Songs to Maze by: GAME OVER (Room 24)

This is the end, beautiful friends.* The final puzzle point has been awarded; no further Cluemasters will be crowned. In light of White Raven’s recent announcement that the gamification of MAZE on Into the Abyss is now at an end, it seemed fitting to do a playlist for MAZE’s Game Over room-the Abyss itself, Room 24.

“One of Us” by Technical Itch
Alex posted this one in the public chat the other day and said it was perfect for Room 24-and it is! It won’t take you long to figure out why…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FB9GYkIT3E

“The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel
“Hello darkness my old friend…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3LTmDUAhMM

“These Eyes” by The Guess Who
Here’s your government-mandated CanCon.

“The End” by The Doors
The Doors-get it? Get it!? (Yes, it is nearly 12 minutes long, but you’re stuck in the Abyss forever so QUIT COMPLAINING!!!)

“The End of the World as We Know It” by REM

As a generally cheerful person, I find I cannot end even the Room 24 playlist on a depressing note. So here for you is the most cheerful** of apocalypse songs. For me this song has particular meaning and since we’re stuck here together in the dark, I’ll tell you why. At university I belonged to a group that did sketch comedy interspersed with songs. We had a live band and performed in one of the campus pubs. I’m old, so this was near the dawn of the Internet, and the miracle of being able to find lyrics to any song at the click of a mouse had not yet occurred. Therefore, if the lyrics weren’t on the liner notes, somebody had to listen to and write out the words to any song we wanted to do-or just make up new words, which is what often happened. But not in the case of this song, which was to be the big finale, since nobody wanted the job of writing new words for all those lyrics. So it transpired that five of us, including the musical director, were crammed in somebody’s car on the way back to school from Toronto, listening to this song over and over and desperately trying to figure out what the fuck they were saying. Much of what we wrote down was total gibberish, but everyone dutifully learned and sang it. (Fortunately the audience-along with the performers-were usually pretty drunk by the end of the show, so nobody cared that it made no sense.) These days, of course, you are spared this kind of trouble thanks to the aforementioned miracle, although the published lyrics don’t make much sense either. Some sample comparisons:

  • Internet: “Don’t misserve your own needs” vs. What we thought: “Dummy, serve your own needs”
  • Internet: “Feed it up a knock, feed, grunt, no strength” vs. What we thought: “Speed it up a notch, Pete: front row seat”
  • Internet: “You vitriolic patriotic slam fight bright light” vs. What we thought: “You vitriolic patriotic slam butt fight, like”

To this day I can sing that whole song with the lyrics we wrote down, even a few beers into the evening.

Anyway, thanks for listening-so nice to have a captive audience. And now, “It’s time I had some time alone…” BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

*Some would have you believe that it’s not really the end but only the beginning of a BRAVE NEW ERA OF MAZE. Hope springs eternal!

**For an even more cheerful (and even faster!) rendition, check out this CanCon cover by Great Big Sea.