Season 300 - Deep Cuts

I am caught up for the moment with all your wonderful songs. I'm packing up the laptop and hitting the road early tomorrow so you folks will likely have to carry on without me until Sunday. I realize this isn't the most fun season for some but I do greatly appreciate all of your efforts. Again, these songs don't have to be obscure. For those of you who might be having difficulty landing on a song, just play me your favorite non single song from your favorite album.
Night all.

wee_ginga_yin - Delaneys Donkey - I really like your vocal stylings on this! Seems like some folks are familiar with this one, but I sure am not. Good story tune.*

AlanDP - Northern Skyline - I've never listened to much Clannad. And I had no idea the lead singer was the sister of Enya. Really neat song.*

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters - Surrender - I love that this guy goes by the name Larry Yes. I think I'll start going by Sean Yes. Never heard of him, but since he's local I'm looking forward to doing some digging. Cool tune Ralf.*

Demimondaine - I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore - Totally new to me. I love that I'm being exposed to so much "new to me" music. Great lyrics. Thanks for turning in another one this week!

AlanDP - Play It One More Time For Me - You're really digging into some obscure stuff this week! I love it. Makes me think of some of my old loves. Really good tune.

uke4ia - The Madness Of Love - Doom And Gloom From The Tomb is a great title for an album. I love the electric uke! Sounds like a pretty obscure song. Not even sure if I'll be able to find the original recording. I like this.

engravertom - Write Them Away - Good tune! I am not a song writer and I have great respect for those who can do this. And I love the message of this tune. You love it, do it, whether or not anyone receives your art. It's the joy. Thanks for this.
 
some more marc, because, basically, you can never have enough marc!

a song unreleased in his lifetime, but available now on a collection of his home recordings and demo's etc

"be not afraid of love"

 
Another chance for me to delve into my archives. This song came to me in a dream in a period in my early 20s when I used to wake up every morning and write down my dreams; a powerful tool for remembering them.

I imagine that the spark for this vivid dream of being in a castle under siege was a feeling at the time that I was under siege from all sides (insecurity issues, girlfriend troubles, money troubles, accommodation problems, etc, etc). Plus, I had not long read Homer's "The Iliad" and that probably gave me the line about the enemy's ships beached on the shore. I hadn't looked at this song, let alone played it, for many years, so it was quite a challenge to revive it for this season.

As a tribute to the Catalan political prisoners currently languishing in Spanish jails, I initially tried to revive a song I wrote for Amnesty called "Prisoners of Conscience" - but I could not, for the life of me, remember how the chorus and bridge went. If I find an old recording of it (on cassette) I may well post it here. If the season is closed I'll post it to the "A Seasonista Wrote this" thread.

 
I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get one in this week. It’s schoolwide book fair week, which is my craziest week of the year. I managed to sneak one in, though. I’ll be surprised if any of you have heard it before. This song was running through my head a lot in high school.

 
Dunno if this counts as a deep cut or not but Malcolm Young just died and me and this song have a history so here it is.

 
Season 300. Submission 3. "Softly" (Written and recorded by Gordon Lightfoot, 1967)


Sean, thank you so very much for hosting and the donations to the worthy cause!


 
An original song about how mainstream radio sucks.



I tried to listen to the radio
But they don't play the songs I used to know
They're playing synthesizers and "country" rap
They're wearing rock-n-roll t-shirts and backwards caps

There ain't no country on the FM stereo
I think they could use some David Allen Coe
Or Norma Jean or Ray Price or Moe Bandy
Crystal Gayle would be fine and dandy

Play me a song like they used to sing
I want to hear that high lonesome ring
Play me something with fiddles or an old banjo
Play me a song like I used to know

It takes more than cut-offs and pretty curls
To turn yourself into a country girl
No and you can't make a country gent
With a pickup truck and a fake accent
Every song has a list of the same things to say
The same tired similes and sad cliches
Modern "country" is just lame pop for suckers
Who don't know Hank Snow from Tanya Tucker

And there ain't nothing wrong with a little western swing
Just learn that circle of fifths and you can play most anything
Throw in a blue yodel, or a quick Aye-eee!
Jimmie Rodgers or Jimmy Newman, it's fine with me
 
I've meant to record this all week, and then I learned today is Graham Parker's birthday! So here's the first song he recorded (with the Rumour). The demo was so good that the label decided to leave it on their first album, "Howlin' Wind," one of the best records of the 1970s or any other decade. Happy Birthday, GP!

 
I've posted songs by Teesside Songwriter Graeme Miles before. Although he is well known and admired in the UK Folk World - and possibly to some extent in Folk Music circles elsewhere in the English speaking world, he's not much known outside that scene. He is a fabulous songwriter and this is one of his early ones about one of the industries of the area. Salt was discovered under the marshes round the Tees Estuary and mined (basically by pumping in water and pumping out brine) until relatively recently. A well known UK Salt manufacturer, Cerebos, refined the salt to make table salt until the 1970s. The area where the salt was mined is now a bird sanctuary and nature reserve called Saltholme and is a great place for an afternoon out at any time of year. There is an excellent visitor centre and hides scattered round the site and though it's surrounded by industry, mainly chemical industry it is still a haven of peace and quiet. I've included some photos I've taken of Saltholme in my video. I decided to break out my banjo uke for this video as it seemed right for the song somehow.
 
Not sure how deep of a cut this is, but it's an album cut off The Cars iconic debut album in 1978, and my favorite song on the album, along with "My best friends girl". I wore this one out back in the day, I think the lyrics are hilarious. "Get the wisenheimer brainstorm" lol This was not easy to pull off on ukulele, for me at least.

 
This in an older song by Gordon Bok, a folk singer from Maine. I don't know if you've heard of him before, so I figured that this might fit this week's theme. Here is an upbeat sea song called The Hills of Isle Au Haut as my contribution for this week. Hope you enjoy. :)
http://www.timberheadmusic.com/catalog.html?srch=T&artist=Gordon Bok

 
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Still back in the 70s, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils had a hit with Jackie Blue. This song was also on the It'll Shine When It Shines album

 
George Jones from the late 70's is another kick I've been on lately. This was Jones at the height of his drug and alcohol addictions, and beset with personal and professionals problems galore, but he was still able to sing good to even great, though he looked rough. He still possessed that amazing unique voice nobody has ever had before or since. When he showed up that is. This is an album cut from the era when he earned the "No show Jones" nickname. I put this one together pretty quick, just a couple of takes.

 
Okay, here's a Christmas song that might also be a deep cut. I didn't have this song saved on my mp3 drive so I don't know where I heard it, but I had the title written in a file I have of potential Christmas songs to learn. Here's what I got from wikipedia:

They are a three-member indie band from Los Angeles who have released three albums (in 2008, 2011, and 2014). Justin Kennedy - Lead vocals, Guitar, Louie Schultz - Lead guitar, Vocals, and Douglas Randall - Drums, Vocals. This song also featured a guest named Charlotte Froom. They made an animated video for this which is pretty cool and it's on both youtube and vimeo. This song was not an album track. I guess it was just a special single Christmas release. They're also on soundcloud. They made this song available for a free download there.

This is a duet with their lead singer and Froom. The lines alternate between male/female and then the chorus bits are two-part harmony. You'll just have to imagine that the echo-y ukulele bits are Christmas bells.

 
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I can’t believe all of you getting such an early start on Christmas. There’s still a week left in Decorative Fourd Season!

My parents had this 45 when I was a kid. Once I could drive I used to head out to PI to run. Less traffic and fewer people... I remember it as more of a shanty, but I couldn’t figure it out so I made it a blues. And more of a spoken one at that. Anyway, here’s Richard “Stonefingers” Johnson’s “Plum Island National Anthem”.



For the curious, a green head is a type of biting fly that bites a chunk out of you and then laps the blood. They hurt like crazy.

For the more curious, here is a link to Johnson’s bio page, and one to an article he wrote a few years back describing the inspiration/history of the song.

http://stonefingers.net/resume--biography.html
http://http://www.newsandtribune.com/opinion/columns/johnson-an-independent-nation/article_a30dc4e1-6fce-535f-ac66-e8749d92de7b.html
 
And #2. Not really a deep cut probably (Benji at least will know it). It was a B-side to a hit single from Pinkerton, and it showed up on the soundtrack to a movie I’ve never even heard of called “Angus”. It was released on the reissue of Pinkerton a few years ago, among a lot of other demos and outtakes. Seemed appropriate though, as Weezer just released another album.

 
Everyone has that Lou Giordano 45 where Buddy Holly is playing guitar and the drums are a cardboard box right (OK Rustty,,,I reckon you do). Anyhow, this was released on cassette a while back and there is such a small amount of Buddy stuff out there (at least compared to what we could have had) I reckon there are some Buddy Holly nuts out there who have heard this, but I wanted to play it anyway...and when the urge strike, well, we play.
Sorry it sounds like I am playing in an outhouse.
 
I am so glad I was able to get a song in. I was in Cali earlier in the week and just saw the theme today. This is a song off of the greatest album you have never heard. You may have heard this song before as it was the hit from the record, but it's one of those albums that is great from the first track to the last. You may know Jon Astley from his big 80's hit called 'Jane's Getting Serious' which was his first record. This song is off of the second album called 'The Perfect Angler' and I have no idea why it didn't do better when it was released. Please don't think that I am Rick rolling you, this is a totally different Astley. I went really minimal with my version as well as the video.
 
I have a lot of songs to catch up on! I’m gonna have to do that tomorrow. Ten hour drive today with the kids and I’m spent. Looking forward to a big finish tomorrow, and playing some Western swing for TCK!
 
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