"The Rest is Just Whatever"
I am at Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga listening to my iTunes on shuffle. I'm trying desperately to remove the god awful lyrics and music from my brain that have been stuck on repeat for the last few hours.
It's shortly after the Saratoga Lip Dub wrapped up filming. I got to be a small part of it along with a great group of Caffe Lena folks.
I'm a big fan of lip dubs. If you are unfamiliar with what a lip dub is, Wikipedia is your friend. So is Youtube. I have actually had the idea of doing a lip dub in Saratoga for some time, but since I don't have the funds or the pull with any organization that has the funds, I have not been spreading my idea. A group with the funds and the pull and the backing of the Common Council went ahead planned out an elaborate lip dub on Broadway in Saratoga and invited many Broadway business and Caffe Lena to be a part of it.
I got involved when I was asked by a Caffe Lena performer if I would like to show up and be a part of it. He didn't have any additional info, so I e-mailed Sarah Craig (who is Caffe Lena's Director) to get the whos, whats, wheres, and whens. She proceeded to ask me if I'd like to be the group leader and be the point person for getting other open mikers and such involved.
I ended up with about seven or so musicians joining me on lip dub day. We met outside of Caffe Lena and Breuger's Bagels. For the filming, we were located in front of Suave Faire.
The lip dub features three songs by the band Train. The reasoning behind using Train's songs is that the band's drummer is originally from Saratoga. I actually had a friend who worked with the drummer's mother. I don't recall the friend's name... but I do remember and oddly irrelevant fact: apparently, the drummer's mom was really super nice.
The songs in the lip dub are Soul Sister, If It's Love, and Drops of Jupiter. I'm really not a "fan" of Train, but I have seen them live a couple of times and briefly met the lead singer and the guitarist after a show. I'm more than familiar with Drops of Jupiter having seen the band multiple times and having been in a relationship with someone who played Train's CDs quite often. I don't like the song... but it was easy for me to learn for the lip dub. Although, I didn't get to be in the part of the lip dub that featured Drops of Jupiter.
Soul Sister just might be the most overplayed, crappy pop song EVER. But, I kind of like the song. It is catchy and infectious and lyrically, it's really not bad. The "hey-eh's" are really sing-a-longable and Train deserves credit for being successful in that. I've covered Soul Sister a few times and learned it really quickly for the lip dub. Although, I didn't get to be in the part of the lip dub that featured Soul Sister.
The second song in the lip dub, If It's Love, just might be the worst song I have ever heard... the lyrics are absolutely pointless and make very little sense. The verse chords are just F# C# -- not much to it musically. The chorus, is somewhat catchy and actually follows the same progression as the verse in Soul Sister. Besides the chorus, I really struggled to learn this song. In fact, I couldn't even tell you what the lyrics are, because they move so quickly and are so pointless that I wasn't able to memorize them. Other people in my group of Caffe Lena folks told me how they struggled with this song too. We also all agreed that we hate the song. Of course, this song was the one we had to play along to in the lip dub. What are the chances?
When the group got together in our spot, we broke out our instruments, commiserated about how much we hate the song we have to do, and started jamming on it together. We helped each other out with figuring out how the parts go musically. Then we jammed on a bunch of other songs that we know. We had three guitars, a banjo, a violin, a wooden flute, and a triangle. The triangle was paramount in bringing the whole thing together. This was the most fun of the whole day.
Eventually, the lip dub film crew came through for a "dry run." The music was playing and we learned what part of the song we would be on film for. We were all excited to discover that it was right on the chorus, which was easiest to learn. After a few high fives and sighs of relief, we memorized the words.
We practiced our "part" a bunch of times and then hung around until we were told that the first official run was starting. Each "run" was pretty much the same. We would hear the music down the street before we saw the film crew in their buggy. We would start playing along once we heard the music and just about when we got to the chorus, the buggy would cruise by with the camera directed right at us. We'd ham it up for the camera. And for about one line of the chorus, we would sing along. We have a good five or six seconds of screen time (maybe...).
After the last run, we dispersed. I am trying to get the song out of my head. I hate the song... I hated it before I started learning it. But now it's stuck...
Here are the lyrics, which are beyond awful:
While everybody else is getting out of bed
I'm usually getting in it
I'm not in it to win it
And there's a thousand ways you can skin it
My feet have been on the floor
Flat like an idle singer
Remember winger
I digress
I confess you are the best thing in my life
But I'm afraid when I hear stories
About a husband and wife
There's no happy endings
No Henry Lee
But you are the greatest thing about me
[Chorus]
If it's love
And we decide that it's forever
No one else could do it better
If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather
Then the rest is just whenever
And if I'm addicted to loving you
And you're addicted to my love too
We can be them two birds of a feather
That flock together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, Love
That's enough for me
Took a loan on a house I own
Can't be a queen bee without a bee throne
I wanna buy ya everything
Except cologne
'cause it's poison
We can travel to Spain where the rain falls
Mainly on the plain side and sing
'cause it is we can laugh we can sing
Have ten kids and give them everything
Hold our cell phones up in the air
And just be glad we made it here alive
On a spinning ball in the middle of space
I love you from your toes to your face
[Chorus]
You can move in
I won't ask where you've been
'cause everybody has a past
When we're older
We'll do it all over again
When everybody else is getting out of bed
I'm usually getting in it
I'm not in it to win it
I'm in it for you
If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather
Then the rest is just whenever
Then the rest is just whenever
If it's love
And we decide that it's forever
No one else could do it better
And if I'm addicted to loving you
And you're addicted to my love too
We can be them two birds of a feather
That flock together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, love
That's enough for me
Ughh... brutal. (I just noticed that these lyrics have "the rest is just whenever." The lyric sheet we went by says "the rest is just whatever." Oh well.)
It's shortly after the Saratoga Lip Dub wrapped up filming. I got to be a small part of it along with a great group of Caffe Lena folks.
I'm a big fan of lip dubs. If you are unfamiliar with what a lip dub is, Wikipedia is your friend. So is Youtube. I have actually had the idea of doing a lip dub in Saratoga for some time, but since I don't have the funds or the pull with any organization that has the funds, I have not been spreading my idea. A group with the funds and the pull and the backing of the Common Council went ahead planned out an elaborate lip dub on Broadway in Saratoga and invited many Broadway business and Caffe Lena to be a part of it.
I got involved when I was asked by a Caffe Lena performer if I would like to show up and be a part of it. He didn't have any additional info, so I e-mailed Sarah Craig (who is Caffe Lena's Director) to get the whos, whats, wheres, and whens. She proceeded to ask me if I'd like to be the group leader and be the point person for getting other open mikers and such involved.
I ended up with about seven or so musicians joining me on lip dub day. We met outside of Caffe Lena and Breuger's Bagels. For the filming, we were located in front of Suave Faire.
The lip dub features three songs by the band Train. The reasoning behind using Train's songs is that the band's drummer is originally from Saratoga. I actually had a friend who worked with the drummer's mother. I don't recall the friend's name... but I do remember and oddly irrelevant fact: apparently, the drummer's mom was really super nice.
The songs in the lip dub are Soul Sister, If It's Love, and Drops of Jupiter. I'm really not a "fan" of Train, but I have seen them live a couple of times and briefly met the lead singer and the guitarist after a show. I'm more than familiar with Drops of Jupiter having seen the band multiple times and having been in a relationship with someone who played Train's CDs quite often. I don't like the song... but it was easy for me to learn for the lip dub. Although, I didn't get to be in the part of the lip dub that featured Drops of Jupiter.
Soul Sister just might be the most overplayed, crappy pop song EVER. But, I kind of like the song. It is catchy and infectious and lyrically, it's really not bad. The "hey-eh's" are really sing-a-longable and Train deserves credit for being successful in that. I've covered Soul Sister a few times and learned it really quickly for the lip dub. Although, I didn't get to be in the part of the lip dub that featured Soul Sister.
The second song in the lip dub, If It's Love, just might be the worst song I have ever heard... the lyrics are absolutely pointless and make very little sense. The verse chords are just F# C# -- not much to it musically. The chorus, is somewhat catchy and actually follows the same progression as the verse in Soul Sister. Besides the chorus, I really struggled to learn this song. In fact, I couldn't even tell you what the lyrics are, because they move so quickly and are so pointless that I wasn't able to memorize them. Other people in my group of Caffe Lena folks told me how they struggled with this song too. We also all agreed that we hate the song. Of course, this song was the one we had to play along to in the lip dub. What are the chances?
When the group got together in our spot, we broke out our instruments, commiserated about how much we hate the song we have to do, and started jamming on it together. We helped each other out with figuring out how the parts go musically. Then we jammed on a bunch of other songs that we know. We had three guitars, a banjo, a violin, a wooden flute, and a triangle. The triangle was paramount in bringing the whole thing together. This was the most fun of the whole day.
Eventually, the lip dub film crew came through for a "dry run." The music was playing and we learned what part of the song we would be on film for. We were all excited to discover that it was right on the chorus, which was easiest to learn. After a few high fives and sighs of relief, we memorized the words.
We practiced our "part" a bunch of times and then hung around until we were told that the first official run was starting. Each "run" was pretty much the same. We would hear the music down the street before we saw the film crew in their buggy. We would start playing along once we heard the music and just about when we got to the chorus, the buggy would cruise by with the camera directed right at us. We'd ham it up for the camera. And for about one line of the chorus, we would sing along. We have a good five or six seconds of screen time (maybe...).
After the last run, we dispersed. I am trying to get the song out of my head. I hate the song... I hated it before I started learning it. But now it's stuck...
Here are the lyrics, which are beyond awful:
While everybody else is getting out of bed
I'm usually getting in it
I'm not in it to win it
And there's a thousand ways you can skin it
My feet have been on the floor
Flat like an idle singer
Remember winger
I digress
I confess you are the best thing in my life
But I'm afraid when I hear stories
About a husband and wife
There's no happy endings
No Henry Lee
But you are the greatest thing about me
[Chorus]
If it's love
And we decide that it's forever
No one else could do it better
If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather
Then the rest is just whenever
And if I'm addicted to loving you
And you're addicted to my love too
We can be them two birds of a feather
That flock together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, Love
That's enough for me
Took a loan on a house I own
Can't be a queen bee without a bee throne
I wanna buy ya everything
Except cologne
'cause it's poison
We can travel to Spain where the rain falls
Mainly on the plain side and sing
'cause it is we can laugh we can sing
Have ten kids and give them everything
Hold our cell phones up in the air
And just be glad we made it here alive
On a spinning ball in the middle of space
I love you from your toes to your face
[Chorus]
You can move in
I won't ask where you've been
'cause everybody has a past
When we're older
We'll do it all over again
When everybody else is getting out of bed
I'm usually getting in it
I'm not in it to win it
I'm in it for you
If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather
Then the rest is just whenever
Then the rest is just whenever
If it's love
And we decide that it's forever
No one else could do it better
And if I'm addicted to loving you
And you're addicted to my love too
We can be them two birds of a feather
That flock together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, love
That's enough for me
Ughh... brutal. (I just noticed that these lyrics have "the rest is just whenever." The lyric sheet we went by says "the rest is just whatever." Oh well.)