So Strange

The first in a series of old-timey pre-rock popular songs I am composing for a one-man show about Tiny Tim.

I suppose it was inevitable. After all, I play ukulele, and I am literally sitting six blocks from the spot he died. But I got to thinking it would be nice to do a show about Tiny Tim. Not those awful jukebox musicals that everybody does, but instead a show based on the performer's habit of responding to fan letters by recoding himself playing music on a portable tape recorder and sending the tape off. I won't be using any of the actual music Tiny Tim recorded, but instead composing 15 or 20 songs inspired by themes from his life.

LYRICS:

I am not as strange as all that
I am not so strange
Why do people stop and stare so
Why do they treat me so strange

You were once my turtledove
You were once my gal
Then the people started to talk
Now I don't see you at all

O Miss Jenny
Why did you have to go?
O Miss Jenny
There's something you should not

I am not as strange as they say
I am not so strange
People they like to talk a lot
But I am not so strange

Note that while I am singing in falsetto, I am not impersonating Tiny Tim. Not yet, anyway.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by Astro Zombie (4 comments total)

I thought this was genuinely interesting. "Characters" like Tiny Tim come along rarely and a show about him would, I think, be surprisingly popular with the baby-boomer generation. I vaguely remember him from when I was very young "Tiptoe Through The Tulips"??? Please don't take this as discouraging criticism, but I think you need to try to get better quality recordings - I could hear a lot of room noise on this one, and that's something you could fix fairly easily with some baffling. I think too that a really interesting challenge would be to translate his songs into something wider/deeper. What I mean is, if you used a broader pallette (i.e. not just the Uke) you might find hidden depths in the material that would yield surprising results. You could start a track with just the Uke and then gradually introduce more instrumentation.......fascinating thought........hhhhmmmmm...
posted by MajorDundee at 2:54 PM on June 12

Good suggestions. For now, these are just scratch demos of songs to be used for the show.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:49 PM on June 12

I'm no Tiny Tim historian but I do Love the guy. Sadly I have to say that this is much deeper and more artistic than anything I heard him do. That said, I really like this because it's ABOUT him and is a good illustration of him. And it sounds good to me too. Good luck with the show!

(I would never miss a Tiny Tim appearance on Howard Stern! Ah, those were the days.)

BAH BAH BOOIE TO YA ALL!!!!!!
posted by snsranch at 5:09 PM on June 13

Very good; I enjoyed this a lot! Actually, I thought the recording quality added to the alienated ambiance. Worked for me!
posted by aquafortis at 10:22 PM on June 14