{"id":7704,"date":"2013-11-08T13:58:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T17:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=7704"},"modified":"2015-01-07T13:29:33","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T17:29:33","slug":"zunguzung-variations-singer-songwriter-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=7704","title":{"rendered":"Zunguzung Variations: Singer-Songwriter Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s something primarily for longtime readers of W&W, or for random devotees to Yellowman’s timeless tune. As you all know, the melody from “Zunguzungunguzunguzeng” — aka “the Zigzagging Zunguzung meme<\/a>” — has traveled widely. And I’ve been on the case ever since I first began hearing its echoes everywhere (which really started for me back in 2003). <\/p>\n

This summer I was invited to join a songwriting group in which all participants would compose one song each month according to that month’s “prompt” — some set of aesthetic criteria, broadly defined (i.e., pertaining to specific musical or textual cues or tending toward the impressionistic). The crew was assembled under the odd banner of Underwear Everywhere<\/a> (I still don’t know why), and it mostly included pop\/rock-leaning musicians, if with a wide range of influences and styles. <\/p>\n

I have to confess that I only myself managed to generate a single song during the 6 months that the experiment lasted. In the first month, I rose to the challenge of producing some “Novel Sounds” — or, according to the prompt: <\/p>\n

Pick a favorite book and use the title as the title of the song as well as inspiration. \u2026 Use 3\/4 time for part or all of the song.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In my case, I decided to take flight from the opening pages of one of my favorite books of the last decade, Michael Taussig’s My Cocaine Museum<\/a><\/em>. For curiosity’s sake — and boy is my version curious! — I share here with you my strange shanty<\/a>: <\/p>\n