Poetry Challenge: Rewrite a bad song/ write a poem on a day of the week.

I'm not sure why I'm doing this tonight, as I am still recovering from an annoying sinus infection (is there any other kind?). But I'm by myself and nothing is going on so I guess I figured tonight would be a good night to try it.

If you don't have a social media-savvy person in your house, you may have been spared the atrocity that is Rebecca Black's "Friday" video. In a nutshell, this 13-year-old girl's parents paid a small record/video company $4000 to write her a song and produce the music video. It then went viral and was widely declared the "worst song ever." I won't make you watch it, but I will embed it here if you are brave enough to allow its assault to your ears. The poor girl has suffered quite a bit of abuse about it already, but suffice it to say, although it is a slickly produced video, I am amazed and depressed that two full grown adults were paid to write these brainless lyrics. Without further ado:

I will also enclose the lyrics here, in case you didn't catch them with all the auto-tuning going on in the video.

"Friday"

(Yeah, Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah-Ark)
Oo-ooh-ooh, hoo yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Yeah-ah-ah
Yeah-ah-ah
Yeah-ah-ah
Yeah-ah-ah
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Seven a.m., waking up in the morning
Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs
Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal
Seein' everything, the time is goin'
Tickin' on and on, everybody's rushin'
Gotta get down to the bus stop
Gotta catch my bus, I see my friends (My friends)

Kickin' in the front seat
Sittin' in the back seat
Gotta make my mind up
Which seat can I take?

It's Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend
Friday, Friday
Gettin' down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend

Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin' forward to the weekend

7:45, we're drivin' on the highway
Cruisin' so fast, I want time to fly
Fun, fun, think about fun
You know what it is
I got this, you got this
My friend is by my right, ay
I got this, you got this
Now you know it

Kickin' in the front seat
Sittin' in the back seat
Gotta make my mind up
Which seat can I take?

It's Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend
Friday, Friday
Gettin' down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend

Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin' forward to the weekend

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin')
We-we-we so excited
We so excited
We gonna have a ball today

Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes after ... wards
I don't want this weekend to end

R-B, Rebecca Black
So chillin' in the front seat (In the front seat)
In the back seat (In the back seat)
I'm drivin', cruisin' (Yeah, yeah)
Fast lanes, switchin' lanes
Wit' a car up on my side (Woo!)
(C'mon) Passin' by is a school bus in front of me
Makes tick tock, tick tock, wanna scream
Check my time, it's Friday, it's a weekend
We gonna have fun, c'mon, c'mon, y'all

It's Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend
Friday, Friday
Gettin' down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend

Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin' forward to the weekend

It's Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend
Friday, Friday
Gettin' down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend

Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin' forward to the weekend


My favorite part of this whole debacle was this past March when Conan O'Brien parodied the video, suggesting she ripped off his video of a song called "Thursday." I do recommend you watch this one, especially if you actually watched the original.

Now, the challenging part. I am going to take the germ of the idea for the song ("Friday") and try to write a better song for it. If anyone wants to join me, choose a day of the week (you can do the same one if you want!), or choose a poem or song you hate and rewrite it.

All right, for better or worse, here's what I would have written (in a very short time span, mind you) for a 13 year old girl who wanted to sing about Friday. Not what I would sing about it, as I am considerably older. :)

Friday

As I arise and the sun hits my face
My mind awakes and I smile.
My favorite day at last arrived
and nothing can erase
my joy this morning.

Flying through my routine,
blowing kisses out the door,
time for the day to begin,
I don’t wanna miss a minute.

On the bus my mind wanders,
skipping ahead to tonight.
Where will my friends and I go?
Movies, sleepover, shopping?

(Chorus:) It’s Friday, Friday,
the best day of the week.
Been looking forward to this
For what seems like years.
Hanging out with friends,
sleeping in and relaxing,
nowhere to be and
nothing we have to do.

Friday night, finally,
spending time with my friends.

Anywhere we go we’ll have
fun talking and laughing.
Tonight we’ll catch a movie,
then we’ll go to my house,
sleepover party with karaoke!

Next week it’s my BFF’s
turn to be the social planner,
I know whatever she chooses,
we’ll have fun together.
Maybe we’ll tell scary stories
and try to stay up all night,
playing jokes on each other
and imagining our future lives.

CHORUS

At the end of this weekend,
I’ll wish it could last forever,
but then I’ll start looking forward
to the end of next week.
Every week has a bright spot,
the end of the tunnel,
something to get us all through
till we can start having fun again.

As you can see, I cut out all the "ah"s and the rap section and cut a few refrains, since I think they were unnecessary anyway. It probably wouldn't match up with the song, but then again I don't think even without bad lyrics that it is a terribly good song, so we're not missing much there either. So there you have it...anyone else want to take this on with me? :)