There is a lot of karaoke that goes on in The Villages. People sing their little hearts out while others are eagerly awaiting their turn at the mike. We even have a friend who does karaoke gigs. He has probably any song you have ever heard of – including even my favorite, “Rhubarb Pie”. You ought to hear John Fogerty’s version as it is really tuneful. Not today’s tuneful, but really tuneful! You don’t even have to scream to sing it.
The only thing that gets me is that some people think that karaoke is a relatively new thing. I suppose it is in some ways. However, when I was a young tad, and would go to movies, one of the shorts before the main show was one where you followed the bouncing ball. Words to popular tunes would show up and the ball would bounce to where you were to sing. Then everyone would sing songs like “You Are My Sunshine” or “There is a Tavern in the Town”. The latter was a lament, but catchy.
On a good night, you might even get to sing “Camptown Races”. I am certain some of you recall the lyrics which went: “The Camptown ladies sing this song, Doo-da, Dooda. The Camptown racetracks five miles long, Oh, de doo-da day.” It went on for a number of verses. All I can say is if that race track is five miles long, they must have had some horses back in Stephen Foster’s Day. Heck, the Belmont Stakes which is the last of the Triple Crown for three year olds is only 1.5 miles long. Some trainers do not even enter their horse since they consider the race too long. I guess back then “horses were horses”.
Old Stephen wrote some good songs back in his day. It is a good thing he isn’t writing songs now. Can you imagine what he would have to do to “Beautiful Dreamer”? When he got to the “wake unto me” part he would have to put in some scatology that I would not be able to put in this column. Well, I guess that I could if it were song lyrics, but I wouldn’t. Being of an older generation I can still go with “Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee” and so forth. Obviously that would not sell today, and the playing volume would be up about 100%.
I never have figured out why the volume for music has to be so loud – no matter what kind is being played. Half the time, you can’t even hear the singer as the music drowns him/her out. If I were a singer I would not care for that – unless I was one of those singers of today who can’t sing anyhow, but can gyrate pretty well. In addition to the bouncing ball mentioned above, when television came along there was a band leader who used the same concept and you could sing along at home. His band performed music like “That Old Gang of Mine” and “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. He even had Leslie Uggams as a singer! It made for some enjoyable evenings. The Blonde in the house and I used to really enjoy the program.
Mitch Miller where are you when we need you?
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
