All LU Stations Song/Underground Can-Can

[The Orange One]

Last November I took a pencil and paper and tried to write "a song with all the London Underground stations set to a recognisable tune" - my tune was Gilbert and Sullivan's Major-General Song, or alternatively Tom Lehrer's Elements Song. The rhymes I used were terrible - look at the topic title for the two rhymes I was most proud of, and I ended up putting in Plaistow twice and missing out Southfields. I'd post my effort, but I don't really want to, so does anyone have some good pairs of stations that kind of rhyme?

[RobbieM]

Unbelievable that I should read a post on this subject. Because, after doing this earlier this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0tUJ0W_18k, people asked me what my next 'composition' would be. It was about the same time that the Labyrinth art discussions began, and therefore a record-breaking route was given away publicly.

So I told folk (not those on the forum) that I may consider giving away my completed Tube Challenge route in a unique way - and the way I thought I'd do it was by using exactly the same song that you've mentioned! Not that I got very far with the project. But it begins:

• We started off by catching the five twenty-eight from Amersham
  Down to Chalfont and Latimer and then we went up to Chesham
  Returning down through C and L to Chorleywood and Rickmansworth
  Moor Park then Croxley Watford back to M P Northwood Northwood Hills...

As you can see, I didn't think I'd bother trying to make it rhyme...

Maybe I should pick the project up again.

[The Orange One]

I tried to start off in that corner of London - I can tell you from experience that Amersham and Chesham will not rhyme whatever accent you use.

I can give you the verses of "The London Underground Song Retraction Song" - which talks about my attempts to write a tube song, and ultimate failure, to the same tune of course. It contains a reference to the first transport song I ever wrote, which was about the 29 bus route's conversion from bendy bus back to double decker. Also consider Osterley/Becontree/Gunnersbury as a rhyme.

Just over half a year ago I made a song most terrible,
I couldn't make the lyrics scan, the rhymes were all unbearable,
I tried to put in every station on the London Underground,
but perfect words played "hard to get" and sent me on the runaround,
I toyed with it many a day, but did not reach euphoria,
Swapped Camden Town for Belsize Park, and Brixton for Victoria,
I'd take it up with TfL but I don't think they'd take the time,
To go and rename tube stations just so that more of them will rhyme,
With buses it is easy, for example number 183
Will rhyme with other phrases like North Wembley and Kingsbury,
So I'm going to stick to numbers now and leave the destinations
for people who can rhyme them and not stick with estimations.

For Amersham and Chorleywood I'll have to rhyme another day,
The same with Rayners Lane or High Street Kensington or Holloway,
There's millions of arrangements, it's like trying to solve a Rubik's cube,
but no, what am I saying? Holloway has never had a tube.
Rhyme Paddington with Farringdon, or Colindale with Tottenham Hale,
And these are just the rhymes I wrote that didn't quite completely fail,
So write another song, you say! I find I must oppose, refuse, (long pause)
'Cause look at me! I barely rhymed the word that I just chose to use.
I wrote at least three verses all about the number 29,
But just can't write a song about the Hammersmith and City line,
So I'm going to stick to numbers now and leave the destinations
for people who can rhyme them and not stick with estimations.

[DrainBrain]

It's kind of fun to try this, but most of the time you have to mangle syllables and rhyme on added words rather than on stations. Here's an effort for the (relatively short) Victoria Line:

We'll start at Brixton then Stockwell to Vauxhall and then Pimlico,
Victoria, Green Park then Oxford Circus is the way we'll go,
Next Warren Street, onto Euston, King's Cross St. Pancras (man, that's long!),
Highbury & Islington then Finsbury Park is where we carry on,
To Seven Sisters, Tottenham Hale, Blackhorse Road (for the overground),
And finally to Walthamstow Central, that's where we turn around,
From one end to the other that is all of the Victoria line,
And if we're lucky we'll have found our little train did run on time.

[The Orange One]

There's always this one...

We go from Bank to Waterloo and back to Bank, then Waterloo,
The Waterloo and City line is what everyone likes to do,
From Bank to Waterloo to Bank to Waterloo to Bank again,
And up and down and up and down and up and then back down The Drain,
From Waterloo to Bank, and back to Waterloo and back to Bank,
This 1992 Stock Train will noticeably loudly clank,
From Bank to Waterloo and back to Bank then Waterloo...oh no!
I've run over the time limit for Oyster card Pay As You Go!

[RobbieM]

Or the Sunday version of the same one:

• Well here I am at Waterloo, oh look, I'm still at Waterloo.
  Yes Waterloo, that's Waterloo, it's definitely Waterloo.
  The trains don't run on Sunday so what on earth am I gonna do?
  I'll never get to Bank so I'll just wait right here at Waterloo.
  It's no use looking to the front of this train, for there is no crew.
  It's very lonely waiting down here on my own on platform two.
  And see how many times I can fit in the name of Waterloo,
  That's Waterloo, yes Waterloo, ah! Waterloo, oh! Waterloo...

(I won't give up my day job just yet...)

[DrainBrain]

I have this shorter version:

The Waterloo and City line has two stations to care about,
It runs from Bank to Waterloo; that's its entire whereabouts.

(Unfortunately, I already gave up my day job )

[tubeguru]

Here's my concise version of the entire network:

Total stations: two-hundred and seventy
Bugger that, I need a cup of tea.

[hopeful traveller]

Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war...

[tractakid]

I have been asked by Tunnel Sounds to mention this song here, so I will. Here's a link. Buy the song so 'person X' can pay for his worldwide adventures. lol

http://benphaze.bandcamp.com/track/a-z- ... nderground

I have some gripes though.

6 stations aren't mentioned. (Edgware Road, Hammersmith, Paddington, Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5)

One incorrect station is mentioned. (Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

There are apparently 9 Gunnersburys. (Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury and echo Gunnersbury.

The stations are not in alphabetical order. They nearly are, but they aren't. For a song titled A-Z I reckon alphabetical order should have been compulsory.

For those that can forgive the poetic licenses used, the music is groovy with some funky bass. Worth a listen.

[The Orange One]

I have been asked by Adham to mention this song here, so I will. Here's a link. Buy the song so Adham can pay for his worldwide adventures. lol

http://benphaze.bandcamp.com/track/a-z- ... nderground

I have some gripes though.

6 stations aren't mentioned. (Edgware Road, Hammersmith, Paddington, Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5)

One incorrect station is mentioned. (Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

There are apparently 9 Gunnersburys. (Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury, Gunnersbury and echo Gunnersbury.

The stations are not in alphabetical order. They nearly are, but they aren't. For a song titled A-Z I reckon alphabetical order should have been compulsory.

For those that can forgive the poetic licenses used, the music is groovy with some funky bass. Worth a listen.

You mean:

5 stations aren't mentioned. (Edgware Road, Hammersmith, Paddington, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5)

One incorrect station is mentioned. (4 and 5)

Technically he did say "Heathrow Terminals 1 2 3".

[tractakid]

You mean:

5 stations aren't mentioned. (Edgware Road, Hammersmith, Paddington, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5)

One incorrect station is mentioned. (4 and 5)

Technically he did say "Heathrow Terminals 1 2 3".

He grouped all the numbers together into one station, by the way I heard it.

Still, for most listeners, none of that will matter at all, and it is great to hear the system we have all grown to love being promoted.

[tractakid]

The Youtube upload of the song has a slideshow of images of station roundels or signs (like at Upminster where there are no roundels). These do accurately depict every station, with both H, P and ERs being shown, as well as revealing the true situation at Heathrow. Slightly redeems the situation.

[GuyBarry]

Last November I took a pencil and paper and tried to write "a song with all the London Underground stations set to a recognisable tune" - my tune was Gilbert and Sullivan's Major-General Song, or alternatively Tom Lehrer's Elements Song.

Well I suppose it had to happen eventually...

I recently came across this ingenious take on the Elements Song, which goes one better than Tom Lehrer by listing them all in periodic table order (and including ones that hadn't been discovered at the time). The tune is Offenbach's Infernal Galop, better known as the Can-Can, and it occurred to me that that might be a good tune for listing the Underground stations. So here's my effort:

The Underground Can-Can

If you want to try singing along with the recording, the tune starts at about 1:15, but bear in mind that it's only played twice on the recording and you need to sing it three times, and there's a coda that you only sing the last time.

If you find any unintentional omissions or duplications, or can think of any improvements, let me know!

[RobbieM]

Looks interesting! Maybe I'll sit down at the piano and give it a bash when I get time...