Season 245; "A Time Of Change"

This is an original song I wrote a decade ago called "It's Time". When I got my tenor Fluke, I gave my daughter my old Fluke. But she didn't bring it with her to college this year, so I got to play it today. I think I wrote the song on this Fluke, and it has always sounded best on this uke.

Lyrics:

It's time to let your sorrows go
It's time to just drift off with the flow
It's time to move on with your life
It's time to let it be all right

It's only you who's making you feel bad
Only yourself who's keeping you so sad
Feel the pull of all the good times you've had

It's time to cast your troubles off
It's time to hoist yourself aloft
Do you remember what it felt like when your eyes weren't pinched?
Do you remember what it felt like when your back muscles weren't clenched?

Back to the time when you felt so free
Ready for all the possibilities
There's so much more if you just let there be

It's time to move on with your life
It's time to let it be all right

It's time to let your sorrows go
It's time to let this moment grow
It's time to lift your head and sing
It's time to feel the joy in everything
It's time…

Song #2: This is an instrumental about the time when the leaves change color. It's the oldest instrumental I can remember writing, from about 1980. Xanthophyll is the pigment that makes leaves yellow in autumn.

It seemed a better way

We are all waiting for a saviour... but they are a long time coming.
There is none so zealous as the newly converted because
It seems the better way.

The words in the song allude to christianity but it has been
suggested that the song seems to deal with Leonard Cohen’s
relationship with his zen master Roshi, in whose monastery Cohen
lived in, in the 1990s. Time changes our views on people.

Why is it the people who are supposed to help us the most, often disappoint us the most?

First batch of comments.

mountain goat: Seasons. Gorgeous, Jon. The words, music and images of the tree work wonderfully well together. It's not often we get a poem recited to a musical background, thanks for bringing it.

Pabrizzer: It ain't no time for this at all. A powerful song, Brian that says a lot about where we are at the moment. There's too much hate being stirred up and it seems, in some places to be open season on stirring up hate and propagating lies.

I'm at a time. Although this song is very much about our mortality and that we won't be here forever, it has a very positive feel to it - that OK our time is limited but other lives will go on in the future. I found it an antidote to your previous song.

wee_ginga_yin: Closing Time. I used to think Cohen was a miserable so and so, but as I get older I appreciate his music more. This has something of the feel of Hallelujah but is very much about our mortality. I so far the songs I've listened to seem to reflect that. Excellent delivery, Rob, btw.

YorkSteve: Time To Ring Some Changes. Can't go wrong with some Richard Thompson. Great song well performed, Steve. Very suitable for the season.

Xommen: Miss Sarajevo. Excellent, Wim. I like the way you've chosen a song that takes the theme of Turn, Turn, Turn and turns the "Time for" part into a series of questions. Excellent choice.

Hendulele: Feelin' Alright. Nice one, Rick and the uke sounded good too.

The Letter. Another good choice, Rick. I remember this one quite clearly one that I used to like.

uke4ia: It's Time. Good song, Jim and appropriate to the season. I like the idea of time to let go of stress.

Xanthophyll Dreams Very good, Jim. I loved the title. While it was playing I was looking at the trees, some have lost many of their leaves and others are yellow and there were some very rain filled looking clouds drifting by too. Yes, good choice.

wee_ginga_yin: It seemed a better way. Interesting song. What was the video from? I couldn't quite make up my mind what the people were running/escaping from.

I've added your videos to the playlist. If I've missed any please let me know - PM preferably.

A Change Is Gonna Come.

I'm sorry I didn't have the time to do this justice, but I figure that's all the time I'll have this week :-(

Tootler said:

wee_ginga_yin: It seemed a better way. Interesting song. What was the video from? I couldn't quite make up my mind what the people were running/escaping from.

Click to expand...

I have a go to place for Public domain movies called Archive.org you find lots of old and interesting stuff
at that site. I looked for stuff about Buddhism since it has been suggested that Cohen was disillusioned
by his zen master Roshi, then I thought since it mentioned love and death that I should look for a Christian
theme, and I also explored the a Jewish theme, but all the religious motifs seemed to jar, and did not sit
right with the theme of the song, which seemed to be about disillusionment.

With disillusionment there often comes separation and shunning, or the building of walls between people.
So the video I chose was a film from the early years of the Berlin wall. The conflict in the beginning was not
about a choice between East and West, but rather attempts of family members to be reunited with each
other. Familial love being stronger than ideologies.

The Wall

turtledrum said:

Love this theme, Geoff! Thank you!

Click to expand...

:agree: :music: :rock:

Greetings,

The song "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead has the pebble reference. I took a video in the park yesterday to go with it. It was a beautiful day with changing seasons and ripples in the water.

Ciao

I'm afraid this is an offering warts and all, because I found the fingerpicking right through very challenging. 'Nuff said...

I think this song reflects "A time to gain, a time to lose".....

3 and out for me.
Another paoriginal inspired by the season.

This is going to be a fun theme. There was a song that I was thinking about for Randy's "Time" week that didn't end up happening because I decided it was too hard. Given how busy I've been lately, I suspect that I won't make it this week either, but I'm going to have a lot of fun trying!

I went for the seasons turning turning part of the song. And a song that came to mind was White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. It mentions both summertime and snow (and winter in the title) and it has the same (I think anyway!) repetitive quality of repeated lyrics. Like the song prompting this season, I also find this song rather melancholic- Michael falling and staining the white snow red - but lovely nonetheless. The video reflects the multi-tracking and therefore has gone all (imperfectly) kaleidoscopic!

245-1

Autumn brings a Cool Change.

"summer moved on"

by a-ha*

(*warning - inevitable bat squeaks, seeing as who it's by!)

Phil Ochs was an amazing singer/songwriter. This song is both sad and beautiful.

my father is unwell. today i was in the car waiting for him to come out from the doctor.
the uke was in the backseat so I played this song. it never ceases to wreck me.
time. age. mortality. and hope. in there somewhere. warren zevon.
the moon has a face and it smiles on the lake.

wee_ginga_yin said:

I have a go to place for Public domain movies called Archive.org you find lots of old and interesting stuff
at that site. I looked for stuff about Buddhism since it has been suggested that Cohen was disillusioned
by his zen master Roshi, then I thought since it mentioned love and death that I should look for a Christian
theme, and I also explored the a Jewish theme, but all the religious motifs seemed to jar, and did not sit
right with the theme of the song, which seemed to be about disillusionment.

With disillusionment there often comes separation and shunning, or the building of walls between people.
So the video I chose was a film from the early years of the Berlin wall. The conflict in the beginning was not
about a choice between East and West, but rather attempts of family members to be reunited with each
other. Familial love being stronger than ideologies.

The Wall

Click to expand...

I've come across and used Archive.org but mostly for books. I've never thought to investigate their movie library. Berlin wall makes total sense of the images I saw.

robinboyd said:

This is going to be a fun theme. There was a song that I was thinking about for Randy's "Time" week that didn't end up happening because I decided it was too hard. Given how busy I've been lately, I suspect that I won't make it this week either, but I'm going to have a lot of fun trying!

Click to expand...

I appreciate the problem. I rejected several possibilities for last week because I knew I'd never get them to the point where I could sing through without faltering at some point. OTOH, your entry doesn't have to be perfect. If you can get through a song without too many errors, most people won't notice so if you can get to that stage, bring it along. It was a point that was made to me many years ago about performing. "Most people don't notice your mistakes so keep going. The main thing is to keep going and the mistakes are forgotten". This summer just gone, there was a song that I had planned to end my set with. Normally I swap instruments for one in a different tuning for that song but there wasn't time for that so I had planned to use a capo instead to get that tuning. Unfortunately I forgot to pick up my capo when I went to perform so I ended doing it in the key comfortable for singing but using some chord shapes I wasn't too comfortable with so it didn't feel right while I was playing. Afterwards I was talking to someone who commented that they liked my choice of finishing song so I explained my problem and what I felt about the performance and his comment basically was that "it didn't show". The point is we are far more aware of our mistakes than others are.

Another batch of comments. Hopefully, I've remembered to add you all to the playlist. PM me if I haven't.

AlanDP: Past, Present and Future. That was lovely. Simple song with a great message and gorgeous melody. Love the intro and outro. Couldn't decide if it was harmonica or melodica. The intro sounded very harp like and the ending more like a melodica.

Car Singer: White Winter Hymnal. I liked that and you're quite a whizzzz on the multitracking and video effects. Very effective video to complement the song and the added synth was a cool touch.

Jazzbanjorex: Cool Change. Definitely cool in the other sense. This was an excellent performance as ever, Rex.

BirdsEyeViewOfMyUkulele: Summer Moved On. I liked this. You did a good job on it and it sounds as if you've found that baritone is right for you. The wolfelele certainly sounds good. I'm pretty much standardising on dGBE tuned tenors these days with occasional forays into lo G concert territory. I'm not ready to get rid of my sopranos, though. They have their place. There are times when the bright percussive sound of a soprano is just what's needed.

Myrnaukulele: Changes. It's funny. I heard a lot about Phil Ochs back in the day but rarely heard any of his songs. This was lovely, Myrna and well performed, as usual.

mountain goat: Don't let us get sick. Excellent, Jon and a super song to go with it. Your accompaniments always do the song and the singer justice.