Karaoke is for the birds

I went karaoking with a group of friends on Friday night. I've only done karaoke twice before. On both occasions, I was ridiculously drunk and that fact aided in my screwing up a couple of good songs - Kanye's Gold Digger and the timeless classic, Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On.

On Friday, I thought that if I monitored my adult beverage intake and only got tipsy before it was my turn, I'd be able to have the gall to do it and still be sober enough not to embarrass myself.

Boy, was I wrong - about the embarrassing part.

I chose an extremely safe song. Kanye's All Falls Down. I've been singing along to this tune since it dropped in February of 2004. I know every word. Every ad-lib. It was a lock, right? WRONG.

The song started so quickly. I expected to hear the chorus ("Oh, when it all ... all falls down") like I heard a million times to introduce the song. It never came.

So there I stood, looking at the words change colors on the karaoke machine's screen, and nothing was coming out. I felt like 50 Cent during the 2007 BET Awards.

I would post the link to my silence, but then I'd be embarrassing myself on the Internet. I recovered, like 50, and got through the second and third verses without pause. But I felt so bad that I kept drinking.

Next thing I know, I'm singing lead to R. Kelly's Bump N' Grind to close the evening out. And no, I didn't mess it up. I finally found a song I can karaoke to and not screw up.