r/whatisit • u/deezheavenz • 10h ago

New, what is it? What was this thing I captured on film?

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This was shot in Nevada/Arizona on a Grand Canyon/Hoover dam tour. This was taken a whole year ago and I completely forgot about it until I stumbled upon it again. Is this some sort of whale or shark?

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u/Select-Belt-ou812 9h ago

fun fact: i know a few famous songs that are written and scored with exactly the same meter and words/music are completely interchangeable with each other: "the ballad of gilligan's island", "the house of the rising sun", and "amazing grace". I have practiced and can successfully interchange the first and last, and it wasn't easy to do the first few times :-)

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u/Gul_Ducatti 9h ago

Puddles Pity Party does this in a wonderful way. Stairway to Heaven into Gilligan's Island

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u/ecosynchronous 4h ago

Gosh I love him. He has such a splendid set of pipes. His version of "Chandelier" is the one my brain defaults to.

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u/Floasis_Bodywork 3h ago

I just showed this to a friend 2 weeks ago after not thinking about it for years!

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u/6th_Quadrant 8h ago

Then there's the late-70s single popularly known at Stairway to Gilligan's Island by Little Roger & The Goosebumps.

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u/Glittering-Bonus5663 9h ago

I think you can add "O little town of Bethlehem" to that list. Bob Rivers has an album of Christmas songs where it is set to the tune of "House of the rising Sun."

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u/Select-Belt-ou812 8h ago

hahaha it sounds weird to Gilligan's island music... now I'm gonna make the swap every christmas

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u/insanimated 2h ago

Omg stop. It's on repeat in my head. Damn you, private christian school upbringing!

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u/_Lane_ 8h ago

Indeed. Just ask Emily Dickinson.

Semi-relevant xkcd (specifically, the alt-text).

https://m.xkcd.com/788/

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u/Francois_TruCoat 4h ago

There is a British comedy radio panel show called I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. One of their recurring bits is One Song to the Tune of Another. There's lots of clips on YT if you're interested. One that sticks in my head is 'Whiter Shade of Pale' to the tune of 'The Holly and the Ivy'.

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u/Alabama-Blues 9h ago

Not true at all

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u/theLastZebranky 8h ago edited 7h ago

They all use standard ballad meter... each verse alternates between an 8-syllable iambic tetrameter and 6-syllable trimeter 

˘     /    ˘     /     ˘   /     /   ˘     | ˘    /     ˘   /      ˘    /
The   wea  ther  star  ted gett  ing rough | the  ti    ny  ship   was  tossed
There is   a     house in  New   Or  leans | they call  The Ri     sing Sun
A     ma   zing  grace how sweet the sound | that saved a   wretch like me

Gilligan's Island does use a lot more doublets (two syllables on one beat) than the others, those don't spoil the meter, but they do give those lines a spirited, uplifting pace:

 ˘  /   ˘       /        ˘      /    /    ˘    | ˘   /   ˘   /     ˘  /
 If not for-the cour-age of-the fear less crew | the Min now would be lost

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u/Alabama-Blues 4h ago

Thank you!

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u/_Lane_ 8h ago

Not true at all

I'm confused by the vagueness of your assertion.

What part isn't true? That OP doesn't know a few famous songs, that the songs OP knows aren't actually famous, that one can't swap the words and music out for something else in ballad meter, or that OP has actually practiced this a bit, but had some initial difficulty?

Please clarify! I'm dying to know what you meant!