Thursday, February 14, 2008

..Together we can take it to the end of the line...

As a general rule, I don't love the abuse of karaoke for let's-bring-everyone-down ballads... but there are definitely exceptions. The most significant case in point - you all know where I'm going with this - is Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart." I don't know why we all know the words, but few things can unite a packed bar as surprisingly as the opening sounds of that melancholy piano.

Last Thursday, some friends and I busted out this standard at T.G. Whitney's karaoke night. The audience reacted as hoped, and by the chorus, we didn't even need our microphones anymore.

It's hard to say which is my favorite part:

-The sudden swelling into "...And I need you
now, tonight..."

-The excuse to scream at the top of your lungs, "We're living in a powder keg and GIVING OFF SPARKS!!"

-The lyrics "Every now and then I know there's no one in the universe as magical and wondrous as you," so ballsy in their ridonculousness

-The way they throw in an extra little falsetto "turn around, bright eyes," sung ever so lightly, before the swirling wind sounds bring it to a close...

Oh, who am I kidding, I can't choose a favorite!

My first memories of this song involve the annual D.A.R.E. rally at our middle school. Every year, the 8th graders put on this melodramatic little skit about a teenager who ruins her life with drugs, while Bonnie Tyler inexplicably played in the background. God knows how many years this same skit had been used, considering that the song pre-dated most of us entering preschool.
Taking the message to the literal extreme, students would dress up as different drugs, i.e. a sandwich board with the word "Marijuana" or "LSD" on it, and of course, sunglasses. Each drug would hug the wayward teen, and then all of her new drug friends joined hands and circled around her (could I make this up?). The coolest kids got to play the drugs. God, where would we be without D.A.R.E. rallies?
The point of this tangent: it took about a year for that song to leave our skulls, and then it would be time for the next rally. Turn around.....

Listen at your own risk!

4 comments:

Adrian said...

So Miss Kim what are the top 10 best bring-down-the-house karaoke songs. Remember the best, so no Creed. Even though its awesome when they take you higher. To a place with something something something.

If such a list can't exist, what are your faves? Like the ones you already have pre-written.

Also planning on a massive birthday karaoke blow out?

Unknown said...

I remember thinking at those DARE rallies, "Man, LSD gets to wear a sandwich board. I totally want to be LSD."

kimberlyand said...

Ooh, top karaoke songs will have to be another post altogether.

I believe there will be karaoke involved in one or both of the nights I am celebrating this weekend. TEOTH ain't gonna sing itself.

P.S. Creed = the c-word in my book

kimberlyand said...

Seth, don't ever let anyone stand in the way of your dreams.