WE'RE GONNA MAKE IT RAIN UP IN THIS JOINT!
We already had a week for sunshine songs. This week, we're gonna break whatever droughts are still going on and fill this place with rain!
I want songs about rain. Little drizzles, torrential downpours, and everything in between. Songs about wanting it to rain because it's too dry. All good.
Eligible Songs:
All songs with "rain", "rains", or "rainy" in the title are okay, even if the lyrics don't mention rain. Songs that are about rain are okay, even if the title doesn't mention rain. Songs focused on other related words such as "storm", "thunder", "lightning", "shower", "rainbow" are only okay if the lyrics make it clear there's rain involved. Rainless songs using these words as a metaphor for something else, like being struck by lightning as a metaphor for falling in love, are not okay. Here's some examples.
Okay:
Love Reign O'er Me - The Who
Umbrella - Rihanna
Here Comes the Flood - Peter Gabriel
Shower the People - James Taylor (but only if you sing the part at the end about "Make it rain")
Not Okay:
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
Lightning Strikes - Lou Christie
Riders on the Storm - The Doors
Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Iz
In addition, "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and "Pennies from Heaven" are specifically banned for this week. Too obvious. I want you to dig deeper.
Rules:
Three winners will be chosen randomly. Each person who submits an eligible entry will get one entry in the drawing. If I can come up with a way to do this and get a random result, I will use Eisley Rabbit to choose the winners. For example, putting all the names on paper and seeing which ones he chews on first. If this doesn't work, my daughter Molly will pick the names out of my Fluke gig bag.
Bonus songs will not improve your chances of winning, but they will earn you the adulation of your peers. If Ukeval or anyone else wants to do a progressive rock song that maybe doesn't include rain, I will happily accept these.
The Fabulous Prizes:
The first place winner will get first choice of the three prizes, the second place winner will get to choose from the remaining two, the third place winner gets what's left.
Prize 1: A "Warning: I have a ukulele and I know how to use it!" T-shirt from Zazzle.com:
Prize 2: A "Ukes, Not Nukes" T-shirt from the Bad Machinery web comic strip by way of Topatoco.com:
Prize 3: A Snark ukulele tuner, and the Easy Star All-Stars CD "Dub Side of the Moon", which is a 2003 reggae version of the entire Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" album performed by artists on the Easy Star label.
Instead of a theme post, here's an example song to get you started. Even by my standards, this is an obscure song, so I can assume none of you would have played it. But it's a song I like a lot, by a band called Strange Cave. In 1987, Musician magazine held a contest to find the "Best Unsigned Bands", then later put out a CD of songs by the winners called "Best of the BUBs". As far as I know, that's the only place this song has been available.
I will try to update the playlists promptly. The operative word being "try".
ENTRIES PLAYLIST:
31st Season entries
BONUS SONG PLAYLIST:
31st Season Bonus Songs
We already had a week for sunshine songs. This week, we're gonna break whatever droughts are still going on and fill this place with rain!
I want songs about rain. Little drizzles, torrential downpours, and everything in between. Songs about wanting it to rain because it's too dry. All good.
Eligible Songs:
All songs with "rain", "rains", or "rainy" in the title are okay, even if the lyrics don't mention rain. Songs that are about rain are okay, even if the title doesn't mention rain. Songs focused on other related words such as "storm", "thunder", "lightning", "shower", "rainbow" are only okay if the lyrics make it clear there's rain involved. Rainless songs using these words as a metaphor for something else, like being struck by lightning as a metaphor for falling in love, are not okay. Here's some examples.
Okay:
Love Reign O'er Me - The Who
Umbrella - Rihanna
Here Comes the Flood - Peter Gabriel
Shower the People - James Taylor (but only if you sing the part at the end about "Make it rain")
Not Okay:
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
Lightning Strikes - Lou Christie
Riders on the Storm - The Doors
Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Iz
In addition, "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and "Pennies from Heaven" are specifically banned for this week. Too obvious. I want you to dig deeper.
Rules:
- The video must be a new video recorded for this contest.
- The video must show the song performed in a single take. The ukulele must be the central instrument. No multitracking.
- The video must say at the beginning or end that it is for the 31st Season of the Ukulele. If you forget to say it when you do your best take of the song, it is okay to insert a short separate video clip that says this.
- Videos must be posted to this thread.
- The contest ends at midnight Hawaiian time on Sunday night, September 23.
Three winners will be chosen randomly. Each person who submits an eligible entry will get one entry in the drawing. If I can come up with a way to do this and get a random result, I will use Eisley Rabbit to choose the winners. For example, putting all the names on paper and seeing which ones he chews on first. If this doesn't work, my daughter Molly will pick the names out of my Fluke gig bag.
Bonus songs will not improve your chances of winning, but they will earn you the adulation of your peers. If Ukeval or anyone else wants to do a progressive rock song that maybe doesn't include rain, I will happily accept these.
The Fabulous Prizes:
The first place winner will get first choice of the three prizes, the second place winner will get to choose from the remaining two, the third place winner gets what's left.
Prize 1: A "Warning: I have a ukulele and I know how to use it!" T-shirt from Zazzle.com:
Prize 2: A "Ukes, Not Nukes" T-shirt from the Bad Machinery web comic strip by way of Topatoco.com:
Prize 3: A Snark ukulele tuner, and the Easy Star All-Stars CD "Dub Side of the Moon", which is a 2003 reggae version of the entire Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" album performed by artists on the Easy Star label.
Instead of a theme post, here's an example song to get you started. Even by my standards, this is an obscure song, so I can assume none of you would have played it. But it's a song I like a lot, by a band called Strange Cave. In 1987, Musician magazine held a contest to find the "Best Unsigned Bands", then later put out a CD of songs by the winners called "Best of the BUBs". As far as I know, that's the only place this song has been available.
I will try to update the playlists promptly. The operative word being "try".
ENTRIES PLAYLIST:
31st Season entries
BONUS SONG PLAYLIST:
31st Season Bonus Songs
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