Members steve mac Posted June 21, 2018 Members Share Posted June 21, 2018 If singing a song famous for being performed by a member of the opposite sex, do you routinely changer it to fit your gender? i.e. He to she or woman to man etc.?or do you stick faithfully to the original? I am currently learning a Suzy Quatro song and changing some lines in it to fit me being a bloke just isnt working for example king to queen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted June 21, 2018 Members Share Posted June 21, 2018 Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Sometimes, I make serious changes. for example, in "Little Things Mean A Lot": What would I want with diamonds and pearls, 'cause honestly, honey, they just cost money which is fine for a woman to sing, but sounds pretty cheap if you just change the "I" to "she." So I changed the second half of the line completely. What would she want with diamonds and pearls, when far above, she wants your love The only time I ran into trouble was at a jam when I *didn't* change the gender of this song. My rendition, alas, was met with drop-jawed silence. [video=youtube;68gCwBy4ElA] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bob Dey Posted June 22, 2018 Members Share Posted June 22, 2018 Another way is to change the lyric from 1st person to 3rd person. "oh, but he watches so sadly..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJkxFhFRFDA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted June 22, 2018 Members Share Posted June 22, 2018 Depends on the song. Sometimes a gender change, sometimes third person, sometimes 'as is'. And sometimes it works better. Take "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations, it is really a female song. What guy from the 1970s sits at home waiting for the girl to call him? So when Leilani sings that one it works better. Notes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members steve mac Posted June 22, 2018 Author Members Share Posted June 22, 2018 Another way is to change the lyric from 1st person to 3rd person. "oh, but he watches so sadly..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJkxFhFRFDA Never thought of that. It doesn't help in this instance but may in others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted June 23, 2018 Members Share Posted June 23, 2018 Queen might work, but some might get the wrong idea - at least in USA slang. Jo might not like the competition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted June 23, 2018 Moderators Share Posted June 23, 2018 had you done it in drag.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted June 23, 2018 Members Share Posted June 23, 2018 Context is everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members steve mac Posted June 24, 2018 Author Members Share Posted June 24, 2018 My thing is getting the crowd hyped up and singing along and that's a real problem with any changes to lyrics, even if it's a simple change and scans accordingly. I was just curious what others did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted June 24, 2018 Members Share Posted June 24, 2018 If you want the crowd to sing along, either stick to the words, or do some shtick. When on the Cruise Ships in the late 1980s we did John Denver's "Country Roads". We'd sing "Almost Heaven, West Virginia" and stop. Then we'd ask if anyone there was from West Virginia. Nobody ever raised their hands (thankfully) so I'd follow it with "That's because nobody told them they could leave." Always got a laugh. Then we'd ask the people to sing along but instead of saying West Virginia, substitute the place you are living in now. The gag never failed. We don't do sing-alongs anymore. They didn't work as well on land for us. Notes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members steve mac Posted June 24, 2018 Author Members Share Posted June 24, 2018 My crowds are usually "pie-eyed" I find that their drunkenness is directly proportional to my perceived skill level and their perception of their own vocal abilities.ps I was in West Virginia this January singing Beatle songs up a snow covered mountain and to be fair that crowd was singing along too 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted June 26, 2018 Members Share Posted June 26, 2018 My sister-in-law lives in West Virginia, and I've met a lot of nice people there. They just didn't do cruise ships much back then, which made the shtick work. And parts of West Virginia are "Almost Heaven" - at least in the late spring or summer (I'm a warm weather guy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.