Garling Gauge

Culture Buzz: ‘Still Alive’ Versions from Portal

The cake is a lie

Politics aside for the moment, it appears that thousands of gamers are currently obsessed with the video game song, Still Alive. Written by Jonathan Coulton, Still Alive plays at the end of Portal, a Valve computer game that includes a schizoid AI obsessed with cake. Even though it’s been over half a year since the release, the buzzin’ continues.

Game play

Amongst swirling rumors about the song, Jonathan wrote the “skinny” on his blog, including how it came to be, the lyrics, and the chords (for those musically inclined), in which he writes about the character singing the song and the recording:

The character is this hilarious passive aggressive personality, which is obviously a perfect subject for me. I write about that sort of thing all the time. I got an advance copy of the game when it was nearly finished, played through it, talked with the writers, and tried to get inside this character’s head as best I could. I bought my first ukulele specifically to record this song, it just seemed right for it. (Or maybe I wrote the song that way so I could buy a ukulele, hard to say.)

Jonathan Coulton

I recorded a version with some scratch vocals and we sent it to the voice actress who did that character in the game, Ellen McLain. We all went into the studio to record her vocals, then did all the fancy computer sound things they do to make her sound like a computer voice. Ellen’s a classically trained soprano, and a very talented voice actress - she has this character down perfectly, and she did a great job conveying emotion in a non-emotional way. Between her and the very strong writing behind her character’s dialog, it was hard for me to not end up looking good in all this.

Did I mention the game is awesome?

Below are the best versions of videos I could find. Enjoy.

End credits

Close look at the lyrics during end credits (poor audio)

Jonathan Coulton comfy live version

Mario Paint version

8080 computer version

Japanese version

Piano version

Learn the chords (also listed at the bottom)

Jonathan Coulton in concert

And finally, what you’ve been waiting for.

GlaDOS & Coulton duet

LYRICS:

This was a triumph
I’m making a note here: huge success
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction
Aperture Science
We do what we must because we can
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake
And the science gets done and you make a neat gun
For the people who are still alive

I’m not even angry
I’m being so sincere right now
Even though you broke my heart and killed me
And tore me to pieces
And threw every piece into a fire
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you
Now these points of data make a beautiful line
And we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time
So I’m glad I got burned, think of all the things we learned
For the people who are still alive

Go ahead and leave me
I think I’d prefer to stay inside
Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you
Maybe Black Mesa
That was a joke, ha ha, fat chance
Anyway this cake is great
It’s so delicious and moist
Look at me still talking when there’s science to do
When I look out there it makes me glad I’m not you
I’ve experiments to run, there is research to be done
On the people who are still alive

And believe me I am still alive
I’m doing science and I’m still alive
I feel fantastic and I’m still alive
And while you’re dying I’ll be still alive
And when you’re dead I will be still alive
Still alive
Still alive

CHORDS:

D Bm (repeat like crazy)This was a triumph...Em

A It's hard to overstate my satisfactionD Bm (repeat like crazy)

Aperture Science...

Em              A

For the good of all of us

BbM7

Except the ones who are dead

F                     C          Bb         F

But there's no sense crying over every mistake

F                     C          Bb         F

You just keep on trying till you run out of cake

Gm                     C             F        Dm

And the science gets done and you make a neat gun

Bb                   A         D  Bm (repeat some more)

For the people who are still alive

Images: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/primer, http://weeklygeekshow.com/video_game_review/,
http://www.virtualfools.com/games/the-cake-is-a-lie/, http://www.cosmeticoralsurgery.com/?page=2