Thousands of people have reportedly been killed after watching a bluegrass version of the classic Billy Idol video “White Wedding,” unleashed upon the world by the horrific awesomeness of Microsoft’s music-making software Songsmith.
Remember those awful ads for Songsmith, described by our own John Funk as “full of so much cheese it would make Green Bay feel insecure?” It would appear that the software lives up to its billing: This bluegrass version of “White Wedding,” with a down-home banjo beat underlying the vocal work of Mr. Idol himself, is as remarkable for its technical quality as it is for its bone-chilling badness, putting to shame an earlier Songsmith effort featuring David Lee Roth.
In a weird twist, the song has actually been popularized by none other than Linux creator Linus Torvalds, the world’s best-known Windows hater. “This may be a shock to everybody, but I have to admit that I’m not generally a huge fan of most Microsoft software. But I may have to admit that I was wrong,” he wrote on his personal blog. “No, I’m not talking about Windows 7. I’m talking about Songsmith, which is clearly a true work of genius. Yes, yes, the commercials are painfully cheesy, but when used right the end result is undeniably art.”
“The thing that convinced me was hearing Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’ as re-interpreted through Songsmith,” he continued. “Nobody will ever convince me that that isn’t just impossibly brilliant. Sheer genius on just an incredible scale. I’m getting carpal tunnel syndrome from just clicking ‘Replay’ over and over again.”
I can’t shake the feeling that Torvalds’ anti-Windows sentiments are somehow tainted by his obviously defective musical taste, but if this sounds like your cup of tea you can get even more, including a polka “Crazy Train” and some metallized Rick Astley, at blog.entertainmentweakly.com.
Note: As far as I know, nobody actually died as a result of watching this video. That was just a joke.
via: Boing Boing
Published: Feb 2, 2009 10:17 pm