. And I have just the thing to use... I still have the blister-package cardboard part from a European-release Rattrap I bought some years ago... and I'll be bringing that with me to BotCon for someone to use as the wobbleboard. Believe me, I've tried it out, and even though it's pretty small, it actually works pretty decently.

Depending on how things can work during the BotCon weekend, we may need to sneak in a few short practices once we get together (at least, those of us who'd be willing to be part of this goofy little thing). If anyone's got a comment, feel free to fire away.

Outtsyder

Well, I've been in voice lessons for the past 5 years so I can carry a tune. If I can be of any help I'd be more then willing

Take. A. Tape. Recorder!!!!! *is now seriously jelous of the con' goers* Have a blast you guys! And Good luck!

Been singing as along as Beast Wars has been around.

I can hold a tune, and can hold harmonies better.

I'M. SO. IN.

. . . do you have a version of the song that I can hear so I'm familiar with the tune? Otherwise, I'm screwed. That's the only thing.

Vampyerba wrote:Well, I've been in voice lessons for the past 5 years so I can carry a tune. If I can be of any help I'd be more then willing

Five years? Heck, yeah; I'd accept you in a heartbeat. You're in for sure!

Nurann wrote: Take. A. Tape. Recorder!!!!! *is now seriously jelous of the con' goers* Have a blast you guys! And Good luck!

Hopefully, I won't forget to record us while we're doing the song; my digital camera can also record audio and video, so as long as I remember, I hope we'll have a soundfile of our performance.

Rebecca Sinead wrote:Been singing as along as Beast Wars has been around.

I can hold a tune, and can hold harmonies better.

I'M. SO. IN.

I was hoping you'd be part of it, Sinead; if we go ahead with the thing with a fan solo-singing the verse for a favorite character, I'd be wanting you up for Dinobot's verse. If Zucca's brave enough to join us, I'll have him for Silverbolt's verse, and hope Sapphire would be willing to do Rattrap's, unless someone else wants to do it instead. Waspinator will be anyone's game, although this is still in the rough stages.

Rebecca Sinead wrote:. . . do you have a version of the song that I can hear so I'm familiar with the tune? Otherwise, I'm screwed. That's the only thing.

That's weird; "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" is one of those "songs that everyone knows"; unless you mean that you're familiar with the tune itself, but not the new lyrics that I'm writing. To be safe, I'll cover both bases. The original tune can be heard here:

http://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Rolf-H ... F8&s=music (scrolll down to "Listen To Samples" and choose Track 2)

Full lyrics of the original song are here:

http://users.durge.org/~rich/rolf/kangaroo.html

But if you mean the new lyrics that I'm writing (still tentatively called "Shoot Me Axalon Down, 'Bot"), I'm just about finished with them; I finally got little sparks of ideas for the last two verses that are missing. Once I finish them off, I may either post them in here, or just e-mail it to those who want to part of this thing. If it helps, I'll bring my CD that has the original song, so we can hear it (if we have the chance) and get the tune in our heads.

Outtsyder