Season 74 -- It's a Fact!

alemarco

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Season 74 of the Ukulele -- It's a Fact!

So much music is inspired by the people and events in the news or from history.
Therefore, this week's challenge is to sing songs about real people or events of historical significance. Whether that significance is global, national, local, political or cultural is up to you.

Examples:
Ohio
Vincent
Erie Canal
Casey Jones
Zoot Suit Riot
Skye Boat Song
Children's Crusade
Lindy Comes to Town
John Wayne Gracy, Jr.
Abraham, Martin, and John
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

I'm looking for songs that are somewhat specific. The entire song doesn't need to be about the event or person, but I'd prefer songs that aren't just generally anti-war.

Timing:
Posting starts Sunday July 14
Ends Sunday July 21 at midnight (that really means before I wake up Monday)

Awards:
(1) Random Drawing
(2) Longest Rabbit Trail -- Entry that sends me on the longest diversion to learn about the song/person/event.
(3) Grand Prize -- points are given for song choice, performance, enthusiasm, hats, etc.
Super bonus points given if you post a song that has some relationship with this week
(e.g., a song about the fall of the Bastille which happened on July 14).

There will be some prizes, but I haven't figured out what they will be yet. I'll keep you posted.

Bonuses:
I love bonuses. Post as many as you want, but please only bonuses that you made for this season.

Playlists:
Entry List
Bonus List

Have fun! I'm looking forward to seeing what you have in store for this week.
 
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Excellent challenge. I have a couple of traditional ballads in mind and can also think of a few songs written by British folk singers that will fit.

It will have to wait till after I get back from holiday on Tuesday, though.
 
That is a fantastic theme, bravo!
 
Jandamarra / Pigeon a Paul Kelly song about an Aboriginal resistance fighter in Western Australia in the late 1800s.
I have visited Windjana Gorge where he was wounded but escaped and Tunnel Creek where he was shot and killed by another Aboriginal tracker.
 
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Oh, this is a good one. Quite a few challenges in there. Can't wait to see all the entries!
 
Hm. I mentioned Sufjan Stevens's "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." just a couple weeks ago. I guess I'll take up that particular challenge . . .

There's quite a bit of relevant S. Stevens material. Like much of the entire albums "Greetings from Michigan," "Illinoise," and "The Avalanche." Maybe someone else will do some Stevens as well!

A couple of idle questions:

1. What about songs that are part of historical narratives, although they are not part of actual documented history (and may, in fact, never have actually existed)? I'm thinking of Leonard Cohen's "Story of Isaac," which is about Abraham and Isaac, but I'm sure there are other kinds of similar cases. Songs about Moses and Joseph and so forth. Or, in a different vein: They Might Be Giants have a couple songs about evolutionary history, e.g. "Mammal," or "My Brother the Ape"—again, not documented history, but factual and historical . . .

2. What about songs that are based on historical figures, but are in some ways, eh, fictionalized? They Might Be Giants have a bunch of songs like this, e.g. "Tesla" on their newest album, or "Meet James Ensor." As a related aside, I hope someone does Jonathan Coulton's amazing "Kenesaw Mountain Landis"! I tried learning it, and I can't figure out how to play it so it doesn't sound like crap.
 
Ding Dong Dollar.

It's a fact... Ye can't spend a dollar when yer deid.

In 1961 there were mighty protests in Scotland because
the Polaris nuclear submarines were stationed in the Holy Loch.

Some argued that there would be prosperity because of the mighty dollar. Some feared the Yanks would steal all the lassies. Some thought Scotland would become a target because of the presence of the missiles. Those were the days of protest marches and the CND.
But it was not only protests against Polaris it was an on-going battle
against the Trident


 
Hm. I mentioned Sufjan Stevens's "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." just a couple weeks ago. I guess I'll take up that particular challenge . . .

There's quite a bit of relevant S. Stevens material. Like much of the entire albums "Greetings from Michigan," "Illinoise," and "The Avalanche." Maybe someone else will do some Stevens as well!

A couple of idle questions:

1. What about songs that are part of historical narratives, although they are not part of actual documented history (and may, in fact, never have actually existed)? I'm thinking of Leonard Cohen's "Story of Isaac," which is about Abraham and Isaac, but I'm sure there are other kinds of similar cases. Songs about Moses and Joseph and so forth. Or, in a different vein: They Might Be Giants have a couple songs about evolutionary history, e.g. "Mammal," or "My Brother the Ape"—again, not documented history, but factual and historical . . .

2. What about songs that are based on historical figures, but are in some ways, eh, fictionalized? They Might Be Giants have a bunch of songs like this, e.g. "Tesla" on their newest album, or "Meet James Ensor." As a related aside, I hope someone does Jonathan Coulton's amazing "Kenesaw Mountain Landis"! I tried learning it, and I can't figure out how to play it so it doesn't sound like crap.

Sufjan Stevens has several wonderful songs that would perfectly fit for this week. I hope that someone does at least one.

In answer to your questions:
1. If you have a song you really, really, really want to do that falls into this category, go ahead. But I'd really prefer sticking to documented history in some form. If you want to combine the two, there are some songs that compare Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement to Moses and the exodus, which would be perfectly fitting the theme.

2. Absolutely! Many songs about historical people fall into this category since they are usually a musician's perspective on someone else.
 
Great start this morning!

pabrizzer - Jandamarra/Pigeon - Fascinating song and story. I especially like the line about "I do this job because I have to; I don't say that he's to blame." Wonderful performance!

xommen - Ballad of Ronnie Drew - Great song about a great musician! The story of this song is really interesting too; quite a list of prominent Irish musicians contributing to the original version. Wonderful job!

xommen - MLK - This is one of my favorite U2 songs. It's so beautiful and simple. I liked the slight reverb you used on the vocals.

weegingayin - Ding Dong Dollar - Never heard of this incident before. Good protest song with a mix of very serious concerns about nuclear war and US interference and slightly more light-hearted issues of the price of beer and the availability of single girls. Great job!

I've already learned a lot and it's only the first day. Keep it coming!
 
heres my go, a song that i loved when first came out good old DM,
still going strong,
 
I think this may fall into the 'too general' category so let's call it a bonus, shall we?

I thought of setting the appropriate poem (written on this date) to music but it is very long so I remembered a favorite alternate. All is explained herein.

[h=2]Plutonian Ode[/h]I

What new element before us unborn in nature? Is there
a new thing under the Sun?
At last inquisitive Whitman a modern epic, detonative,
Scientific theme
First penned unmindful by Doctor Seaborg with poison-
ous hand, named for Death's planet through the
sea beyond Uranus
whose chthonic ore fathers this magma-teared Lord of
Hades, Sire of avenging Furies, billionaire Hell-
King worshipped once
with black sheep throats cut, priests's face averted from
underground mysteries in single temple at Eleusis,
Spring-green Persephone nuptialed to his inevitable
Shade, Demeter mother of asphodel weeping dew,
her daughter stored in salty caverns under white snow,
black hail, grey winter rain or Polar ice, immemor-
able seasons before
Fish flew in Heaven, before a Ram died by the starry
bush, before the Bull stamped sky and earth
or Twins inscribed their memories in clay or Crab'd
flood
washed memory from the skull, or Lion sniffed the
lilac breeze in Eden--
Before the Great Year began turning its twelve signs,
ere constellations wheeled for twenty-four thousand
sunny years
slowly round their axis in Sagittarius, one hundred
sixty-seven thousand times returning to this night

Radioactive Nemesis were you there at the beginning
black dumb tongueless unsmelling blast of Disil-
lusion?
I manifest your Baptismal Word after four billion years
I guess your birthday in Earthling Night, I salute your
dreadful presence last majestic as the Gods,
Sabaot, Jehova, Astapheus, Adonaeus, Elohim, Iao,
Ialdabaoth, Aeon from Aeon born ignorant in an
Abyss of Light,
Sophia's reflections glittering thoughtful galaxies, whirl-
pools of starspume silver-thin as hairs of Einstein!
Father Whitman I celebrate a matter that renders Self
oblivion!
Grand Subject that annihilates inky hands & pages'
prayers, old orators' inspired Immortalities,
I begin your chant, openmouthed exhaling into spacious
sky over silent mills at Hanford, Savannah River,
Rocky Flats, Pantex, Burlington, Albuquerque
I yell thru Washington, South Carolina, Colorado,
Texas, Iowa, New Mexico,
Where nuclear reactors creat a new Thing under the
Sun, where Rockwell war-plants fabricate this death
stuff trigger in nitrogen baths,
Hanger-Silas Mason assembles the terrified weapon
secret by ten thousands, & where Manzano Moun-
tain boasts to store
its dreadful decay through two hundred forty millenia
while our Galaxy spirals around its nebulous core.
I enter your secret places with my mind, I speak with
your presence, I roar your Lion Roar with mortal
mouth.
One microgram inspired to one lung, ten pounds of
heavy metal dust adrift slow motion over grey
Alps
the breadth of the planet, how long before your radiance
speeds blight and death to sentient beings?
Enter my body or not I carol my spirit inside you,
Unnaproachable Weight,
O heavy heavy Element awakened I vocalize your con-
sciousness to six worlds
I chant your absolute Vanity. Yeah monster of Anger
birthed in fear O most
Ignorant matter ever created unnatural to Earth! Delusion
of metal empires!
Destroyer of lying Scientists! Devourer of covetous
Generals, Incinerator of Armies & Melter of Wars!
Judgement of judgements, Divine Wind over vengeful
nations, Molester of Presidents, Death-Scandal of
Capital politics! Ah civilizations stupidly indus-
trious!
Canker-Hex on multitudes learned or illiterate! Manu-
factured Spectre of human reason! O solidified
imago of practicioner in Black Arts
I dare your reality, I challenge your very being! I
publish your cause and effect!
I turn the wheel of Mind on your three hundred tons!
Your name enters mankind's ear! I embody your
ultimate powers!
My oratory advances on your vaunted Mystery! This
breath dispels your braggart fears! I sing your
form at last
behind your concrete & iron walls inside your fortress
of rubber & translucent silicon shields in filtered
cabinets and baths of lathe oil,
My voice resounds through robot glove boxes & ignot
cans and echoes in electric vaults inert of atmo-
sphere,
I enter with spirit out loud into your fuel rod drums
underground on soundless thrones and beds of
lead
O density! This weightless anthem trumpets transcendent
through hidden chambers and breaks through
iron doors into the Infernal Room!
Over your dreadful vibration this measured harmony
floats audible, these jubilant tones are honey and
milk and wine-sweet water
Poured on the stone black floor, these syllables are
barley groats I scatter on the Reactor's core,
I call your name with hollow vowels, I psalm your Fate
close by, my breath near deathless ever at your
side
to Spell your destiny, I set this verse prophetic on your
mausoleum walls to seal you up Eternally with
Diamond Truth! O doomed Plutonium.

II

The Bar surveys Plutonian history from midnight
lit with Mercury Vapor streetlamps till in dawn's
early light
he contemplates a tranquil politic spaced out between
Nations' thought-forms proliferating bureaucratic
& horrific arm'd, Satanic industries projected sudden
with Five Hundred Billion Dollar Strength
around the world same time this text is set in Boulder,
Colorado before front range of Rocky Mountains
twelve miles north of Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility in
United States of North America, Western Hemi-
sphere
of planet Earth six months and fourteen days around
our Solar System in a Spiral Galaxy
the local year after Dominion of the last God nineteen
hundred seventy eight
Completed as yellow hazed dawn clouds brighten East,
Denver city white below
Blue sky transparent rising empty deep & spacious to a
morning star high over the balcony
above some autos sat with wheels to curb downhill
from Flatiron's jagged pine ridge,
sunlit mountain meadows sloped to rust-red sandstone
cliffs above brick townhouse roofs
as sparrows waked whistling through Marine Street's
summer green leafed trees.

III

This ode to you O Poets and Orators to come, you
father Whitman as I join your side, you Congress
and American people,
you present meditators, spiritual friends & teachers,
you O Master of the Diamond Arts,
Take this wheel of syllables in hand, these vowels and
consonants to breath's end
take this inhalation of black poison to your heart, breath
out this blessing from your breast on our creation
forests cities oceans deserts rocky flats and mountains
in the Ten Directions pacify with exhalation,
enrich this Plutonian Ode to explode its empty thunder
through earthen thought-worlds
Magnetize this howl with heartless compassion, destroy
this mountain of Plutonium with ordinary mind
and body speech,
thus empower this Mind-guard spirit gone out, gone
out, gone beyond, gone beyond me, Wake space,
so Ah!


Allen Ginsberg
 
During Season 54, Miss Barefootgypsy sent me this song.
I have never connected with a song as fast as I did this one. I tried and tried to play it, but I am one of those "heart on the sleeve" types, and this song really hit me hard. I just could not get it out.
When I saw this weeks theme, I figured it was time to try again.
Thanks gypsy- I do love this song so. And thank you alemarco for giving me a chance to play this one. I hope you enjoy learning about the story here.
Here's my entry-an inspirational song about hope, a bird (shocker, right?), and a bloke named Charlie.
 
One question - is multi-tracking allowed or are we sticking to one takes this week?

Multi-tracking is definitely allowed. Originals are allowed and encouraged. Use as many takes as you need.

Just make sure there is a ukulele played somewhere in the video.
 
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