Because I love music so much, and need it in my life for sanity, I have really gotten into playing Rock Band with my family. We probably spend WAY too much time playing, for that matter. It has led to some interesting and seriously amusing (to us, anyway) conversations. We have both RB 1 and 2 and have also downloaded a bunch of songs from the online site. That means that there are lots of songs to provoke silliness.
One of the songs that was being played was "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains. Listening to the sound of the guitar notes sounds like someone yelping "Owww" on certain ones. This led to:
"Wait, what is the name of this song? Man in the Box?"
"Yes."
"Okay, well maybe someone can let him out of the box now. I think he's protesting and likely in pain."
"But it's Alice in Chains. Maybe there is a reason he's still in the box. Maybe the chains don't reach far enough and they can't get to him."
"Okay, but couldn't someone else think about rescuing him soon? His owwww owwwww noises are sounding pretty pain filled now."
Which led to a chorus of us all oww'ing along with the guitar notes. Not particularly intellectual humor, but at 1am (or whatever time it was then) it really was pretty funny. To us.
Some other randomness came from the Bob Dylan song "Tangled Up In Blue". Admittedly, I am REALLY not a Dylan fan. A lot. Which led me to question the choosing of this song for the Rock Band playlist. Maybe the conversation at the table where the people who make these decisions sit went something like this:
"Hey Joe, how much is left to spend on buying songs permission?"
"I don't know Bob, let me check. It looks like we have about $5.37 left."
"Wow, I didn't realize that was it. What can we get for that? Should we save it for the next version?"
"No, I know exactly what we can get. Someone get Dylan on the phone, he'll let us use his song for $5.37."
"Joe! That is absolutely brilliant!"
"Thanks, I thought it was rather clever."
"Wait, have you actually heard that song? If we put that in, the fans might not come back for a next version."
"That's a good point, Bob. We only have $5.37 though, and that is the only thing that we can afford. We need one more song. It will have to work and we'll just cross our fingers that the fans won't be too annoyed by the time the new release comes out."
Actually, I have no idea if that is how it went, but it amuses me to think so. I also have no idea if there is a next version of Rock Band in the works. If there is, my fingers are crossed for Rock Band: The Musicals. Being the theater geek that I am, and particularly when it comes to musicals, this is easily the ultimate game on my dreamed up Must Have list. I'm probably the only one, but, as Russ tells me frequently, "It's good to want things". Especially if those things are Rock Band: The Musicals. With lots of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Definitely needs lots of Webber. And Wicked. The whole soundtrack. Because I rock at Chenoweth songs. And because musicals are what I sound best singing.
The dreamed up Dylan conversation did lead to another one, however. While listening to Russ and Jeff (my brother-in-law) play "Tangled Up In Blue" I asked my brother-in-law:
"Have you ever heard a cat being tortured?"
"Ummmm...noooo." (Imagine a quizzical, slightly frightened look on his face. One that wonders if he needs to start locking his doors at night.)
"Neither have I, but I imagine that this is probably pretty much dead on what it would sound like."
"You know, a cat got trapped in our barn the other day and when I went to let it out, it did make a noise that sounded like this."
"And prompted you to ask 'Shit!! Who the hell locked Bob Dylan in my barn?' right?"
"Absolutely. I had to get him out of there. He was scaring the wildlife away."
Because really, no one wants Bob Dylan locked up in their barn. Unless it might be to apply a gag so that he can't sing anymore. That just wouldn't solve the problem of the $5.37 that Joe and Bob spent to put him on Rock Band, though. Ugh.
I also had commentary about the Ratt song "Round and Round". There is a line in the song that states "What comes around goes around". I commented that I had never heard that phrase ordered quite that way, but always as "what goes around comes around". You know, in the sense of "don't start it if you don't want it to come back to you". That comment led to debating which way was correct. After settling that it really was the way I thought, we all kind of paused and at the same time made various comments like "I suppose that context matters in this case" and "well, I guess it depends on how you're looking at it", all with the same meaning. (Yeah, our minds were a bit in the gutter, but it was midnight-ish and we were getting kind of slap happy and silly.)
All of the silliness aside, we really do have fun playing. I like a lot of the songs, too. Most I wasn't even familiar with beyond more than a barely passing awareness that I had probably heard their names at one point or another. Now I have some that are favorites. I love "Dead on Arrival" by Fallout Boy and "Wave of Mutilation" by The Pixies. I was already a fan of "Here it Goes Again" by Ok Go and I love the Ramones, so "Blitzkrieg Bop", catchy tune that it is, was a given. Without listing every song that I like, and that is now most of them (with the exception of anything Bob Dylan), I am definitely glad that I got to be familiar with the Rock Band songs. Some I just love listening to, and some just for the absolute randomness that they provoke in conversations.
Take care,
Cindi
