Fandom Is Supposed To Be FUN.

If you're harshing someone else's squee, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. -  AmberDiceless on AO3.  --  Mostly VoicePlay, Geoff Castellucci and Good Omens with a smattering of other stuff.  --  Purveyor of Old-As-Fuck Fandom Shit.  ---  I like what I like and I don't apologize.  Disapprove? Fuck off.  Fandomentalist & puriteen bullshit is NOT welcome here.  --  Personal info: MYOB.

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Peaceable friendly fanpersons, welcome!

If you’ve read this far, thank you!  Please click below to treat yourself to six minutes of awesome.

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Further On Up The Road - thoughts/commentary

So apparently this song was originally sung by Bruce Springsteen and released in 2002 (which frankly is more recent than I was expecting this song to be), but there's a well-known cover of it by Johnny Cash that was released in 2006. The original short that Geoff did of this song (back in 2023) is tagged with #Johnnycash, and so I'm assuming that that's the version he's sticking to, since this full cover is basically just an extended version of what he already did in the short. (I can't remember whether it was Geoff or just some of Geoff's Patrons that floated the idea of him one day having enough Johnny Cash covers to make a full album of them, but he's certainly continuing to add to the possibility!)

NOTE: This song is a different song to "Farther Up The Road", a 1957 song that was covered by Eric Clapton who renamed it as "Further On Up The Road". That song has its own Wikipedia page - this one doesn't! Also, this song is meant to be more specifically written as "Further On (Up The Road)", including the parentheses!

But anyhow, I don't have much else to add for the preamble, so let's just dive right in! Thoughts below the cut as always!

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Alright, so obviously I'm gonna be able to keep my notes on the video itself pretty brief. It's just him in a grey t-shirt (and necklace), sitting at a piano in a dark room! However, it's a light grey t-shirt, not a dark grey one (and when it comes to Geoff's clothing choices for videos, that deserves acknowledgement), and, more significantly, we get a good amount of camera shots of his hands actually playing the piano! Which is something I always enjoy, and we missed out on it in his Turn The Page video (much as I enjoyed it overall), so I'm glad we get it here! (In fact, back in 2024 I made some photo collages of Geoff sitting at the piano in both short videos and his full-length videos, as well as a photo compilation of just his hands on piano keys. Maybe by late next year, there might be enough new piano-playing videos since then for me to make a part 2!)

As for the song itself, I'll admit that as far as Geoff's short videos go (which he should consider doing more of, btw), FOUTR was one that I was more or less neutral about. However, I have a curated Sleep Playlist made of narrations and music that I use on basically any night where my brain is being too loud and active for me to fall asleep otherwise. I put it together back when I still was at a high enough Patreon tier to get access to Geoff's MP3 tracks on Patreon (though some of his narrations were taken from YouTube via an MP3 converter), and sometimes choosing to add the instrumental/karaoke version of a cover (which both VoicePlay and Geoff always provide Patrons with) rather than the actual regular song track. And the FOUTR short is one where just the piano instrumental made it onto my playlist!

(Sidenote, would anyone be interested in just a post explaining my sleep playlist, saying what tracks are on it and in what order, what I found works for me and what doesn't, etc? Lemme know!)

So I've heard the piano instrumental quite a few times since then, and so while I had forgotten the first verse of the song and only remembered the second (though my memory was triggered basically the moment this video began), I knew for certain that Geoff's more or less using the exact same sheet music as he did the first time, and just extending it out for the full thing!

"And my smilin' skull ring," I wonder if Geoff still has his skull ring from the Queen In 5 Minutes Medley? Doubtful (and even if he did, who's to say that it'd even still fit), but I'm pretty sure he still has his cane from it! (Both items would've been fantastic had he decided to do more with this video, but oh well. At least it was easy for him to film and edit, I guess!)

When I choose to listen to the music section of my sleep playlist, I often try to follow along with the instrumental/karaoke tracks, imagining Geoff's vocals in my brain. And for FOUTR, I only really try with the second verse, and now I'm realizing that I've probably had incorrect timing in trying to remember where each line starts and ends! Idk whether it's anything noteworthy about the way the piano and the vocals work with/against each other, or whether it's just because my memory was fuzzy, but Geoff seems to play four chords in a repeating sequence for the second verse, with the fourth one sounding higher up the scale than the previous three (though I believe it's a up-down-up pattern, with it going up higher the second time than the first time). But that's not when the last word of each line is sung! That happens in between the start and end of each line! Am I making any sense?

(It's honestly lucky for me that I have relevant anecdotes about this because I'm not sure this would be much of a post at all otherwise)

Alright, now we get to the "new" stuff, beyond where the original short ended!

"Yeah I'll meet you further on up the road." Idk if this third section counts as a chorus or not, but regardless, Geoff repeated the line at the end of it, which is a slight alteration/addition to the original song structure! (I of course have the lyrics up on my phone as I always do. I'm using the Johnny Cash version of lyrics on AZLyrics, but I did double check the Bruce Springsteen lyrics before I made this note).

Yeahhh fancy piano playing let's go!!!!

"Now I been out in the desert," Geoff is usually decent when it comes to enunciation in his songs (usually), but even with the lyrics in front of me and knowing what the line is meant to be, I still can't help but hear "nah bin ah bin dah desert," 😂😅

Geoff altered the ending as well! In both the Bruce Springsteen original version and in Johnny Cash's version, the ending is "One sunny mornin', we'll rise I know/And I'll meet you further on up the road" (x2), but Geoff sings "One sunny mornin', we'll rise I know/I'll meet you further on... Yeah I'll meet you further on... And I'll meet you further on up the road."

And that's the song! Nice and simple, but a nice simple one with piano-playing, which definitely scores it some points in my book! Though I'll still say that I'm hoping that whatever Geoff does next is something a bit more fun and upbeat. But whatever it is (and whenever it is), I'll see you there for it! 👋

[mythigal1966]

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VoicePlay NEW ORIGINAL A Capella Premiere: Into the Deep ft. J.None

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More piratical a capella goodness from VoicePlay!

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VoicePlay NEW ORIGINAL A Capella Premiere: Into the Deep ft. J.None

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Finally it's here! (For reference, although we knew for a long time exactly when the public release would be, they never said when us Patrons should expect to get it, and it ended up being just 5 days before the YouTube premiere!!!)

I have not purchased the LORE album, and even if I had, I still would've waited for the actual music video release anyway, for a few reasons. So basically I have no idea what the song nor the video is going to be like, but I do have one or two speculations, and I'm excited!!!

See y'all tomorrow for my thoughts/commentary post, and then a couple days later for a new Voiceplay Visuals post! :D

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(Sorry for not getting this up earlier today - somehow it slipped my mind that VoicePlay might get the new video premiere up today, and also they didn't notfify us Patrons about it, so alas)

A lot of Patrons have been clamouring since at least early last year (quite possibly since 2024, and maybe even before that) for VoicePlay to cover a Bon Jovi song, and finally it seems we have our wish! Personally I've been neutral about it as I don't really know much Bon Jovi music myself, and currently I'm waiting on VP to give us the video for their newest original song, but I'll try to ignore that for the time being and appreciate this for what it is. And hey, it features Omar Cardona, and I've really enjoyed a great deal of his collabs with VoicePlay!

See y'all tomorrow for my thoughts/commentary post!

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VoicePlay A Capella Cover Premiere: Wanted Dead or Alive ft. Omar Cardona

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Geoff Castellucci Low Bass Singer Cover: The Last Goodbye

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Firefly Animated Revival Needs A Home. Pass It on

View this post on Instagram

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VoicePlay A Capella Mini ft. Ashley Diane: Where Is My Husband

228K views · 4.1K reactions | Where Is My Husband! ft. The incredible Ashley Diane #husband #whereismyhusband originally by: @raye | VoicePl

Where Is My Husband! ft. The incredible Ashley Diane #husband #whereismyhusband originally by: @raye

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VoicePlay A Capella Cover Premiere ft. David Archuleta: A Little Too Not Over You

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Mahna Mahna — VoicePlay music video short

As their name suggests, these guys like to have fun. And what's more fun than the Muppets? When their buddy came back to hang out for the day, VoicePlay just had to welcome him in a truly goofy style.

Details:

title: Mahna Mahna (feat. Omar Cardona)

original performers: Jim Henson, Franz Oz, & Loretta Long as "Mahna Mahna & the Snowths" on The Muppet Show (1976)

written by: "Mah nà mah nà" composed by Piero Umiliani for the Italian film Svezia, inferno e paradiso (Sweden: Heaven and Hell, 1968); arranged for The Muppet Show by Jim Henson & Franz Oz

arranged by: Rob Dietz

release date: 16 May 2023

My favorite bits:

the guys playful enthusiasm as they surround the chair

Cesar's wide-eyed impatience and Layne's exaggerated side-eye as they wait for Omar to join the fun

Omar's annoyed mannerisms, as though his friends regularly ambush him with backing vocals

everyone's excited expressions when they pop back in

the simple, moseying drum and bass lines staying steady as the call-and-response melody increases in complexity

the little contemplative hum Omar does before jumping into the second verse

all those smooth riffs and runs

Eli staying in frame to give that baffled eyebrow raise 🤨

the befuddled expression on Geoff's face as he returns

Cesar popping back up with the discarded book and glancing at it with interest

Layne doing his best to become an actual Muppet at the end

Trivia:

VoicePlay had included a portion of this song in their "A Crimpella" medley that they'd performed at live shows for many years.

Omar starts the video reading Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. (Fans of the Pern series were very excited about it in the YouTube comments.) After he tosses it away, it's replaced by Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh.

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VoicePlay Mini ft. Ashley Diane: Fairly OddParents Theme Song

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VoicePlay Mini: Hell's Greatest Dad ft. J.None

8.4K views · 312 reactions | “Hells Greatest Dad” from #hazbin hotel. Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! | VoicePlay

“Hells Greatest Dad” from #hazbin hotel. Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!