Every week for a year Coulton released a new song for free on his website as part of his Thing a Week podcast, on topics as diverse as vengeful nerds, self-loathing giant squid, partially-imagined historical figures, and devotees of a certain Swedish prefab furniture store. The Thing a Week project is now complete, and all songs can be streamed from his official website. Many of the songs on the site can be downloaded for free. The song "Code Monkey" became the theme song to the G4 television show Code Monkeys.
Coulton's song "Still Alive" has been featured in Valve Software's game Portal (and has become a hit among the gamers who finished the game) . He also made a recording of this song called the "J.C. Mix" which is exactly the same except he is singing rather than Ellen McLain as GLaDOS. "Still Alive" went on to be featured in the game Rock Band, as well as Skullcrusher Mountain and Re: Your Brains
Podsafe Christmas Song
Jonathan Coulton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We want a song that's safe to play
Don't think us rude
We don't want to get sued
By the thugs at the RIAA
We have been good the whole year long
Santa don't delay
Give us a podsafe Christmas song
The lyrics to Jonathan Coulton's song Podsafe Christmas Song highlight a growing frustration with the music industry and its restrictive copyright laws. The song appeals for a podsafe Christmas song, which is a song that is legal to play on podcasts without the fear of being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The lyrics reveal that the desire for a podsafe song is not due to a lack of respect for musicians' rights but rather a desire to be able to share and promote music without running afoul of legal consequences.
The lyrics also make reference to Santa Claus as the one who can grant this wish. In a way, the song satirizes the commercialization of Christmas and how even songs are subject to restrictions and copyright issues. This song was one of the earliest music pieces to address the issue of copyright, and since then, more artists have voiced their frustrations under similar circumstances.
Line by Line Meaning
We want a podsafe Christmas song
We are in need of a Christmas song that has a legal right to be played without attracting a lawsuit
We want a song that's safe to play
We desire a melody that doesn't violate copyright laws or provoke any legal controversies
Don't think us rude
We hope our request doesn't come across as impolite or uncivilized
We don't want to get sued
We have no intentions of dealing with legal issues, lawsuits, or battles in our quest for a Christmas song
By the thugs at the RIAA
We don't want the Recording Industry Association of America to take legal actions against us for copyright infringement
We have been good the whole year long
We have been on the right side of the law and have broken no rules or regulations throughout the year
Santa don't delay
We strongly implore Santa Claus to not postpone delivering the podsafe Christmas song we requested
Give us a podsafe Christmas song
We respectfully ask for a song that doesn't infringe on any copyright laws and is legal to play without any worries of being sued
To celebrate Christmas day
We want a song that will join us in commemorating the festivities of Christmas day
Contributed by Matthew O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
athi Ammu
It's amazing song... I love it
writerpatrick
RIP Mevio. It was a great place to find podsafe music for free.
Pdubz Pyrotechnics
But I was looking for Pudsys Christmas