Season 80 - Read all about it!

Greetings, Seasonistas!



This week your challenge is to play us a song that is about books, literature and/or reading. Short mentions in the lyrics don’t count, it really has to be about or be inspired by books. Think Kate Bush' Wuthering Heights etc. There are a lot of websites out there that have compiled lists of songs and artists that are heavily inspired by literature.
This one, for instance: http://flavorwire.com/335531/10-of-musics-most-literature-obsessed-songwriters/2
Or give this one a look: http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_inspired_by_books.php

There are two prizes for two winners, one to be chosen by yours truly and one to be chosen by you. You can only vote if you enter. Your vote can be submitted by PM.
There will be just one playlist, and you can enter up to three songs.
There will be bonus points for anyone who plays a song by The Books.

Rules:
- State in your vid that it is for the 80th Season.
- No multitracking
- Ukulele is the main instrument
- Please mention the book or writer your song is about / inspired by
- Please do not post your video before Sunday August 25th 12:01 AM Hawaii time. Due to circumstances I had to post this challenge earlier than I normally would have done. Let’s enjoy DougF’s wonderful season while we can.

We’re looking forward to your entries!
Cheers, Michael & Saskia

PRIZES




PLAYLIST:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIchCNhLMbw&list=PLTeFH93a6qtGHlqn-B4s3y2xR1Hsmb-Gy

update on voting:
Once the season has ended everyone that entered gets to choose his or her top3. You can send us your vote via pm. We'll score the top3's (your number 1 gets 3 points, number 2 gets 2 and number 3 gets 1)and eventually there will be a winner (the one with with the highest score obviously). Voting deadline is Friday. Go through the videos, enjoy yourself and let us know!

OK Here we go.
You may know this song from the George and Ira Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.
I know it from Normie Rowe's 1965 hit here in Australia.
This is my version - I didn't look up any chords so basically my own arrangement.
It Ain't Necessarily So.

There are a few U2 songs on the list mentioned (I think there could be even more, I suppose 40 should be on there and it isn't). This was on the list it's from the October Album: Shadows and Tall Trees

xommen said:

There are a few U2 songs on the list mentioned (I think there could be even more, I suppose 40 should be on there and it isn't). This was on the list it's from the October Album: Shadows and Tall Trees

Click to expand...

Good one Wim.
40 was in this wiki list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_that_retell_a_work_of_literature

Thanks Brian,
That is a totally different list (it does miss all the other U2 song that are on the list Michael mentioned), so that might also help somebody else.

pabrizzer said:

Good one Wim.
40 was in this wiki list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_that_retell_a_work_of_literature

Click to expand...

Yeah maaaan!!! it was like the Floyd down the Marquee in the 60's. Monster groovy magic lantern slide show.
But hey maaaan!!! all that hot coloured oil in a bottle near the projector was not cool. Like you could get yourself
seriously scalded if you happened to knock it over while doing the Watusi, and if it didn't go on your skin you might
get it on your flares and they would be seriously ruined. Now the lava lamp is a different matter.
Just saying like... stay cool... get style... and theology and geometry will get you there.

Neon Bible was a book by John Kennedy Toole who was more famous for Confederacy of Dunces.
This is visually different from the version I did as weegingayin. This is on my oldgardenerguy channel
and it uses true green screen and not video overlay.

Great theme! Will contribute if I can........ but anyway, good luck for your week!

Pete Seeger wrote this song as a call for peace. He was inspired by Mikhail Sholokhov's novel And Quiet Flows the Don, which is about Czarist Russia.
This seems as timely today as when it was written. "When will we ever learn?" Amen
For those interested, this was played on my new "used" Mele 6 string, tuned, GcCeaa. I tried tuning it gcCeaA, which sounded awesome strummed, but not as good for picking.

Well this is a fun theme! Saskia- as a fellow librarian I think i'll film this week in my library

Alice in Wonderland - Jefferson Airplane style.

Literature is the metric system term. In America, we still call it quartiture.

Baby Shoes

Ernest Hemingway was once prodded to compose a complete story in six words. His answer, personally felt to be his best prose ever, was "For sale: baby shoes, never used." Some people say it was to settle a bar bet. Others say it was a personal challenge directed at other famous authors.


I heard that story somewhere and thought it was rather tragic. I wondered if there every had been a secret loss of a child, and from there it was only a small step to imagine that it was a contributing factor for Hemingway taking his own life,


Booze and guns are never a great combination,

Original Song Baby Shoes.

uke4ia said:

Literature is the metric system term. In America, we still call it quartiture.

Click to expand...

:biglaugh:

And we're off! But don't forget to visit Season 79! Doug's Season still has quite some time to go and in that last day there are always a lot of brilliant entries.

Early bird comments:

Pabrizzer – It Ain’t Necessarily So
Smokey soul from Down Under. Great delivery of some rather controversial lyrics. Thanks for kicking off the Season. I've said it before: I think your voice and a bari go great together.

Xommen – Shadows and Tall Trees
Over the course of almost a year that you’re participating in the Seasons your voice has developed immensely. Solid performance.

WeeGingaYin – Neon Bible
Since it’s not a new video I don’t consider it an entry, but I really liked it. I actually like it a lot better than Arcade Fire’s original version!

Strumsilly – Where have all the flowers gone?
Great picking. Congrats with the Mele. Interesting tuning possibilities. Beautiful song with a pretty poignant message.

Uncle Moon – White Rabbit
We were expecting White Rabbit quite early on in the Season, but you’re really quick on the draw! Good job on a difficult song UncleMoon! This was actually the first time in all those years that I listened to the lyrics…

WeeGingaYin – Baby Shoes
You set yourself some task, writing a song about these six little words. We love how the tragedy of the short story is linked to the tragedy of Hemingway’s life. Well done!

Here is my number two, I even recorded a number three but it is going to get trashed right after I write this .
This is Regina Spektor - the Call, it's part of the soundtrack of the movie Prince Caspian, which is based on the book by C.S. Lewis.

Howdy All,
We Tigers, great idea for a theme, I made a list of songs last night, but then this one popped into my head this morning and I knew it had to be.
Talking Heads "The Book I Read" from their first LP, '77
It's messy as usual, but I had a fun time playing it. I still am mystified as to what exactly it's about..meeting an author??
http://youtu.be/AX9G3UETefQ

One fine day in 2006, I wrote a song about Hamlet while I was putting wood stain on my front steps. Go figure. So this is "Hamlet (I Need a Little More Proof)". There's about eight different original ukulele songs about Hamlet on YouTube.

Books About UFOs

Husker Du (should have umlats over the u's) was an 80s hardcore band from Minneapolis who got their name from a kid's card game [pronounced hoosker doo] of the same name. It means "Do You Remember?" in Norwegian.

This was from their album New Day Rising, "Books About UFOs" by Grant Hart.

The original song I always get the best response for is a Harry Potter-inspired song called "No One Cool Ever Came from Hufflepuff". There are bands out there like Harry and the Potters, and Draco and the Malfoys, who play "wizard rock", songs inspired by the Potter novels. A co-worker's daughter was into these bands, and he played me some of their music. I liked the idea, but I didn't think much of the songwriting, so I decided to try writing one myself.

Along these same lines, there's been a lot of songs written based on "Lord of the Rings". I recommend "The Middle Earth Album" by the band Glass Hammer -- half the album is a live recording of the house band at the Prancing Pony tavern in Bree.

First one. I'm in a hotel room in Haskell, TX for work. Can't practice much 'cause I don't want to disturb the neighbors....