Saturday, September 10, 2005

Lyric hunting



Young people these days are so lucky. They want song lyrics, all they have to do is to log on the Internet and search. A few keystrokes later, they've got the lyrics on the screen. What's left to be done is to copy, paste and print and they can sing their hearts out.

In my time, we had to listen and scribble. A lyric-hunting session would go like this.

1. Play cassette tape.
2. Sribble furiously.
3. Press pause when the pen can't catch up with the words.
4. Wait, didn't get the last few words of the second line.
5. Rewind.
6. Play.
7. Scribble furiously.
8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 till the end of the song.

Repeat these procedures for the next few songs on the tape and by the end of the lyric-scribbling, the tape would go into a slow-mo guttural mode which meant only one thing : you've played it to death.

Three cheers for the Internet. Hip hip hurrah!

10 comments:

Kak Teh said...

Lydia, i remember this method of copying so well. and how we treasure our song books that we lovingly decorate with pictures of singers that we cut from magazines. and then at the end of school term, everyone will bring their song books because we can sing in class on that last day! And we look with envy at all those thick song books, - handwritten summore - beautiful cursive writing!

Lydia Teh said...

Kak Teh, Ah, I almost forgot about that. I had an old exercise book which I use to write down the songs but no decorationlah. We're giving away our age, aren't we.

Kak Teh said...

no, only if we mention the name of the songs and the singers -then they can carbon-date us for sure...dont mention matt monroe or dusty springfield...who they?
but i tell you - these days its easy - but no fun lah! part of the fun is singing the wrongw ords like...Oh bladi oh blada - lagozonnnn.....

Lydia Teh said...

Who's Matt Monroe, Kak Teh? Johnny Horton I know lah.

Kak Teh said...

aiyoooooooooo! how come u all donno matt monroe (I donno Johnny Horton)
Do you know this song - Walk Away? walk away, please go. before u throw your life away....
now i feel old!

Lydia Teh said...

Is Matt Monroe any relation to Marilyn Monroe kah?

Kak Teh said...

when i go back - i will sing it to you personally - but promise me u wont walk away when do that! i tend to have that effect on people when i sing...they WALK AWAY!

Lydia Teh said...

Kak Teh, Don't worry. I'll bring along some cotton wool, just in case.

Doreen said...

Hey! I had a brown exercise book with lyrics too! I can't read Chinese, so in my book was the romanized lyrics of songs from Aaron Kwok and Jimmy Lin and many more of those teenage hearthrobs. And I used to collect their pictures from mags and newspapers too! I wonder where the book is now...

Lydia Teh said...

Doreen, if you ever find that book, hold on to it. When you have kids, you can show them your 'songbook' but be prepared for wisecracks like "it belongs to the museum."