singing/signing - a different sort of cover song

March 14, 2007 9:58 PM

Popular: It's Like That, Humble Neighborhood, Son of a Preacher Man, Beautiful, Barbi Girl, Truly Madly Deeply, I'm Alive
Indie: Blister in the Sun, Across the Sea, Tom's Diner, Zombie; Classics: The Rose (more, also without lyrics), Revolution, Hotel California
Rap/Hip Hop (some comedic): Baby Got Back, Ice Ice Baby, Music (more), Paul Revere, Grillz, White and Nerdy, Where'd You Go
Non-English songs: Film Dust, Comme Elle Vient; Pseudosign: Torn (again), Sweet Home Alabama
Instructions: general tips, religious songs, and how to sign "rock & roll"
posted by jessamyn (27 comments total)

Well, well, well...
posted by taosbat at 10:09 PM on March 14, 2007

A day late, Jess...

Also, the girl on the left in the Barbie girl vid was pretty hot.
posted by delmoi at 10:11 PM on March 14, 2007

The Eagles? "Indie"? The Eagles?

But otherwise, this is completely fantastic.
posted by googly at 10:14 PM on March 14, 2007

Oops. My bad. Didn't notice that "Classics" later in the line.

Please disregard previous snark.
posted by googly at 10:16 PM on March 14, 2007

I heart Across The Sea even if the lyrics are slightly creepy. Nice work.
posted by liquorice at 10:19 PM on March 14, 2007

The one for Zombie is pretty amazing. It's tagged as Swedish... I have no way of knowing if this means that it's in Swedish sign language or if the makers of the video are Swedish or what.

(I know that the Cranberries categorically are not.)

I had a friend who was once an ASL interpreter for the Vagina monologues. This story has no point except that it was really awesome.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:22 PM on March 14, 2007

What about "fake"?
posted by jonson at 10:28 PM on March 14, 2007

D'oh! Didn't notice "Pseudosign". Please also disregard.
posted by jonson at 10:29 PM on March 14, 2007

This is great. My daughter has just started a new school. She has a couple of deaf people in her year and she was asking me about signing. This will get her enthused.
posted by tellurian at 10:53 PM on March 14, 2007

Wonderful, thanks!
posted by amyms at 11:58 PM on March 14, 2007

Le P'tit Bal by Philippe Decouflé
posted by Grangousier at 3:12 AM on March 15, 2007

This is really freaking cool. :)
posted by sperose at 4:01 AM on March 15, 2007

Ah, no flash on this computer! The horror!
posted by OmieWise at 5:28 AM on March 15, 2007

Natalie Imbruglia 4tw
posted by 23skidoo at 6:48 AM on March 15, 2007

Holy shit, that Torn two-piece was great. And that's largely independent of the tremendous post-breakup crush I had on that song in college.
posted by cortex at 8:13 AM on March 15, 2007

Does anybody else really want to learn sign language? It seems like it's a good skill to have.
posted by humblepigeon at 10:50 AM on March 15, 2007

I was surprised how many of these (one or two that I linked, but many many more on YouTube) were final projects for ASL classes, seems like an engaging way to get people into thinking about how to be expressive with ASL, not just make the signs for the words. My favorite one of all of these is probably the Preacher Man one though Paul Revere has got to be a close second. I've always been interested in seeing people do cover tunes on YouTube and this seemed to be a small subniche of that.

If you read the comments you'll see lots of critiques of people's technique (including one that I don't think I linked where someone does a whole music video with a mask on and people are like "wtf, facial expressions are *part* of ASL, you can't do them in a mask!") which is where I figured out what specific sign languages people are using. I'm pretty sure there are five languages represented and while I can't tell the difference -- I can sort of make out the difference between signed English and ASL -- it's interesting to read other people saying they "can't make out the Swedish signs" or what have you.

Also, the two first rap videos are done by a guy who is CODA (child of deaf adult) so while he is hearing he's fluent in sign and his routines while done in good ASL also have humor that is pretty accessible to both deaf and non-deaf audiences. If you like his stuff, there's a lot of it on YouTube including "deaf technology ruined pizza night" which I strongly recommend.
posted by jessamyn at 11:35 AM on March 15, 2007

The "Zombie" one seems to be a propaganda piece against cochlear implants, at least if the comments on YouTube are to be believed, about "the medical establishment trying to eradicate deaf people" and "deafhood" and whatnot.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:05 PM on March 15, 2007

It makes me very happy that there's a sign for "warm smell of colitas."
posted by staggernation at 3:44 PM on March 15, 2007

"Barbie Girl" was actually really good for a high school signed song. I especially liked how they had a left-handed girl and a right-handed girl, the symmetry was really impressive. It's not easy to do that kind of thing in front of an audience, but there was obviously a lot of rehearsal and it came out really good.
posted by etoile at 5:17 PM on March 15, 2007

Many years ago my father was a clown who worked for an amusement park. He had a big rainbow afro and size eighteen basketball shoes dyed red. Big, loud, obnoxious clown. He went by the name Rainbow Tiny.

As he told me this story, one day the cutest little girl came up to him - couldn't be more than five years old if that - and started gesturing to him. He didn't know what her gestures meant, but he was savvy enough to figure out she was doing ASL. Dad only knew the alphabet and a handful of 'words.' She was talking up a storm, and going way faster than he could ever decipher. My dad the clown got down on one knee, pointed at her and then did the sign for 'beautiful' then he pointed at himself and made the sign for 'happy.' The kid's face lit up like a Christmas tree and she reached out and gave him the biggest hug. From that day forward my Dad studied American Sign Language in his spare time whenever he could. He wanted to be prepared next time, so he could 'listen' to the next child. He always teared up when he told that story.

I love ASL. It's the most beautiful language in the whole wide world. It makes me happy, though I haven't the slightest idea what they're saying.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:14 PM on March 15, 2007 [2 favorites]

Loved that jessamyn. Thanks. Beautiful speaking with one's hands. An ASL index of words.
posted by nickyskye at 9:39 PM on March 15, 2007

Actually, ASL Pro is much better than the ASL Browser...highly recommended.
posted by etoile at 9:38 AM on March 16, 2007

Yesterday I was at an open mic where a girl did a piece entirely in sign language. I was taking pictures and it was amazing how loud the shutter seemed as the whole room quieted to watch her do completely silent spoken word.
posted by elr at 11:40 AM on March 16, 2007

I just found Hips Don't Lie by Shakira in Mexican Sign Languge, woo!
posted by jessamyn at 9:42 PM on March 17, 2007

And Hey Ya in BSL.
posted by jessamyn at 12:35 PM on March 18, 2007

Well, I've been looking all over for this wonderful woman's name but I can't find it.

I remember her on stage in Denver. She interpreted for Holly Near back in the day.

Holly's concerts always had that extra festive air of helium balloons that hearing-impaired folks held to catch the music's vibrations.

And the signer for whom she wrote Dancing Bird (Crushed), as a farewell, captured the light. She held the sky in her hand for all of us to see. I thought she danced love.
posted by taosbat at 9:46 PM on March 19, 2007