It started like many ideas do here at GeekWire: Over beers at a craft brewery just down the street from our office in Fremont.
GeekWire co-founder John Cook was retelling a story from the company’s early days, before it was a well-recognized news site across the tech world. When he and co-founder Todd Bishop told people the name of the site they were working on, they often got the response, “You’re starting a geek choir?”
The mistake persists in automated transcriptions of voicemail messages: “Hi, I’m calling for geek choir.”
So, we thought, why not make it happen?
John said we should have a GeekChoir perform at our 2017 GeekWire Summit, just a few weeks away. Jokingly at first, I took a sip of my Pilsner and suggested I could corral some singers in my choir and adapt song lyrics to make popular songs geeky. John wasn’t joking around — he thought it was a great idea.
GeekWire contributor Frank Catalano thought so too — he’s also a singer and immediately started spitballing lyric ideas. I put out a call for singers the next day and we were off to the races.
Thus the GeekChoir was born. Just three weeks later, 12 singers from the Seattle Peace Chorus, myself included, took the main stage at the GeekWire Summit to bring some chuckle-inducing geeky music to our 900 plus attendees.
The program: Surf On Me, an adaptation of Bill Wither’s Lean On Me from the point of view of a lonely ethernet cable, and If I Had Alexa, an adaptation of the famous folk song by Peter, Paul and Mary, If I Had A Hammer.
After years of getting confused with a geek choir, @geekwire decided to just form one. #GWSummit #geekchoir pic.twitter.com/wF7z7jokNB
— Ina Fried (@inafried) October 10, 2017
It was a surreal experience, to say the least, and not without a few panic moments in our quickly assembled rehersals. But in the end, we accomplished our goal: We made a great pun and brought some geeky fun into the day. Plus, we gave GeekWire reporters a moment of respite between chasing down stories!
Check out one of the songs we performed in the video above and keep reading to see out our geek-ified lyrics below, co-written by myself and Frank. Stay geeky everyone!
SURF ON ME (to the tune of Bill Withers’ LEAN ON ME)
Sometimes in our lives
We all have snags
With our WiFi
But if we are wise
We’ve always got
An ethernet cableSurf on me, when you need mail
Or to watch Game of Thrones
And I’ll help you see the web
For I’m all alone in this dusty drawer
And I want to surf someYou just call on me geek friend, when you go online
We all need somebody to surf on
I just might know a fiber that you’ll share real-time
We all need somebody to surf on
When you need a friend, find me, plug me in.
IF I HAD ALEXA (to the tune of Peter, Paul & Mary’s IF I HAD A HAMMER)
If I had Alexa
I’d wake up in the morning
Play songs in the evening
All over the cloud
I’d ask for directions
I’d ask for trivia
I’d ask about love between
My Kindle and my Fire
All over the cloud,
Oooh-oooh-oooh-ooohWell, I’ve got a Dot
And I’ve got a new Echo
And I’ve got a Tap! Tap! Tap!
All over my home
It’s the voice of the future
It’s the voice of Bezos
It tells me ‘bout love between
Computers and their people
We’re one in the cloud.
Oooh-oooh-oooh-oooh
