[filk] To Be For Real (mt Remix), Son of the Return of Mad Word

[Epic, Timothy Dalton style Intro. Yes, <that> Timothy Dalton.]

In the year Two-thousand Five, a man emerged from the mists. An ex-poet, he whiled away his time writing take-off songs about an online comic, honing his art in sporadic if prolific bursts. This culminated in a full set of covers to Queen's album, Jazz, and a number of other achievements. Then, two years later, he claimed to be returning permanently before mysteriously vanishing. Some speculated as to his disappearance. Perhaps he had forgotten the comic and thrown away his foolish desires to parody popular music. Perhaps he had given up writing, and taken up a career in computer programming or taxidermy. Or perhaps...

[Cut to a secret monastery in the Himalayas. Snow at 45 degree angles, blizzarding down. A white man with a large brown afro sits lotus style in the center of a hall, meditating. He wears a tattered undyed robe. Another man, wrinklier than a dried cherry, approaches, in a black robe.]

Blackie: The weather seems quite rough today.

[The afroed man sits motionless, then speaks]

Mad: And master, you have much to say.
Blackie: That snow joke.

[Mad opens one eye. Soon the two men trade puns, back and forth, on a wide range of topics. Some of them rhyme. Eventually, Blackie holds up one hand.]

Blackie: You have done well. That is rare.
Mad: I do miss steak, though.
Blackie: As it should be. I can only steer you down the path for so long.
Mad: So you're chucking me out, then?
Blackie: Letting you leave. You have ponderous work to do in the world.
Mad: No bull?
Blackie, smiling: There's a time and a place, young'n. Go away.

[The narration resumes.] And so it came to pass that the Mad Wordsmith, his skills honed and his wit sharpened, came out of his self-imposed exile into the bright unblinking light of the forums, and there he saw...

Mad: Holy crap, has Fred actually been making his schedule for three years? And he had a baby? Wow. I have work to do.
-----
And, in honor of this momentous occasion, a momentous task. A suitable challenge. After one too many hits with the philosophy stick in Ch. 9, (which I just finished reading,) and a rather lovely beat from the CunninLynguists, I will now attempt a rap filk. I haven't done one of these since "Gamer's Paradise," which was back near the start of my filking career, so this should be interesting. Grab the song from QN5 and imagine Nanasawa and the Fanboy King as two large black men from Kentucky. Erm.

As for the source song / lyrics, it's a different meditation on "real"ness and celebrity. Lyrics on the page with the song. I suggest you produce some large headphones and listen once first before trying to substitute these lyrics in your mind. The Fanboy King's flow will get choppy, but it is on beat. Good luck. If you can even follow this, I applaud you.
------
To Be For Real [MT Remix]
Apologies to the CunninLynguists

Hook:Kotone
From make believe
Well, I want to be for real

Nanasawa
Some wear masks everywhere like they're living Noh,
or wear their makeup when sleeping, like it's gonna show.
Taking refuge in their work, or a sport, or go
Or just smoke themselves to death, going nice and slow.
Burning the inside or outside, I will burn my own pride,
be the thing that you crave, I will help you get by,
You are playing the game, 'cause you need a quick high
I don't do it for money, my payday ain't nigh.
I will do more, better than acceptable,
Won't integrity make the work more respectable?
I am real life. I'm not digital.
I deserve respect, it's not unthinkable.
Now I know why Erika quit, you're unstoppable
I speak to you in sound bites and word bubbles.
Understanding how you all feel does not justify.
Your behavior would even make 2-D girls cry.

Fanboy King
Don't you tell me 'bout feelings you ain't got.
Honne / tatemae, girl, you're in the same spot.
Show me a facade, don't care if it's you or not.
We'll love "you" till it changes who you are, when the love stops.
We love game girls 'cause they're constant like large rocks,
Unending erosion dragging chips off the old block.
Exports from things past, every character and plot.
Derivative preservatives, can't let our souls rot.
Fantasies we crave, Logic's what we fiend for,
In the modern world we never get what we came for.
A multiple choice test's exactly what we paid for
process of elimination will net you the dream score.
Let it be made plain, let the path be easy,
Let the world admit that escapism's really pleasing.
We leave this world, 'cause it feels like hell,
And no one thinks to ask why we're so compelled.
-----
The one nice thing about doing raps is, you don't care half as much about matching the original rhythm as you do the beat. This makes it harder for people to appreciate, though, partly because it's HARD. (And this delayed my return by two weeks because it took an absurd amount of time to write *one verse*.) This, everyone, is probably why rap filks are extremely uncommon.

For those that don't know...Honne/Tatemae on Wikipedia. Providing you with fanworks and quality edutainment.

Well, I'm back. I'll check in from time to time. This was meant to make a bang, but I think it may be more of a fizz.
-Mad Word

Afraid I'm not much one for rap (okay, I despise it with every ounce of my being, probably to a greater intensity than Teddy Werebear's antipathy toward Tohya Miho), but as poetry it's not bad.

Welcome back.

Awesome rap - I can see why that must have taken ages! Not only on the beat but topical, thought-provoking, funny AND sharp. *impressed*

But that Wiki article - what a load of baloney! There is nothing uniquely Japanese about wanting to do one thing and having to do another. Okay, maybe you don't get it so much in the Land of the Free, but, seriously, if you're any kind of Otaku you know that conflict ALL the time.

Social pressure, peer group pressure, being in the closet, class, race and age restrictions: every single one of those things is a behavioural strait-jacket that can cut right across your most intense desires. Only sociopaths don't ever feel that imbalance, or herd animals. Normal humans aren't really either of those extremes and that constant push / pull is what makes us . . us.

Sorry to digress there *pant, pant, pant* Needed to get that off my chest.

Anyway, welcome back!

@Tangent: You have been listening to the wrong rap my friend. Eminem (for example) is a poet in all but name - read him if you can't bear to listen. . .

@mistersaxon: Music is to be sung, not chanted. Unless you're talking Gregorian chant. And even that is more musical than rap.

If you ever want an example? The music in Homeworld when the Mothership is over Kharak.

First off, Welcome back Mad Word.

Secondly, while I'm not much for rap and hip-hop, I'm impressed that you pulled this off so well. Looking at the original source I can see where filking and getting the rhythm and beat to still work can easily be rather tricky.

~shadowrider (who does remember you, )

Ah! I see where you are going wrong! Rap is not music - it is poetry and protest - or lewd boasting and vulgarity when done badly. Listening to it as music won't get you very far

Gregorian chant is sung chant anyway so it should be musical - remember Enigma? Don't know Homeworld - I'll look it up.

Here's the original opening sequence for Homeworld - the Gregorian chant starts at 2:50: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrW4jkQdmjI&feature=related

Here's Adagio for Strings (without the game commentary and sound effects) composed by Samuel Barber. Lyrics are from Agnus Dei: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIUxwEJ-GXI&feature=related

Neofolk often gets more chant-y than most genres.

Tangent: And some people say that classic music is dead. *shakes head*

There are feelings and atmospheres, only a choir and/or classic orchestra will ever be able to carry. Simple as that.

@Tangent: Modern classics: Adagio for strings by DJ Tiesto. And yes, it's good, if you give it a chance.

Then there are musicians like Wim mertens who can, alongside his regular stuff, compose this: Close Cover and a cover of Close Cover

But then again, TEMA I from the OST to GunslingerGirl puts the hairs on the back of my neck up almost every time I play it, and that's purely classy and purely orchestral / choral. But Mozart it ain't! And nor is it a "modern" composer like Britten with his unendingly tedious search for pure musical forms.

But the thing that makes most music lift from the page and fly into your brain is the association it has, the feeling it evokes. Sometimes (like TEMA I) because the association is done for you, sometimes (like this track - to which I enjoy rowing in the gym) because your mind can use it to make something meaningful just for you.

This post has been edited by mistersaxon on Feb 3 2010, 04:17 PM

Bloody 'ell, themadwordsmith's back? Bearing gifts, no less? Not just gifts, either; this is the work of someone who has been sharpening their skills. Come, let us slaughter the fattened calf for this thread.

Or, better yet, a verse response:

Do not weep, maiden, for fame is kind.
Because your fanboys drew skanky doujins on the 'net
And their photography makes /b/tards blush,
Do not weep.
Fame is kind.

'Moar!' Shout the fans of the singing girls,
Strange rewards are giv'n those with win
From boards where ecchi pictures lie.
The undemanding girlies glow before them.
Great is the Fanboy-King, great, and his kingdom -
A board where the snowy sad-girls cry.

Do not weep, dear, for fame is kind.
Because your roommate stumbled from the lighted pillar,
Towered over (and lost) friends, fans, and love,
Do not weep.
Fame is kind.

Swift muffin-cart from the upper deck
Crashed into fans so probing and pale
From boards where ecchi pictures lie.
Heroine to them, to defend them so,
Make plain to all the dignity of fanboys,
And a board where the snowy sad-girls cry.

Seiyuu whose tears shine bright as the starlight
On the high-res. splendid pics of her pantsu,
Do not weep.
Fame is kind.

(Apologies to Stephen Crane)

This post has been edited by Wavebird_Ocelot on Feb 3 2010, 08:56 PM

Wow. For a moment, I thought my filk thread had been hijacked completely within three responses, (which might be a record.) Not that I mind, just that it amuses me.

@Everyone: Rapping is only one element of hip-hop music. I've heard infinitely better production and musicianship on some hip-hop records than I've heard on some Jazz recordings. (Consider The Roots, a hip-hop group backed by a live band.) Sure, it's maybe not your thing if you're not into heavy vamping, but that defines most music from the past 40 years anyway, so who cares? And I've heard a capella raps that are so intensely emotional that they make Pablo Neruda look mortal. (Consider Brother Ali, or Mr. SOS.) Hip-hop is what happens when music and slam poetry get together and make artistic babies. It's not quite one or the other, but it can be awesome if you approach it the right way. Especially some of the older stuff that revolved around double meanings.

@mistersaxon: You're absolutely right that there's nothing uniquely Japanese about having to distinguish between the way you act around / for other people and the way you actually are. In fact, past decades have pretty much discredited everything about the nihonjinron discipline, mainly because the foundational "uniqueness" argument is so flawed. The world being as big as it is, we could just call Rule 34 on Japan's cultural and psychological problems. You can find them somewhere else in the world too. It's just that Japanese A) has words for them, B) actually teaches this as a vital tool for everyday life, and C) is more extreme in its examples. For a Westerner, especially one who isn't passive-aggressive, the difference in communication styles can be so drastic that it seems like the Japanese are more unique than they actually are.

[Breathes]
OK. Wow.

@Ocelot: Wow. I have never seen anyone use Stephen Crane before. Now I know why. Your meter doesn't match the original, but is better for it. Packed dense with allusions to modern society and culture, this maintains the general message of the original quite nicely. Great job.

Now, on to Chapter 10. But first, I have a reaction to Miho's apparent death that needs posting soon. I'm thinking...something by The Who would be appropriate. I've always wanted to do Baba O'Reilly. Wait. No.

-MWs

We'll just drop our agendas and adjourn.

This post has been edited by themadwordsmith on Feb 4 2010, 07:38 PM

Heh. I've managed to drag threads off on a tangent with one post.

Only occasionally is that intentional, but I wanted to get it posted before this thread either fell off the first page or drifted even farther off-topic. ;)

Also, uploaded to the CWDB: link.

This post has been edited by Wavebird_Ocelot on Feb 4 2010, 10:51 PM

Yeah!

Filky goodness!

I enjoy these, thanks Mad and Ocelot...
I'm not sure if I like them becase of or despite my musical ineptitude. Meh whatever. *Applause*