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My favorite song
Ever, with explanation and the MP3 link on the left. And here are the lyrics.
Addendum: The guy actually has the best practical idea I've heard yet for your time travel trip back to 1000 A.D. If you have a decent voice, use the catalog of the Beatles and others to become the greatest minstrel the world has seen. It's the low capital costs and low cooperation requirements that make the idea so appealing.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 25, 2008 at 07:56 AM in Music | Permalink
Comments
No Bay City Rollers?! ;-)
Posted by: Speedmaster at Jun 25, 2008 8:06:16 AM
Wow, can't wait to hear that on the radio. Good stuff... If Tyler does the music video, I think it will be a hit on youtube.
Posted by: brainwarped at Jun 25, 2008 8:30:24 AM
See, now this is why we need that sociability drug.
Posted by: David at Jun 25, 2008 8:42:12 AM
This idea assumes that cultural tastes would be the same in 1000AD as in 1960AD. But what would the people of 1000AD make of 'Back in the USSR'? Or even 'Help!'?
Posted by: John at Jun 25, 2008 8:48:27 AM
Just be careful with some of the lyrics, e.g. "Imagine."
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Posted by: Constant at Jun 25, 2008 9:21:22 AM
Yes, best practical idea for getting started.
Bards, even if outsiders, were not seen as threats, right? So you sing for your first supper, get fed, live long enough to slowly ingratiate yourself with the local prince or lord.
Then invent gunpowder and rule the continent.
Posted by: Giberson at Jun 25, 2008 9:25:50 AM
Tyler, thanks so much for the nice words about the song I wrote.
To give credit where credit is due... I should point out that the Beatles idea came from one of the commenters:
"I would try to make some money by singing Beatles songs or something in the town center until I could afford the 1000 A.D equivalent of a guitar. I would then (try to) attract the attention of the folk by playing the few songs I know. I would start a band with a drummer, pipe player and any other musical instruments available at the time. We would play at functions and taverns. When I had enough money, I would buy my own performance hall. I would have concerts and stage performances of modern day films like Star Wars, Reservoir Dogs and Dawn of the Dead (tailored to fit the era)."
In fact, my intention was to really represent the thread. I really tried to show the back and forth of the commenters as best I could throughout the lyrics. Unfortunately, pop songs don't give you much room to cover all the ground covered by the discussion.
Thanks again for the nice post. :)
Posted by: Sugar Fix at Jun 25, 2008 10:20:07 AM
Beatles songs wouldn't work at all. Modern music relies too much on lush multi-instrument musical accompaniment and studio effects, and it's much too sophisticated and jaded for what folks from 1000 AD would be used to, with lyrics they would find ambiguous and bizarre. Back then, people didn't spend hours a day listening to the top musical talent from a global population of billions.
You'd need stuff that would work a capella, like old drinking songs or soccer stadium anthems, or even nursery rhymes like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
The big problem is that you'd need to spend years learning the local dialect well enough to rewrite all the lyrics in it.
Posted by: at Jun 25, 2008 10:38:52 AM
I'd love to see your list of other (practical) ideas for becoming incredibly wealthy if one could travel back in time.
Interestingly, I'm pretty sure that most of us *wouldn't* travel back too far if we couldn't also return to our present-day lives. Being filthy rich in 1000 A.D. still means not having the ability to buy, say, indoor plumbing. Even going back to 1995 means no TiVo, expensive broadband, and junky cell phones. Me? I'd probably just go back to January, spend six weeks collecting as much capital as I could, bulking up on margin and shorting the hell out of Bear Stearns.
Posted by: Dan Lewis at Jun 25, 2008 10:48:55 AM
Hi Sugar Fix. I'm guesing you've read Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague De Camp. A good book and a must
for Tyler if he hasn't read it already.
Posted by: Ronald Brak at Jun 25, 2008 10:51:17 AM
wasn't that the plot to an episode of the awful UK sitcom - goodnight sweetheart?
Posted by: Tony at Jun 25, 2008 11:43:30 AM
1000 AD English isn't the same as our English. That's before the great vowel shift, among other things. Remember Chaucer? And that's practically modern compared to 1000 AD. You can get by, probably, as an English speaker in 1000 AD, but you have no chance, none, of being a minstrel/poet/whatever.
Learn how to make buttons instead.
Posted by: L2P at Jun 25, 2008 1:34:07 PM
"1000 AD English isn't the same as our English. That's before the great vowel shift, among other things. Remember Chaucer? And that's practically modern compared to 1000 AD. You can get by, probably, as an English speaker in 1000 AD, but you have no chance, none, of being a minstrel/poet/whatever."
This is correct, but understates the case. An Old English speaker would find a modern poem/song too alien to be recognized as such, even ignoring issues of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
Old English poems used (1) alliteration rather than rhyme and (2) lifts and drops rather than stressed and unstressed syllables.
Example Old English poem: The Battle of Maldon, composed shortly after the battle in 991 AD.
http://www8.georgetown.edu/departments/medieval/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a9.html
Chapter on meter from "Introduction to Old English."
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/pometer.html
Posted by: Steven at Jun 25, 2008 3:00:30 PM
I can't stop listening to this.
Posted by: Charlie at Jun 25, 2008 4:03:13 PM
"The guy actually has the best practical idea I've heard yet for your time travel trip back to 1000 A.D."
I've known probably five people (besides myself) who've thought of that idea, not going back as far as 1000 AD though. I think it's actually a fairly common thought.
Don't know why you'd want to go back to 1000 AD anyway. I get the impression the food was pretty awful back then.
Posted by: Douglas Fletcher at Jun 25, 2008 7:52:06 PM
What is your P that the Beatles in fact did travel back in time armed only with their minds???
Posted by: Paul N at Jun 25, 2008 8:17:02 PM
I'm a bit shocked nobody has mentioned this yet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_History_(novel)
Posted by: johnleemk at Jun 26, 2008 2:54:41 AM
Everyone seems to think you wouldn't be able to learn Old English. I think you underestimate your abilities. People emigrate all the time to countries where they don't speak the language and they do just fine, and Old English is probably easier to pick up if you already know Modern English. It would take some time, sure, but our minds are highly adaptive when it comes to the dominant language of an area.
Joseph Conrad wrote 'Heart of Darkness,' in English, despite having been raised speaking and writing in Polish. He didn't even learn english until he was in his 20s.
Congrats on the song Sugarfix! I do wonder if Star Wars would get you branded a heretic though.
Posted by: JB at Jun 26, 2008 8:30:39 AM
@JB: Thanks! And on the Star Wars tip... that's why I put in the lines about Luke being Jesus and Leia as Mary Magdalene. I was trying to convey that I would adapt modern popular culture for the time. Movies, Beatles songs, etc. Not sure it came through tho given some of the comments. ;)
Posted by: Sugar Fix at Jun 26, 2008 11:36:35 AM
A friend reminded me of the "Bewitched" episode where Darrin and Samantha travel back in time and while Samantha survives fine, Darrin lights a cigarette and is burned at the stake for being a witch.
This same friend predicts a Beatles troubadour would suffer the same fate once someone parsed the lyrics.
Posted by: Jule at Jun 26, 2008 12:58:23 PM
"An Old English speaker would find a modern poem/song too alien to be recognized as such, even ignoring issues of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation."
Well, if the movie "Black Knight" starring Martin Lawrence is any indication, the medieval English are quite receptive to hip hop.
Posted by: WillJ at Jul 29, 2008 1:06:26 PM
