User:King arthur

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The King Arthur Canon

As of this writing (February), King Arthur has 100 songs submitted to Songfight, and has retired as an active participant. Following is a list of the way King Arthur has organized his collection of songs into a group of CDs. Some of these songs were not for songfight titles; some were, but were not submitted.

The rest of this page lists the King Arthur Canon, all of the songs King Arthur has written and recorded.

• * Song titles with an asterisk are songfight titles that were recorded but not submitted

• TF Song titles with "TF" before them are songs written for Tuneflow (an alternate songwriting competition that no longer exists)

•  ? Song title with a question mark are King Arthur songs that were not written for a songfight title (and so, obviously, not submitted)

Tales From The Songfights, Volume 1

As of this writing, the songs on Tales Vol. 1 appear pretty much in the order they were written.

"Shreds" was my first songfight submittal; I had started writing something for two previous titles ("Look Good In Black" and "Why Are You Making Me Kick You Out?"), but did not submit either one. I finished "Why Are You Making Me Kick You Out" later and included it on Travels Vol. 1.

Like most new songfighters, I suppose, I expected my first entry to begin a long and unprecedented winning streak... uhh, yeah, right...

But I do still remember doing "Red Flag" with the members of Brody up at Ken's house in Berkeley...

The Songs

• [1] Shreds
• [2] So Aggravating
• [3] Red Flag
• [4] Too Goth To Rock
• [5] The Blue Signal
• [6] Level Best
• [7] Birthdays and Breakups
• [8] So Long Atticus
• [9] Sunny Again
• [10] A Variation on Two
• [11] Gonna Be Your Man
• [12] Gonna Be Your Man (by outowerk)
• * [13] Mumbo Jumbo
• [14] Bad Attraction
• [15] Need Stilts
• [16] Thunder Storm
• [17] Need Stilts (Glenn Case cover)
• * [18] Why Are You Making Me Kick You Out?
• ? [19] Deadbeat Dad
• ? [20] Soap Opera

I see from the cover art that I didn't initially call this "Volume 1," so I guess I wasn't sure how far I was going to go with songfight. In fact, I think there have been three or four times where I filled up a particular CD and decided, "that's it, I give up." But here I am, eight years later...

I kept the reviews I got on "Shreds" - MC Frontalot commented, "sorry this is kind of poopy." A mix of positives and negatives - the drum sounds on the MIDI keyboard I was using at the time apparently offended a lot of people, not just drummers. At least Ken was gracious enough to invite me to "Please continue to participate in Songfight." So blame Ken.

Tales From The Songfights, Volume 2

Thanks to Johnny Cashpoint (j$) for doing the cover art for Volume 2.

About halfway through Vol. 1, I was laid off from Motorola, and I kinda fell apart at that point in my life, in a bunch of ways. Up until the time I was laid off, I had submitted every week; afterwards there were songs I didn't write, and other songs I wrote but didn't submit. Vol. 2 starts out with four of the first five songs as ones that I didn't submit. "Angry All Over" was sort of religious in nature, and I think I decided to skip sending it in for that reason. "Stand In the Circle" is one that I wish I had submitted; it's still one of my favorite songs from Vol. 2. A few of the other songs here are what I'd consider classic King Arthur: "Toronto Star," "Violet," "Cosmic Confirmation," "Put Cindy Back on the Bus," and "Back from Brazil" I like. "Troublemaker" was a good guy and guitar song, but I especially like the cover version on the Lovefest...

"Foam Rubber" is "So Long Atticus" part 2... the further adventures of, as it were...

The Songs

• * Bullseye Girl
• * Angry All Over
• * Stand In the Circle
• Foam Rubber
• * Driving
• Toronto Star
• Violet Wants It Her Way
• I Don't Believe You
• Cosmic Confirmation
• * Soft Orange Glow
• Put Cindy Back On the Bus
• * Tomorrow's Already Gone
• Troublemaker
• * Direct to Helmet
• Brown Boxes
• Race to Seven (performed by Jon Eric)
• *Crinkle Binkle
• Back From Brazil
• * Goodbye Monster (lyric by historyman68)
• * Goodbye Monster (alternate performance)
• Level Best (cover by Glenn Case)

Tales From The Songfights, Volume 3

There were only five entries for "Deuce" and somebody said how ironic it would be if I finished second. I finished third, so I didn't even ahve that satisfaction. One of my proudest moments at songfight was when j$ reviewed Lavender Splendor and asked if I was gay. Mustang Radio is a disaster of a recording, I recorded it way too slow and sped it up, so the vocals are awful. "Wendesday's Grownup" and the following songs were my first AAD. "Merry Christmas" is one I wish I'd submitted; I got to sing it at church for our first "Blue Christmas" service, even with "hell of a year" in the first line. "The Puppet's Dream" was recorded in the studio at Mesa Community College on the SSL board with real drums.

• Deuce
• Upcoming Downtime
• Across the Dusty Plains
• Boarding Call
• Lavender Splendor
• Zombie Son
• The Puppet's Dream
• Twelve Monkeys
• Spirit World
• Mustang Radio
• Merry Christmas
• Hey, Ruth
• In Full Effect
• Wednesday's Grownup
• The Price of Paying Attention
• Some Kind of Love
• Dreams to Be Won
• This Is Not a Song
• Ever Again

Tales From The Songfights, Volume 4

Somebody found some sort of superhero cartoon generator app on the web, and this was a character I created for myself. "Big Disco" was based on a music business class i was taking at the time. I thought "Red Skate" was brilliant, the voters didn't. Ditto for "The Truth About Aspertame." "Nahara" was an instrumental written for a video I was working on about a church that our church supports down in Mexico (the pastor's daughter's name). "High Enough" is probably my most autobiographical songfight song...

• WTF (SongFight Swampolicious)
• Five Minutes
• Waiting Takes Time
• Big Disco
• Hero Points
• Bad Attraction
• Shaving in the Dark
• Half a Stone
• New Sex
• Thunder Storm
• Red Skate
• Cheer Up Shelly
• Hope You're Okay
• Glass Eye
• The Truth About Aspertame
• Nahara
• Me the Merciless
• Brand New Car
• High Enough

Episode V

The title "Episode V" came from a King Arthur song called "A Variation on Two" that appears on Tales From the Songfights Volume 1. The "V" is pronounced "vee," not "five."

While I was recording the songs on Episode V, I was also taking a MIDI music class at Arizona State University. As my class project, I created a dozen or so 12-tone instrumental pieces using Finale. In the final arrangement of this CD, it alternates between a songfight song and a 12-tone piece.

• Spinal Tap
• MIDI Experiment #1
• Chance
• Midi Experiment #2
• Bioluminescence
• MIDI Experiment #3
• Tiger Lily
• MIDI Experiment #4
• Hooker Pumps
• MIDI Experiment #5
• Come A Hellin'
• MIDI Experiment #6
• I Know My Rights
• MIDI Experiment #7
• I Am Tempted
• MIDI Experiment #8
• Boundaries
• MIDI Experiment #9
• Big Yankee Fan
• MIDI Experiment #10
• Clip Art
• BIDI Experiment #11

Tales From The Songfights, Volume 6

While I was working on Volume 6, we had the "ten song" fight - fightmasters posted ten titles and at least indicated that they didn't mind if people entered multiple fights this time around. So I sent in entries for all ten fights, but for some reason my entry for "Terror In Tiny Town" was never posted. So I didn't quite make the "all ten fights" club on this one. Oh, well...

• Sleep Rock
• It Never Happened
• A Tear
• Bad Cat
• Hit By A Train
• Cable Beach
• Proud
• Switch Hitter
• Onomatopoeia
• For the Time Being
• Give It To Me
• No Relation
• High Time
• It's Just Not Right
• Terror In Tiny Town
• Gone Phishing
• Blank Stare
• Exclamation Point

Lucky

Starting with "Lucky," each of the King Arthur CDs was given a name that somehow referenced its number in the archive - "Lucky Seven," "Crazy Eights," and so on. "So Weird," "Shelton," "Pink Ribbon," and "Get a Life" were written by Phil Wages; I recorded the instrumental parts (as "Gawking Urethras," an anagram of "Wages King Arthur"), but didn't have anything to do with writing the songs. Several of the songs on this CD came from my second AAD, "For Dummies." Like the first, it was done over a 4th of July weekend. "Power and Glory" was recorded for the Lou Reed / Velvet Underground coverfight.<p>

"Tw3rp" was one of those songs I didn't submit because I didn't think it was good enough, and then later felt like I really should have sent it in...

• A Woman on Paper
• Tw3rp
• Evil April
• We Were Not Meant to Be
• It Belongs to Me
• Grey Rainbow
• ten Lies
• The Sugar Shaker
• Thank God for Memphis
• So Weird
• The Shelton With Sunspots
• Pink Ribbon
• Get a Life
• For Dummies
• T-Bone Blues
• Laughabout
• Sensible
• Mysterious Guidelines
• Nothing and Noone
• Power and Glory

Crazy

At some point, everybody (well, okay, just the cool people) at songfight was making "Simpsons" style avatars using some webapp that was put out when the Simpsons movie came out. This is a picture I did of myself as a Simpsons cartoon.<p>

A lot of the songs on "Crazy" were things that I did for Tuneflow, another songwriting competition site. I think "Kick Start" was a Nur Ein song... my one shot at Nur Ein; I got eliminated for a song that I thought was really good but the judges didn't like because it was essentially a one-chord song... "Captain Power Point" was written for a short course on PowerPoint that songfighter Niveous was teaching. Billy's Litte Trip added backing vocals and bass, and Jim Tyrell added drums and accordion. At which point Niveous declared it "perfect."

• Kick Start
• They Control the Weather
• I Dragged Her Down
• Nails In the Road
• I Want My Year Back
• If You Were a Melody
• Mobile Home House Party
• Captain Power Point
• It's Not Enough Anymore
• Sleepwalking
• Empty Wednesday
• I Noticed Your Tattoo
• I Wouldn't Change a Thing
• Thong Gone Wrong
• One Foot Out the Door
• I'm Happy 4 U

K-9

K-9 contains a few more Tuneflow songs. "All We Could See At the Window" was a song I wrote that "Cobalt Stomach" put to music and recorded. "Walking the Border" is a cover of somebody else's song to taht title. "And Counting" was the title for songfight #500 and I thought there was a general agreement that everybody who could would come up with a song and we'd make it the biggest fight ever... but apparently not. Had I known, I'd have probably kept this one to myself. "Sometimes It's Hard To Keep Yourself Moving" is, musically at least, one of my more unusual SF contributions... as is "How Beautiful She Is." "Unnatural Disaster" is the song that got me sent home from Nur Ein. The two "Back to the Well" songs are two entirely different songs - the second one was written by Phil Wages and covered by me.

• Good to Be King
• Keep All Your Promises
• I Will Be Acquitted
• All We Could See at the Window
• A Problem of Perspective
• They Meet
• Morning on Bourbon
• Permission to Forget
• Walking the Border
• Back to the Well
• Love Expired
• How Beautiful She Is
• And Counting
• Sometimes It's Hard to Keep Yourself Moving
• Join the Human Race
• Unnatural Disaster
• Nothing is Everything
• Dry Spell
• Back to the Well (Wages)

X-Caliber

The songs here have been re-sequenced in "rising key" order, so they're not chronological, but they're easier to listen to. Songs marked with an asterisk were not submitted to Songfight (although State Shirt's cover of Cosmic Confirmation should show up in the hxaro archive one day). The cover shows KA rising up out of the San Francisco Bay with his shiny new sword - which is a confused retelling of the original story, where King Arthur actually has Excalibur cast into the lake, he doesn't get it from the lake (it may or may not have been the sword in the stone).

The Songs

1. The Rumor Lives Strong
2. Who Said I'm Dead?
3. If I Had One
4. When Did You Know?
5. Jewel of India
6. Hello My Old Heart
7. Crashing Cars, Awarding Stars (performed by BBABM)
8. We Do All the Style
9. * Peace Is Rest
10. * What Kind of Love Are You Lookin' For?
11. Hardly A Moment
12. You Believed It Yourself
13. * Double Take
14. Cloud Cuckoo Land
15. After Hours (performed by Bloo Tattue)
16. The Middle Part
17. * Cosmic Confirmation (performed by State Shirt)

Gozupta

This CD is still in progress. The title is a play on the "Spinal Tap" reference to "this one goes up to 11," this being Tales From the Songfights, Vol. 11. I decided to stop doing songfights once I got to 100 entries, but that left me with only 40 minutes or so of music on "Gozupta." So I dug up a few old unused songfight lyrics and wrote music and recorded them to fill out the CD. "Wisenheimer" was written for a coverfight where we submitted titles and somebody else was chosen to write a song to our title. A friend of mine remixed "The Only French I Know" and bleeped the swear words at the end, which I found myself rather offended by... even though I'd told him to do whatever he wanted with the songs...

• Bag of Bones
• Just Enough Pride
• Isle Dauphine
• Just Never Can Tell
• Ruthless Lately
• Ashes
• His Last Few Days
• Blue Fish
• Threatening to Some
• Wisenheimer
• The Only French I Know
• Occupy My Heart
• Better Than Before
• Pestilence, Carcass, and Death at Smoochies
• Right There at the Edge
• Gin or Ginseng

Box Cars

This CD will be a two-disc "Best Of..." collection that I will assemble once "Gozupta" is finished. After that point, my plan is to find a new pseudonym and start fresh... "box cars" is dice slang for double-sixes, or twelve (this being the twelfth KA CD), but it also hints at the idea of a "box set" archive collection.

The Super Secret Hxaro Love-Fest

You can imagine my surprise to sign into the Songfight message boards one day to discover that a dozen or so other songfighters had put together cover versions of my songs, under the management of "Secret Santa." "Hxaro" is word that, in the songfight world, means one songfighter covering another songfighter's songs. The SF site includes a whole "hxaro archive" of covers (long overdue for an update, my bad).

Cover Art

This CD contains recordings of King Arthur covering songs by other songfighters. The photo is from 1977 or so.

Non-April Hxaros

A second CD of King Arthur versions of songs by other songfighters. The name may make more sense once you know that "hxaro" is pronounced "schwaro" - at least that's the way I say it. So the title is a play on "April Showers," I guess.

Rex Z (King Arthur Covers Lex Zaleta)

For a while, I was submitting songs over at Tuneflow; Lex Zaleta was one of the regulars over there who wrote a pretty good song, but didn't have the performance chops to showcase those songs. I decided to choose a dozen of his songs and do covers of them; the project was kind of rushed, so my performances could have been better... I'm not planning to upload the Rex Z songs here, but this CD is part of the KA canon, so here it is. Lex Zaleta has it available online in a couple of places, if you want to track him down...

King Arthur's Avatar and Signature

King Arthur's avatar is a file called viking.gif that came from a collection of user avatars somewhere (possibly Windows 98) and has been pretty much unchanged from the time he joined songfight. It appears on the front of Episode V and The Lovefest, and coming up out of the SF Bay on "X-Caliber."

After KA retired from songfight, the avatar changed to an animated .gif of a wizard disappearing into thin air...

King Arthur's long time "signature" file reads: "One does not write in dactylic hexameter purely by accident - poetic designs." A "dactyl" is a poetic foot, sort of like the "iamb" in "iambic pentameter." A dactyl is a three-syllable foot with the first syllable accented - "LA la la LA la la LA la la..." If you read the signature outloud, you will discover that it is a line of dactylic hexameter.

The line came from a book called Poetic Designs by Stephen Adams - and, interestingly enough, the editors of that book had edited that particular line so that it was no longer in dactylic hexameter. Assuming that the author was being deliberate in writing that line, I put it back the way it was supposed to be and used it as my .sig.

Why King Arthur?

Two reasons why I didn't use my real name here at songfight. One is that I figured that I'd be bragging on my elderly Strat and I didn't want to make it too easy for some nefarious type to figure out where I live and come steal it. Second is that I didn't necessarily want people who know me in real life to discover me posting my music - I am pretty sensitive to criticism in person, and so I just wanted that ability to choose who knew about me here. In general, the closer someone is to me in real life, the less likely I've told them about KA.

So why King Arthur? Well, my middle name is Arthur, that was part of it, but there's another part. I've been writing songs for many, many years; up until I started at songfight, a lot of what I'd done was "Christian" music, including "worship" songs, and while I think some of those songs came out pretty well, I was also aware that a lot of what I'd written up to that point was more "craft" than "real" - a lot of songs based on rewrites of Biblical psalms, or humorous (in a Randy Newman sense, not a Weird Al sense) takes on real stories that made it hard to know how much of it was really me. Not a whole lot of that really personal private stuff.

A couple years before I started songfighting, I got into Joseph Campbell, via the public TV programs, mainly. One of the series did a lot with the King Arthur stories, analyzing them in terms of "the authentic life" vs. the, uhh, plastic life. And I had started thinking about maybe doing some songs as "King Arthur," where I would try to be as "real" as I could. Ya know, no more writing songs about girls in bars if the girls I really liked were in Girl Scout uniforms.

But then I found songfight, and the "King Arthur" name got used for that. I feel like a lot of what I've done here is still more "craft" than it is "real," so in that sense, KA wasn't what KA was supposed to be. I think I also knew right from the start that King Arthur wasn't going to be a particularly rock 'n' rolly name, but I remember thinking that, "well, after a while King Arthur will mean whatever I make it mean," like a lot of other band names.