Recently Joey Marianer and I recorded a couple of songs we keep singing at/with each other. Here’s Baby Shark sung to the tune of Edelweiss. Usually, Joey sings harmonies, but we experimented with adding ukulele for the video, and Joey liked this version with just me singing the best:

Guess which one of those two songs is popular in Austria!

Lyrics:

Baby shark, baby shark
Do do do do do do do
Mommy shark, mommy shark
Do do do do do do do
Daddy shark, grandma shark, grandpa shark
Do do do do do do
Run away, safe at last
Do do do do do do do
Daddy shark, grandma shark, grandpa shark
Do do do do do do
Run away, safe at last
Do do do do do do do

This prompted me to finally write lyrics for another version of Baby Shark I’ve been thinking about. Here’s ‘Ode to my Shark Family’, a parody of ‘Ode to My Family‘, by the masters of ‘do do do do do do do’ songs, The Cranberries.

Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do

Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do

Baby shark and mummy shark
And daddy shark as well
And grandma shark and grandpa shark
They’ll chomp you right to hell
You can’t run here, you can’t run
It’s the ocean.
It’s the ocean, not the ground. 
You’re not safe here; you’re not safe
It’s the ocean. It’s the ocean
Get ate or get drowned

I imagine ‘ate’ is pronounce /ɛt/ in this, although I’m not sure whether that pronunciation is actually common in Ireland. I’m a much bigger fan of The Cranberries than I am of my own singing, so I’m unlikely to further disgrace them by singing this.

The next one that we did record is what I guess you could call a ‘studio recording’ of something we sang at Dumb Parody Ideas at MarsCon, as mentioned in my last post. It’s ‘Garbanzo Beans (a.k.a. Chick Peas)’ (to the tune of O Tannenbaum, which is also probably popular in Austria) except that we’ve also added a French translation, titled Pois chiches (aussi appelés « garbanzos »). The fact that Joey is wearing an Arrogant Worms ‘Canadian Famous’ shirt while we sing in English and French is a coincidence. Today is the Swiss National Day, but Canada gets the presents! (Perhaps we can translate it into German, Italian, and Romansch in time for the next Canada Day.)

I’m not sure which one of us started singing ‘les haricots de garbanzos’, nor whether anyone actually calls them that, but I can take the credit/blame for the other line.

Lyrics:

Garbanzo beans, garbanzo beans
Some people call them chickpeas
Garbanzo beans, garbanzo beans
Some people call them chickpeas
Garbanzo beans, garbanzo beans
Garbanzo beans, garbanzo beans
Garbanzo beans, garbanzo beans
Some people call them chickpeas

Les haricots de garbanzo
Certains les appellent pois-chiches
Les haricots de garbanzo
Certains les appellent pois-chiches
Les haricots de garbanzo
Les haricots de garbanzo
Les haricots de garbanzo
Certains les appellent pois-chiches

These songs can both be found in my playlist of dumb parody ideas by the two of us.

On the subject of song translation, a long time ago Joey’s father translated Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ into Hebrew. A less long time ago, Joey came up with some music for the original, and sang it. A short time ago, the translation was found somewhere, and Joey sang that too.

Also on the subject of song translation, Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language is a great book by Douglas R. Hodstadter. Three days after I finally got a hold of a copy of it (after a few cancelled orders), back in 2007, I unexpectedly saw Douglas Hofstadter give a talk. It could happen to you!

I think that’s all I have to say for now… I was considering mentioning a puzzle I made for a recent event, but I think I’ll save that for another post.