Comments on: Thing a Week 10 - When I’m 25 or 64

By: Um

Um — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:05:12 +0000

I’m sorry, but these songs don’t go together at all. The end of Paul’s singing line on the verses is a D7 and then cuts to an F and then an E on the Chicago horns. I’m sorry, but the F# to the F really bugs me and pretty much ruined the mash-up, although the E to the Aminor when Paul resumes singing is ok. I’m a composer and musician and don’t know much about electronic music, but I’m sure that you could, if you wanted to, modulate the Chicago riff into a different key (say, G to F# instead of F to E) without the tune losing integrity. I think that mash-ups can work and sound good, for the record, but this one has some major tonal problems.

By: cat

cat — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:13:36 +0000

The first time I listened to this song, I thought the title had to do with the fact that 25 and 64 are both square numbers. Is that a coincidence?

…I guess that makes me a dork.

By: Jonathan Feinberg

Jonathan Feinberg — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:58:11 +0000

Brilliant. The modes from the two songs go together so well.

By: Beatallica « Wild Goose Chase

Beatallica « Wild Goose Chase — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:28:16 +0000

[...] mashup Rock your body/Rappers Delight that you can hear at Radio Blog. In his comments I offered up When I’m 25 or 64 done by Jonathan [...]

By: Podcast Number 5 | SomEAndrew

Podcast Number 5 | SomEAndrew — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:34:17 +0000

[...] week’s podcast, Including BRAND NEW Theme Music from Jonathan Coulton (well, sorta…) [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 01:27:36 +0000

Jesus Christ, I hate you.

By: Edddy

Edddy — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 23:05:46 +0000

I liked it

By: JC

JC — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 15:19:19 +0000

Mary: I’m not sure I had a plan at the outset. As I say, it was mostly the title that made me do it, not so much the musical ideas (which may have been my first mistake). Once I figured out that it would kind of work, I just had to push through. I do like the newer approach when it works though.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 09:04:30 +0000

I absolutely loved the first verse and the dissonant close, but the layering of the Chicago vocals against Paul during the choruses, and then a chunk of the original Beatles song against Chicago later on, was distracting and made me think I was listening to two songs at once, too. But the original mix was glorious and you definitely should do this again.

I know that most of the early mashups I’ve heard were pretty strict in form, usually backing tracks from song A and vocals from song B. More recent mashups sometimes bring in additional vocals from song A, but these are usually very limited and treated as a simple riff rather than counter-lyrics. Did you start this mashup as an old-school purist, or were you trying for the current more complex approach from the beginning?

By: Chuy

Chuy — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:21:29 +0000

I have become quite a fan over the last several “things,” but I have to confirm your suspicion that this one sucks. That said, I am unfamiliar with the concept of mashups. Maybe I’m just not fond of the genre. As you said, it’s like listening to both songs at once. It adds nothing new, and from my perspective, does harm to each song. It’s not the electronica/sampling; I really liked Sibling Rivalry.

Ah well, just wanted to inject a little criticism into all of this tongue wagging. Please keep up the good work.

By: Gle3nn

Gle3nn — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 06:04:50 +0000

That’s cool. I’ll be 64 in 25 years

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 20:41:08 +0000

Hey, this is cool — especially because McCartney turned 25 just after releasing “When I’m 64.”

By: danan.blog » Radio KAOS

danan.blog » Radio KAOS — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 02:09:01 +0000

[...] 25 or 6 to 4 + When I’m Sixty-Four = When Iâ€™m 25 or 64. [...]

By: Burns!

Burns! — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 20:21:50 +0000

This didn’t suck at all. I’m a fan of mash-ups, and this one is pretty cool. It’s no Kleptones, but it’s pretty darn good.

And, I must concur with those above who said, “Screw the man!”

By: The Almighty Charles

The Almighty Charles — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 05:32:11 +0000

THIS is a follow up to the story you broke (to me, anyway). “Sony to suspend making antipiracy CDs.”

By: Gle3nn

Gle3nn — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 05:31:21 +0000

Yes I said giggle.

By: Edminster

Edminster — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 03:56:45 +0000

Not a fan of mashups normally, but I have to say I’m glad I downloaded this one. As a side effect, I’m going to start actually listening to Beatles songs when they come on over the Muzak system at work. Thank you for opening my musical horizons, Mr. Coulton.

By: mhenry1384

mhenry1384 — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 03:11:25 +0000

Ok, so, apropos of nothing, but I was completely blown away by this song by Imogen Heap:
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc95/#heap
Just a chick and a vocoder.

Which leads me to the question: when are we going to hear Mr. Coulton’s Glee Club chops with some vocoder action?

By: Gle3nn (the 3 is silent)

Gle3nn (the 3 is silent) — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 00:55:12 +0000

This has been running through my head all day. Every time I listen to it I still giggle.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 00:34:46 +0000

I agee with Erik… screw the man! And as far as mashups go, I liked it. I do prefer your original work, but I’ll cut you some slack since you’ve been busy. I guess what surprised me most about it is that it didn’t suck (as you’d been saying it would).

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 23:07:21 +0000

That’s right, screw the man!

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 22:17:23 +0000

Pure coincidence, I swear, JC. I’m really not obessively checking the site. Well, not constantly, at any rate. I just happened to check my LiveJournal friends page and didn’t wait for iTunes to catch the podcast.

I do actually like the song (I listened to it a couple more times after posting), and I’m sure I’ll get used to the distortion.

Glenn (not Gle3nn)

By: Gle3nn

Gle3nn — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 21:11:39 +0000

This was a good mix of the two songs. I enjoyed it alot. I have a collection of all the odd mixtures I have found over the years. Have you ever heard the Mission Impossible/Norwegian wood arrangement? There is also a group that did a mix of Metallica’s Enter Sandman mixed with Taxman. I love the combination of common ideas from unrelated groups. There needs to be an album of Unintentional Duets.

By: JC

JC — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 20:45:26 +0000

Jeez Glenn, you’re the Quick Draw McGraw of comments. I like the distortion at the end - I wanted Paul to sing a nice long note, but he didn’t, so I s t r e t c h e d it way out until it sounded terrible. I think it works nicely (in an awful way) with the terrible train wreck of horns that ends the Chicago song.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 18:48:06 +0000

Whee, I love both those songs. It sounds like it’s really hard to do well, but I like it. Not jarring like many of the mashups I’ve heard. The distortion at the end comes out of left field, though.

It occurs to me that did a semi-mashup back in the last 80s when I made a tape for a friend of mine and edited together Pink Floyd’s “Waiting for the Worms” with “I Am The Walrus” (Why not “Waiting for the Sun”, I now wonder. Maybe too obvious. As it was, it yielded the oddly logical line of “Sitting in an English Garden, waiting for the WORM TO COME.”)