Season 496 - The Island

[Canada Jim]

For Free Joni Mitchell

Joni Anderson and David Rea

I think this is my favourite Joni Mitchell song from "Ladies Of The Canyon", my favourite Joni LP.
I only saw Joni live once and she was 21 and playing with 18 year old David Rea (the subject of her song "Little David") in Toronto and at that time was still Joni Anderson.

 

[Flatbaroque]

I like John Martyn's version of this. I think he may have come up with the descending Am riff part. Often it is played just as a C F G country blues picking- ie Townes VZ or Rev. Gary Davis. Haven't researched that premise though just going on what might be a flawed memory. Anyway its a fun song to play. On guitarlele.

 

[ukudancer]

I'm back with Queen / David Bowie's Under Pressure...There's no way I would even think about covering this song without a bass. It took me a good chunk of yesterday afternoon to learn the bass and uke parts. The piano...Well, I decided to keep that simple since I just acquired it after lunch yesterday and I have no idea what I'm really doing besides knowing where the notes are.

 

[RAB11]

Right, after a busy couple of days I'm finally caught up and blown away with what everyone has brought.

We've had quite a few multitracks with different instruments come through which I love.

So for the last few days of the season I am hereby waving the ukulele requirement of the season. If you've been picking up a new instrument and working on that, bring it here, no uke required. Obviously if you still want to bring uke songs by all means please do.

Looking forward to what you come up with!

 

[pabrizzer]

sometimes i think we are the band playing on the sinking titanic

 

[Barbablanca]

Well, tomorrow we're off on our hols (to Navarre). So I suspect this will be my last video this Season. Thanks a lot Ryan for such a flexible theme. It has given me the impetus I needed to record videos for songs I was pleased with from past FAWMs, but that never quite fit a theme.

So I'll sign off with this tale of a man haunted by voices in his head from childhood to adulthood. It is autobiographical... to a point...I don't have this experience with anything like the frequency of my narrator and I have have never got to the stage of the dilemma in the last verse... yet...

I hope you all enjoy:

 

[lizbrinker]

Hi Ryan! Thank you for hosting. I've had a little trouble focusing in on a song. So many choices! Here is the song that won the prize last week, brought beautifully by Paulmg in his first ever season. Subsequently, I have been unable to get it out of my head. So, here it is. The members of Gerry And The Pacemakers wrote this beauty , and theirs is the version I grew up hearing, but recently a friend of mine pointed me to a cover by Nellie McKay. In it, she is playing ukulele, and a man I can't identify is playing mandocello. Her version greatly informed mine.

Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying
Gerry Marsden/Freddie Marsden/Les Chadwick/Les Maguire
1964 (a very good year)

 

[lizbrinker]

And another. I have a really cool student, Susan, who introduces me to fantastic songs I would, otherwise, never have heard. Here is one from 2012, not my usual fodder, but I really like it. Please excuse my enthusiastic errors.

The Zombie Song
Stephanie Mabey
2012

 

[Canada Jim]

Oh Susannah - Stephen Foster

Here's a chance to use a banjolele.
The changes here were inspired by James Taylor's version of this song, although they're probably not the very same chords as he used.
I bought the banjo uke for $12. It had a twisted neck and was not playable. I got luthier Dave Fox to build me a new neck, saving the Gumby headstock. The neck cost considerably more than $12.

 

[LimousinLil]

Hello again, Ryan! I am afraid I am going to inflict more 1940s on you ... sorry! As I said, I have rediscovered a Ukulele Decade Series book for the 1940s ... and this is a song I rather like. I doubt very much that you've ever heard it before!

 

[uke4ia]

This is one I printed out chords for a couple years ago, but never found a Season to use it. I played at last Saturday's Seasonista open mic. It's a Crowded House song from their 2010 album Intriguer. It offers the joy of my voice once again doing battle with its arch-nemesis, high G.

 

[DelGriff]

Thanks for hosting Ryan.
Here is a song I did at the Seasons open mic a couple of months back and have been waiting for an opportunity to record it for a season. Some added synth bass and drums, and vocal harmonies.

 

[Joko]

It's about being an outcast, unwanted, unknown....

 

[TCK]

Ah! The land of no rules converges with the land of rules and well…
Here we have broken an unwritten rule of ukulele

 

[ukudancer]

^ 2nd time I've heard that on a ukulele in the past week. Someone on r/ukulele covered that for the bi-weekly challenge there. It is such a great song. I may as well join you rule breakers!

 

[RAB11]

Some great stuff came in overnight! Here's one from me. A common theme seems to have been stuff people have played at the Zoom in the past (and if you haven't joined in the Zoom chat yet, I recommend it! Great fun)

Here's one I did a month or two ago.

 

[lizbrinker]

Hi Ryan! I saw the title of your entry, above, and got a little worried that you were horning in on my Cole Porter thing. :- D Here is one more that has been sitting on my music stand for a while. Written by John Ellison in 1967 for his band, Soul Brothers Six. I know it because of Grand Funk Railroad's cover and because the radio was always on at my house growing up, listening to WKY or KOMA, AM radio.

Some Kind Of Wonderful
John Ellison
1967

 

[RAB11]

Hi Ryan! I saw the title of your entry, above, and got a little worried that you were horning in on my Cole Porter thing. :- D Here is one more that has been sitting on my music stand for a while. Written by John Ellison in 1967 for his band, Soul Brothers Six. I know it because of Grand Funk Railroad's cover and because the radio was always on at my house growing up, listening to WKY or KOMA, AM radio.

Some Kind Of Wonderful
John Ellison
1967
[video=youtube;l-UugDcG-Z4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-UugDcG-Z4[/vdeo]

It was your Cole Porter thing that got me to play it as I remember!

 

[good_uke_boy]

I'm a huge fan of Radiohead, so I just took a shot at arranging and playing an instrumental version of a tune from their album "OK Computer." Thanks!

 

[wee_ginga_yin]

Oh that Gorgazola cheese



Oh, that Gorgonzola cheese
It wasn't over healthy I suppose
For the old tomcat fell a corpse upon the mat
When the Niff got up its nose
Talk about the flavour of the crackling on the pork
Nothing could have been so strong
As the beautiful effluvia that filled our house
When the Gorgonzola cheese went wrong.

Robin williamson's long version https://youtu.be/VAlGdTisuGk