When Elvis Met Leonard. Nothing but uke, vox, and questionable taste.
I can't really do Elvis, but this is the right territory, anyway. I thought about looking up some hula music to try up the verisimilitude, but then I, uh, didn't.
Your drink is strong, your skin is tanned
You see her barefoot on the sand
The moonlight and her beauty sock it to ya
Your eyes connect, the tide rolls in
Above the ocean's gentle din
You hear the rhythmic strains of halle hula
Halle hula
Some say that love is hard to find
But I don't pay them any mind
It's easy when the music's moving through ya
The tiki torch, the swinging hips
The grass-skirt girls with ruby lips
And from their mouths they sing the halle hula posted by cortex at 10:10 AM on
June 17, 2009 [2 favorites]
We should put out a MetaFilter ukulele album! This site has made more use of the instrument than any place I have ever seen.
Of course, I suppose the fact that I have uploaded, like, 90 songs featuring the ukulele might have something to do with that. posted by Astro Zombie at 11:28 AM on
June 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I was gonna say, of all the people to What at me for posting a song featuring ukulele and falsetto vox...
Yes, yes, yes. Just yes. posted by uncleozzy at 2:08 PM on
June 17, 2009
Oh my God. Amazing. posted by miratime at 3:09 PM on
June 17, 2009
This is going to be your big break. It is the best thing that you or anyone else has ever done. posted by ND¢ at 4:58 PM on
June 17, 2009
Leonard Cohen is still alive, right? 'Cuz he really needs to hear this (and the other submissions)!
*I know I have a grass skirt and a lei around here somewhere..) posted by snsranch at 5:32 PM on
June 17, 2009
i want to criticize this for being more of a march than a hula, but i the concept is too strong. awesome. posted by mexican at 7:20 PM on
June 17, 2009
holy fuck this is perfect. posted by umbú at 8:52 PM on
June 17, 2009
Hey, cortex, I'm trying to learn to play uke, and I wonder if you might be willing to post the chords for this at some point? posted by Rock Steady at 9:31 PM on
June 17, 2009
Yeah, Leonard Cohen absolutely needs to hear this one. Aloha! Perfect. posted by Corduroy at 11:50 AM on
June 18, 2009
Nice one man. Miles better than the original. posted by Not Supplied at 12:10 PM on
June 18, 2009
Hey, cortex, I'm trying to learn to play uke, and I wonder if you might be willing to post the chords for this at some point?
Part II and a finale
The world needs "the" Ukulele chorus posted by waviolet at 3:49 PM on
June 18, 2009
Sure thing: here they are, in glorious Handwrite-O-Vision.
Where do I download that Handwrite-O-Vision program? As a rank amateur, if I do not use that tuning (I'm trying to stick to gcea for now) can I keep the names of the chords the same and just change the finger shapes, or do I need to do some transposition magic? posted by Rock Steady at 7:10 PM on
June 18, 2009
You can keep them the same, Rock Steady. posted by umbú at 7:30 PM on
June 18, 2009
Nevermind, figured it out on my owns. Thanks a ton for doing that, cortex. posted by Rock Steady at 7:33 PM on
June 18, 2009
Those three minutes were spent trying to contort my fingers into an F#7th. posted by Rock Steady at 7:34 PM on
June 18, 2009
Well I was about to come back here all confused and accuse Cortex of mislabeling his chords a step higher than they really are. Then I realized he was tabbing for Soprano Uke and I play Concert Uke. Yikes. posted by Kimothy at 8:44 PM on
June 18, 2009
Yeah, and if you don't mind being a step down, you can just keep the fingerings the same and play it in C instead of D.
Yikes.
Pwned!
I ran into another uke player at a music thing recently and he helpfully offered to tune up my uke while I was doing some other pre-show stuff and apparently was not aware that default soprano tuning is a step higher, so I ended up having to helpfully retune the damn thing on stage and that was pretty neat.
He was kind of an odd guy in general, though. You can call him Slim! posted by cortex at 9:11 PM on
June 18, 2009
This is entirely completely glorious. If I was only musical enough to figure out how to play this on the koto . . . posted by that girl at 7:52 PM on
June 19, 2009
anyone who can imitate elvis and dylan in the same challenge wins posted by ichthuz at 10:55 AM on
June 23, 2009
Only suggestion I'd make is with the title... either Hale Hula ("hale" is "house" in Hawaiian) or "Haole Hula" ("haole" is "foreigner" in Hawaiian) posted by brianstorms at 7:23 PM on
June 30, 2009
oh. my. goodness. oh man. bahahahaha. posted by divabat at 5:47 PM on
August 17, 2009
I want nothing more than to direct a full 50s dance number to this oh yes it shall me mine. posted by The Whelk at 1:42 PM on
September 30, 2009
Somehow I did not see this when you first did it, and oh my goodness. You are something else, cortex. posted by LobsterMitten at 8:30 PM on
June 22, 2010
They say that there's a secret dance
That leads to tropical romance
I hope you'll let me demonstrate it to ya
It goes like this, just move your feet
and shake your hips to the island beat
and lose your self inside the halle hula
Halle hula
Halle hula
Halle hula
Halle huuu-uuu-laaa
Your drink is strong, your skin is tanned
You see her barefoot on the sand
The moonlight and her beauty sock it to ya
Your eyes connect, the tide rolls in
Above the ocean's gentle din
You hear the rhythmic strains of halle hula
Halle hula
Some say that love is hard to find
But I don't pay them any mind
It's easy when the music's moving through ya
The tiki torch, the swinging hips
The grass-skirt girls with ruby lips
And from their mouths they sing the halle hula
posted by cortex at 10:10 AM on June 17, 2009 [2 favorites]