Karaoke Konstraints

Jeremy's list of would-be karaoke masterpieces

Put these ten songs together and you have the album of cover songs that various independent labels have approached me about doing. Actually, there are more than ten songs, because I haven't decided which will be the super-secret, special bonus tracks on the album and which will be B-sides for the radio singles that the label releases. I put the original performer of each song in parentheses, all of whom are presumably shaking in their boots at the prospect of being upstaged by my rendition. Alas, and especially since several of these songs are obscure, meddlesome copyright laws and pesky university policies keep me from putting in links to .mp3s of any of them.

	32 Flavors (Ani DiFranco)
	Ana Ng (They Might Be Giants)
	Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes)
	Bring the Noise (Public Enemy)
	Gimme Brains (Bratmobile--just one of a catalogue of riot grrl anthems whose absence from the Karaoke Kid songlist squelches the full realization of my talents)
	I Got Some Help I Don't Need (BB King)
	I Gotta Man (Positive K)
	I Will Survive (as done by Cake, not Gloria Gaynor)
	Identity and Control (Harrison White)
	In These Shoes? (Kirsty MacColl)
	Iowa (Dar Williams)
	Michigan Militia (Moxy Früvious)
	Push It (Salt N' Pepa)
	Sabotage (Beastie Boys)
	She Bop (Cyndi Lauper)
	Studies in Ethnomethodology (Harold Garfinkel)
	The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton (The Mountain Goats)
	Your Redneck Past (Ben Folds Five)

A friend of mine from graduate school sent me a letter protesting an exclusion from the above list. Of course without permission, I quote:

> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 2:13 PM
> To: Jeremy Freese
> Subject: another song
>
> I just enjoyed your photos of the multiple karaoke nights held in Madison
> by the UW faculty and graduate students...and they say you all never have
> any fun.
>
> You did however, in my mind leave off one very important song on your list
> of songs not available in the karaoke system (or was it in there?).
>
> That would be:
>
> Never Surrender by Corey Hart, also known as the unofficial graduate
> school theme song. I quote the first verse and refrain from memory:
>
> "Just a little more time is all we're askin' for. 'Cause just a little
> more time could open closing doors. Just a little uncertainty can get you
> down. And nobody wants to know you now. And nobody wants to show you
> how. So when you're lost and on your own, you can never surrender. And
> when the path won't lead you home, you can never surrender. And when the
> night is cold and dark, you can see, you can see light. No one can take
> away your right to fight and to never surrender."
>
> I think this song captures those *long* nights in the ISR pretty well.
> The next time you go out, tell one of the grad students to look for it...