Song Parody: "They're Still ODEs to Me"

I felt inspired. :)

"Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer"

Here's some great news!

Tom Lehrer has released, into the public domain, the lyrics of his songs (also including sheet music for some), including many that you've probably never heard of!!!

There are also alternative lyrics for several songs.

Go here: https://t.co/VKtRztNu1Q

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) October 19, 2020

Is 1 the Loneliest Number?

I like (several renditions of) the song "One (is The Loneliest Number)", but I get irked every time I hear following line "One is a number divided by two", because that is just a trivial existence statement.

(Some — most? — versions of the song actually have the line "One is the number divided by two", which is even worse, because of the "the".)

I suppose that this doesn't bother anybody else?

It's Still Billy Joel to Me: H. P. Lovecraft Edition

I am highly amused by this connection between Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and H. P. Lovecraft's "Nemesis". Seriously, this is worth a listen. The top one is great!

Though it's still Billy Joel to me!

(Tip of the cap to Todd Wilkinson.)

"Lock the Taskbar"

Does he think it's not kosher?

The Shareef don't like it pic.twitter.com/pqWN0sDbQ3

— Joao Morais (@_JoaoMorais) September 10, 2017

(Tip of the cap to Dave Richeson.)

Lyrical Repetition in Pop Music

Here is a cool article about lyrical repetition (and compression possibilities) in pop music and how it's changed over the last few decades.

I of course decided to look at how Depeche Mode stacks up, and I zoomed up on them as an individual artist.

From the song and artist library they used, Depeche Mode is listed as the band from the 1990s with the least repetitive lyrics, though it does only use a subset of their songs and it listed them in the 1990s instead of the 1980s. (Naturally, the employed songs span multiple decades.)

The most lyrically repetitive Depeche Mode song is very obvious.

(Tip of the cap to Taha Yasseri and I Fucking Love Data.)

Message in a Bottle

Sending an SOS to the world pretty much is replying-all.

(And one could also bring up passive tracers.)

"SMUG": Generating Music and Lyrics from Academic Papers

Yes, that's right. Using a new tool called "SMUG: Scientific Music Generator", one can now generate music and lyrics from academic papers. I love the acronym. :)

I also decided to try SMUG. I generated this work of art from my review article on multilayer networks.

Update: The paper's bibliography includes a citation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I am amused. :)

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

You say "universality"
I say "bullshit"
Let's call the whole thing off.

This is inspired by this song, obviously.

Neuroscience and Suzanne Vega

I always knew that I had voices in my head, and now neuroscientists can apparently see them.

Suzanne Vega seems to have hit the nail on the target with her song Blood Makes Noise:

But blood makes noise
It's a ringing in my ear
Blood makes noise
And I can't really hear you
In the thickening of fear


Here is a video for the song on YouTube.

P.S. You can count on me to connect neuroscience to Suzanne Vega.

(Tip of the hat to Physics Today.)

Lyrics of the Day

Today's lyrics are the first three lines of Pi by Kate Bush:

Sweet and gentle sensitive man
With an obsessive nature and deep fascination
For numbers