Song Fu 6: A Summary

Well I’ve already reviewed every round, and Song Fu 6 has officially ended. Unfortunately it ended with a pop…and not the BANG some were hoping for. I don’t want to focus on a lot of negatives in this blog, but I will touch on some things I viewed as negatives at the end of the blog. I’d like to start off with some positives.

In today’s blog I’d like to share with you my favorite songs of Song Fu 6, and my favorite Song Fu’ers of the tournament. This is going to be similar to my Song Fighter of the year blogs I’m doing. It’ll consist of a few lists & some links to download the mentioned songs. Lets start off with my favorite songs of Song Fu 6.

Top 7 Songs Of Song Fu 6:
(Right click “Save As“ on the name of the song to download the MP3)
1. Edric Haleen - “This Song Doesn’t Rhyme” (Round 2)
2. Inverse T. Clown - “Devastator” (Round 3)
3. Leigh & Hoover - “Yesterday Hero - Someday” (Round 4)
4. Mike Lombardo - “Sit And Watch The Rain” (Round 1)
5. Governing Dynamics - “Broken Boy” (Round 3)
6. Caleb Hines - “Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliaphobia” (Round 2)
7. Mike Lombardo - “I Found You” (Round 2)

Based on my voting those shouldn’t be too shocking, but as time has passed I wouldn’t be too surprised if some of my votes would be a little different. Some songs grow on you, and some you never play as much as you expected after first hearing them. (one reason I don‘t vote right after listening to the songs) Now you know my favorite songs, but who is my favorite Song Fu’er of Song Fu 6?

Top 5 Fu‘ers
1. Caleb Hines - If I was to extend my list of favorite songs, Caleb’s other 2 songs may not crack the top 10, but they would definitely be in the top 15. Every single round Caleb managed to make me smile with his entry, and I know I voted for him at least twice (I’m too lazy to go check). I knew before Song Fu 6 that Caleb had talent, but I’ll be honest, his songs were never one of the first songs that I listened to each round. You can be assured that the next time Caleb enters Song Fu….he’ll get my first right click “Save As”.

2. Inverse T. Clown - He may be a NOOB, but his 2nd round rant got my attention. Then in the 3rd round he blew my mind a bit with his geektastic entry. (Although Voltron is still better then Transformers) A solid shadow entry bumped him up over the next 2 people.

3. Edric Haleen - Well he had my favorite song of this Fu…so I sort of have to put him on the list. I will say that “Robot Monkey” has gotten a lot more plays in my car then I originally thought it would. If I was to make a top 10 list including songs from ALL past Song Fu’s….Edric would be on that list at least 3 times now.

4. Mike Lombardo - For me it’s so close between Mike vs. Leigh & Hoover that Mike is getting the edge simply because he won in the end. I thought Mike’s round 1 song kicked major ass, and even though his round 2 song isn’t all that complex….I really enjoy listening to it. I think Mike faded a lot toward the end, but for 2 rounds he put up 2 songs that I loved.

5. Leigh & Hoover - 2 more NOOBS on the list. I really didn‘t expect that to happen. Their round 1 song was great, but their songs from round 2 & 3 failed to make it onto my playlist. Round 4 more then made up for that, because they saved their best for last.

Positives:
- There weren’t very many people that skipped rounds.

- There were a lot of great songs.

- I voted for at least 4 people I’ve never voted for in the past.

- It had a final round, even if it wasn’t what everyone wanted.

Negatives:
- I can’t say that Ken failed this time, but I will say he disappointed. Ken deserved to have “Fail” tattooed onto his forehead the previous 2 tournaments. Mostly, but not entirely because he failed to plan ahead to ensure that a master participates. This time there was no promise of a master, so he didn’t really fail at that. Because of the previous fails I know a lot of people were really hoping he would provide a master & redeem himself a little. That didn’t happen, and because he left that part open ended to start with, I have to say I was disappointed with the ending.

- The limit of 20. The songs were great for the most part, but limiting the tournament to 20 could have some negative affects in the future. A big concern is that it could mean less new blood is pumped into the talent pool. Ken says he takes the first 20 to enter (I’m not convinced that’s entirely true), but if he does, who is most likely to get in? People who have participated in Song Fu in the past who are sitting at their computer waiting for “Fred” to post a sign up form. I’m not saying that I don’t want past Song Fu’ers to get in, but I really think the entry form should be a challenge & let the voters decide who the 20 will be. There’s new talent that couldn’t get into Song Fu that wanted in….that’s not exactly widening the fan base.

- Too much whining…whine before…whine after…not during….at least not if you’re competing.

Going Forward:
I really hope Ken promotes Song Fu 7 (if there is one) more so then he has with all the previous tournaments. Even little things like posting about the end of the competition seems too difficult for the man. I’ve been waiting for a post saying, “It’s all over, congrats to Mike Lombardo” for awhile now.

Ken has said that if there is a Song Fu 7 it will be the same format as #6. (going on 2nd hand info here) If that’s the case I already mentioned what I consider negatives about this decision, so lets mention the positives. The obvious positive is people won’t be disappointed by a lack of a master at the end. Leaving things open is never a good thing in any type of competition. Rules, schedules, directions should all be made clear ahead of time, and that’s not always been the case in Song Fu. Song Fu will now be like Song Fight’s “Nur Ein“ tournament, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

I mentioned before that Ken not having the masters compete along side the challengers is a good thing. My reasoning was that it’s HARD to get masters to commit. Since Ken hasn’t been smart enough to “vault” a master’s song beforehand, eliminating the master altogether isn’t a bad decision.

Well that’s it for today. I may think Ken does a half assed job at running Song Fu, but everyone should be grateful to the man. He created Song Fu, hundreds of songs have been written because of it that wouldn’t have been otherwise, and TMA wouldn’t be if not for Ken. That’s a lot of music & friends I would’ve missed out on.

I’ll list my favorite song from each competitor below….well at least from each competitor that has a song on my personal playlist.

(Go to A Site Called Fred to download these songs.)

Mike Lombardo - “Sit And Watch The Rain” (Round 1)
Leigh & Hoover - “Yesterday Hero - Someday” (Round 4)
Edric Haleen - “This Song Doesn’t Rhyme” (Round 2)
Inverse T. Clown - “Devastator” (Round 3)
Governing Dynamics - “Broken Boy” (Round 3)
Caleb Hines - “Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliaphobia” (Round 2)
Denise Hudson - “Duality Cupcake (’Why’)” (Round 3)
Spencer Sokol - “Wicked One” (Round 3)
Glen Raphael - “Big In Japan” (Round 3)
Boffo Yux Dudes - “A Recipe For Love” (Round 3)
Gorbzilla - “A Song About This Song” (Round 2)
Ian “2 Shades” Johnson - “Downpour” (Round 1)
Godz Poodlz - “Rain Is Pouring Down” (Round 1)
Jeff MacDougall - “Ken Plume Is To Blame” (Round 2)
Common Lisp - “Polly Loves The Rain” (Round 1)
Zer0guy - “Recipe For A Bad Man” (Round 3)
“Buckethat” Bobby Matheson - “Forget About The Rain” (Round 1)

Oh…and lets not forget the most active shadow in the history of a Song Fu…
Joe “Covenant” Lamb - “Rain” (Round 1)