Tuesday Tunes

I liked him right away, but discovered Jonathan Coulton slowly. Probably at about the same rate as this 'weekly' blog. I could give a few reasons/excuses for such a time gap, but the fairest explanation is that I had a goal without a plan. Please excuse me for requiring further growth.

I’m fond of telling people I was a fan of Jonathan Coulton before I knew I was. But the most straightforward thing to do is present a timeline. First there was Portal (the Videogame), and at the end of it there’s a beautifully crafted song ‘Still Alive’ from the perspective of the antogonist of the game: GLaDOS. I loved that song. It was quirky and clever. Next came an animated TV Series about Game Programmers in the eighties called ‘Code Monkeys”. The theme was an eponymous ditty about a disillusioned game programmer, but only in writing this did I learn the show was named after the theme.

After singin’ the theme-tune, and jammin’ to the theme-tune I looked for some chords online and through an internet rabbit hole discovered that both of these songs were written by the same guy, but also that I really enjoyed the rest of his repertoire. I could go on about many of his songs at length, the year long project he did to write a song a week, his annual music show/cruise, that one song that seems really weird until you figure out (or read an article explaining ) that it’s meant to be Leonard Nimoy addressing Bigfoot.

Seriously.

But I’d like to present just one song that encapsulates the perfect balance that helped to inspire the name of my own album ‘Sweet, Sad and Silly’.

The Song
Song: The Future Soon
Artist: Jonathan Coulton
Album: Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow (EP) - 2004 - Self Published (I think)
Method of discovery: A Series of Tubes

Research: I can find little written on the actual composition of the song, but can say that it featured on the Lecture series ‘Little Gray Books’ in early 2003. From there Coulton was picked up to perform that song, and following an ethusiastic reception, several more songs for Pop!Tech 2003.

It’s now a staple of Coulton’s performances, and often signals the start of his set when he performs with Paul and Storm. The lyrics revolve around a young boy escaping the harsh realities of his unrequited love by fantasising about how powerful and influential he’ll be in the future, kind of an extended “Well you just wait, one day I'll be King of England”. And there are enough interesting chords in the verses for the chorus to rely on a I-V-vi-IV for the first bit and a nice ascending bassline for the second (although I play it descending). There’s even a sneaky modulation-and-back-again in the Bridge, which makes for a really interesting tonal shift to support the lyrics.

Personal thoughts: It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction. I’m just in love with this song. The Chorus perfectly walks the tightrope between Sweet and Sad, where a boy has such innocent confidence in his future potential he’ll even be able to mechanically correct his awkward humanity. The silly is more of a slow burn, developing through the narrative of an unintended robotic uprising, and lines with redundancies like “Building inventions in my space lab in space”.

It’s one of my go-to riffs when I pick up a guitar to check if it needs tuning, and I often end up playing the whole song as a result. Jonathan keeps the pace up in the song until the very end, strumming throughout, but I like performing a more theatrical version, pausing for Laura’s new look, slowing right down and finger-picking the final chorus. The 12-year old in me is angry, and the song is a heated response to the enciting incident, but by the end it’s more of a hope against his fading anger. But it’s ok, it’s gonna be the future soon.

Give it a go: If you like catchy tunes and songs with character development

Give it a miss: If you don’t enjoy Robots, Humour, or Puppies. There are no puppies in the song, but if you don’t like the first two you’re basically heartless.

[links]
Wikipedia: Jonathan Coulton, Code Monkeys
Websites: Jonathan Coulton.com,
Research Materials: JoCoPedia/TheFutureSoon