I’ve been transfixed with this “Chocolate Rain” phenomenon on YouTube ….. for hours, just trying to take it all in. I went to bed with it in my head last night and woke up with it still in there. I’m going back for more viewings when I finish this piece (but that’s just how I roll).
Ok, “Chocolate Rain” is a song/video clip by a Minneapolis grad student named Tay Zonday, who posted the clip on YouTube last April. Since then the clip has had over 4.5 million views on YouTube. In addition, Tay’s original “Chocolate Rain” has inspired literally thousands of different tributes, interpretations and parodies, that keep pouring in to YouTube every day.
Most of the tributes are mediocre, some hostile, and some flat out racist. But for every five or so there’s a good one. My friend and I laughed so hard last night watching some of these and they just get more and more bizarre. I’m serious, who needs acid?
People are saying that Tay is the William Hung of the YouTube generation, but of course he’s more creative and poetic in my opinion. If you can get beyond the peculiar-ness of this artist (which I don’t want to do), and the number of times that he says “Chocolate Rain”, some of the lyrics are really good and powerful. Tay has something cool to say, he just says it in a looowwww voice.
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Zed?
Is anyone else having trouble seeing the video? I just have a white box and not a youtube or a pic.
tres
Technical difficulties please bear with me. Mechanics are on the case. Yes, the margins are fuckled for some reason, my bad.
snarKassandra @ 2
Ditto. Looks like it’s not properly embedded.
And this is Joh by the way.
Uh, something seems to have busted the margins on this post (firefox on a G4 iBook) When I launch safari, the post overlays the middle column. In firefox, it pushes the blogroll and middle columns below the comment box.
PB @ 5
I had that on my youthinkleft site and i broke the whole site, but when i posted to http://frecklescassie.wordpress.com/ the videos looked fine.
Donita Sparks @ 6
Hi fini
The backstage crew is working to repair the margins now. Thanks!
happy friday donita!
i love tay! he is quite the enigma……such a deep, low voice and he looks so young!
and yes, he’s much more substantial than willam hung!
nora
Wanna borrow my hammer?
Just pound the margins to fit and paint them to match.
I love the video!! I actually wrote an internet ballad several years ago…now, where did I put it?
Bustednuckles @ 12
how did you margin to bust your knuckles?
just kiddin’
I couldn’t get the videoto load so I clicked on the other link. Here is the Internet Dream song. Really, really goog.
Personally, I think the McGruff The Crime Dog version is the best due to the puppetry work, but the music video version is very profound…and helps you understand the lyrics.
Jesus H Christ that was a nightmare. Everybody refresh and we are all good. Sorry for the Grande sized foulup.
fini!
What is it y’all like about him? It must be the sound. Visually, there’s nothing there to hold my interest.
Elliott @ 9
Hi elli!
ccmask @ 15
Thanks for the link, I got a kick out of that.
“Chocolate Rain” is intriguing. And that guy’s voice is a trip.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 22
unexpected
Thread jack -
What I learned at the pillow fight:
Last night’s pillowfight (which would have been much bigger had the County not threatened arrest at the original location).
1. If you go to a pillow fight wearing any part of your office drag, the young people will call you a “businessman” and will gang up on you and beat the shit out of you. I had ditched my jacket and my tie, but still I was a “businessman” (which I’m not – I’m merely a downtrodden salaryman) and had to be gang attacked.
2. If you go to a pillow fight with any gray hair on your head, the young people will call you “old guy” and will yell, “Get the old guy!” and they will gang up on you and beat the shit out of you with their pillows.
3. If you are a teenage boy wearing a banana costume, an eleven year old girl will yell, “Get the banana!” and will lead the charge of late teenagers and early twenty-somethings and they will beat the shit out of you with their pillows.
4. I am probably too old for any more mass pillow fights, but this was fun.
lyrics:
“Chocolate Rain
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Chocolate Rain
A baby born will die before the sin
Chocolate Rain
The school books say it can’t be here again
Chocolate Rain
The prisons make you wonder where it went
Chocolate Rain
Build a tent and say the world is dry
Chocolate Rain
Zoom the camera out and see the lie
Chocolate Rain
Forecast to be falling yesterday
Chocolate Rain
Only in the past is what they say
Chocolate Rain
Raised your neighborhood insurance rates
Chocolate Rain
Makes us happy ‘livin in a gate
Chocolate Rain
Made me cross the street the other day
Chocolate Rain
Made you turn your head the other way
(Chorus)
Chocolate Rain
History quickly crashing through your veins
Chocolate Rain
Using you to fall back down again
[Repeat]
Chocolate Rain
Seldom mentioned on the radio
Chocolate Rain
Its the fear your leaders call control
Chocolate Rain
Worse than swearing worse than calling names
Chocolate Rain
Say it publicly and you’re insane
Chocolate Rain
No one wants to hear about it now
Chocolate Rain
Wish real hard it goes away somehow
Chocolate Rain
Makes the best of friends begin to fight
Chocolate Rain
But did they know each other in the light?
Chocolate Rain
Every February washed away
Chocolate Rain
Stays behind as colors celebrate
Chocolate Rain
The same crime has a higher price to pay
chocolate Rain
The judge and jury swear it’s not the face
(Chorus)
Chocolate Rain
Dirty secrets of economy
Chocolate Rain
Turns that body into GDP
Chocolate Rain
The bell curve blames the baby’s DNA
Chocolate Rain
But test scores are how much the parents make
Chocolate Rain
‘Flippin cars in France the other night
Chocolate Rain
Cleans the sewers out beneath Mumbai
Chocolate Rain
‘Cross the world and back its all the same
Chocolate Rain
Angels cry and shake their heads in shame
Chocolate Rain
Lifts the ark of paradise in sin
Chocolate Rain
Which part do you think you’re ‘livin in?
Chocolate Rain
More than ‘marchin more than passing law
Chocolate Rain
Remake how we got to where we are.”
Wow. I think his voice is beautiful.
Elliott @ 21
It reminds me of always bothering my son when I screw up my computer. I always think it is the end of the world and he just hits one button and I’m back on.
For me it’s his voice and the ability to sing literally any lyric off the top of your head with it. You can make your own tune from it:
Chocolate Rain
Fini fucked up the front page again
Chocolate Rain
Wont use YouTube custom player – oh the pain
Hay, fini. Where you hidin’ donita? She too big to talk to us now, all lollapalooozaed out and all?
Fini,
Have you done a remix of the Sen. Bunning clip….”little green doctors pounding on my back”….
-GSD
Jacqrat @ 28
She’ll be by soon, the post was late to begin with because her prepositions got into a knife fight with her adjectives and it got bloody. She’s washing the blood off in the shower and will be here soon.
GSD @ 29
Wha-huh? Links. I need links. I may have a Friday night project now.
It was sad that CSS got stuck at La Guardia and couldn’t make it to Lolla. My sympathies to Donita. Still, the anguished CSS bulletins on MySpace were tons funny.
All about Katrina, all about racism and the struggle.
“Chocolate Rain
Every February washed away
Chocolate Rain
Stays behind as colors celebrate”
Mardi Gras is in February, and people party on..as if the 9th Ward wasn’t right there…
LS @ 33
I thought the february reference was to Black History Month but maybe it is a Mardi Gras/New Orleans reference. It’s a deep lyrical sentiment either way.
hey, joh, way to run the show-again. are you getting combat pay from donita/fdl?
i said it before and i’ll say it again- great job man. donita’s got the right man for the job, one that’s tougher when she’s gone.
to quote our glorious leader, you rule, you fucking rule!
finifinito @ 31
Sen. Jim Bunning and the little green doctors.
-GSD
IS TaY Zonday Janet Jackson’s love child?
And I’m voting for the ever so slightly jazzed up “Live” version on Jimmy Kimmel.
GSD @ 35
Ohhhh ho hoo this is gonna be fun.
Damm those prepositions.
That was almost as strange as the Philipine Prison pom-pom squad.
Donita… were you at Lollapalooza? I was there all weekend. Highlights included watching the School of Rock all-stars performing at the kids stage, with Perry Farrel joining in a duet of “Summertime”.
finifinito @ 27
Ha! Am I me now??
The eternal question I suppose, Chocolate Rain….
Want to hear some good music?
Buy vinyl…good vinyl. You can get it at thrift shops and flea markets.
Play it on a modern turntable (yes, they’re still made).
Play it through a refurbished tube amp (e.g., a Sherwood stereo amp circa 1961).
Use some good speakers (my favorites are from the early 1970s).
You can get a great experience…and learn how the record companies fucked their customers, fucked themselves, and destroyed a good thing.
Millineryman @ 39
And Full Speed ahead!!!
Donita Sparks @ 40
You is you. I told them about the knife fight with the prepositions and the adjectives causing the delay.
Jonathan @ 42
Vinyl is definitely a better listening experience than CD’s…You get used to CD’s over the years, but I remember when they came out the difference was so pronounced. Much rounder sound with vinyl.
Sorry for doubling up the comment. :
swag @ 32
I know, it sucked that United Airlines over-booking made them cancel their appearance. I had a good time anyway.
LS @ 45
A lot of it was how the ealry cd’s were mixed. In addition, as we get older it’s really hard to gear the subtle stuff.
This “devastating” CA earthquake they are talking about on MSM (the same big quake they always talk about), is based on a “Hurricane Pam” type of exercise. I sure hope that doesn’t mean anything.
Damn, shuttle has tile damage.
dont have time to view the whole thing right now but no, he’s not like the american idol reject guy.
wow. sounds like soulful paul robeson plus chirpy new-age bookstore music but i’ll check again later.
definitely one for the books.
Donita
I LOVE you! I can not stop laughing. have a great weekend. ;-)
Before the ages old Digital vs Analog audio debate starts up let me just say as an audio guy working in the era of the transition I’ve come to embrace digital technology. Yes I miss the “warmth” of vinyl that true enthusiasts can hear and differentiate between vinyl and CD/mp3, but for about 95% of the music buying public they wouldn’t be able to tell the subtle differences until you sat down with them and played a song in both mediums and instructed them on what to listen for that creates the quality difference. And there is a lot to be said for carrying your entire collection of music in one device like an iPod or mp3 player.
finifinito @ 44
And you stole my log-in identity in a very “All About Eve” fashion.
I’m keeping tabs on you boy.
finifinito @ 53
I agree — it’s a personal thing. My ear picks up the difference. I love the reality, for example, of some of the jazz mono from the 1950s that I’ve got.
nicelyput @ 52
Thank gods someone’s laughing.
Has anyone heard of this new technology where a laser reads the grooves in records and transfers the audio to digital?
raven @ 56
Do tell, I just unearthed 5 boxes of my albums.
Donita Sparks @ 53
Sorry, it was one of these deals where I came on stage to swap out your guitar due to the broken guitar string in the middle of the song. I’m like your digital roadie.
Syballents…syballents…check!
OT–
Best news I’ve seen all day!
Maybe the FISA fiasco can be erased after all!
Maybe I’m looking for reasons to be nice to Pelosi and Reid (which does seem like a hard stretch sometimes), but could this be their Duke of Wellington strategy? That is, under the guise of rolling over and playing dead, lure the Republicans & the White House to over-reach so much that even their conservative Courts will gag at what they’ve done? That strategy seems to have worked on last year’s MCA, which has run into a number of negative court decisions, and might turn out to have been another Duke of Wellington strategy.
Or am I giving Pelosi and Reid too much credit for intelligence and strategy?
Bob in HI
There is nothing like hearing Jethro Tull on vinyl, for me.
ccmask @ 61
Especially “Stand Up” with that great cover. Don’t Want to be a Fat Man!
hi, donita! welcome back! don’t take jacqrat’s comments too seriously. he’s been going through something called donita sparks addiction withdrawal. the cure is to take a few steps- twelve, to be exact.
ccmask @ 61
Yep. And Days of Future Passed.
bobschacht @ 59
We’ll see but I am leaning more towards the too much credit/nice of the Gitmo lawyers to save our asses again school of thought.
finifinito @ 59
Digital roadie, Ha! You know I adore you Fini my man.
LS @ 50
Epah. When did they find this out?
I’m from NH and to be honest, I was a bit creeped out by the prospect of a teacher on this trip.
-GSD
Raven @ 48.
The technology exists.
It all depends on the experience you’re seeking.
FWIW, true vinyl audiophiles dismiss the technology.
I hold no brief. I just like GOOD vinyl played through a tube amp.
bobschacht @ 60
Yup: there are patriots willing to go to the mat on this. Sure cheered me up. Big news!
I, however, will not be able to give Pelosi and Reid any credit for anything … these are just bad bad pieces of legislation brought to us by bushco.
There is extra bizare-ness if you scroll down on the video player on the right hand side.
Donita Sparks @ 64
[Cheesin big] Awwww you know I gots to give you hell. Digital roadie, you like that? Makes sense in a way don’t it? Now I need to adopt the digital version of a bad drinking habit and a surly but fun ‘tude and start showing up at these online gigs with strange women in tow.
newtonusr: I love Thick as a Brick.
Jonathan @ 68
Yea, I’m stuck in the 60’s except for Wilco, Amy, Nanci Griffith and such but I have 5000 songs on my iPod and have been killin some of these sites where you can download whole albums free. Got Keef Harltley “Halfbreed” just the other day.
ccmask @ 71
Bingo! Aqualung has it’s charms, but “Thick” is 60 damn minutes on 2 vinyl sides! Agreed.
finifinito @ 71
Well, you’ll have to smoke heavily too. You’ll need nicotine stains to match those calluses.
GSD @ 67
At this point, it doesn’t look very serious, but they don’t know yet. Ice apparently came off the big fuel tank and hit the heat shield. They were able to view it just as they did a maneuver prior to docking. Sigh. They are so much more prepared now than they were before.
Hmm, how did Tay Zonday lead to Jethro Tull. I smell a mash-up!
Hi, Donita!
Yeahh, I’m late here! I was at the stores, testing a lot of guitars and I decided to buy a Shelter SSG STD BO! Yeahh that guitar rocks! It isn’t an Epiphone, but already help in a lot…
Oh yes! “Chocolate Rain”? Yeahhh that’s bizarre… but it depends on the point of view of each one! I liked and I’m having fun a lot!
Donita, I don’t know if you’re in tour now, but if you’re… does have some possibility of you come to Brazil again? I miss the times of the Hollywood rock 93… Oh, good times…
Donita Sparks @ 77
It was vinvl’s fault!
Donita Sparks @ 77
Aw Donita, I’ve missed the afternoon spot sooooo much. I hate to be hijackin but I just loves these music threads.
Hippies! There is a place for us.
http://www.techwebsound.com
Jandira Ferreira @ 78
Well, I have really good news for you. My new band will be coming to beautiful Brazil in early December. You heard it hear first, just being booked now,….yipeee!
Donita Sparks @ 75
You ought to pass that along to The Illuminoids.
ccmask @ 79
It’s never vinyl’s fault!
Donita, if this salon continues, someday this
Chocalate Rain thing will be hysterical.
Donita Sparks @ 84
It was a new day yesterday
but it’s an old day now
raven @ 80
Honey, you can talk about Mitch Miller and Kate Smith for all I care. Let it all hang out here.
most people are full of it, now Tay’s got something to say, haunting, I get the all night in your brain thing… over and over, who needs acid when we have AcidTay?
raven @ 73
Raven, you’ve evolved more than I. And I respect that. I have this sound in my head, from the 1950s and early 1960s, of music, reproduced from vinyl, amplified from tube amplifiers. I love it. I’ve not evolved. I’m stuck in the past. Oh, by the way, that was when the idea of everyone for himself was a thoroughly wrong idea…according to all my highschool teachers in smalltown Illinois.
A little humor for Friday afternoon with Donita!
Cartoon Opening – Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WswD1djENJE
Jonathan @ 89
Have we had the Illinois discussion. When I came home in 69 I was part of a tribe in C-U that ran the “Record Service”, a community music co-op that was the center of all kinds of “alternative” activities.
Donita Sparks @ 82
Yeahh yeahhhh yeahhhh!!!! I WON’T BUY ANY GUITAR MORE!!! Fuck the guitar! I’ll join money to watch your show in Brazil, be where it goes! Donita, I won my day today! I love you! Thanks, thanks, thanks, more and more!!!! Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Does the show have confirmed place?
finifinito @ 53
My finest system was a mono audiophile British system I got for free when I was about 16. Long gone. My claim to quality now is that I rip to ogg, not mp3.
Jandira Ferreira @ 92
When you comin back to Athens?
“Chocolate Rain
Some vote Republican and some vote Dem
Chocolate Rain
A soldier will die, Ain’t Bush a gem?
Chocolate Rain
Politics is just like driving
Chocolate Rain
R for reverse and D for driving ahead.
Chocolate Rain
Build a huge embassy in Iraq
Chocolate Rain
Zoom the camera out and see the lie
Chocolate Rain
Cheney wants to hit Iran
Chocolate Rain
Will the fit hit the shan?
Jonathon
I logged in so my facebook shows up, there and leave a message if you want or email me at
markann at hotmail dot com
so we don’t bore these poor souls with tales of corn, soybeans and high school basketball!
hey, since we’re back on the subject of mash-ups, how about an L7/commodores mashup?
“shithouse”
raven1 @ 96
And Pork and the Havana Ducks!
No offense to Tay, but I believe “Chocolate Rain” might be a better vehicle if recorded by Paul and Paula.
Jandira Ferreira @ 92
Right now Sao Paulo and Curitiba.
Scroll down and listen, don’t watch Tay as he performs.
Amazing.
raven @ 94
Atlanta…. not confirmed but maybe very soon.
IMHO, music should not be rated on a political scale. Yes, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez (for example) did songs with political messages. But they were great songs. I used to vote republican but still loved Bob Dylan and Joan Baez because they made great, wonderful, awe-inspiring music.
Donita Sparks @ 101
Cool
raven1 @ 103
Jonathan @ 102
How bout the Airplane
“We are forces of chaos and anarchy
everything they say we are we are
and we are very proud of ourselves
up against the wall mothefucker
raven1 @ 106
Jefferson Airplane was great. I drank many beers in Champaign (prior to going to Vietnam) listening to White Rabbit. Sorry for this excursion into my past.
Donita Sparks @ 99
o.O
If they don’t confirm for Fortaleza, I will play fire in this city!!! Ah, it doesn’t matter… I’ll be in Curitiba AND in Sao Paulo to watch your show! Donita, I want to meet you personally, in the show! Will that be possible, yes? (I won’t get to sleep, until December!)
Jonathan @ 107
Where?
Actually, now that I think about it, Tay has a certain Frankie Lyman quality, doesn’t he?
Well, except for the voice.
Slothrop @ 110
Except in the exact polar opposite direction vocally.
raven1 @ 109
Various places. The old Wigwam, mainly.
Jonathan @ 103
Oh no, what were you thinking?
Jonathan @ 112
Ah, a Harry’s Special would be good! You go to Chins too? George died last fall, I was a serious regular at the Bamboo Lounge.
I was just kidding about Paul and Paula. What I’d really like to hear is a Tay and Joan Osborne duo.
raven1 @ 114
Check out this picture of George on Green St one 4th
George Chin
Frank33 @ 113
I was pissed. I spent the fall of 1971 and most of 1972 serving in Viet Nam, as an army intelligence officer. I got to see and learn about a lot of stuff that was missed in the reporting from Viet Nam. And on one particularly bad day, I learned that Jane Fonda was hanging out on an AA gun in North Vietnam. When I came back, I was pissed. Those on the Left disowned me. Repubs seemed the only haven. I found out, after crawling out of my mental bunker, that Repubs were awful, really, truly, horrible awful.
Jonathan @ 117
Did not mean to pry but that sounds as if you may have a few stories to tell. Perhaps some are relevant to today.
I was pissed. I spent the fall of 1971 and most of 1972 serving in Viet Nam, as an army intelligence officer. I got to see and learn about a lot of stuff that was missed in the reporting from Viet Nam. And on one particularly bad day, I learned that Jane Fonda was hanging out on an AA gun in North Vietnam. When I came back, I was pissed. Those on the Left disowned me. Repubs seemed the only haven. I found out, after crawling out of my mental bunker, that Repubs were awful, really, truly, horrible awful.
We were there to support you. Shit, I ran with probably 10 Nam Vets in C-U. We all went to Parkland, worked construction etc. It always bothers me when brothers came home and felt shit on by the left. The only people that ever fucked with me were right wingers and I threw the shit right back in their faces.
Did not mean to pry but that sounds as if you may have a few stories to tell. Perhaps some are relevant to today.
I’ve got a few. After a tour in Korea 67-68 and a tour in the Nam 68-60 I went to the University of Illinois. The people I knew in the anti-war movement wanted the war ended and the brothers to come home. I know there are vets who had negative experiences and I won’t deny it but, as I said, I got fucked with by right wingers who thought we were pussies because we lost(or were losing). I went to DC with the VVAW at Dewey Canyon III and saw the cops slam the gates of Arlington is the faces of mothers who lost their sons in the Nam. I listed to that asshole Nixon say we obviously were not vets because we had long hair. I got an education on who “supported the troops”.
raven1 @ 120
Raven, all I can say is that you had a classic Viet Nam veteran experience.
But enough about the past: I worry about today’s veterans. They’re getting screwed too…in a country that should know better.
Jonathan @ 121
We both did. What is amazing is that we must have crossed paths and had such different experiences.
Damn straight the Iraq vets are getting screwed. My buddy took a hit from a 80mm mortar round blast, blew him threw a bunker door as he was running for cover in Ramadi in Nov 03. He just recently found out the Army lied and doctored his medical records to hide the fact he had shrapnel in his back and leg that was left in there by Army docs.
When they discharged him they fucked with him on his medical discharge so they wouldnt have to pay through the nose. He now has to fight with them all over again about his wounded vets benefits. He gets surgery on his back this Monday from the county run hospital where we live. Thanks GWB.
finifinito @ 123
I just hate the way these fusks have the “public” fooled into believing we are supporting the troops. Have you seen that bullshit with Romney when he was asked if any of his sons were in the military? I don’t think we’ve even begun to see the shit until these guys figure out they were suckered. Of course, just like the Nam, it’ll get laid off on the left. Mark my words.
raven1 @ 124
Sorry, edit ain’t workin.
You’ve got to see John Mayer do a take off on this. HI-larious!
tgrdug @ 127
Links, man, links! Give us a link to it!
swag @ 24
first rule about pillow fights: don’t talk about pillow fights.
Reminds me of Think Tree.
raven @ 57
That’s actually an old technology…and was even developed using a non-laser optical reader back in the 1940’s. In 1941 RCA Victor produced a limited number of “Magic Brain” Phonographs that used something called a “Jewel Light Scanner” to read the grooves on records, and it could read both sides without flipping them over.
Apparently only about 100 of these were actually produced before WW2 reduced record consumption (Japan had acquired the lac production centers used for making old lacquer records and vinyl was important in the war effort). And most of THOSE phonographs went down to the ocean floor in a U-Boat torpedo attack.
Interesting to think what might have occurred if these were actually more widely produced, and the demand for higher quality light readers had started a “laser revolution” 20 years before it actually was widely developed.
[BTW the symbol for this turntable was actually adopted by KDVS-FM ~my non-commercial radio station ~as “Mr. Turntablehead in the 1980’s…he’s “the founding saint of turntablists and alternative radio DJ’s”]
Hi Donita, There was a article about Tay Zonday on yahoo today! You’re always ahead of the curve!