Karaoke night at Sun Lakes

Friday 9.26.14

 
I had to do an additional post this week, and out of sequence, but I just couldn’t wait to share my experience with you on Karaoke night at Sun Lakes

I will start off with the definition of Karaoke for historical purposes: Use of a device that plays instrumental accompaniments to songs with the vocal tracks removed, permitting the user to sing the lead. Karaoke apparently first appeared in the amusement quarter of Kobe, Japan, where it became popular among businessmen in the late 1970’s. It gained widespread popularity in the U.S. in the late 1980’s. It is usually featured at bars, where patrons can perform on a stage and sing popular hits by reading lyrics electronically displayed on a monitor. A video film often accompanies the music.

 So BFF Hubby and I, as a part of our quest to participate in the variety of activities at Sun Lakes, had committed to going to the once a month Karaoke night with BFF Hubby’s Mom.   We found to our surprise that they allowed outsiders, hey now, that is a big deal!  Sun Lakes is snobby about that.  We met some people from Banning, a lot of people from the Plantations and those that were simply guests of Sun Lakers.

The best I could ascertain from this experience was: “Apparently Karaoke divides people into two    groups - those who don’t want to sing and shouldn’t be compelled to, and those who do and shouldn’t be allowed too!” <Grin>  (Full disclosure, it was my first Karaoke experience in a public venue.  My only other experiences with Karaoke were with close friends and family at my daughter’s home and it involved a lot of drinking.)

For these oldsters, there is no halfway singing; they sang like they thought they were a star, country singer, crooner, or an opera diva.  At least that is how I heard it, and they would act out if they were singing something like a Neil Diamond song, doing Elvis Presley like moves.  It was very funny and entertaining to see a 90 year old shaking it while singing horribly off key. The people that intrigued me the most brought their own music for the DJ. These apparently are the karaoke stars, and compared to the others that sang, well let’s just say they could carry somewhat of a tune, or at least I think they did, it was hard for me to judge as I had never heard of the songs they were singing. <Grin>

These people sang songs from the 40’s, before this oldie moldie was even born.  The host, a friend of BFF's Mom, had asked BFF Hubby and I if we knew the songs, to which we replied with a resounding NO, never heard it before.  Apparently this got her ire up, as she said, “Oh come on now; you have to know these!  I’m 76 and I sang this as a kid with my Mom.”  To which I said, “Umm, you have me by 10 years,” and that shut her up. <Grin>

This made me realize as a kid I had a pretty hip Mom; she sang Elvis, Dean Martin, Sinatra, and Beatles, actually whatever tunes were popular and on the hit parade.  Now don’t get me wrong, she probably knew some of these songs, but wasn’t stuck in an era.  She did sing some 40/50’s songs, as I recall.  One of my favorites was a Doris Day song about a silly old ram that thought he could punch a hole in a dam, but he had had high hopes, apple pie in the sky hopes. <Grin>

Let me tell you these oldies sang some very strange country songs, like before Garth Brookes; who knew country existed on the radio before Garth. <Grin>  I thought to myself, maybe I had heard these songs as a kid and I just didn’t understand the lyrics!  I mean, have you ever heard somebody sing some lyrics that you've never sung before, and you realize you've never sung the right words in that song?  You hear them and all of a sudden you say to yourself, “Life in the Fast Lane?”  That's what they're saying right there?  You think, why have I been singing “Wipe the Vaseline.” <Grin>

As the night dragged on, seriously, I thought my clock had broken.  But I must say I enjoyed watching two couples sitting at the table next to me, one of the men was 92 and his wife was 89.  They sang some songs, which they told me were from WWII; here is where I say that BFF Hubby’s Mom was also grooving to them.

Well finally, they were playing a couple of songs we knew from the 60’s.   Whoot, Whoot!  So hubby and I sang along with them, and we thought this might be fun after all.  We sang in tune, and were harmonizing; singing it the way it was meant to be, trying to help the singer with the microphone hit the right notes.  I mean if Karaoke were a sport in Sun Lakes we’d be gold medalists. <Grin>

Oh, oh, one of the more serious singers came up, and before he sang, he said feel free to sing with me on the chorus, but not the main song.  OHHHH, guess he was sending us a message, don’t mess with my 5 minutes of fame!  Apparently there is Karaoke etiquette, who knew!  I guess you are only supposed to sing along if the person singing invites you to.  <Grin>

Funny of the night for me was this woman sang a song, which we had never heard of, and the DJ says, “Lets hear it for tonight’s star, how many want to see it posted on YouTube?”  Well, first of all I was amazed they had heard of You tube, but then I was thinking aha, next time I will video tape it, and do exactly that; it would get a zillion hits as it is hysterical. But hey, these oldsters really know how to have fun!

This experience made me more determined to find the under 70’s people, they must be out there somewhere!  After all I keep hearing the statistics as to how many baby boomers there are retiring. If and when I find them, we will take Karaoke night over and make it a rocking 60’s night at Karaoke, I shall call it the Karaoke wars. <Grin>

Stay with me and I thank you again for taking this retirement journey with me, or "my longest coffee break."  I'm just sayin’……..