Season 312 - Contrast

Thanks for your entries so far! Another little summary of the videos we have so far:

Ryan got into the spirit of the theme and brought some alternative metal mixed with a lounge music, Linda (Turtledrum) went for folk, given a periodic ghostly/psychedelic effect - to great effect! First original of the Season from SparklyCola, with lovely vocals, lyrics and contrasting playing style. Recovering Bassist showed off his new dulcimer and a percussion instrument I'd never before considered, the little known 'face cheeks', along with a concoction of styles and beats.

Randy brought a scarily happy version of a song about murdering pigeons in a happy Dean Martin meets the mafia style. Meanwhile Uke in the Heart of Texas shuffled ukes like a poker pro, playing variously strummed soprano, and picked bari. Ryan's 2nd entry for the week is a bagful of musical goodies including various singing and playing styles. Woo!

Rick brought some Johnny Cash with added strum changes and silences which really add to the song and make the lyrics stand out. Jazzbanjorex shot a sheriff with his wonderful rhythmic strums contrasting with a fingerpicked melodic line.

Keep 'em coming! I'm really beginning to see how leaving in silences, adding effects etc. etc. is a powerful tool when arranging songs - suddenly the meaning of the lyrics are more apparent or the mood changes depending on how it's played.
 
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This was originally by the Zutons and then covered by Amy Winehouse, although for some reason Mark Ronson gets the credit because be produced it.

Edit: the reason this version of Valerie is credited to 'Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse' is that this version was released on the Sony/BMG (ex Columbia) label. Amy Winehouse's contract was with Island (UMG):

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paoriginal
Recently read a NYTimes article entitled Death, the Prosperity Gospel and Me.
The Prosperity Gospel more or less says if you're having trouble it's your fault because God BLESSES His true believers and only wants the BEST for them.
What a load of horse manure.
Their God ain't interested in falling sparrows. If they were Prosperity Gospel sparrows they wouldn't BE falling - they'd be RICH and flying around in God's Glass Cathedrals!
The part in the article I most enjoyed was when the author recalled seeing a preacher almost cough himself to death because of an over active smoke machine.
Is this what He came for?



 
A Ramones classic gets split in two.

 
The idea for this popped in my head while driving to work, this is an original called contrast. Lyrics are in the youtube comment.
 
For Season of the Ukulele 312, we're asked for our unique arrangements which feature some form of "contrast".

Here’s a rehearsal take of my solo rendition of “She Don’t Use Jelly" by the Flaming Lips.

For tenor ukulele, looper pedal, barely audible whistling, Ashbory Ubass, and singing.

 
So, I had an idea to take two totally different songs with the same title, and meld them together to show the great contrast between them, and this is what came out. lol The fact is I dearly love both of these songs. This was fun to attempt.

 
Hi,
this is the first time I play this game. I took an old German Volkslied from 1824 and turned it into a Dixieland tune.
Usually, it is sung by choirs or tenors to piano accompaniment, but I picked it on my tenor banjo and strummed some chords on my uke.
The name of the song is "Ach, wie ist's möglich", and it usually sounds like this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew7JMRYHMCQ
And this is my version, enough of a contrast?
 
This is normally a slow song expressing the suffering of men under opression.The contrast is in the tempo changes
 
Another recap of the latest entries:

Jazzbanjorex rocketed us into space with a beautifully played cover using fast reggae chucking contrasting with slower verses. Pa Brizzer asks in an original "Is This What You Came For?" yes, yes it is, a mix of funky strums with more sparse and thoughtful sections.

Another Jazzbanjorex song - contrast number one is not sounding at all like a very well known US uke player ; ) There's some wonderful rich rhythmic strumming in this one contrasting with equally great but different strumming. Wee Ginga goes all posh and fancy in his cover of 5 Foot Two only to turn into a lounge singer at the end.


Wim van Ommen brought a great original song called, appropriately enough....Contrast! It goes fast only to periodically slow and become echoey and sparse. UkeFoote/Brian brought us She Don't Use Jelly by the Flaming Lips - a bizarre song lyrically, but if we're talking contrast, this cover has it in spades with various instruments and contrasting sounds.

Recovering Bassist mashed up two songs with the same title together and it worked great! Good fun to listen to and also the difference in singing and playing styles to reflect each song works very well indeed.

chrisschross brought a traditional German folk song full of longing and romance (if you listen to the original he linked above), only to create contrast by doing an instrumental Dixieland version on banjouke and uke. Short but very very sweet.

Stanley Russell sings Old Man River with raspy vocals and sweet fingerpicking only for it to zoom into 5th gear and race down the track (river?) at a high pace! This totally changed the mood of this part of the song!

Thanks again guys for taking on the challenge : ) You've made me very happy and I'm genuinely enjoying listening to all your various songs.
 
I usually post just before going to bed on Saturday night. That means our friends across the pond see it late afternoon to early evening (depending how far west they are) and can be ready to go Sunday Morning. It suits the down under brigade too as they have all day to think about what to post for their first as Midnight Hawaii for them is early evening (I'm sure Pa or Rustyy will tell you what time for them).

Midnight Hawaii is 10am GMT (I assume Ireland uses the same time zone as the UK) so you can still get away with posting first thing Sunday morning. I did that once when I was visiting my daughter in London but there were lots of heavy hints on the 'anticipation' thread. :)

Thanks, if and when I host again I'll definitely bear this in mind. As Homer Simpson might say "It's my first day!"
 
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