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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 4/1/2025: There, I Ruined It [1]

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Date: 2025-04-01

Georgia O’Keeffe: Black Pansy and Forget-Me-Not (1926)

Good evening, Kibitzers!

Well, here we are in April! Not that long ago, I’d have said, “One quarter down, only 15 to go!” I wish I were convinced of that second part, but I can’t let go of that hope now either. So! One quarter down, anyway.

When I used to sing competitively, the contest we competed in annually was in Philadelphia, and it was in the spring, generally sometime in April although occasionally in early May or very late March. Philadelphia is generally a week or two ahead of northern New Jersey in the process of Springification. So, although it did mean contending with some pollen, it was generally cheering to drive down there and see all the pretty flowering trees and spring bulbs blooming.

Ordinarily, Boston would be another week or two behind New Jersey, spring-wise, but nowadays, who the hell knows? At a minimum, it might be behind New Jersey, but everyone’s ahead of where they used to be. (The year I had to quit competing because I couldn’t leave my dad alone any more, the contest moved to Albany, NY, so that was the wrong direction to be going for spring flowers and I’m not sorry I never had to make that switch.) And in fact, there are some early daffodils already out in the yard here. Looking for the ornamental trees soon.

I really don’t hold with April Fool’s Day pranks, but in grudging recognition of the tradition, today we’ll look at the YouTube channel There, I Ruined It. Proprietor Dustin Ballard does violence of various kinds to the songs he parodies, using his own musicianship, software Melodyne and Pro Tools, and layering on, in some cases, some final AI processing that changes his singing voice to imitate the sound of someone else. (This article/interview tells more about his work, and also, the channel has a helpful Wikipedia page.)

He also has a website, headed with the motto, “I lovingly destroy your favorite songs.” It offers the following further comment:

Formed from the depths of musical boredom during the pandemic, There I Ruined It is the personal project of musician Dustin Ballard. With the simple goal of ruining as many beloved songs as possible before it’s banned from the Internet, There I Ruined It has left a wake of confusion and disgust among those with musical taste, inexplicably earning millions of followers along the way.

We’ll start with a representative of the “new song” category; they tend to be very short. This one is a song created entirely out of artists singing “Hey!” [0:36]

I think that what makes DK diaries hard for some people to open is the sheer number of embedded YouTubes, regardless of whether they run 20 seconds or an hour, so here, instead of more embeds, are links to a few more good ones in this genre:

I’m doing this, mind you, because there are so many others I don’t want to leave out. Here’s a quirky one, that does for Pulp Fiction what The Kiffness does for wailing cats.

Pulp Fiction: The Musical (EXTENDED) [0:58]

This is what he does best, in my opinion: somebody’s song magically turns into somebody else’s song.

Snoop Frogg (Kermit sings Snoop Dogg’s Gin & Juice as Rainbow Connection) [2:24]

Hank Williams sings NWA’s Straight Outta Compton (the yodel is the best part.) [1:17]

Or, if you prefer: Straight Outta Compton - Oktoberfest Edition. Polka! [1:22]

This is a little different: the famous Jack Nicholson line "You can't handle the truth!" from the movie A Few Good Men, but it's the Toy Story song You’ve Got a Friend in Me. [1:00]

The Beach Boys sing 99 Problems by Jay-Z. [1:51]

Radiohead’s Creep - Honky Tonk Edition. [2:17]

Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (but it's Sir Mix-a-Lot’s Baby Got Back) [1:52]

Nirvana’s Come As You Are - Swing Edition [1:15]

Michael Jackson’s Bad - Bluegrass Edition [0:53]

And for our grand finale, we have a matched pair, created by listener request:

John Denver sings Black Sabbath’s War Pigs [2:02]

So naturally (or unnaturally), Black Sabbath sings John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. [2:10]

[END]
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