Season 272 - Like it was, Charley

As my fellow Portlandians will attest to, this winter has been long and it continues well into spring. I have been a bit depressed and longing for warmer climes and older times, so I wrote this lovely yet depressing ukulele song. I'm not a prolific song writer but this one came together over a few days. The part about the last walk is a walk with my Grandma Ruby in Virginia when I was 12. She said to me before a walk, "this is probably the last time we'll do this, so let's take a walk and talk." It was. The part about being struck by lightning on the 4th of July actually happened to one of my employees I was supervising in New Mexico. She was struck by lightning on the 4th of July. Time is just rolling by as it should but sometimes I notice it more. I was trying to write a verse thinking I needed to keep it going a little when my wife said, "I hear the sound of rain" and I just went with it. It was actually the easiest verse of the song the write.

I hope you enjoy.

 
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Good morning from sunny but still pretty wintry southern Finland!

It's Saturday, and we have 76 songs by 37 Seasonistas on the playlists. Everybody who has already submitted their song(s) - thank you so much! Your song choices and the ways you interpret the songs have once again been terrific. I've enjoyed immensely listening to your fine music.

There's still plenty of time to record and post some "Charley" or "Like It Was" songs today and tomorrow. It's not over until the clock in Hawaii is 24:00 on Sunday.

And then - TCK's Season 273 is waiting around the corner. It's got four paws and a wagging tail, and it's going to be super. :)
 
Hi all,

My friend Jim has been on a flying visit (or a doctor's visit as we say in Catalan ;) ). But in these few short hours we managed to record a couple of songs. Unfortunately, Jim has been unable to link to his Youtube Channel because he's travelling around and he also can't remember his UU password. He tried the password recovery system - but it seems "Ukuleles" is no longer the recovery word.

Anyway, for now, I am posting Jim's solo effort for your delight and delectation. It is another song lamenting the fate of Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender, AKA "Bonny Prince Charlie". But this one, unusually, is in Irish Gaelic, a language Jim had beaten into him at a Christian Brothers' school ;)

Later this morning, I will be posting my riposte to the whole Bonny Prince Charlie romantic image with the historical truth in a song I wrote back in my folksinging days in the 1980s.
I am just putting the subtitles on now.

Meanwhile, here is James Donal Faulkner singing Mo Ghile Maer



The lyrics and a translation are in the description on the vimeo page to which the above links.
 
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As promised, here is a song that debunks the romantic vision of Bonny Prince Charlie. He was, in fact, an inept military leader who looked down his nose at the guerrilla tactics which his Highland army were so adept at. In response to a request from the Government troops he was opposing, he led his Highland warriors into a battle against a superior force of disciplined soldiers because that is what gentlemen did. They fought by the rules and won or lost by those rules.

This attitude would lead to his army's bloody defeat and while he (eventually) went back home to Italy, the Highlanders were left to face the consequences of the rebellion. The Battle of Culloden marks the beginning of a period which became known as "The Highland Clearances" in which the Highlanders were essentially ethnically cleansed from their land.

Note: in the chorus, Charlie is referred to as "The Italian" - this was the nickname his Highland soldiers gave to him. He apparently did not speak English all that well and spoke it with an Italian accent (Italy being where he had been brought up).

The "authentic barroom singing experience" in this version is down to James and I having consumed two bottles of excellent Catalan wine with our lunch before attempting to record this unrehearsed version of the song ;)

It is quite long at nearly 7 minutes, but it is the complete story of the battle and is followed by a lament in Gaelic that Jim sings, I hope you bear with us on this one.

 
kolibri said:
There's still plenty of time to record and post some "Charley" or "Like It Was" songs today and tomorrow. It's not over until the clock in Hawaii is 24:00 on Sunday.

And then - TCK's Season 273 is waiting around the corner. It's got four paws and a wagging tail, and it's going to be super. :)
Click to expand...

Hmmm... It's probably too late to go for a two-fer and learn "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown". ;)
 
bonesigh said:
I must get with it and get my song done!! I've been ill for so long I can't remember what it's like to be normal! Haven't even been playing the uke at all and that is NOT like me. I will try oh so hard to get 'er done tomorrow. Honest Charlie!
Click to expand...


Janet, so so so wishing you felt better. Mean. It. Take good care.
 
Janet, Im so sorry to hear you are struggling. I hope you can get past it. Play a happy tune. Ukeing is good for the soul and lifts the spirits :)
 
bonesigh said:
I must get with it and get my song done!! I've been ill for so long I can't remember what it's like to be normal! Haven't even been playing the uke at all and that is NOT like me. I will try oh so hard to get 'er done tomorrow. Honest Charlie!
Click to expand...

Janet, get well. Take care of yourself. If uking helps, do it. If not, don't sweat it!
 
Final entry for the week, and a doozy. The best key for me to sing this in is A. But that requires doing a B to E slide during the break. I did about 10 takes and failed miserably. The best key for playing this is D, which is terrible for my voice. So there you have it. In D. Including an altercation between Grover and one of the cats. He didn't get the memo that NEXT season is the dog season.

Anyway, thanks for a lovely Season, Ylle! Hope this isn't too painful.

 
hope things pick up for you janet. even if you're not up to uke-ing, if you're able to get online for watching and listening, TCK's new season sounds like it's gonna be a tonic!
 
Happy that I've managed to get an entry into the season which marks the return of the BEV.
Sorry you're not well though Janet. Sending good vibes.

This was a hit for Charley Pride.

 
Janet, really wishing that you'll feel better soon. And let's have another "Charlie" week one day, if there are great songs which couldn't be posted during this Season.

So far, we have 81 songs by 40 Seasonistas on the playlists. Hopefully we'll see a couple of additions from the Seasonistas who usually submit their entries on Sunday. Time in Hawaii is now 7:45, so there are several hours left until midnight.
 
Ylle and all thank you for the well wishes. I did work on my song today but, well, let's say my health has 'gone to the dogs'. Bev's post almost made me cry because just now I got partway through just looking at the entries (not even listening yet!) and I got too tired to finish. Came here to post that my song will not get done and I sooo wanted to!! I wanted to bring out a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory song! All those songs would be good here I think but I wanted to do 'Cheer Up Charlie'. One day....perhaps. I think I'm going to take quite a long vacation from everything. Bye for now):
 
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